Master Maker

Chapter 18 - Scream of the Shee

I watched as Lucis ate, playing with the food that was on my plate

“Something wrong?” he said not looking up at me

“Nope I just like your face” he looked up at me, half smirking

“Just my face?”

“Nope, a lot more but I can see much more than your face at the moment” Lucis raised a brow at me

“Careful young lady, you are playing with fire,” he said in a low voice, pushing his plate to the side and leaning forward on the counter

‘Oh am I now?” biting my lip and looking up at him through my lashes, he stood up straight taking my hand,

“I promised you something”

“I don’t want that now, I want you,” I said pouting

“you’ll enjoy this one” I wiggled my nose at him but I got up and followed him towards the basement,

Once again we were transported to the cave that was light up by the fire in the middle of it. only this time there was something different about it but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, (after a while I realized that the red items had been replaced with Emerald green) and the fire looked like it was creating images like the ones I had seen the night Lucis told the story about Vine. We also weren’t alone in the cave today, another girl stood in it, along with Justin. The girl looked familiar but her face had been lightly warped to look like a deer, she stood on four legs, but her torso was human, the best way I could describe her was she looked like a Centaur but with a deer’s body.

“Lilith?” she said sounding a bit too excited, if I hadn’t recognized the face I definably recognized her voice

“Really Justine? “ I said; looking at him, how on earth did you get her to try out the game?”

“honestly I don’t know, old her you had been playing it and well I guess that was the selling point”

Come one we can't stand around” Lucis said irritably I c****d my head to the side.

“what?” he asked as he stood out of the cave. I shook my head rolling my eyes at him and followed suit. We hadn’t walked far when a woman covered in blood holding a baby to her chest came running up the road.

“oh, thank God you have come” she whined, “the Banshee” she shrieked pointing down the road and running off again. Lucis and I looked at each other as the other two had caught up with us. we moved quickly up the road, more screams could be heard. I could feel myself frowning at the smell of burning wood. As we walked into the village, houses were up in flames as others were being put out and a few now stood as heaps of backed wood and ash. A man who was standing at the village entrance stopped us and spoke.

“It, it came out of nowhere, no one listened to her, they all thought she was crazy” he kept repeating the ‘she was crazy’ part over and over again. We moved on to a house that was a smoldering pile of rubble, a woman sat on the ground her legs crossed and her head was in her hands, she was muttering to herself as she rocked back and forth,

“stranger” she looked up her face tear steaked “we don’t need any more of you around here” she shouted

“We came to help” I snapped at her

“The Banshee, it fleed into the wood, catch it and bring me its head. And return my baby to me, dead or alive, just return my baby to me.” She went back to rocking herself and muttering. Lucis went around the burning village asking more questions to get more information on the Banshee that had attacked them.

“a Banshee, “Amanda asked, “doesn’t that cause people to go mad?”

“and bash their own heads in?, the same” I looked up at Amanda as she gripped tightly onto the spear that was in her hands.

“it has a baby, I'm guessing she’s using it as bate” Lucis walked back to us his face set in a grim mask

“so she is feeding mostly on men,” he said running his fingers through his hair, but she will go for anyone that will respond to the screams”

“When did she start hunting here,” Justin asked looking down at the ground thoughtfully

“a while, from what I gathered. It's been open season for brains here since who knows when”

“which way,” I asked looking towards the woods that bordered the small village”

“We are going to have to split up”

“well then I'm going with Lilith” Amanda piped up

“nope,” Lucis said shaking his head, you will go with Justin, it will be an advantage to both. Lilith was the only one that could see the camp in the forest of dead so to be able to catch every detail we need to stay mixed up”

Amanda

Amanda felt slightly upset when Lilith didn’t argue about the way the team had to split up. She stood there looking around for an opening in the trees, seemingly uninterested in their conversation. The friend she had known for a long time seemed to have disappeared without a trace in the shortest time possible. But she was anything if not flexible. her face felt warm as she looked up at Justin, he would know all about that.

“Okay so, take the west side and we will go east” Lucis stretched out his arm and dropped something in Justin’s hand, “block your ears,” he said in a bit of a mocking tone, they walked away leaving Amanda and Justin standing in the middle of the village

“I guess we better get going,” Justin said putting something clay-like in one of his ears and handing Amanda the remaining two pieces. She quickly squished it into her ear and followed him towards the far end of the wood. Justin walked on in front of Amanda glancing back at her now and then,

“did you get water, as I told you?”

‘yes, don’t worry so much” she snapped at him she looked forward her eyes darting from side to side.

