A Little Entrapment

Howling filled the night air causing a pair of eyes to open. A young boy quickly sat up in bed but he wasn’t in his room, his bed was in a forest. He looked around him and nearly peed his pants seeing bloody red eyes staring at him from behind the trees. Growls erupted from all around him as the eyes started to bleed. He pulled the covers over his head to whisper a mantra to himself.

This isn’t real.

This isn’t real.

This is not real, it’s a dream.

But the words had the opposite effect he wanted, his heart picked up in pace and his hands tightened on the sheets turning a ghostly white.

A voice called out to him, usually it was a man talking but the man sounded like he was a demon.

“Come out, Young Master. There is a lot to discuss before your arrival”.

“GO AWAY DAMMIT!”.

“I cannot”.

The boy tried to control his breathing but he felt lightheaded and hot. It didn’t make any sense for him to be hot, he was out in the forest. A flash of light distracted him and he tore off the covers to see the Old Man bent over face to face with him, the same blood red eyes as the wolves.

“Hello again, Young Master”.

He screamed.

Scars of varying sizes littered the man’s body, a long one cut right across his nose.  Unnaturally tall with tree-long limbs he still towered over the bed despite being bent at the waist and his skin was a sickening gray. His eyes followed the boy’s every move though his face remained the same as if made of stone. 

“This again Young Master”, he stood up to his full height and reached into his butler coat to pull out a pocket watch.

Anthony!

The Old Man looked up to the sky with a deep frown across his face then back to the boy as his body started to shake.

“I will allow them this one last time Master but you are coming home today. Your right home”.

ANTHONY!

“Goodbye for now, Young Master”.

The Old Man bowed and the boy felt his body lift up out the bed.

Then he opened his eyes and he was back in his room, his dad was holding him up and his mom in the doorway with tears in her eyes.

Relief seeped into his bones along with a deep breath of air that stayed in his lungs before he blew it out.

His dad brought him closer to crush him in a hug and laughed.

“Still got night terrors buddy?”.

He didn’t answer. Just buried his face into his dad’s shirt.

“Honey, I think we should call someone”. She was still standing in the doorway, hovering like she was keeping her distance from them.

“We already did and they gave us medicine to help him sleep and told us he needs to have less stress along with a huge bill. Our son is fine. He’ll grow out of it”.

He didn’t notice the tears building up in his son’s eyes but he felt the strong grip loosen on his shirt and he looked down with a smile before he smacked the boy’s chest. 

“Just a little tough love is all!”.

He got up to leave and ignored his wife, sidestepping away to avoid him.

She turned her head to watch him leave before she looked back to her son.

“The car’s leaving in 40 minutes!”.

Anthony curled into a ball and stared at his ceiling. He swiped at his face when warm hands reached to wipe them away. They still grabbed onto his face to bring him to look away from the ceiling.

“I’m sorry baby”.

He still looked down to avoid looking into her eyes and immediately felt guilt creep into him in doing so. 

“I know mom”.

She brought his head over to kiss and he wrapped his arms around her while keeping his eyes down.

“I’ll see what I can do”.

“It’s okay mom, I don’t want dad to be angry again”.

“He won’t find out this time, I promise”.

“The Doctor said there’s no underlying issue so I just gotta get over it and I’ll be okay”.

The image of the Old Man came to mind and he shuddered.

His mom pulled back to feel his head.

“Are you sure you're okay?”.

“30 minutes!”.

He quickly nodded and got up to rush into his bathroom.

He looked her in the eyes as he closed the door.

“I’m fine”.

He was not fine. In his bathroom mirror a message was carved into the mirror, a reminder that today was the day. In school around every corner at school the Old Man lingered in the background. In the cafeteria, in classrooms, in the bathroom, in the hallways, outside the class windows. Always with the same expressionless face and red eyes. During gym another man appeared alongside him, but this man had all black skin and golden glowing eyes. The boy preferred him to the gangly man until this new man looked him in the eyes and smiled at him, showing razor sharp teeth. 

