Chapter 14

Fourteen

Now that he was stationary Theo could see a gap in the bottom of the silken net. He pushed his foot hard against it and eventually broke through. Something stung him again on the ankle, and he knew immediately that it was one of the hand-sized spiders trying to close the net up. The little bastard! Theo knew what spiders used their nets for and he had no intention of being trussed up and liquified as their latest snack!

He kicked again and ripped the net along the front, giving himself enough room to push his arms through and break free. He slapped several spider monsters aside as he did so, sending them flying into a nearby tree.

Theo's heart was racing, no question it was well into the hundred beats-per-minute at this point, and he felt ridiculously battered and bruised. But it was like being back in the clearing again. That same adrenaline was pumping through Theo, giving him a clarity that he desperately needed.

Escape.

Find safety.

Find Baku.

The actions sped through him one after the other like he was back in the briefing room, and they were orders from Becky the instructor. Theo fully intended to follow them. He pushed hard at the silken net, pulling himself free of it, and he was just in time, because a moment later and the massive spider above him would have had time to drop down and enclose him in her many legs.

Theo rolled away.

The car-sized spider monster thudded to the ground and gave a nasty shriek.

More of its tiny fellows swarmed down.

Theo ran.

Dear god he ran.

He pumped his arms harder than he ever had and he pushed his legs faster than ever before. The slightly lower gravity aided him, and Theo raced away from the monster spider and its army of smaller ones. He could hear it behind him, many legs scampering over the forest floor. But Theo was fast, he had always been fast, and he was able to clear the obstacles on the forest floor with ease.

A fallen tree here.

A boulder there.

He jumped and he leaped, and he sucked in smooth breaths of air as he went.

He knew he wasn't deep into the forest. He could see light up ahead and his sense of direction was enough that he was sure it led back to the cliffs which meant it led back to his monster.

To Baku.

Theo went faster.

He pumped his arms.

He drove his legs.

He was surely going to make it to safety in no time...

Something barrelled into him. Something that swooped down from the forest canopy. The breath was pushed from Theo's body as he fell, rolling once more against the forest floor. He came to a stop next to another fallen tree. It was huge despite being long since dead and splattered with globules of orange mucus. Theo quickly moved so that he was pressed up against it.

Something cried out.

Not a screech.

Not a shriek.

But a haunting howl.

Theo froze. He crouched down next to the fallen tree, several of its dead branches curved above him, struggling to get his breath back, the strangest of feelings suddenly flooding through him.

The creature above him howled again. No, it was not a howl, it was more like a cry, and there was an odd melody to it. It made Theo feel…something…something that he couldn't quite identify. He stayed exactly where he was, as still as possible, trying to listen to what his body was telling him. After a moment he drew in a slow, shaky breath and the creature responded by crying again.

Sadness.

A desperate sadness.

That was what Theo was feeling.

But it was all looped up in adrenaline and fear so that Theo couldn't quite separate it enough to realise, at least not until the creature's cry deepened and a horrible sort of misery flooded Theo.

He closed his eyes.

Why was the creature so sad?

Howcould he help it?

Another cry. It cleared the fear and the panic so that it filled Theo's entire body, and he knew then that he would have to emerge from his hiding place and do something to make the creature feel better.

It was so very sad.

It needed him to help it.

Theo opened his eyes, ready to reveal himself when a hand clamped around his mouth and dragged him deeper beneath the canopy of dead branches. Theo wasn't so far gone yet that he didn't recognise exactly who the hand belonged to. Perhaps if he had been thinking perfectly clearly, exactly as he had been just ten minutes ago when he'd freed himself from the spider's net, Theo might have questioned how he knew immediately that it was Baku.

Hismonster.

In that moment it really was so.

"Do not move," Baku whispered in Theo's ear as he loosened his hand.

"It needs me," Theo whispered back.

"What it needs from you, you do not want to give," Baku growled. "Now come, quickly, before its sorrow calls for me too."