“nervous”

“a little, I hate jump scares” Justin sniggered

“it doesn’t work like that, but if you hear anything weird, shove the other piece in your ear, completely block out everything.  She looked at him sideways before pushing past him, I only agreed to this because you said id get to spend time with Lilith”

“ah, miss Grump a lump, this shouldn’t take long we will be on the next quest in no time at all” as they ventured deeper into the wood, it seemed to get quiet, a little too quiet. Suddenly a shriek caught Amanda off guard making her spin in a circle. Justin shoved the clay into his open ear and rushed over to her clapping his hands over her ears, a black mist whipping around them. Amanda could still hear a faint shrieking, pushing Justin off her, she pressed the clay into her ear and ran into the black mist, stopping her feet hard, one hoof caught onto something hand, but at the same time something caught her back leg and pulled her down. Amanda hit the ground with a heavy thud, moaning out in pain. Justin moved with speed to her helping her up before he was brought down himself only this time, he felt a ripping on his leg. Three deep gashes wept with blood as he stood up half leaning on Amanda. She gave him her spear to lean on as she moved to pounce at the black mist again, this time coming down hard on what felt like a leg, with her front hooves.  Not being able to hear anything made it hard to know if she had caused the creature any pain. She looked up at Justin who was looking around. The mist gone

The sound of the crying baby was driving me mad, I had put the waxy stuff in my ears but considering that I had the hearing of well… an elf, I was still able to hear everything, it only seemed to make it a smidge softer than I normally would hear. Lucis kept looking at me like I was about to shout, which wasn’t far from the truth, to be completely honest. He couldn’t hear anything so with me following the sound of the screaming baby, he followed close by knowing that I could still hear. I stopped dead in my tracks, taking note of the sudden drop in the temperature around us, my eyes fixed on the ground, a perfect circle was made on the ground with white rocks in the middle off it was a maggoty animal corps, next to was they crying baby, I took a step forward, stopping when my food disturbed the dirt showing some kind of rune on the ground that looked like it had been written out in blood. Lucis took my hand leading me around the circle, picking a flower from a nearby bush and throwing it into the circle, it withered and died within a second.  Lucis reached up to his ear and removed one bud,

“How is the baby alive?” I asked looking at the animal and then the flower. He pointed out a small and faint line that circled the baby.

“perfect” I muttered looking around, Lucis’ gaze followed mine and we were both looking at a low hanging branch that reached over the circle

“well you are lighter than me” he shrugged “I can go up with you to that point, from there I can hold your foot to make sure you don’t fall” he pointed to the spot of the brach that still looked thick enough to hold the two of us.

“well then let's get this done” we made our way up to the tree slowly making our way to the low hanging branch I looked back at Lucis who was stretched out over the branch reaching towards my thigh,  as I sat down on it, my legs dangling down. I took a deep breath before leaning back and swinging upside down. Lucis’ hands gripped around my calf as I stretched out my arms towards the baby

“com on, come on” I whispered reaching out more until I could hook my fingers into the blankets pulling the baby up with a fist full of the blanket, and then pulling the baby up to my chest.

“help me up” I shouted as the baby started bellowed like it was in pain. Lucis somehow got me right side up again. I sat on the brach pulling the blankets off the baby and holding it tightly to my chest and slightly bouncing it until it calmed down. I looked over at Lucis who pulled me over towards the tree trunk. Lucis climbed down and took the baby from me as I jumped down from the tree. I was about to take the baby again when I clamped my hands over my ears and was driven to my knees. A piercing sound hit my ears as a black mist filled the air around us. Lucis moved closer to me his eyes following the swirl of the mist.

“there” I screamed as a face appeared, she looked haggard and tired, her mouth lighting up like a fire had been lit in her throat as she shrieks again. I was driven more to the floor, my body crouched like a small ball. Before I let out a piercing scream of my own.  I only heard the sound of hooves hitting the ground as they got close enough to touch

“Lilith” yelled Amanda, I looked up to see that she was raised up on her back legs, stopping down on what I assumed was the Banshee’s gut. the banshee let out a wail but it broke her hold on me. I got put pulling the sword from Lucis’ belt and driving it deep into the banshee’s mouth as she started shrieking again. Justin drove a dagger into her eye, pushing in deep and twisting it before he pulled it out again, the mist became thick and soon a body was laying on the ground, I pulled the sword from her mouth and then swung it, taking her head off completely.

“stupid b***h” I whispered, feeling something running down the side of my face and from my nose, I looked up at Lucis as he took the wax from out his ears,

“you are bleeding” his voice was low and he sounded scared, I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and then looked down to see that it was covered in crimson liquid

“I’m fine,” I said taking the baby from Lucis. he half-smiled at me.

“let's get this baby back,” I said bouncing it slightly and smiling at Amanda that had a terrified look on her face.