Frayed by Frayed

Author:Frayed [Frayed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

teacher’s uniform was covered in mud and dark stains in suspect places.

The two women huddled together now, Mette biting her broken nails

and sucking her raw fingertips.

And now the monsters stood in a ring around them, stared down at

them with oily black eyes. Their hunched, muscular bodies heaved and

wheezed and shuddered for breath, their dribbling jaws twitched in

anticipation.

Juniper stared up at them. They stared back at her. She wished they

would just end it now, but they seemed to be enjoying the moment too

much, whispering and grunting to each other.

‘Come on, then!’ yelled Juniper, too pained and too scared to endure

this waiting any longer.

‘Don’t!’ hissed Mette, panic-stricken. ‘They might –’

The words strangled in her throat as one of the foxes towered over

them, opened its jaws and shouted something back, a bad impersonation

of Juniper’s yell.

Juniper was incredulous. ‘It’s making fun of me!’

The creature opened its mouth again, bent over to inspect them more

closely. Juniper heard Mette moan with fear and held her tightly as the

huge jaws sagged open still further, as if the creature wanted to bite off

both their heads in one go.

But as a new roar began to build in the thing’s throat, its fellows started

to squall and shake like beaten babies. The fox’s jaws snapped shut,

seconds away from Juniper’s face. It staggered back drunkenly,

screamed itself, as its form blurred and buzzed.

Mette stirred at her side. ‘They’re breaking up!’

‘Time for bed!’ whooped Juniper. ‘We must’ve exhausted them more

than we thought.’

She’d never seen the break-up so close before. The foxes’ bodies

seemed to caramelise in the air, before sheeting away and blowing clear

in a gusting wind. The smell was disgusting, all septic and shitty, as the

creatures’ pieces vanished away back to whatever nightmare place had

spawned them.

‘Why didn’t they finish us while they could?’ wondered Mette.

Juniper shrugged. ‘Maybe it’ll teach them not to gloat in future.’

Leaning heavily on the older woman, gritting her teeth with the pain, she

was able to get to her feet.

‘Mosely should know about this.’ Mette tapped Juniper’s wrist

communicator.

‘It can’t be working,’ muttered Juniper. ‘Tried it earlier and he didn’t

respond.’

‘Looks fine to me. Maybe his teeth were chattering too hard.’

Juniper took some stumbling steps with Mette’s help. ‘Put yourself in

his place before you judge him.’

Mette threw her a sideways glance. ‘Of course, I don’t know him as

well as you, do I?’

Juniper couldn’t answer. It was pain from her hip that was making the

tears well up.

‘Come on,’ Mette said, a touch more kindly. ‘We’ll go back to Cass.

She can stretcher you back to the Refuge.’

‘And the search goes on,’ muttered Juniper.

‘Not for me. I just want to sleep.’ Mette coughed up a laugh. ‘So much

for near death experiences leaving the victims euphoric. All I want is to

lock myself away in a dream chamber and sleep till it’s all over.’

They struggled away from the carnage in the gully. The sun’s fat disc

hung low and stretched strange shadows over Iwa’s barren surface, and a

thought occurred to Juniper. ‘What if you have bad dreams?’

‘Better to be in a nightmare you can wake up from,’ said Mette firmly.

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