Ever since the stranger had come to Burrow Town, life had never been the same.
There was a strange miasma. A sour but somehow sweet odor that pervaded everything, clinging to fabric and wood, seeping into brick, clinging to skin and hair. Or perhaps being produced from the blank-eyed townspeople, a result of what was happening within them. A vile biproduct of the monsters inside them.
Sammy had not understood what was happening at first. Why her parents had suddenly changed. Not until she had seen the wriggling white worm-thing being put into her older cousin.
She and her brother had hidden amongst the trees and had watched the horrifying process of her cousin being turned into one of those things. The sound of the older girl’s screams had hurt her ears and she had clutched her brother so hard that he had bruises on his arms later.
She hadn’t understood what was happening. Had never imagined that such a horror could ever exist. But her brother was a few years older and knew more than she did. Things their parents had told him but protected her from because she was too young.
Spirit worms. Demonic entities bred and controlled by spirit masters to be used to enslave humans.
They could only be used on those that had gone through puberty. Sammy’s youth was the only thing to protect her. And as a child she was seen as harmless–helpless–by the spirit master that had taken over Burrow Town.
She was years too young, but her brother was close to the "right age." It was only a matter of time before their not-parents would take him into the woods for the spirit master to put one of those things into. And then he wouldn’t be her brother anymore.
"We have to run away," Ren said.
Sammy bit her lip but nodded. They could not let Ren be turned into one of those things. "Where will we go?" she asked.
"We have to go to Crown City. Report to the authorities," Ren said. "The Judiciary has to know what is happening here. They will stop it."
"Can they fix it?" Sammy ask. "Can they take those things out and make Mommy and Daddy themselves again?"
Ren hugged her. "I don’t know. I hope so. But I don’t know."
Sammy sniffled. "You won’t turn into one of those things, will you? Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to be all alone."
"You’re not going to be alone. I’m going to be with you. I won’t let them put one of those things in me. I promise."
"Okay." She buried her face in his shirt, breathing in the scent of normal human skin, no sickly sweet sourness coming out of him.
"Tomorrow," Ren said firmly. "We’ll leave tomorrow morning. As soon as the sun comes up."
"Yes," she said. Those things didn’t like to out in the daylight. They would be out all night doing whatever it was the spirit master had them doing in the woods, then retreat into the house during the day.
Their not-parents being outside all night was the only thing that allowed Sammy to sleep at night. There was no way she would have been able to close her eyes if they were inside with her. Sitting so frighteningly still with their unblinking eyes that saw everything.
"We’ll have to leave fast," Ren said. "You’ll have to be very brave and you’ll have to keep up. Can you do that?"
"I can," Sammy said.
"Are you sure? I can’t carry you, Sammy." He pushed her away enough that he could look directly into her eyes. His expression was serious. "If I leave you here, they’re not going to hurt you."
She shook her head and grabbed onto him tighter. "Don’t leave me here, Ren. I’m scared of them. Please take me with you. Please. I promise I can run real fast. You won’t have to carry me. Just don’t leave me here."
"Okay. Tomorrow. We’ll go tomorrow," Ren said firmly, and hugged her again.
Sammy snuggled against her still-human brother and vowed to herself that she would not slow him down. Because while those creatures preferred to stay inside during the daylight hours, that didn’t mean they couldn’t go outside if they needed to. And they were fast, going from eerie stillness to sudden motion in a way that screamed "INHUMAN!"
"Let’s get some things ready for tomorrow," Ren said. "Then we can sleep a few hours before they come back. We have to be careful. We can’t let them see what we’re doing or that man will know."
Sammy shuddered. "I’ll be careful."
"Good." He kissed her forehead. "Come on. We can hide our supplies in the space under the stairs."
Sammy followed her brother around the house, creeping through the darkness as they didn’t dare to light a candle. There wasn’t much food left, but they took what wouldn’t be missed, along with some fishing hooks and string and a flint to start a fire. It would be several days journey to reach Crown City and they didn’t know how far that man had spread his worm monsters so they couldn’t trust any people along the way.
She had been scared for so long, but now there was a bit of hope. She and her brother would get far away from here and they would bring help back.
Hopefully they could save their parents and friends. And if not, at least they could stop that man from turning everyone into monsters.
Hopefully.
=END=
~Harper Kingsley
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