Chapter 8
Shadows
Wilson could hear the chirping birds outside his tent, he slowly opened his eyes, a huge smile went across his face, the full moon had finally passed and he was free for another moon cycle. Not that it was a long time, time seemed to work differently here, which was another thing he hated about this place.
When he left his tent Willow and Wendy were already up just talking to each other, the first thing he noticed was that the chill in the air had decreased a lot, he smiled, the snow was starting to melt and the grass was beginning to show again, this meant that the winter was finally starting to end and spring was back.
Now that the winter was finished things would start to get a lot easier.
He got ready for what he thought was going to be a great day, but that was before he noticed Whisper and Wes walking into the camp from the trees, and a blue hound following behind them.
Willow stopped what she was doing and watched too, the moment she saw Whisper stepped into the camp she got a horrid feeling went all over her body, she stood up quickly, her hand turning into fists.
Wilson couldn't believe what he was seeing; he had been a little worried about where they had both gone, but he knew that they would be safe, he remembered how Willow had come back in a mad frenzy the night before, he hadn't believed her at all, but now looking at how Whisper was there was now a small part of him that thought it could be true.
Whisper had walked in battered and bruised, her clothes were now dirty and had blood on them, it looked like she had been in a horrid fight in human form, Wes was walking right beside her, he didn't seem the littlest bit fazed that she was in this state.
This was the first time that Wilson had seen Wes like this, out of all of the group e was the weakest and most terrified, but at this moment in time looked brave. And with the hound right by his feet it added to the look.
Wilson then double looked at the hound, he had only really just noticed it, it was a blue hound, and could be very dangerous, but it was just panting like a normal dog looking at Whisper. Wilson was a little confused, but didn't question why the hound was here.
Wes had a big smile on his face, he looked round, he would never leave everyone again, he hated being on his own, there were to many dangers out there for him to handle, that's why he needed people like Wilson and Whisper, they would protect him. He then felt something rubbing against his leg, he looked down and saw the hound, it looked up at him and barked happily, he couldn't help but not be terrified, it looked so cute wagging its tail at him, Wes bent down and stroked the hound on the head, it closed its eyes and panted.
He then he a tiny scream, both Wes and hound looked up and saw Wendy, she was clutching the dead rabbit in her arms tightly, her eyes were staring right at the hound,
"Mr Wes why are you stroking that, it hurts us," she said in a tiny voice, he shook his head quickly, he knew that wild hounds had attacked them many times, and most of them would attack Wendy because she was small.
"Don't worry Wendy, he's our new pet," Whisper said standing behind Wes, he quickly looked at her, grateful for her stepping in,
"Pet?" Wendy said looking confused,
"Yes, he's my friend I found him last night and he's going to help us," Whisper said, she knelt next to Wendy, she then held out her hand and clicked her tongue, he hounds ears shot up and it skipped towards them. Whisper could feel Wendy shaking a little, the hound sniffed Whisper's hand and then pushed its head into her hand forcing her to stroke it.
Whisper gently took one of Wendy's hand and replaced it with hers, the hound carried on rubbing it's head against the hand, after a few moments, Wendy smiled and started to giggle,
"It's so fluffy," she said, the hound rolled onto it's back and wiggled it's legs in the air, Wendy laughed, dropped the dead rabbit, and rubbed the hound on his belly.
Whisper chuckled to herself and stood up, she was sore, she always was after changing, her bones were still trying to go back to normal, if she listened she would be able to hear the bone slowly moving back to the original place. She moved her shoulders round, her body was too stiff for her liking.
She then had a quick hint of danger and turned round quickly,
"So now you bring a monster into our camp," Willow said, she was standing right in front of her,
"Miss Willow he's friendly," Wendy said, Willow just grunted,
"I don't believe it," Willow just said.
Wilson was watching Whisper when he noticed Willow, he knew that this wasn't going to end well, he had noticed that Willow was starting to act strange, he didn't notice at first but now he could tell, her sanity was dropping, which was odd because the group always made sure that they didn't lose it.
But he couldn't worry about this right now, Willow now had a ball of fire in her hands, he rushed towards the two girls, if Willow lost control then she would hurt more than just Whisper.
