Kitsune in the Shadows
Chapter 118 – Empty Eyes

What do I do?!

I kept looking around the room, hoping that there was another path that I had somehow missed; that maybe there was another small tunnel that just happened to be hidden behind a stalagmite, but there simply wasn’t.

How do I get out?!

I can’t just-

I tried to get to my feet once again, but putting any weight on my knee made it give. Thankfully, I could tell that it wasn’t broken, but that didn’t mean much when I couldn’t put any real strength into it.

…

There has to be something, anything!

Do I have to fight it? Can I scare it off?

My hand ran over the handle of one of my knives as those thoughts came to mind, but unfortunately, that was as far as it went. I didn’t even know what was coming through those tunnels, or even if it was real at all.

But… if everything was just an illusion, then it wouldn’t really matter, it would all be in my head. There was nothing in the tunnels at all; it was just a noise, nothing more.

As if in response to my hopeful thoughts, the footsteps got a little quicker.

B-but I can’t risk that…

…

Do I run? Do I try to slip past it?

My leg is bad, but if it’s just for a bit, maybe I could-

Testing my idea, I once again tried to stand, forcing myself up onto my bad leg while doing my best to bear with the pain. I was shaky to say the least, but with a hand gripping firmly onto the cave wall, it was possible to… almost stand, but I knew that as soon as I let go of that wall, I would fall back down.

I…

…

It seemed that I wasn’t going to be given any more time to think, as the sounds of footsteps finally reached the entrance of the chamber, no more than a few strides away from where I was clumsily hugging the wall.

In a panic, I threw myself down behind one of the piles of coins, deciding that it would be better to try and hide than take a risk with whatever had been following me. Instinctively, I guided my shadow to cover my body, hoping that whatever came into the room wouldn’t notice me… even if it was already dark, it was better than doing nothing.

The footsteps then stopped, leaving only silence in their wake, with me cupping my hand over my mouth to hide my breathing as best I could.

…

…

I waited, but nothing happened. There were no more footsteps, no more growling, not even the sound of breathing.

…

…

What’s going on?

Was it really all in my head?

After double-checking that my shadow was still covering me, I slowly peeked past the pile of coins I was hiding behind, wholeheartedly expecting to see nothing there but… There was a person.

They were a rabbit beastkin, or at least something close. Their hair was a dark red, nearly brown, and atop their head were two matching ears that were being forcibly bent downwards by the ceiling of the chamber. Their eyes were green and empty, with seemingly no life behind them, staring off into space as if they were blind. They were particularly well geared, with a metal breastplate and bracers, but they carried no weapons on them.

But the strangest thing about this person was the complete lack of presence, as if they weren’t really there despite what my eyes were telling me. They didn’t breathe, they didn’t sway or bob even slightly, being closer to a statue than an actual person.

Maybe I can-

As soon as I thought about doing anything, the person began to move, and I immediately hid behind the coins again, not wanting to risk being noticed.

…

There was a soft clinking of coins and trinkets coming from where the person was, but it did not get any closer.

…

I decided to take the risk and have another look. The person had knelt down on the floor, looking like a marionette that had lost its strings, their head now locked in place unnaturally, looking at a single spot on the floor. Their arms moved robotically, only one joint at a time, picking up a single coin, then bringing it up in front of their glazed-over eyes, looking over it for a few seconds before carefully placing it back down exactly where it was picked up from.

At the very least, it didn’t seem like they knew I was there… or they just didn’t care, which was probably the most I could have asked for in that situation.

As they worked, there were a few thoughts that went through my mind, in particular, how the person in front of me didn’t match the sounds I had been hearing in the slightest. Going by how loud the footsteps were, they should have been much larger, beyond the size of a single person… but at the same time, if they were, they probably wouldn’t have been able to fit in the tunnel that led them here.

But what about the growling?

…

Either those sounds weren’t real, or the person in front of me wasn’t… but why would this person even be an illusion? It didn’t make any sense to me.

One by one, they inspected the coins, rings, necklaces, and even an ornamental silver paperweight. But then their hand reached out to an empty spot from right where I had slid across the floor when I first stumbled into the chamber.

