4.| Dreams Of Torment

[Song for scene: Kado - Let me fall]

The sound of someone screaming made Yuè jolt up from the bed, his eyes wide and drifting toward the window where the heart wrenching sound had come from. Was it another human that had crossed the border and met their unfortunate fate?

"Yuè!" He heard someone yell again. But it was no stranger, it was the sound of his fathers voice desperately crying out to him as though he were in grave danger.

He was out of the bed in an instant, rushing over to the window and wrenching it open. "Babà!" He called. He caught a glimpse of his father entering the forest, calling his name.

Yuè's heart seized in his chest.

"No Babà don't!" He vaulted through the window, falling a few feet towards the ground, landing in a roll before he took off after his father.

"Babà!" He cried out again, entering the forest as well, uncaring for the branches and twigs that slapped at his skin, or the rocks and thorns from the overgrowth that dug into his bare feet.

He couldn't see anything in the darkness of the trees. Everything was pitch black and only seemed to get darker despite the brightness of the full moon.

Yuè slowed to a stop, searching around for his father. "Babà!" He said once more, searching the darkness desperately.

"Yuè." His name was called out tiredly. He spun to find his father kneeled on the ground, his graying black hair a stringy mess that hung around his face.

Yuè rushed to him, dropping to his knees. He wrapped his arms around his father, supporting his weight. "Babà, what are you doing here?" Yuè's eyes filled with tears at the state he was in.

His father looked up at him, but he looked younger, the small wrinkles that creased the corner of his eyes gone.

"Yuè, you have to run." His father pushed him away, rising to his feet. The white hanfu he wore seemed to shine in the darkness, piercing through the shadows and revealing the people hiding within them.

The familiar faces of the villagers crept forward, faces twisted into snarls like animals surrounding them. But his father stood tall, withered hands clutching a silver blade tightly.

"Yuè! Get away from that thing!" He heard Emery's voice from behind him and turned to look.

Thing? How could he call his father a thing? "This is my father. He's not dangerous. I have to help him." He turned away from Emery, moving forward to protect his father.

But soon the illusion faded, and his father's young skin started peeling, hitting the ground until only an enormous creature remained. Sunken in golden eyes, half chewed off lips revealing yellow and sharp stained teeth.

"Yuè." Its mouth remained open, sounding like his father, yet looking nothing like him. "Come to Babà." It extended its large clawed hand out, and only then did Yuè notice the stench of rotting flesh and the large antlers sprouting from its beastly head.

Taking a step back, his heart sped up, fear freezing him in place. He had to move. He was going to die if he didn't. He willed his limbs to move, but he felt stuck from gazing into the gleaming golden eyes of the creature before him. He had escaped one death only to waltz into another.

"Yuè!" The creature screamed like his father once more, clicking its six inch tongue across its razor sharp teeth and launched itself toward Yuè, sharp claws inches away from his face.

Emery vanished and reappeared in an instant, his own clawed hand striking the monstrous beast away, causing the creature's arm to fling back, slicing through the bark of a tree.

Yuè had heard tales about the different creatures beyond the borders of Ironedge, deep in the depths of the cursed lands of Mythos, nightmarish beings waited eagerly to devour man and woman.

The tree descended toward them, but Emery wrapped an arm around Yuè, lifting him and jumping two feet into the air over the fallen tree to land in another which still stood strong and tall in the night.

"It's a wendigo." Emery explained. "Starving more than likely. You'd be the first human it smelled in a while."

Yuè stared at the creature in horrified awe. "Fangliang." He whispered. "My father told me stories of such creatures before." He shuddered at the putrid stench of decay that wafted throughout the forest.

"My scent should cover you now, so soon he'll drift deeper into the forest." Emery's attention fell down below, where the Wendigo kept clicking its long tongue against its teeth and screeching while trying to sniff the air to see where its meal had escaped to.

Yuè found himself clinging to the man tightly, his heart thundering so loudly that he was surprised the creature hadn't heard it.

"I'm sorry. I saw my father and I just…" He swallowed, glancing back at the monstrosity that'd almost taken his life had the other not come for him. "Thank you, it seems I will forever be in the debt of you and your brother."

"That creature is meant to lure people with those you care about. I can't blame you, though I don't think it was my father calling me for help." Emery kept his arm around Yuè, and when the creature bound off, he jumped down with Yuè in his arms. "Did it hurt you?"

Now that the adrenaline had died down to a simmer, the pain in his arm made itself known and he winced looking down at it.

The bruises that had been fading were back with a vengeance coloring his arm purple and blue and there looked to be some swelling. Had he rebroken it? He hoped not. "It did not hurt me, but I seem to have foolishly reinjured my arm." He said mournfully.

"Would you like me to heal it again?" Emery asked him as he carried Yuè back toward the large mansion on the hillside.

Yuè brows furrowed. "Uh, no. You don't need to go through so much trouble. I have already disrupted your rest."

"Actually," Emery let out a breathy laugh that tickled the nape of Yuè's neck. "I have trouble sleeping at night. Especially this one."

Yuè's breath hitched, a shiver running through him at the closeness of the other. "I often have a hard time sleeping when the moon is full. I feel restless. This night even more. I-" His words cut off with a sigh.

"It is the first time I have slept away from my father." He admitted. "Now with beasts taking his form, it makes me worry for him all the more. He is not as young and healthy as he once was. Without me I fear he may perish."

"No beasts past the border, unless the beasts you worry about are mortal." Emery reassured him. "I lay awake and remember every night that my father doesn't wish to ever see me again. So when my brothers leave tomorrow to visit Lyrasha. I'll be here."

The stars glittered above them as though it were their hopes and dreams—far away. Unreachable.

Yuè looked up at him. "Why would he not want to see you? May I ask why? You need not tell me if it is too personal."

"It's a sin I'm too ashamed to tell. Not every father deserves a son." Emery's eyes shone with betrayal and hurt, a wound that seemed to open when he spoke only about the surface of his trauma.

Yuè took a moment to observe him, dual colored eyes staring into Emery's searchingly. "I think that no matter the sin, a father's duty is to protect and guide their child and most importantly love them.

No matter what flaws or differences they may have." He said finally. "Anyone would be foolish not to see how amazing you are."

"You say that now. We all have our dark side." The walk up the hill was faster than either of them realized. He opened the large door, only to be greeted by crimson glowing eyes in the dark.

"And where exactly did you go, human?" Marcellous' deep and booming voice filled the silent room.

Yuè slid from Emery's arms, tense as he stared up at Marcellus. The man loomed over him, more intimidating than even the creature before.

There was something about those glowing red eyes that left him too stunned to speak and caused his heart to accelerate. He was sure the poor thing would give out from the amount of stress it had been put under.

"My father. I thought I heard him scream my name…." he trailed off, wincing at how stupid it sounded. He knew that there was no way for his father to have made it this far into the woods, but he had been so scared.

"I'm sorry." He whispered again, looking down at the floor instead. "I know you said not to leave."

Marcellus only kept staring through the darkness.

Emery stepped forward and opened his mouth, but Marcellous stood up so abruptly the chair screeched and cut him off.

"Leave us." Marcellus commanded.

"Marcellous." Emery said his name sternly.

"Now." Marcellus' crimson eyes snapped toward him and Emery obeyed, leaving the room stiffly.

When they were alone, Marcellous walked over to Yuè, grabbed his hand and pulled him harshly, slamming Yuè on top of the table and pinning him down by his wrists.

"This is my house! These are my lands. I don't care who you saw. You listen to me. If it weren't for the fact I saved you, you'd still be in the forest shredded like god damn ribbons."