Willow had, had enough, she felt like everyone was turning against her and siding with an outsider, that's when she decided to get rid of her problem. She knew she was becoming a little insane, but once she had killed Whisper she would fix herself, the flame in her hand warmed her up, the sight of fire always made her happy.
Whisper didn't move away, when she saw the flame it didn't faze her, Willow almost jumped at her, the fire was going directly at Whisper's face, Wilson tried to get between them but Willow had always been a little faster than him.
Willow got to Whisper and grabbed her by the neck.
Whisper didn't react to Willow though, she stayed calm, and looked straight into her eyes, they were almost red with anger, and insanity. The heat from the fire was intense, and with it being so close to her face it was even worst, she wanted to move away but he knew that Willow would just react in the wrong way and hurt someone else.
"I'll kill you!" Willow shouted, something about this situation reminded her of before with Wes, this just made her angry.
This place was making everyone change, not just personality but making them different people, Whisper hated it, she wanted to help them but she too was also changing. And she wasn't just changing in appearance she was changing all together, she was beginning to become a lot more angry with herself, the insanity was hitting harder now.
When she looked at Willow now, her anger was flaring, she wanted to hurt Willow, but when she saw the others looking at her she stopped herself. That was when she saw Wilson running towards them, he was intending on stopping them most likely, but Whisper couldn't let him, the state that Willow was in at the moment meant she could hurt anyone that interferes with her task. And that task was clear, killing Whisper.
Wilson had already gotten close, when he was only a few meters away from the girls, he stopped dead, his eyes caught Whisper's and they just looked at each other for a brief moment, a shiver went down his spine, he didn't know why but it made him not want to move another muscle.
But when he saw Willow all of a sudden slap Whisper across the face with the fire he had to move.
He heard Whisper scream out in pain as she fell to the floor, Willow started laughing, she was enjoying, far too much Wilson thought.
When Whisper lifted her head again Wilson could see the burn, a perfect handprint,
"See I'm not kidding with you Whisper," Willow said with a big smile on her face, in the corner of Wilson's eye he could see both Wendy and Wes in shock; this wasn't something that he wanted Wendy to see. He walked towards her and moved her towards his tent, he wanted her out of the way,
"Mr Wilson what's happening?" Wendy asked, he didn't reply, he had to get back, he closed the tent behind him, and ran back just in time to see Whisper fall down again, Willow had finally gone completely mental.
Whisper wasn't going to take much more of this, she had taken two hits without anything back, but this made her angry. She stood up again, just as Willow was about to hit her again, but this time Whisper caught her arm, she raised Willow's arm above both of their heads, the fire starting to go out of control.
Whisper had to hurry up, all it would take was one single bit of fire to land on the ground and it would send the whole camp into flames, so that meant Whisper had to be cleaver about what she was about to do.
Willow struggled against Whisper, she had a tight grip around her wrist and Willow was finding it hard to fight back, she needed both hands to light the fire, one for the lighter and the other to hold the fire. She looked at Whisper, she wasn't fazed no more. Both their eyes locked onto each other, Willow's eyes burning like an angry fire, Whisper's darker then the shadows.
"Willow, you have gone insane and need to calm down," Whisper said in a low voice, Willow shook her head,
"I'll calm down the moment I get rid of you!" Willow shouted, Whisper could feel her start to really struggle, and Whisper was finding it hard to keep the fire away from her face, this was when she could feel the darkness build up inside her.
Wes watched everything that was happening he wanted to help in some way but he didn't want to get close to the fire, he then had a plan, he turned round and started to run, he had to be fast otherwise Willow might kill Whisper before he had a chance.
The place he was going was somewhere he had been too many times; it was his job in the camp, he quickly ran round and grabbed as many flowers as possible, it wouldn't help that much but it would help a tiny bit. When he had gathered enough he quickly made them into a garland, he then ran back towards the group hoping that he wasn't too late.
By this time Whisper was sweating from the heat and losing,
"Enough of this!" Willow shouted, she used her other hand and punched Whisper in the stomach, with Whispers already weak body the tiniest punch was enough to make her fall over, she landed with a thud, Willow stood just over her, she relit her hand, "You're finished," she said.
