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Authors: Aiden James
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doubt drawn by the sounds of my panicked flight. The clicks and scrapes of sharp talons against the marble floor were all I needed to know this monster intended to pursue me until it held my trembling body within its mouth or claws.
I scrambled up the stairs to the second floor as my pursuer crashed through the reception area. It sounded as if I might have gained a few seconds on it, since I heard the snap of a table being broken and chairs launched into a wall. I took the final flight of steps three at a time as the fiend raced across the second floor. It let out an even angrier screech, no doubt irritated that I hadn’t even bothered to turn around. That would surely have been a death sentence.
Like when running track, I just kept my eyes forward and ran, and it was enough. I made it to the third floor and felt that burst of adrenaline that always came when the finish line is in sight. I sprinted the last twenty feet from the top step into my room. Thank goodness I hadn’t bothered to lock my bedchamber’s door; I would’ve never made it to safety. The instant I reached the threshold, the thing dove at me. Its talons shredded part of my snowsuit, but the force behind it shoved me into my room. I scrambled back to the door and saw the vampire-turned-dragon’s talons scraping over the marble floor of hallway, unable to stop under the combination of its mass and inertia. It crashed into the wall a short distance away. As it regained its footing, I slammed the door and dropped the bar bolt. We’d had a bit of a laugh at what we considered the extreme nature of the lock when we’d been given the room. Now I understood our Chinese hosts’ intention, and the necessity of such a device. The creature rammed its body repeatedly against the door. The wood cracked and splintered. I had no idea what to do next, and dire panic rose within me. I sought to rouse my protectors from their deep, daily slumber, pounding on every single casket. But they remained comatose, and presumably unaware as to what was going on.
The door started to give, the splinters giving way to larger cracks. A moment later, the hole was large enough to accommodate a human fist―or face, and I half expected ‘here’s Johnny.’ I cowered behind the last coffin in the row of five next to my bed to await my impending doom. It was the smallest one, which belonged to Raquel. Wood shrieked in protest as the door fell in to the room, and the creature’s angry maw opened as it hissed in triumph and, perhaps, delight. At that moment, the lid to Raquel’s casket flew open and she sat up facing the doorway. She screamed, and the combination of movement and sound was almost too much for my heart to handle. I was as frightened by her sudden appearance as I was of the fiend in the hall. Her eyes glowed blood red, quite unlike their usual lavender beauty. Her teeth looked a hell of a lot sharper than I remembered ever seeing, even from the side; the fangs in particular seemed elongated and far more viper-like than usual.
I scurried under the table nearby, terrified and unsure what to do next.
I realized the shrieking from Raquel wasn’t an incoherent challenge as I had first assumed. I could make out guttural syllables and words in some language unlike any I had heard before being repeated in a regular cadence. Whatever Raquel chanted had some effect on the dragon. It slammed itself against an unseen force powerful enough to hold it back and prevent it from crossing the threshold into our room. It howled with furious impotence as the invisible barrier repulsed it again and again, each blow resounding with an almost sub-audible thum like a massive kettle drum. Finally, it hurled itself against the wall facing the hall one last time. I heard the brittle crash of breaking glass.
From the sound, I knew that the creature had exited via the immense window that faced the highest reaches of the Himalayas. My gaze turned fearfully toward the window in my own room. I
I scrambled up the stairs to the second floor as my pursuer crashed through the reception area. It sounded as if I might have gained a few seconds on it, since I heard the snap of a table being broken and chairs launched into a wall. I took the final flight of steps three at a time as the fiend raced across the second floor. It let out an even angrier screech, no doubt irritated that I hadn’t even bothered to turn around. That would surely have been a death sentence.
Like when running track, I just kept my eyes forward and ran, and it was enough. I made it to the third floor and felt that burst of adrenaline that always came when the finish line is in sight. I sprinted the last twenty feet from the top step into my room. Thank goodness I hadn’t bothered to lock my bedchamber’s door; I would’ve never made it to safety. The instant I reached the threshold, the thing dove at me. Its talons shredded part of my snowsuit, but the force behind it shoved me into my room. I scrambled back to the door and saw the vampire-turned-dragon’s talons scraping over the marble floor of hallway, unable to stop under the combination of its mass and inertia. It crashed into the wall a short distance away. As it regained its footing, I slammed the door and dropped the bar bolt. We’d had a bit of a laugh at what we considered the extreme nature of the lock when we’d been given the room. Now I understood our Chinese hosts’ intention, and the necessity of such a device. The creature rammed its body repeatedly against the door. The wood cracked and splintered. I had no idea what to do next, and dire panic rose within me. I sought to rouse my protectors from their deep, daily slumber, pounding on every single casket. But they remained comatose, and presumably unaware as to what was going on.
The door started to give, the splinters giving way to larger cracks. A moment later, the hole was large enough to accommodate a human fist―or face, and I half expected ‘here’s Johnny.’ I cowered behind the last coffin in the row of five next to my bed to await my impending doom. It was the smallest one, which belonged to Raquel. Wood shrieked in protest as the door fell in to the room, and the creature’s angry maw opened as it hissed in triumph and, perhaps, delight. At that moment, the lid to Raquel’s casket flew open and she sat up facing the doorway. She screamed, and the combination of movement and sound was almost too much for my heart to handle. I was as frightened by her sudden appearance as I was of the fiend in the hall. Her eyes glowed blood red, quite unlike their usual lavender beauty. Her teeth looked a hell of a lot sharper than I remembered ever seeing, even from the side; the fangs in particular seemed elongated and far more viper-like than usual.
I scurried under the table nearby, terrified and unsure what to do next.
I realized the shrieking from Raquel wasn’t an incoherent challenge as I had first assumed. I could make out guttural syllables and words in some language unlike any I had heard before being repeated in a regular cadence. Whatever Raquel chanted had some effect on the dragon. It slammed itself against an unseen force powerful enough to hold it back and prevent it from crossing the threshold into our room. It howled with furious impotence as the invisible barrier repulsed it again and again, each blow resounding with an almost sub-audible thum like a massive kettle drum. Finally, it hurled itself against the wall facing the hall one last time. I heard the brittle crash of breaking glass.
From the sound, I knew that the creature had exited via the immense window that faced the highest reaches of the Himalayas. My gaze turned fearfully toward the window in my own room. I
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