Theo didn't know what Baku meant by that, and he realised vaguely then that he wasn't quite himself. He made to move forwards even as Baku pulled him back once more. The dry leaves crackled beneath them. The creature called again, but the mournful cry was slightly different…there was an angry note to it now.

"Please, Theo," Baku said, and because it was the first time that the monster had ever used his name, Theo turned and looked at him. He opened his mouth to respond, but something swooped above them, and Baku held a finger to Theo's lips. There was clear worry in his moonlit eyes.

"We must leave," he said.

A shadow crossed above them, darkening the space even more. Baku pulled Theo close to him, and Theo couldn't help but shiver at the feel of the monster's big bulk surrounding him. They stayed low, almost crouching, as they edged along the fallen tree.

Another cry joined the first. Baku placed his big hands over Theo's ears.

The cries of the two creatures now stalking them came as one then, a perfect melancholy sound that, even with his ears muffled, seemed to pierce Theo's heart. He shuddered. Baku pressed his hands closer.

"I must help?—"

Baku cut him off. They were at the end of the tree now, its huge branches crawling out from the trunk and creating a passageway through to the forest and the dwindling light ahead. That was so obviously the route Theo should take, he knew that, and yet he didn't. He shook his head, trying to understand what he was feeling, what he was seeing. Everything looked and felt wrong.

"You are going to run now, Theo," the monster commanded, snapping him back to the moment. "A few minutes and we will be free of the forest. You will be safe. Do you understand?"

"Run away from them?" Theo asked because he was sure Baku must mean run to them.

"There," Baku said, and he pointed to where there was a thin shaft of light. "You must get to there."

He paused for just a moment and then he ran his hands down Theo's face, along his ears, over his head, anywhere at all that Theo was bare and the monster could touch him, skin to skin. Theo gasped slightly from that even as the monster's touch cleared his mind. The sorrow replaced by that craving for just long enough that Theo was able to understand what was happening.

"Now go, Theo," the monster growled. "Go."

Another cry, sonorous and soul-wrenching. Theo shivered from it as he stood and ran to the shaft of light. He ran faster than he ever had, desperate to escape the wretchedly unhappy creatures. Behind him, Baku followed.

It took less than a minute for them to emerge from under the canopy of dead branches. Their heavy footsteps crashing through the wintery forest, waking up monsters around them whose shrieks and screams soon joined those of the creatures. A minute more and they were on the very edge of the forest. Spider monsters scuttled past, running away as well. Something shrieked in pain behind them.

More shadows swopped above them. The creatures' howling cries, edged with a rapidly developing rage now, came closer. Had they been just a little deeper into the forest they would have been close enough to reach Baku and Theo before they made it to the light, but the spider monster's nest was on the very edge of the forest for the exact same reason. And it had been very hungry and intended Theo only for itself.

A moment later and Theo and Baku burst free from the forest and into the last of the day's light. It was weak, but it was enough to have Theo squinting after so many minutes under the forest canopy. He did not stop running through. He wanted to get as far away from the creatures as possible.

He sprinted away from the forest and back in the direction of the shelter. Baku kept pace with him, and they drew in harsh breaths as they covered the distance that the giant spider had managed in a much quicker time with its scuttling legs and its leaping jumps.

Maybe fifteen minutes later Baku slowed them to a stop with a hand on Theo's arm even though his adrenaline was still pumping, and frankly he'd have carried on for much, much longer given the chance.

"We will walk the last of the journey," Baku said softly. "Eyes open. Completely alert." He shook his head. "As I should have been before." He paused before saying very formally, "I am sorry, Theo."

"You saved me," Theo said.

"You should not have needed saving in the first place," the monster replied with another of those growls of his before pulling Theo close to him, hand wrapped in his hand, bodies just inches apart.

"There are more monsters," Theo said, and it was not a question.

"Yes, the monster replied, and he left it at that because there was simply no point in stating the obvious. That the worst of the monsters were behind them…waiting in the forest…to which they would soon have no choice but to return.