12-Lost

Elmer's hold instinctively tensed on Patsy's hand as a cold feeling of dread loomed over his body.

"We have to run," he whispered to her through the unending screech of the monster, but her body did not move, and she gave him no reply. "We have to go now," he whispered again, this time stronger than the last, as he took a step backward cautiously while his eyes remained fixated on the monster beneath the moonlight. But still he heard no word leave Patsy's lips. It was as though she had gone mute.

What was wrong with her?

All of a sudden Elmer's thoughts flicked toward the slight tremulous shakes that the hand he held had begun to have, and he hesitantly peeled his eyes away from the monster and put them on it.

She… she's shaking so much… His brows allied in something of confusion and pity. Is she really—

With a sharp inhale, Elmer's thoughts faded away in a flash as soon as he caught sight of what now made up Patsy's expression while she gazed at the monster.

She was hyperventilating with her mouth slightly open, her expression frozen and pale. And her eyes, the one that really bothered Elmer the most, had become so fragile, devoid of the warm glint she had approached him with during the day.

It was as though she had been broken into countless, sorrowful pieces; almost like she was struggling with something so delicate deep within, and she was begging and hoping for anyone to take her far away from here.

They spoke to Elmer, her whole being. Her shaking hands, her pale face, her begging eyes.

It's the same… Elmer weltered into a memory of five years ago which solemnly depicted the worst night of his life.

It had been so long, but it still lingered so near to his mind, and now Patsy's face reminded him of the way he had felt on that night as he had watched his sister's soul leave her body.

His chest ached for her, but at the same time he wondered if it was fear for what stood before them that had turned her this way.

The screech of the monster faded, and the silence of the forest that followed snapped Elmer away from his thoughts and brought him back to the otherworldly danger that was standing just a few feet away from him.

He could not risk it anymore. It was either he left her here, or…

The monster abruptly straightened itself and peered at them with its hollow, lifeless eye sockets. Elmer shook his head frightenedly. He had a good enough feeling of what was coming next.

"Ostrich-lady," he leaned close to her ear and said under his breath, "grab onto me, and don't let go." She remained the same, quivering, frozen, and without reply, but that did nothing to stop his set plan.

The monster hunched forward sharply, and Elmer responded by immediately scooping Patsy off her feet, swirling about on his heels, and plunging himself into a dash through the darkness of the night.

Elmer ran in some sort of zigzag manner in between the trees which filled the forest, using the tiny traces of moonlight peeking down at him as his guide, and hoping that somehow he could escape by confusing the monster with his abhorrent scurries.

He was so glad that the lady sprawled in his arms, while tightly wrapping hers around his neck, was as light as a woman could be. For someone he knew was older than his little sister, she almost shared the same weight as Mabel, although he did not have the time to be amazed at that.

The wind whooshed and leafs rustled in a dance as Elmer jumped over one of the countless protruding tree roots which snaked out to slow him down. They would have to deal with their failures for tonight, he had no intention of dying here.

Weirdly, he noticed the stiffening silence that permeated the forest.

He was being chased, right? So why could he not hear anything aside from his own hard breaths, stomping feet, and the frequent whispers of the wind? The crickets and owls had stopped their sounds a while ago, but they had done so because of the monster's screech—where was that screech now?

His mind wobbled in questions, but he did not dare to let his feet stop moving. The only thing he wanted to find now was the roadside. When he got there, then maybe he would glance back.

Elmer pushed through for a few moments more, drifting and whirling until his vision now caught a flickering light that was a dim yellow, a far contrast from the silvery gray that poured down from the sky.

"The road," he muttered under his puffing, but he quickly chased away the sense of relaxation that had almost hit him. The road was still a few paces away, he could not relax yet.

Elmer redid the tightness he held Patsy with, strengthening his arms further in order to help them reach the walkway before any other heart-popping scenario made its way before him again.

He had seen enough for a night. But suddenly, a thought graced his mind and his steps slowed for a brief moment…

Wait, are all I've seen somehow related to… Was this what she had meant by "the job of night"? These sort of people and monsters, are they what exist in the world of an Ascender…?

And he stopped, but just in time. He was now beneath the flickering light of the lamppost that brightened the walkway.

Elmer heaved out a breath and quickly turned back to look into the darkness of the forest, which now bore an eeriness that it had lacked the first time he and Patsy had passed through it.

He could not see a single thing coming. Had he just been running from nothing?

But even if that had somehow come to be true, he could not let his back remain turned to a forest where he had just seen horrors frightening enough to make the mind of a person from Meadbray—probably someone like Pip—blow up.

What if something came suddenly and pulled him in? Elmer shook his head tiredly with a cold shiver.

With Patsy still sprawled across his arms, he crossed over to the opposite walkway and ran farther down and away before stopping beneath another lamppost.

Nothing was coming, he told himself—he hoped to himself.

"Let me down," Patsy said, at last, pulling him from his wary stares as she loosened her arms and took them off his neck.

Elmer's cautiousness did not stay away for long though, they returned shortly after, but not for the otherworldly beings.

"Are you fine now?" he asked, his hands still holding her despite her request.

"I'm fine. I've always been." She pushed herself away from his grasp and dropped her legs to the ground. "A carriage is coming," she muttered quickly after, but even though she had said she was fine, Elmer could still see those broken pieces in her eyes.

The carriage stopped before them at Patsy's wave. "Where to?" the coachman asked, his voice much as tired as Elmer was.

"There's only one carriage," Elmer muttered. "What are we going to do?" He turned over a look at Patsy.

"Where do you stay?" She returned a look to him.

"Tooth and Nails."

Patsy turned back to the coachman. "Tooth and Nails."

Elmer blinked in confusion. "What about you?"

Patsy wobbled tiredly to the passenger's seat of the carriage, and climbed into it saying, "I'll stay at your place."

Elmer rubbed his temples. "At my place?"

"It's just for tonight," Patsy told him from within the carriage. "Just get in and don't waste the man's time."

Elmer stared at her for a moment, his eyes planted on the dead-pan expression that painted her face, and at last he gave up his complaints with a long, low sigh. "Just for tonight." He made sure she remembered her words as he entered into the carriage.

"How much?" Patsy asked the coachman when Elmer took his seat beside her.

"Twenty pence," the man replied.

With an exhale Patsy turned over to Elmer. "How much do you have?"

"Ten pence, that's all I usually budget for my transport home." Elmer shrugged.

"Bring it, I'll pay the rest." She outstretched one hand at him, while the other fiddled with the pouch hanging from her waist.

Elmer took out the ten pence left in his waist bag and dropped it onto her palm at the same time she took out hers.

"Here," she said as she leaned over and paid the coachman his fee, prompting him to spur the horses pulling the carriage into a trod as they rode away from the lingering gloomy and frightening ambience they had not been expecting to encounter.

The further they went, the more Elmer's tenses relaxed somewhat, but his companion did not look to be alleviating one bit like he was, instead, she gazed out the window in some sort of sullen manner which filled the carriage with a glum feel.