Chapter 186: Can’t feel them
[Back to the Old World – Greater Woods, still shrouded in the mist...]
As Autumn drifted back into sleep...at first, there was only warmth...the sensation of Kieran’s arms wrapped around her...the echo of the steady beating of his heart...his gentle strokes over her baby bump...the twisting and turning of her little ones ,responding to the touch of their father (she could tell how much they had missed him)...The slow rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek and his subtle joyful humming, because she could tell he was finally soaking in this feeling... he was so happy... And their little family looked almost complete... almost...
Autumn knew there was still too much unanswered.. Too many questions... she couldn’t even bring herself to ask him why he had married Lyla when he loved her so much... and the worst... Why had he consummated his marriage when he didn’t love Lyla at all?
But she didn’t want to... she had been drowning for too long... all she wanted to do was soak in his scent... breathe him in again and again... and the joy she felt because they could finally feel each other... the way she basked in his happiness was more than enough... she could finally feel something inside her heal... [maybe it was their mate bond healing itself physically (especially after that intense sex)... maybe it was their emotional connection ]
Autumn wanted deep in her heart ,to stay cocooned in this divine mist forever. ( for her it was divine if just for the fact that it let Kieran feel her... and their children ).
She had no idea when she drifted off...a gust of cold wind shifted everything around her...
The forest changed.
Not all at once, not violently... but slowly, subtly, like a thread being pulled loose from a perfect weave.
The mist blackened and the warmth faded.
And then, she was alone.
Autumn stirred in her dream, confused.
"Kieran...?" she murmured, her voice cracking with anxiety but she wasn’t sure if the sound came out.
No response... She blinked at the world around her...it was dark and damp. Her breath frosted in the air... she could feel the similar chill that enveloped her recurring nightmares...
The trees here looked taller though the forest looked familiar...similar to the ones she had seen before.
And then she heard the snapping of twigs behind her.
She turned sharply. "Who’s there?!"
No answer.
But it only confirmed her intuitions...damn...she knew this situation.Her pulse kicked up.
She began to run. But her legs were heavy. Weighted. Her feet squelched through wet leaves and mud. She could barely see...could barely move.
She looked down.
Her pregnant belly looked huge. . So round, so low she felt like she would give birth right there on the forest floor.
Her hands cradled the curve automatically. "Ah damn...my babies...not here...I can’t give birth like this..."
She stumbled forward.
Branches clawed at her arms, her dress...she wasn’t even dressed properly for the woods. It looked like a wedding gown...like one that belonged to a runaway bride...Her bare feet bled from the thorns beneath her, but she had to move. She had to keep moving... faster... because the thing behind her... Was evil... She could feel that much...
That noise came again.
Closer this time. Heavier. Like something with weight. With hunger... and she could feel it hungered for more than just her soul... it was after her babies as well...
"No," she panted. "God dammit...you are coming nowhere near my pups..."
But just then the ground tilted beneath her...her foot snagged.
She tripped.Almost falling down...
And then... she felt liquid...
She crashed not onto earth, but into something wet and it also felt warm.
Her lungs burned as she sank. She kicked upwards, breaking the surface with a gasp.
Her hair plastered to her face. Her arms thrashed searching for something to hold onto...to float... her hands slipping in the thick, almost viscous liquid...
Her chest heaved as she tried to stay afloat. But something about this water felt so wrong.
Then she looked around.
Red.
All around her. Endless, undulating red.Definately not water...
She screamed.
Blood.
She was swimming in blood.
And her body... her belly... felt empty.
Too empty.
Autumn’s hand slammed against her abdomen. She sobbed. "No. No no no...where are they?My babies?!" She tried to swim under, trying to look for them... but she could no longer sink... her body was being pushing upwards...
She spun frantically, swimming in circles.
"Where are my babies?!" Her voice cracked, her scream echoing across the mist veiled lake of blood. "They were just with me! Why can’t I feel them anymore???Where did they go???"
But she found no answer.
Just silence. And ripples. And the disgusting scent of old iron clinging to her skin.
Then she saw a shape...
A small mound, like an island, a hillock rising out of the blood a few meters away.
She swam towards it, chest heaving, panic clawing up her throat. When she reached it, she scrambled up, slipping and slipping again before pulling herself onto the red soaked surface.
She was sobbing now, her hair dripping crimson, her hands shaking. "Please," she whispered. "Please let them be here...my babies...Goddess please..."
Nothing.
No bodies.
No cries.
Just that silence.
And then she heard a sound.
Slosh.
Something moved in the water.
Her breath froze in her lungs.
Slosh... slosh...
She turned.
Her mouth fell open.
She saw hands.
Shriveled, wet, grasping hands... .
One rose from the water first. Then another. Then a third.
And then dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.
All reaching out... and then clawing.
Dragging themselves towards her island.
Autumn screamed, stumbling back on her hands and knees. "No...stay away! Stay AWAY!"
She was surrounded.
They were climbing onto the mound now...elbows, fingers, bones cracking as they dragged themselves through the sludge.
Some had rings on their fingers. Some wore nothing at all.
They had no bodies...no mouth that spoke or groaned...
They just reached.
"Kieran... KIERAN!" she screamed, panic rising, breath shuddering. "Please...don’t leave me here! HELP ME!Where are you? I can’t find you...I can’t find our babies..."
Then a sound cut through the horror.
Soft wailing.
A baby’s cry.
Faint.
Far.
But unmistakably a newborn.
Her breath caught in her throat. She turned towards it, eyes wide.
"My babies??? I am coming!" she gasped, sliding down the back of the mound, slipping in blood as she began to run again. "Hold on, baby, I am coming..."
She didn’t look back.
The hands followed. Not fast. But constant.
She ran through the darkened mist. Through trees. Through thick blood soaked moss. Her wedding dress was torn now, blood soaked, her feet raw.
The crying grew louder. Clearer.
She finally stopped at a clearing.
Still. Silent.
A single crib stood at the middle of the forest... the same crib she had seen in another nightmare...
Ivory wood. A soft white blanket tucked around something very, very small.
Autumn’s lips trembled. Her hands hovered over the railing. Her breath caught in her chest.
The crying had stopped.
She looked down...a child... but only a single one.