Whisper just closed her eyes, she didn't want to fight anymore, her body was too tiered after changing last night and she was too close to the shadows taking control.
"Willow that's enough!" Wilson shouted, he thought that Willow wouldn't go as far as she did, but with Whisper looking so bad he had to do something,
"This is for the best, kill the monster before it kills you," was all Willow replied, Whisper opened her eyes a little just in time to see Wes running towards her, he had something in his hands, she couldn't see what though.
Wes could see Whisper on the floor, he ran quickly towards Willow and placed the garland on her head, he was hoping it would make her better, she looked at him with anger,
"You think this is going to help?" she said to him, Wes just shrugged his shoulders.
When Willow was distracted Wilson took the opportunity to get Whisper out of there, Willow was talking to Wes when he was able to grab Whisper by the shoulders, he forced her to her legs and helped away.
Whisper didn't really know what was happening, she could feel her body being moved and her legs just followed, she slowly opened her eyes,
"Take it easy," someone said, she looked to her left and saw Wilson, and he was the one holding her up to make sure she didn't fall to the floor. She didn't really know why she was feeling so bad, she had only been hit a few times and it was having a terrible effect on her.
Willow was starting to calm down, her fire was dimming,
"You ok now Willow?" Wolfgang said, she nodded her head and took a deep breath, she nodded her head in thanks to Wes, and he smiled, but when Willow looked for Wilson and saw him helping Whisper stand up it made her angry again but this time she couldn't control her fire.
"I'm ok now Wilson thank you," Whisper said able to stand on her feet again, Wilson let go of her and made sure she wouldn't fall, Whisper knew she had to sort herself out, but that was something she would do away from camp.
Wilson was happy that she hadn't got anymore hurt, he could tell that she wouldn't be able to take much more, if he had to guess one or two more hits and she'd be gone, he looked at her closely he could see faint bruises on her body that he didn't seen before, but they were at all the joints. Wilson found his very odd, but he wasn't going to question it, that's when he felt the temperature start to increase, he turned round and saw Willow almost covered in flames, and worst then that was the camp was on ire too.
Alarm bells rang in his head, everything was going to burn, and they were going to burn if they didn't move.
He saw Wendy running out of his tent and almost scream when she saw the flames, but that wasn't the thing he was most worried about, Willow was starting to walk towards him and Whisper, every step she took left a fiery trail.
Her walk soon turned into a run, but this time her target wasn't Whisper it was Wilson.
Whisper's eyes had to take a moment to adjust to the flames, they were bright and blinding, but when her vision wasn't so white, she saw Willow running towards Wilson, and she didn't let her brain do any thinking she just started running.
When she reached him her arms raised up and shoved him out of the way, this meant that she got the full force of Willow's attack.
Wilson landed on the floor with a thud, he shook his head and looked back at the girls, he was just in time to see Whisper get hit with a lot of fire, and she fell with the fire still burning on her body.
Whisper could feel all her health drain, and she was close to the end.
"We can't let her die!" a voice said in her head, she then remembered it was one of the same that she heard before,
"Agreed, we'll interfere this once," another said, she then gasped, where the burning was a new pain replaced it, worst pain, but after a while she got used to it and it turned into something soothing. She knew it was beast or monsters helping her right now, but she didn't care, Whisper was in far too much ain to argue with something trying to help her, but deep in her mind she knew that she would have to pay for this kindness in one way or another, and when that day came she had a feeling that she would have rather died now.
Wilson didn't know what was really happening, he was staring at Whisper's singed body when a black liquid like substance started to form over the burnt areas. As he carried on watching he could have sworn that it formed into hands, a horrid memory of when he first got here came back into his mind.
But before he could try and help Whisper get the hands off her they seem to evaporate into thin air, the only thing that was left was Whisper being fully healed, this baffled the scientist greatly, but Whisper's body still didn't move.
Willow looked at what she had done, she turned round and round looking at all the destruction she had caused, a slight part of her wanted to cry and run away, what she had done meant all her friends were in danger, the whole camp was now just ash now, with the exception of Wilson's tent which never seemed to burn.