He froze up momentarily before rapidly scanning around the room. My mind screamed at me to hide again, but it was already too late. Those two empty eyes were pointed in my direction, though he didn’t quite make eye contact, instead looking just a little lower than that.

They were looking at my pendant.

The man then got back up, hobbling awkwardly towards me at speed. I didn’t even have to think about it, pulling one of my knives from its sheath and gripping it tightly at my side; not that the man seemed to notice in the slightest.

He just continued to approach, even as I tried to pull myself away. However, that didn’t last for very long as my back quickly met with the wall. His arm reached out as he bent forward, his fingers completely still.

Before he could get any closer, I swiped forward with my knife, making him recoil even though it didn’t make contact. But that only made him stop for a brief moment before he reached out again, this time making it all the more clear that he was trying to grab my pendant.

I clutched at the pendant before once again swiping with my knife, forcing him to back off. This time, however, he let his arm fall to his side instead of immediately trying again.

Not this, you can’t take this!

No one can take this!

My breathing was quickly getting out of control despite my desperate attempts to control it. Those empty eyes seemed to endlessly bore their way into me as he tilted his head. It was somehow as if I wasn’t even there, while also being the only other thing in that tiny little world… and I wanted to get far away from it.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t happy with the situation, as the man’s face contorted into what could only be called a mockery of both sadness and anger, his face seeming more like a mask than anything living.

“I… want…” The man said in a garbled, distorted voice that echoed endlessly off the stone walls around us.

There was another pause as he seemed to wait for me to respond.

…

I slowly tucked the pendant into my shirt before pulling out my other knife, hoping that would be enough for him to give up, but that clearly wasn’t going to be the case.

Whatever mock sadness was in those empty eyes vanished, leaving only the anger behind. His body began to shift and stretch, his arms and legs growing longer, his skin being stretched taut over what little muscle and bone lay beneath, the metal armour being bent out of shape to fit the newly monstrous frame. Then his nails distorted into gnarly, yellowed claws with hooked tips as his eyes grew larger, bulging from his head.

What even are you?!

He reached out again, the claws pointed directly at where I had hidden the pendant beneath my clothes. My body froze up for a moment as I tried to understand what exactly I was looking at. It was hard to even call it a person anymore.

But right before a single claw so much as grazed my clothing, I woke up, swiping with both of my knives at their arms. If that was what was needed in order to stop that… thing from taking Ovia away from me, then I had to do it. If the pendant were gone, I would no longer be able to talk to her, I wouldn’t even be able to see her once the new moon came around. It was the one thing I couldn’t give up under any circumstances, not now, not ever.

As the knives moved through the air, I braced myself for the uncomfortable sensation of cutting through flesh, the feeling of the blade hitting the bone, but it never came. The knives simply passed through their arms.

What?!

Despite my confusion, it seemed that it was enough to make them choose to withdraw again, the expression on their face now contorting into something distinctly inhuman.

“No,” They said, this time their voice eerily clear.

I expected them to try again, so I held my knives out in front of me in hopes of intimidating whatever it was enough that they would give up fully. My hands were trembling as I did so, knowing that if they really wanted to, there wouldn’t be anything I could do to them.

“No,” He repeated, this time his eyes transfixed on knives, “No.”

He stood up, but as he did so, the very ceiling of the chamber seemed to go up with him and his distorted body as he easily towered over me, the eyes digging their way into my very soul.

“I want,” He pointed down at me with his bony finger, “Give.”

…

“N-no,” I responded, unable to hide the tremble in my voice.

This only seemed to annoy them even more, but they didn’t try to make any more advances; in fact, they just suddenly turned around and headed back into the tunnel, leaving me alone in the room.

It took a minute for me to finally be able to relax, returning my knives to their sheaths. Of course, I immediately wanted to leave the chamber, but with my injury and the shock of everything, it would be a while still before I could even think about moving.

Not that it would have been a good idea to leave right at that moment, as I’d more than likely just end up running into them again, just in a much smaller space.

I pulled my pendant out, staring at the gem in the centre, now almost entirely black.

‘Ovia?’

…

There was no response.

It’s just an illusion. She’s still there.

She has to be.

But, as if mocking me, a deep growl came from the tunnel, followed by an intense wave of heat.