Page 42 of Tenebrous

Silently, its gaze drifts between me and the fire. One claw absently traces the scar cutting through its brow before it finally answers. “Keep you.”

That single sentence turns my blood to ice. “You're going to... keep me?”

“Until healed.”

“And then?”

My question seems to confuse it. Or irritate it—I'm not entirely sure—but the creature lets out a vibrating huff as it turns back to the moose. “We will see.”

What the fuck? We will see? “That doesn't make me feel any safer.”

“You are safe,” it growls, slicing its bone-made knife into flesh. “With me. Not them.”

“Them?” Frowning, I clutch the blanket tighter around me and lift onto my knees. “Them who?”

“The village.” It speaks so matter-of-factly that it takes me a second to catch up.

“The… They only want me dead because I know about you.”

“Safe here,” it repeats firmly, the finality in its tone leaving no room for argument.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Throwing my hands into the air, I collapse onto my back. “Fine. Whatever. Not like I've got a life up there to go back to anyway.”

No friends, no family except for the one brother that hates my guts. By all accounts, I should have died when Earl shot me. Maybe I did, and I’ve been sent to an afterlife in hell for what I did to my family. I'm the reason they're all dead, after all. I'm the reason my brother is divorced and alone.

The weight of my entire life settles over my chest like wet concrete, and I laugh bitterly. A week ago, I'd have given anything to disappear. Now I'm trapped in a cave beneath a mountain with some man-eating monster, and suddenly I'm not so sure I want to die after all.

Call that poetic justice.

Time stretches on, with nothing but the crackle of flame and the scrape of bone against hide to fill the cavern. My thoughts run a million miles a second, every single mistake I’ve ever made flashing through my mind like a flip-book of fuck ups until I can't contain it inside me anymore.

“I killed my mom,” is the first rushed whisper that leaves my lips.

The knife stops. For several long seconds, the creature doesn't move.

“My fault,” I continue, staring at the cave ceiling with burning eyes. “My dad, too. Pretty efficient, if you think about it. Wiped out both my parents in a single afternoon. And it all happened because I had an affair with my brother's wife.”

Fucking idiot, Benji.

The creature rises to its full height. Footsteps echo across the space, but I don't bother looking in its direction. What's the point? I've already told him more than I've told anyone—ever. Other than Manny, who's also dead. Also because of me.

“I understand if you think I deserve this,” I murmur to the ceiling, speaking to a God that probably doesn't exist. “Shit, maybe Earl was right. Maybe throwing me into this mine was doing the world a favor.”

The creature is silent for so long that I almost forget it's still watching me until it speaks.

“You cry.”

Frowning, I glance at the massive frame standing above me. “What?”

“You cry,” it repeats, pointing at my face. “Why?”

Slowly, I raise a hand to my cheeks, surprised to find them wet. “Humans do that when they're sad. Or scared. Sometimes when in pain.”

“Which one?”

Somehow understanding that this monster is asking what I'm feeling, I release a sigh. “Right now? All three, I guess.”

That answer only seems to upset it, from the desperate growl that leaves its lungs.