"Willow what have you done?!" Woodie shouted at her, she looked at him the fire still in her eyes,
"I've accomplished what I wanted," she replied, she then looked at Whisper's unmoving body, she had never been so happy, the beast was finally dead.
She then started to laugh to herself, everyone looked at her, scared, she had finally and completely lost it.
Willow loved how the fire had destroyed everything, and it was her own work, "I have cleansed the world of a monster!" she shouted, her hand quickly went to her head and took the garland off, and in a split second it too was in flames.
Wilson couldn't believe his eyes, everything they had work hard for, gone in a matter of seconds, he then saw Willow walking toward Whisper's body, he got up quickly and was going to rush towards them but a sharp pain went up him leg, he looked and saw it had got badly burnt, in all the commotion he didn't even realized he was hurt.
He looked again at the girl, he wouldn't be able to get to Whisper in time to help her.
That was when he saw Wes running full speed at them, tackled Willow to the ground, Willow fell and quickly backhanded Wes in the face to get him off, it worked too well and he was flung off her seconds after capturing her. "You're too weak Wes, don't get in my way," Willow said, she could see the hatred on Wes's face, and she was surprised, this was not how Wes was like.
Wes could feel a slight burn on his cheek, he guessed that Willow had lost all control over the fire and now even a single touch would mean instant pain. He watched as Willow turned back towards Whisper, he was about to get up but something blue rushed past him, it was the hound.
It locked its jaws around Willow's arm, she let out a cry, the hound then used his ice power, this hurt Willow more than it should have, but since the fire was now part of it she also gained its weaknesses. This bought enough time for Wes to get to Whisper.
He looked at her lifeless body, and almost felt like crying, but he knew now wasn't the time, just as he was about to move her body a hand grasped his shoulder; he jolted but settled when he saw it was Wilson.
"We have to get out of here," he said, Wes nodded in agreement, together they were able to move the body out of harm's way.
Willow threw the hound off her; it whimpered and seemed to be looking for someone, that's when she spun round and saw that Whisper's body had gone, because of this she got angry again, and the flames around her started to get more intense.
Everyone ran for their lives, the fire from camp had gotten to the forest and had started a forest fire, it spread quickly around them,
"Just keep running!" Wilson shouted.
When they thought they had gotten a safe distance away from Willow everyone calmed down and relaxed a little, Wilson sat down on a log he had found, he gasped as his leg reminded him it was damaged, he sighed, he'd like just one normal day in this place, but he knew that was impossible.
He and Wes had been able to move Whisper's body, he didn't want her to burn like everything else had, but there were some things that confused him about the body. One the shadow hands that had helped her, they were part of Maxwell, so that meant they were evil not good, two, her body hadn't disappeared, whenever someone died in this place it seemed that they would revive in another place, but her body was still here. So that meant one of two things, either she wasn't dead, or she was hiding even more secrets. Wilson had to admit he would love to learn what she knew, she knew the formula to change shapes, and she wasn't scared of this place meaning she knew about it a little, he was looking at her body when he had been thinking, and then noticed her eyes flicker a little, he raised his head a little but didn't let anyone else know of this. He wanted to know her secrets and if that meant he would have to pretend that she was dead then so be it, after all his curiosity got him to this place, how bad was telling a lie.
Whisper still felt the pain of the burn, it had died down a lot she had to admit but there was still the hot sticky feeling, but she could move to feel the spot or open her eyes to look at it, she was paralyzed. This was even worst then the pain, being alive but unable to move, she commanded her eyes to open so many times she lost count, she gave up after a while and tried to think of a plan.
"You owe us girl," a voice said, this was bad, she knew there would be a price to pay but she never expected it so soon, and she didn't know how to answer,
"Just think girl we can hear you!" the voice shouted,
"What do you want then?" she thought,
"Good you corruptive, this will make things a lot easier, we saved you for a reason, and it would make everyone's life easier if you just do as we say," it replied,
"I don't even know who you are, I'm not following any orders from the shadow!" she shouted, she knew she would regret disobeying them, a sharp pain went through her head, she screamed but only in thought, her mouth was still tightly shut.
