Chapter 12: No Escape

Carefully, Colonel O'Neill led the way through the opening that the shadowy form had just walked through. He swept his flashlight around, and when he saw nothing, he sighed, both in relief and in frustration, his eyes wandered around the clearing and he visibly winced.

The place looked like something out of a horror movie. The mist carpeted the ground, while the trees were a deadened, grey colour. The thin branches seemed to be reaching for them, while something resembling cobwebs was draped from tree to tree, rustling quietly in the slight breeze that now gusted about.

"I wish I'd brought a stake and cross." Jack replied quietly, a slight smile resting on his lips.

"For what purpose would you require those items, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, clearly not understanding.

"A safety precaution." Jack said simply.

Carter locked a wide-eyed gaze on her CO, surely he wasn't thinking about vampires. That was impossible, there was no such thing. No such thing back on her planet. Not that she knew of anyway, but here, here, anything could be possible, and she didn't like the idea of such a thing.

The quick, steady beat of her heart, thudded loudly in her ears, and she drew in a shaking breath. Her eyes darted around the area, and there was no sign of anything, the only thing that suggested something had passed by recently was the path that had been left by whatever the shadow had been dragging. The path sliced through the thick fog, almost beckoning for them to follow. It was a challenge, the walking shadow had issued them a challenge, it had left a path, and the path led to what could only be explained as a nightmare. A world so full of horror that Sam didn't think she wanted to follow, but she knew they had to. All of them had to, for Jonas's sake.

They could only hope that the path didn't lead to their deaths, they could only hope that the shadow wasn't waiting for them, but somehow, she felt that it was. It was the only explanation for the misty path; the thing had to be expecting them to come after Jonas.

He was being dragged. He felt the ground passing beneath him, the stones ripping into his clothing and scraping his limp arms. He was being pulled by the collar of his shirt, and he felt the ground digging into his back where the shirt was not protecting.

He moved his head, and it felt heavy, he craned his neck until he could see whatever was pulling him along. He could only see a shadow in the darkness, nothing that could be identified. Whatever was dragging him must've detected his movement, for it stopped and turned toward him. What Jonas saw next was something that would haunt his dreams for a very long time.

Two eyes, glowing red, brimmed with yellow stared down at him, the pupils were merely black pinpoints within the glowing evil. In the shadows, the thing smiled a harsh smile that could only be explained as malevolent, sharp teeth glittered at him.

He was frozen, he couldn't move, something willed him not to. His mind wanted to go, but his body protested. Finally he tore his gaze away from the thing that had him so transfixed.

Jonas struggled wildly; he wanted to escape the grasp of whatever this thing was! He managed to wrench free and scurried to his feet, he ran, his breath rasping in his chest, while his heart pounded against his ribs. Every part of his body hurt, his muscles felt like they were on fire, and his legs felt heavy, his knees were stiff and achy. He must've been out for a long time for his body to respond in this way, maybe a couple of hours.

He wasn't sure what had happened, he didn't even really remember much of anything after Colonel O'Neill had led him up to bed. He had fallen asleep almost instantly, only to be awakened later by a scraping sound at his window. He recalled opening his eyes and turning to the window, seeing it open, and jumping from bed in a hurry to shut it. He remembered reaching the window just as something leapt through and tackled him. After that everything seemed fuzzy, he vaguely remembered yelling for help and he only remembered bits and pieces of the struggle he'd put forth. A struggle which he had clearly lost.

He was still running, he didn't know which direction he was running in, but he was running, and the terrible grinning shadow was only feet behind him. His foot caught in the twisted root of a tree, and he pitched forward, landing in a pained heap on the ground, a yelp escaping into the night.

Seconds later the shadow was on top of him again, screaming and moaning that horrible song. Jonas was roughly rolled onto his back to stare up into the terrifying eyes of the walking shadow. Once again, his body froze and refused to move.

"You won't get away with this. My friends will be searching for me." Jonas struggled to speak past a tongue that felt twice its size. His voice sounded thick and hollow in the darkness.

"Let them come. I am not afraid to do to them what I have done to all others of this town." The thing spoke, its voice was deep and snarly, and echoed inside Jonas's head almost, as though it hadn't spoken at all. Jonas's gaze was still transfixed on the eyes that watched him with so much evil, eyes that seemed to do all the creatures' speaking for it. Jonas didn't need to hear words to realize that this thing wouldn't stop until they were all dead.

There was a glint of light in the night, and then a split second later, he felt something rip through the stomach of his T-shirt, cutting into the flesh underneath. The same feeling that had come over him back at the palace after being cut by the thing once again swept over him. This time however, the effects were quicker. He almost immediately felt the dark spinning around him, and all sounds drowned out to nothing, but a hum. He felt himself passing over into darkness once again, but this time, Colonel O'Neill wasn't there to try and rouse him.

"Yes, let them come. Let them take you if they can, you will not be able to escape me." The shadow snarled again. It grabbed Jonas's shirt collar, and dragged him along.

"That thing has to be around here somewhere. It can't have gotten far." Jack muttered to himself

At that instant, he heard a struggle taking place up ahead of them, at least he thought it was a struggle. He heard something hit the ground and yell, the shout sounding curiously like Jonas. Seconds later he heard the screaming of the shadow creature that had attacked him earlier that night, followed by silence a few moments after.

"This way." Jack said quickly, and ran in the direction of the sounds. Sam and Teal'c followed without even the slightest hesitation.

He saw the shadow form ahead, dragging something behind it, that something looking exactly like Jonas. Upon closer inspection, O'Neill saw that it was Jonas, no doubts about it.

"There." O'Neill whispered harshly, he turned out his light and advanced with only the aid of Carter's light, which was hidden behind her shielding hand.

Jack drew the gun from his side and aimed it in the beam of the flashlight. He caught sight of the shadow figure and fired. His shot made a direct hit and the thing released Jonas, and fell forward.

"I got it, let's go and get Jonas before it decides to wake up." Jack sated and once again turned on his light.

He ran toward where Jonas was lying, and shone his light down on the young man. Jonas's chest rose and fell steadily, and O'Neill sighed in relief, but that relief turned to a long string of colourful curses when he saw the long, bleeding gash in Jonas's stomach. A gash that had definitely come from the creature, for it looked exactly like the cut on Jonas's arm.

"Let's get him outta here." Jack said, and knelt to gather Jonas's still form in his arms.