More Than Imagined

Chapter 7

It takes nothing to desire, to crave, to be a hero. Most everyone wants to be one, but all want doesn't make do. Which was why Rhoawyn couldn't quite understand how she ended up in this situation. Ended up being the hero, when she hadn't hoped to be. It was why regret was the only thing she felt when he grabbed her by the neck of her shirt, the strength of his grip enough to make breathing an impossible task.

He dangled Rhoawyn in the air over the boy who huddled into himself on the ground. The sick grin on his face was enough to make her gag, or maybe that was just a reflex from having her trachea slowly crushed.

"When are you Imaginaries going to learn that no one likes a Hero," the man-creature spat, Rhoawyn still hadn't decided which one she thought he is. She detected a hint of hatred in the rancid words, as the ache in her head expanded like an over-inflated balloon.

Maybe it's lights out... for good this time. I'll finally make dad proud. Rhoawyn's limbs relaxed, their incessant flailing taking up too much of her depleting energy. Before she completely clocked out, a whistling sound pierced the air next to her ear and her body plummeted to the ground.

Dragging much-needed oxygen into her lungs, she detected a thin slice to the hand that was clenching the life out of her. Pebbles of blood dotted to the surface and poking from the ground by her leg was a blood-stained playing card.

Of course, he found me. But Rhoawyn didn't know if she was thankful he had.

She turned her head in the direction that she heard the whistle of the card come from, and her eyes landed on Eli's smug face, as he approached them from the thick of the woods.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I knew you wouldn't run." Eli chuckled, drawing out another card from the skin of his forearm. It differed from the first one—which had three upward arrows on the face. This one was blank.

Rhoawyn grimaced at his comment, but Eli's arrival seemed to make Rhoawyn and the boy's presence non-existent to the creature standing over them, so she took the time to attempt to move him away from danger.

She scooted closer to the child, careful to move slowly, so as not to frighten him any further.

"Hey," she spoke in a voice soft like the one she used when she talked with the roly-polys she collected when she was younger. The boy peered up at her from the cover of his elbow, and she smiled. "Let's get you out of here, ok?" The boy nodded—fresh tear tracks lining his cheeks.

He tried to move, but the blows he took to his side cause him too much pain. His injuries were likely more serious than she anticipated—if she took the blood he coughed up earlier into account.

"I'm going to have to carry you okay," Rhoawyn said, and the boy nodded his head again, afraid to make a sound. Afraid to get caught.

Rhoawyn hoisted him up as best she could, trying not to jostle him around. He whimpered—the pain of motion unavoidable—and just as Rhoawyn got into a starting position to run back into the clearing behind Eli; the creature acknowledged them, seething.

"Where do you think you're going?" he questioned. It was rhetorical. He didn't plan on letting them go anywhere. Rhoawyn stared into the dark void of his eyes as the ground beneath their feet trembled.

Not again.

The telltale sound of the earth splitting open around the bottom of the creature's stance ricocheted through the air. Rhoawyn darted into the clearing before he can grab her. The boy clung to her with all his might, as she forced herself to run as quickly and evenly as possible—minimizing his pain. What she didn't notice, at least until she made it safely behind Eli, is that the creature wasn't chasing after them.