Into the Dark Pt. 1

The streetlights provided minimal lighting as Sarah trudged down the cracked sidewalk next to the dilapidated road. Small run-down houses, some with boarded up windows, lined both sides of the street. Sarah was on her way home after her shift at the supermarket, her daughter Annabelle in hand. Anna was already half-asleep after spending the day at Sarah’s parents’ house. The sandy-haired toddler’s eyelids bobbed up and down over her blue eyes as she desperately tried to stay awake. Sarah smiled down at her daughter. The kid was a trooper and one of two things Sarah looked forward to after work more than sleep. The other thing she looked forward to was the occasional visit from Greyhound. The Phoenix Wolf knew her work schedule and a couple times a week would be waiting for her and Anna in their shabby living room when they got home. Anna loved him- she saw him as her giant, talking puppy dog- and he always helped Sarah put the little girl to bed when he came. After that, he and Sarah would relax on the sagging couch, Greyhound’s twelve-and-a-half foot frame overhanging on all sides, and either talk or watch TV until Sarah fell asleep. The next morning she would wake up in her own room and Greyhound would be gone.

She really hoped to see his glowing gray eyes when she opened the door to her dark house. Greyhound came as often as he could, but his visits were random, so it was impossible to know if he would be there tonight. Sarah trudged up the three steps to her front door, practically having to drag Anna by now. Dropping her daughter’s hand, she fished through her worn purse for the house key. After several seconds, her fingers found the cold metal and she unlocked the door. She nudged Anna inside ahead of her before entering herself and relocking the door. As the lock clicked into place, she heard what sounded like a man laughing softly behind her. Startled, she spun around, dropping the key in the process. It clattered loudly on the linoleum floor. The sound echoed through the house.

“Hello?” Sarah called as she hit the light switch. Light flooded the entryway/living room/kitchen. “Greyhound? Is that you?”

There was no response. Perhaps it had been just her imagination or maybe the voice of one of her boisterous neighbors seeping through the house’s paper-thin walls again. It hadn’t sounded like Greyhound anyways, but Sarah couldn’t help hoping. She shrugged her shoulders. <i> Oh well. </i> She had to get Anna to bed soon or else she would have an extremely crabby child on her hands the next morning. She started towards Anna- only Anna wasn’t where she had been a few seconds ago. Sarah quickly scanned the living room.

“Anna?” she tried. “Annabelle.” Nothing. She raced over to the narrow staircase that led up to their bedrooms. “Anna!” she called up the stairs. Still no response. She was about to go up the steps to see if her daughter had already gone up to bed and fallen asleep when she heard the laugh again. This time when she turned, she found its source.

Crouching in a corner next to the tiny TV was a huge Obsidian. Not huge by their standards, of course, but plenty big by human ones. Greyhound had taken her to the Phoenix Wolves’ base several times and introduced her to all the other Wolves and she was positive this being wasn’t one of them. That meant it was a Cometvore. Greyhound had mentioned them several times. This one had a pelt that looked like it was made up of dozens of mismatched furs all stitched together. On each shoulder and hip it bore uniform x-shaped scars. It was squatting down on its haunches holding a wide-awake and terrified Anna. It had one arm wrapped around her waist, pinning her arms to her side. Its other huge hand covered her mouth, obscuring her neck as well, preventing her from crying out.

The Cometvore laughed. “Looking for something?” it cooed drunkenly, leering at her with wide, insane brown eyes. Before she could scream or make an attempt to charge the beast, another pair of furred arms grabbed her from behind and lifted her several feet off the ground. One hand clamped over her open mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist. The arm crushed her into a bristly chest. She screamed, but the hand over her mouth muffled her cries into ineffective mumbles. Unlike Anna, her arms were free. She used them and her dangling legs to hit, kick, and elbow the Cometvore who restrained her as hard as she could. It felt like fighting a boulder. If she lived to see tomorrow, she knew she would have various bruises on her feet, elbows, and fists.

The creature allowed her to fight for half a minute before it tired of the game. The arm around her middle constricted with more force than an anaconda could ever produce, effectively squeezing all the air out of her lungs. Throughout the entire struggle, and the Cometvore holding Anna cackled madly, enjoying watching a lesser being fight for its life.

