A Ruin of Roses (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 1)

My hand reached into my pocket and extracted the pocketknife. She opened the blade as a drumbeat of adrenaline pounded through us. Something was coming.

“Ha-ha-ha!” It sounded like a man’s voice—after one hundred years of cigarettes and choking on swamp slime. “Ha-ha-ha!”

It wasn’t laughing. The being was literally saying those words as though attempting to fool someone into thinking it was both human and having a jolly time.

Here we go.

A distinctly human shape stepped out from behind a tree up ahead. It wore worn clothing pocked with holes, and part of its scalp had rotted off. Jutting teeth filled its mouth, and the jaw looked unhinged.

There’s your zombie, my animal said, slowing just a bit as she approached. I wish I had four feet and claws. This would be so much easier. You might have to help drive.

The darkness rushed in a bit, the shapes around us going fuzzy.

It’s a dybbuk, I bet, I said, images of demonic creatures running through my head. They are supposedly demons in the bodies of sinners. One wandered into our village when I was about fifteen. It was clumsy. I can handle this.

I apologize for making fun of your well-read-ness. This makes up for it.

I ran at it, knife in hand. He swiped when I got close, and I ducked under his arm, exhilarated by the strength and speed with which I could now move. I stabbed him in the stomach. He barely noticed. I’d expected that, though. These buggers couldn’t feel pain in the way a human could. Their bodies could still die, though.

If only I had my dagger…

I swiped his leg, quickly following up with a stab to the kidney, and then used both hands to drive the blade into the base of his skull. That would disable him until it bled out, which would happen quickly.

A snarl sounded from the right before a large doglike creature lunged. Over half my size, it had momentum and muscle behind it. I dropped to the ground, waited for it to sail over my prone body, and popped up like I had springs. I could get used to this animal-inside-me situation, salty attitude aside. The dog creature landed and stumbled a little, not having expected me to move. A ribbed fin rose from its back like a wave, each rib topped with a spike. Its eyes glowed green, and saliva dripped from its huge canines. A badly bred hellhound? I hadn’t seen this sucker in any of the books I’d read.

I need four feet and claws! my animal thought-yelled, frustration swirling through us.

Yeah, we both did, because I couldn’t handle this thing with a stupid pocketknife.

I darted around a tree and jumped onto a low branch. It groaned under my weight but held. The creature snarled, launching after me again. Heart rampaging, I pulled myself up another branch and took our life in my hands as I jumped across to a thick branch on the neighboring tree. I wrapped my arms around it, but my legs swung into the open space below.

The creature jumped up and snapped at my dangling boot. I yanked it out of the way and heaved myself up, shimmying to the trunk.

Now what? my animal asked.

Now you pretend to understand my little peccadilloes as I figure this out.

With that, I launched into my usual internal dialogue.

This is a harrowing feat, folks. I can’t wait to see what happens next, I thought, sizing up the area. There was a mostly clear and decently wide trail leading away from here. It should intersect with the trail I often took into the wood.

An owl hooted distantly, my old friend Chatty Kathy. Something else clearly prowled the wood. Part of me hoped it was Nyfain. Most of me realized it was probably some other horrible thing the demons had unleashed in this wood. I needed to get out of here. But that dog thing could surely run like the wind. I couldn’t beat it, so I’d have to kill it.

It waited just under me, still looking up like it was thinking of learning how to climb a tree. I had the drop on it.

Fantastic, it seems like she has had an outstanding idea. Thank you, horrible wild boar, for giving her the practice to make this precarious move possible.

This is really tough to bear. My animal sounded pained.

It’s my process, I said as I stepped onto another branch and moved around the trunk. I lowered to the branch below. The creature moved with me, saliva dripping from a jaw made for crushing bones. A low groan reverberated through its muscled chest.

I perched above the creature, full of determination, my knife clutched in a slightly shaking hand. I needed to jump down onto it and drive my knife through a vulnerable point. I’ve done it before with other animals, but that fin would make it difficult. I’d have to aim near its head, and that end had teeth. Still, I didn’t have any other ideas. Waiting here was not an option. The creature was alerting everyone to my presence, and if a more dexterous monster came along, it could come up here and get me. Escape wasn’t an option, either. If I dropped down now, the creature would just step out of the way and then maul me.