DISCLAIMER: I do not own The River or any of its characters. The plot idea of this story is completely my own imagination (though if they do something like it in season 2 which I'm really hoping they have, they can own it cuz it'll be much better than this ;])
NOTE: Getting kinda close to the end. Makes me a little sad. But that's alright, my creative streak never ends and I'll continue making stories. :) Thanks for reading and this is chapter 10!
LINCOLN COLE
"Run. Get back inside," he ordered, spinning towards her and starting to move. She forced her alarmed stare away from the river and sucked in a breath.
She jumped back with a scream.
He turned, feeling a cold chill run through him. We shouldn't have come out here, he thought. I should have listened to her. Too late for regrets now. It seemed that they were caught in the middle of something moving faster than they could comprehend. He half expected to be ripped apart before he could see what it was. Of course, he knew what it was. It had to be her. What else could it be?
Despite the fact that he already was semi-prepared for it, his heart seemed to stop in his throat.
The face was pressed against the glass of the navigation room with clawed hands, coated thickly in blood, on either side. The mutated body of the demon was both breath-taking and terrifying, and he was frozen to the spot once more as red and yellow eyes locked on his blue ones.
She began to smile.
Then the spell broke, and he was able to move, so he stumbled after Lena towards the lower decks; he shut and locked the door behind him just as the demon let out a blood curdling screech.
Then there were inside, safe for at least a moment.
They stared at one another, eyes wide with shock and fear as they wondered what to do. Lincoln was pressed against the door and she was just a few feet away. He was going to speak, to say something or anything that could possibly calm them down. Nothing came out.
The sound of a hoof smashing into the metal door made him jump violently. He jerked away from it.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Lena said, dragging him down the hall. They didn't have time to find someone else and warn them. They just barely had time to duck into a storage cupboard, and despite the fact that there was little to no room to move, shut the door. If it found them, there were as good as dead.
He found himself squished against the wall and the floor by the shelving above his head and Lena beside him. There was nowhere to go. He shut his eyes, breathing heavily from panic, and could hear the sound of hooves clicking against the hard floor down the hall. Louder than that was Lena's rapid, frightened breathing, and he couldn't stand feeling so useless before her fear. With his own fear, he couldn't feel any pain at all, so he pulled Lena closer to himself and away from the door. No room. They were lucky that they'd been able to get in here at all, if it could be called luck.
The sounds outside were becoming gradually louder, as if she was biding her time and walking with ease towards her prey. If she knew where thy were then she knew that she had all the time in the world. He thought he heard a low growling sound that was similar to a dog's.
Then the hooves were right outside the door. They both held their breaths and waited for what felt like an eternity.
She walked on. Relaxing just a little, he closed his eyes and thanked whatever god was out there that it hadn't found them. It was moving on and hopefully everyone else would be alert enough to see what was happening.
If not then... He didn't want to think about that. He and Kurt and Jahel were the only ones who had seen her grave. Maybe she would spare the others... And then what? The crew would lose their only protection, and Jahel who seemed to have a strong connection with what was going on always seemed to warn them when things were going to get bad... and who would treat the bad cases or the serious injuries? They would be rendered incapable of continuing the mission. If they survived at all.
But they had to do something.
He realized he couldn't hear the sound of the creature walking anymore. It had either stopped or was too far away. That or the sound of his own heart beating was so loud that he couldn't hear her anymore. It was too dark to see anything but he was almost completely certain that it was gone.
He let himself start to relax more. It was over for now. They'd be fine. Kurt would shoot the thing and hopefully kill it, if that was possible, and they'd all go back to the way they'd been before.
Some people said he was too optimistic.
He'd rather be naive than be someone who was afraid of their own shadow for fear it may come out to kill them.
They both waited a few more minutes, listening for sounds of hooves on the floor, of screams, of gunshots, of anything that might tell them what was happening. But there was nothing. Somehow this silent confusion made his heart race even harder than before. He had no idea what was going on and he was afraid that someone was going to get hurt.
His pictured his mom trying to face up to that thing and felt a shudder pass through him.
They had to get out. The closet felt too small, too warm, and too dark. The fear of that thing no longer mattered to him anymore. The crew needed them to help, and they couldn't stay here and hide any longer. In the dark, he turned his head towards Lena and could almost imagine her doing the same.
"Lincoln," she murmured quietly, finally breaking the silence to voice what they had both been thinking for quite some time. "I think it's gone."
No sooner had she said the words when a terrifying screech echoed through the air and the creature slammed against the door.