The monsters with-in -

 

Clouds overtook the sky, following her bidding.  Thunder rolled over the landscape, filling our ears with its noise and our hearts with dread.  Katherine called to it and it answered.  Lightning sprang from the clouds, striking ever closer to our companions and her voice ever more mad with her spell.  The ground shook with increasing regularity and strengthening vengeance.

My heart hammered in my ears but I couldn't turn away.  Lightning pounded into the ground, coming closer and closer to her.  She was calling it to join with her and not just the lightning.  The two creatures that accompanied her were being pulled by her will as well.

They were well over nine feet tall and held an ethereal appearance with long, horrible fangs.  They oozed constantly between solid flesh and blood to nothing more than smoke and back again.  They hovered just above the ground with no legs, nor feet to support them.  Their skin, a dull blue, was torn in rotten patches.  They appeared more dead than alive, ghosts, of a sort, a horrible sight by any measure.  Their eyes, seen from my hiding, glowed a bright yellow.  They hovered near Kathryn shifting in unison to the Norha's unruly chanting.

"Now, my friends, now!" she screamed and the creatures surged forward, slamming into her, entering her body, forging their essence to hers.  Her eyes glowed,transformed with their presence within her. With their energy added to hers, Kathryn turned her conjuring to the Jonda chained to the ground before her.

A split second later lightning struck her full in the chest.  She reeled under its power and screamed like a demon set newly free from hell. It coursed through her and then leaped from her outstretched hand to the first Jonda.

He writhed and screamed in horrible pain.  His body contorted, changed, rippling as if something inside of him was fighting to get out.  He strained against his chains like a wild animal.  Would the screams never stop?  Surely they were the worst a man could possibly be forced to endure. 

I was wrong.

The Jonda's body was being torn apart from within until he slowly slumped to the ground, a crumpled heap, dead.  For a moment there was silence, a dreadful silence.

Then his body began to jerk of its own volition.  It twitched frantically until whatever was inside freed itself, ripping through his corpse. Two entities, one a dull blue and the other a pale white, began to swirl over the body.  They were unformed, little more than phantoms, each attempting to devour the other.  They ripped and tore at each other with increasing speed and savagery.

"What are they?"  I gasped.

"They are us," Spath answered dully.

His words poured over me like cold water. He was afraid and that fear washed over me, soaking me to the bone.

 

 

Author's Note

This is from my novel The Gift - The Chronicles of Tucker Littlefield

Reviews

[Flopp]

This is a great piece. I caught a sense of a terrifying and tense atmosphere from the start. The monsters sounded like ... Monsters! The use of language describing the setting is great - especially the thunder and lightning. Good work!

[Not here]

I will definitely give this some thought in my contest. Loved the vocab and the imagery and the hidden message. Tell your friends to enter too!

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Wow, this was definitely intense! Vivid images arose in my head and I shuddered more than once. Good work

[panopticon]

Alright! Saw this in a contest, so I decided to check it out :]

First off, I like the description you have there. It's very... vivid. I honestly need to learn from your vocabulary xD

Whew first person... That's cool, don't see it around much.

Love the bit about the fangs and blood and just... Gore! You perfectly described the scene there and the things that happen as the piece progresses, and I love the names too (Especially Spath)

Great job, keep it up and thanks for sharing! I like the ending line, too.

[Phantom.Bite]

I enjoy this piece :) but I was wondering if you meant to have the Katherine to Kathryn spelling shift? If not then that is the only problem I can find with it.

[Tegon Maus]

Damn it ! I've read this 900 times and never saw it. Katherine is what I meant Kathryn is someone I know ! Thanks for the catch... send something you would like to share and I will return the favor.

[Phantom.Bite]

Thanks :)

[CDseader]

Sweet i like it

[Ray]

Loved it !! You are amazing in your writing : and it even sounds like the truth, that we're all some way a monster. In philosophy, we read a book that pretty much said "to be capable of the greater good, you have to be able to do the greatest wrong", sort of reminded me of that !! Grim truth...

[Archia]

"They are us." So ominous that line; it's just said so simply, and that makes it ominous. I quite enjoyed this and the excitement in it.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Nice story, Teagon, it's been a while since I've read any fantasy. This sentence was a little confusing to me: "She was calling it to join with her and not just the lightning." Was she calling something besides the lightning?

Now you've got me wondering what a Norha and a Jonda are - wondering about Katherine, too. Now I've got to go back and read more.