"We have control over wither you die or live at the moment I wouldn't push us!" it said, Whisper didn't say a word and let it continue, "We want you to go to this location," the shadows said, a detailed map appeared in her head, she was surprised by how big this place really was. on the map there was a small circle and cross, she guess the circle was her and the cross was her location, "Go there and you have repaid us," it said.
There was then complete silence, Whisper knew they were gone now, and she could feel movement coming back to her body now, they had finally released her, but that meant she had to go to the place on the map. She knew there was no way in getting out of it, if she did as they said then they wouldn't kill her, but going to the marked location could mean something far worst then death.
When Whisper's eyes finally opened, it was almost night, her body hurt everywhere and found it painful to even move a little, from where she was she could tell a few things, they had moved, and no one was around. With all her strength she forced her body to move and sat up, she clicked her bones back into action and looked round more carefully. She had been left on her own but there was a fire pit so that meant this was their new home.
Whisper quickly stood up, this was the best chance to get away without anyone noticing, they would just assume she was dead anyway, her body ached even more now that she was standing up right, and it took her a few moments to get herself together. Her health was still low though, she would have to get some food, and if she could find something for her health she would be happy.
The map was somehow still stuck in her head clearly and she knew the right way to go, she headed for the trees and straight.
Wilson had waited for her to wake up for what seemed like forever, but when she did he had to keep quiet, if she knew he was following her then he wouldn't be able to find her secrets.
Whisper caught Wilson's sent straight away, she didn't want to have a repeated moment like before so she was going to have to stop him now before he followed too far in, if he did he could get hurt since she didn't know what the outcome was going to be.
"Wilson, go back now," she said still walking, he didn't hide himself and walked next to her,
"Not without answers," he said, she sighed, another stubborn one,
"What is it?" she asked,
"How are you still alive?"
"I have a lot of health," she replied simply,
"Right," he said back, Whisper just stopped,
"We all have secrets and I'm keeping mine close to my chest, I'm not telling you or anyone," she told him, he just looked at her, he was going to say something more when he felt a dark presence, he looked round and saw them, night hands.
Whisper followed his gaze and saw them too, but she didn't know why, both of them were sane so they shouldn't be able to see them, they started off slowly going towards the two, but then they seemed to notice Whisper and shot towards her.
She let out a yelp of surprise and tried to jump out of the way but one of the hands grabbed her leg and brought her back to the ground, there were three in total, and all three of them grabbed Whisper's legs, she struggle to break free but they all had a tight grip.
Wilson shocked and didn't move just watching, he saw the hands start moving up her legs in a circle pattern tying her up, when they reached her hips he snapped out of his trance and ran to help her. But the problem was he didn't know how to help, he grabbed them to start but it was almost like they were it and his hands went straight through them, he could see Whisper start to shake, he was terrified, her arms were now tied to her body and she couldn't do anything to get out of the shadowy rope.
"What do I do?" he said all a sudden, she just looked at him and shook her head, the hands were now at her chest, she started to whimper, Wilson could see blood on her showing skin, the hands were cutting her up as well. Wilson then had an idea, he quickly ran to gather some things, and came back with a torch, he began swigging it in front of her hoping that it would scare the hands, but it didn't, Wilson placed it closer,
"Careful!" Whisper shouted, Wilson just threw the torch on the ground, he didn't know what to do and he was running out of time, they were at Whisper's neck.
It was painful, the hands were cutting her body up as the travelled up her body, but after nearly being burnt to death it was only small in comparison, when they reached her neck was the worst they begun to tighten around it and made it hard for her to breath. She started to choke, as the hands went over her mouth she tried biting them, but her teeth just went through them, they quickened and covered it, she tried shouting help but they were muffled, her sight was then taken from her.
The darkness had consumed her, she couldn't hear, and could only tasted something that was like ash. She then felt her body moving, but she didn't know which direction, Whisper soon felt a horrible bump she had landed on the floor.
"Let her go," a voice said, Whisper was happy to have someone's voice, but wasn't so happy with who was speaking, the night hand unwrapped from Whisper, she took a deep breath and collapsed on the floor, "Nice to finally meet miss," the voice said, Whisper slowly lifted her head, she started shaking when she saw him. There sitting on the night throne, just a couple of meters away was Maxwell.
Sorry for the later chapter, been really busy with college and work :S
