Undefined - The Zephyr Book 1 ? (completed)(#Wattys2016)

Chapter 10 - Syianne

10 - Syianne

"Wawawa!" the voice of the Alprine jerks me awake. I had not slept the entire night, and somewhere, between watching Cello writhe in pain and feeling more than a little miserable at how ignorant and helpless I am, I slipped onto the bed by Cello's side and dozed off.

Now I'm awake and there's something wrong. At first it seems like the shadows in the room have grown bigger, but then I realise that what I thought was shadows is actually something else.

I don't know what they are – Bats? Spiders? Bugs? They crowd the entire room, covering the carpet and walls, even the small window. They keep a distance from the bed, as if they're both attracted to the light from Cello's Jewel and afraid of it. They have long wriggly legs and black shinning bodies with thin filmy wings and large ogling white eyes. There are so many of them that they're climbing over each other. The more I look, the more of them there seems to be. Suddenly I realise that they are multiplying and the space in the room is becoming smaller as they close in on us.

A scream wants to rip itself out from my throat, but I grind my teeth together and hold it inside.

The Alprine hisses at them; her sleek white fur now stands on edge, her eyes wide and menacing, she bears her sharp teeth and swells in size. They aren't coming closer because somehow she's warding them off. But they keep multiplying – I have no idea where they're coming from – and I have a terrible feeling that soon one small Alprine won't be any match for their numbers.

As they crowd nearer, I edge closer to Cello until I'm practically upon him. The Alprine holds her ground though. One of the spidery-batty-bug things falls down from the ceiling and lands near me, and this time there's no holding the scream back. But the Alprine jumps into action, biting, cutting it in half – and it evaporates into smoke.

I blink. Whatever these things are, they aren't actually real, they just look horrid, but there's nothing really there. They begin jumping at us by the dozen, I grab Cello's coat and swing it at them. Every single one I hit turns to smoke. Both of us, the Alprine and me, work feverishly to get rid of them — somehow it's vitally important to protect Cello.

But now that the fighting has started, they flood towards us in thousands, and I swing and swing the coat and it's just not enough. They're everywhere, crowding from all sides and even from above. With each one that disappears, it seems like ten take its place. I throw aside the coat and start beating them away with my arms. They're climbing on Cello now, and he's moaning in pain again. They're doing something, they suddenly have these pincers and they're – I gasp– they're eating him.

"Get off him!" I shriek, furiously trying to beat them away. But it's useless, they just keeping coming and coming.

"Stop! Go away!" I shout, I'm completely covered in them, and so is Cello. I'm sitting on top of him, trying to protect him with my own body, but I'm too small and slow and they're winning. I swat away those crowding over his face, my finger lightly grazing the cold, hard, angled surface of his Jewel.

His eyes snap open; they're so strange, the whites glowing with the same light of the diamond on his forehead. He begins screaming, his body jerking so violently that I fall sideways onto the bed – taking down about three hundred bugs on the way. I'm crying now because I'm sure he's dying and I'm horrified. I half-heartedly beat at them, but I'm feeling so spent and can barely see them through my teary eyes.

And then – how to explain it? – I guess Cello explodes. Not his body – no sticky mess – just all that light he has in him, it explodes and everything goes white and then – everything is blank.

*

"Syianne."

Whose voice is that? My name sounds so sweet and soft, spoken with that voice, it's sort of like how dad says my name, only this voice somehow makes it perfect.