Reaper's Word

Chapter 7: The Full Moon

Clair found that the next week she saw very little of the hell hounds and was a bit more free to move around and search. Isaiah was a little harder to avoid, but she managed it. She was always making sure to stay open feeling for him. The second she felt anything that might signal him she ran.

One thing was for sure she was very glad for the toiletries in the house, and for the absence of the hell hounds. She didn't think that being a woman at certain times of the month and their sense of smell would work so well. Clair found out that there were only five left. Including her, of the original twelve that had come here with her.

She was also in better shape than them, emotionally and physically. She thanked god for her talents because they were really the reason that she was doing as well as she was. They were just growing stronger and she learned a new thing about herself as well. She was far more athletically inclined than she had ever thought possible.

She should be after two weeks of living here. The outside worlds seemed like it was a glorious fairy tale she'd once been told. As if out there was the unrealistic book, and in here was the truth of reality. This house was her world now. She took to learning what she could, it meant that she would just be that much better off. Somehow it seemed like she'd always been here. Like she'd always be here, this was her tomb.

"At least it's a beautiful tomb." She said moving with her sketch pad and items to find a place to draw. She kept going up when she found the stairs. She came to a set of stairs that were wooden. Here she went up she tried to open the door but couldn't.

So she used her mind and it popped open easily, and she stepped out onto the wide expanse of roof. She moved around it, there were other doors as well here, but very few. Perhaps only three of four. She moved across the roof to where she found a large pyramid of glass.

Looking down she could see the design on the ballroom floor now. It was an intricate pattern and looked like a mosaic. The rose across the floor with silver lining all the edges couldn't be seen unless you were up here. She stared at it for a minute before deciding what she wanted to do.

After all there wasn't much to do but wait. Wait to be caught, wait to get away, wait to die, or for an answer that wasn't going to come. So Clair found ways to pass her time. Something she could escape into for a while. She was tired of sitting in her wall.

She pulled out her sketch pad and started to draw. It was close to ten in the morning, so she had plenty of time. Not to mention she hadn't even heard the slightest movement around the house from anything that might try to take a bite out of her.

Clair touched her neck at the thought. She could still feel it like he'd just done it. Just slid his tongue over her skin. It annoyed her that at times she would dwell on it. That this rush also seemed to start to happen thinking about it. An uncomfortable womanly need. She immediately shut it out. No, that was so very wrong, horribly wrong. She pushed the thoughts away of what he did, and how he'd held her to him.

The sun moved slowly across the sky as she drew. It was cool out now. She'd found a sweater and taken it to use yesterday. It was over sized but warm. A black color, she'd found jeans in her size and was wearing them as well. Still she was trying to bring as much as she could in here.

As the sun neared the mountain tops she got up and hurried to the closest door and went down. She knew where she was then and moved to find her hiding place. Tucking the drawing into her pack she climbed into the chute and went up.

It was much easier now as her muscles were getting used to this. She went up to where her stuff sat. She hit the little tap light there. In her ten foot by ten foot space. She had a storage bin for food, and another bin for clothing and personal care products.

It had been hard to get the stuff in here, but she'd managed to rig something with a bit of rope and extra muscle power. She laid down putting her head on a pillow that she'd found and looked up at the ceiling. She had a drawing of the night sky with trees edging it and she would stare at it. Trying to remember what freedom felt like.

With a sigh, she hit the tap light and she was thrown into darkness. At least now she knew if she wanted to really look at the sky or breathe fresh air, she could go to the roof. Clair closed her eyes and tried to think of peaceful calming things. Things that she missed. For one, to sleep in a bed would be nice, and to see her adoptive parents again. With these thoughts she fell asleep with a sigh, and a slight burn to her eyes.

Clair was startled awake by a horrible screeching noise. She hit the tap light and looked around thinking that something had gotten into the vents, but no. The sound came again and it was a bit farther away. She sat listening for a moment, breathing slow and not making a sound, she pushed her mane of hair out of her face.

She wanted to know what was going on. It wasn't a noise that she had ever heard before. Clair looked down the chute to her right and then up the shaft to her left. She couldn't see any light from either of the two main entrances above or below.