While Sarah struggled to breathe under the crushing pressure, the one who held her craned its neck down so that its muzzle was right next to her ear. “Shhh,” it whispered. “We wouldn’t want to worry the neighbors, would we?” It paused. Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah could see its gray lips pull back into a demonic smile, revealing two rows of glossy, razor-sharp black teeth. She could see her wide-eyes reflection in some of them. “Or for anything to happen to dear little Anna over there.”

Sarah stopped fighting. If anything happened to Anna, she… she didn’t know what she would do. Taking in her reaction, the Cometvore stayed still for a few seconds before relaxing its arm around her waist just enough for her to breathe again. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” It lifted its muzzle away from her ear to speak to its companion. “Paradox, get the girl out of here. The human needs to have as few distractions as possible while she listens to instructions.”

“No!” Sarah tried to scream through the thick hand. She began fighting once more but the Cometvore cut off her oxygen again. “Shhh,” he whispered again. “Little Anna will be fine as long as you do as you’re told. If you don’t, well… I leave that to your imagination.” Sarah froze. “Good girl.”

Sarah watched helplessly, tears streaming down her cheeks, as the Cometvore called Paradox carried her squirming daughter out the front door and disappeared into the night.

“Now,” the Cometvore hissed, “if you’re interested in getting your daughter back I have a proposition for you.” It paused for effect. “I require something that your dear, human-loving friends have: a little black device necessary for the stabilization of force fields. Since the materials needed to build a stabilizer are only available on our home planet and I’m currently not welcome there, I need you to retrieve a working model for me. The Phoenix Wolves will have it located in their main control hangar, wired into their shield’s mainframe. It shouldn’t be too challenging to find, even for a human. You will take it and bring it to me in two days, understand?”

Before she could attempt to answer, Sarah felt waves of electricity emanating from the Cometvore’s hands. Her mind became foggy, like she hadn’t slept in days, and she went completely limp. Feeling her slump in its grasp, the Cometvore unceremoniously dropped her on the floor at the foot of the stairs. It easily stepped over her still form. For the first time, she was able to take in the monster’s full form. Its hide was similar in its haphazardness to that of the other Cometvore, though its color pallet was restricted to various shades of gray. Half of one of its right ears was torn off and Sarah could vaguely see the innumerable gray scars that cut across its pelt.

Sarah tried to push herself up off the floor, but her body felt like it weighed a ton. As she struggled to get up on her elbows, the Cometvore walked over to the telephone that sat on the end table next to the couch. Sarah saw a spark of blue electricity pass between the end of the Cometvore’s finger and her phone. It turned to face her, locking its pure white eyes with hers.

“When you have the stabilizer, simply pick up the phone and tell me you have it. I will be listening.” It turned to walk out the front door, but stopped short, seeming to have remembered something. “Oh, and don’t be stupid. Your deadline will have long passed by time the Phoenix Wolves are able to track us down. So, if you want your little brat back alive, I suggest you keep our plans to yourself.” With that, it ducked through the door and was gone. As she lay on the floor, Sarah felt her already clouded mind get groggier and groggier with the passing seconds. She struggled to hang on to consciousness, but it was no use. Her elbows gave way and she was asleep before her head hit the floor.

……

Early the next morning, Sarah slowly regained consciousness. She forced her heavy lids to open and her arms and legs to heave herself off the floor. Trying to stand, she found that she had a severe case of vertigo and fell backward onto the steps. Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks as she remembered the events of the previous night. With resolution, she pushed herself off the steps and onto her hands and knees. It wasn’t worth the effort to fight the vertigo and she had a mission to accomplish. She crawled over to the phone and punched in the five-digit code Greyhound had installed into it to contact him. The phone didn’t even ring, though it shouldn’t have anyways because she wasn’t calling another telephone. Instead, she heard Greyhound’s cheery voice on the other end.

“Mornin’ Sarah,” he said. “Sorry I ain’t visited in a few days. The Cometvores’ve been causing a lot of trouble this week and Saber upped our training schedule. Watcha need?”

Sarah pulled the phone away from her mouth and took a deep breath before answering. Pressing the phone close to her face again, she said, “Hey Greyhound. You mind if I drop by the base tomorrow?”