Clair hung a small flash light around her neck and started her climb up. Trying to be quiet. The metal here was fairly warped from her constantly climbing it. However as she chose the smaller opening to the right, the metal popped slightly and she stopped moving.

She gave it a minute and didn't hear anything. She continued on a bit more slowly, she heard growling coming from everywhere, like the house was alive. She found herself looking through a grate finally. She was looking into a bigger room, it looked like the piano room.

There were three pianos here along with other instruments, but that wasn't what held her attention. The three hell hounds were weaving back and forth in front of some creature. It looked skeletal in nature, skinny, nothing but skin and bones. This she had never seen in the house before and her eyes widened.

Its hands were long and slender, so were its feet. The toes looked longer and the feet looked more like bone as well. No light was on in the house it seemed, just the glow of the moon outside. In the room two people were near the windows. She recognized James and he held the weapon he'd won from Isaiah, the other was a woman.

Clair looked back at the creature. It looked to her like the skin might be a midnight blue color or black. Sprouting from its back were two huge wings tattered and frayed at the bottom. They swept up in a curved motion with claws at the end. It brought the wings down and hooked them around its throat giving it the appearance of a cape. Like the wings didn't exist. Making the creature look wrapped in a black cloak.

It made a motion and slight noise and the hell hounds stopped moving. Just standing still. There was a sudden shrill whistle and then it felt like someone punched Clair right in the head. She felt the urge to come out of the grate and reveal herself. It was so strong and she just about did it. This sound, it was in her mind, she knew that. She was also powerless to stop it.

Her hand reached up but she pulled it back, death was waiting on the other side and she wasn't going to him. Two doors opened and another man came in. They waited a bit longer no one breathing, nothing moving and then the doors slammed shut. That sound... it had been a compulsion to show yourself, and the others hadn't resisted it.

Clair put a hand to her mouth. She thought that there were five of them left, right now it looked like four and soon to be one. Whatever spell had been weaved it seemed over. Those that were in the room

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James held the sword he had out, as it was the only weapon that he had. That it appeared any of them had. The winged creature stepped forward and slashed its hand across the flat part of the blade. A second later the blade fell to pieces from where the creature's claws had cut.

Then the three humans were scurrying to get out of the room to find anything that could save them. The others attacked, going after one human a piece except for two of the hell hounds that went for one of the three humans together. Clair couldn't watch, didn't want to hear. She forced down the sickness. Using the sounds of things being torn apart plus the screams, Clair moved fast through the vent away from it all.

She went back up to her little hiding spot and curled into a ball. She'd thought she'd seen the worst of it. Where had that creature come from? There was no way to even hope to fight something like that. She could still hear the horrible sounds, screams for the next few minutes and then it stopped.

Clair had her hands over her ears and was curled on her side. What had Gregori said? Did he say anything about this? She racked her brain and remembered a small something. Something about the moon and never leaving where you found a place to hide. The full moon was most dangerous.

There were three eerie howls that filled the house. The howls of hunters that had caught their prey. Everything went quiet and then she heard them, running through the house tearing things apart. Things crashed everywhere, the sound of smashing and glass breaking.

Sometimes she heard it like they were on the other side of the wall. Other times it was quiet as if they had moved to a different part of the house. Twice more she heard the shrill whistle clawing at her mind trying to take hold but then it would stop.

Once she'd heard her name. She was positive about it. Like someone spoke it right in her ear. It was a question, asking where she was. Wanting her to speak but she didn't. It sounded like Isaiah's voice and

she wasn't going to answer it, not if he was that thing. Was that what he truly was? Did the light of the moon cause that? She cried quietly from fear, from hopelessness, from sheer exhaustion.

For the next three nights she had to endure the horrible destruction of the house. The shrill whistle and her name being called, called to come and meet her death. She stayed right where she was and only left during the day. She grabbed more food than she could carry along with water and other supplies. She wasn't coming out until others were brought and the attention was off of her. She didn't think this place could get worse, she was wrong.