Anthony ran into a classmate after seeing it and begged his teacher to sit out for the rest of class so he sit down and bury his face in his knees to stop looking at them.

While he sat in the last class of the day, he stared at the clock counting down the minutes until he could see another doctor. He didn’t have faith earlier in his mom and her ability to sneak behind his dad’s back but now he had no other option but blind trust. He couldn’t go another day through this.

However he was not aware of when his eyelids started to droop and he put his head down to fall asleep. Once again at the mercy of his nightmare.

It didn’t take long for him to open his eyes in a forest but there was no one here to greet him this time. This was not the same forest he always came to. Down under his bed was a lake, so wandering was not an option. There were trees all around but none were close enough to help him get out. The bed let out a loud creak when he leaned to the side trying to peer around for more clues and it scared him.

It stopped him in his tracks for a few seconds and the ‘forest’ was silent. Just as he looked back around the bed, he came face to face with black eyes staring in the depths of his soul. Nothing else was visible, there was no face, only eyes. He screamed so loud he woke up back in the classroom. That earned him the eyes of everyone in the class on him but he jumped up and ran out the door, ignoring the calls of his teacher.

Wasting no time he rushed past everything in his path nearly colliding with people more than once. People calling out to him became background noise to him. The edges of his vision became blurry to him along with his breath leaving him gasping for air. Another turn around a corner too fast had him sliding across the floor to bust his face down the stairs. 

The hospital was a rather eventful encounter as well, still running on pent up energy made Anthony attempt to fight off the staff. Many unsuccessful attempts of his parents trying to calm him and staff being patient  and he was injected with drugs to calm him down and their work began. Despite their numerous assurances that he was fine and the drugs would soon wear off, his eyelids began to droop again and panic set in. Wasting no time to rip off the cords and nearly falling onto his face for another time as he jumped out the bed and limping over to the door. He only stopped to make sure no one would notice his escape and then he took off to find the nearest exit. That plan was almost ruined when it took him a couple minutes too long and a nurse ran out calling his name, luckily he managed to slip out a door before an emergency was called and he got all the way to the garage by the time the entire hospital was locked down.

An exit was in sight but fate would not let him have this day. Standing next to the door leading out was the Old Man with the same new man from before with razor sharp teeth.

Anthony stopped a ways away from them and looked all around for another exit. The two had started to make their way to him.

The one with sharp teeth bowed low.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance Young Master”.

Anthony ignored him.

“It is a pleasure to be the one to escort you home Young Master”, the Old Man bowed.

“Leave me alone you monsters!”.

“Monsters?”.

The young one looked to the old one and laughed.

He turned back to Anthony, “you think we’re frightening, Young Master? Too spooky for your liking? That is too bad, as the same blood that flows through us and makes us so scary flows through your veins as well”.

“No it doesn’t! I’m nothing like you!”.

The old one stopped walking as his face twisted into a frown almost like he was angry.

“You were robbed of the truth because of your mother Master. Your real mother who gave birth to you, not this, harlot”.

“Don’t call her that!”.

“The human woman could never stand to Lady Elise, your true mother, she was a goddess among us”.

“Stop. Fucking. Lying!”, he stomped with each word.

Both men frowned at him.

“That is not appropriate language for a boy your age Master but we will fix the damage the humans have done”.

The Old Man snatched him up in his tree-like arm while the young man waved his arm about. All anger left the boy who now started to realize the situation he was in.

“Wait! Please let me go!”.

A black mass opened up behind the young man, he stepped in without hesitation.

The Old Man walked over to it all the while the boy had now begun to cry tears.

“I don’t know you, you got the wrong person please!”.

“There has been no mistake, Young Master, you are the son of our Master’s son. Lord Veseryn. You were taken from your mother after your birth, your true name is Niossae Rendriel Vesentra. Apologies, I am Miaris and the one from before is Galathaer, Master. Lady Liathana has been searching for you since you were taken  and has finally found you, we cannot simply let the opportunity pass”.

The words did nothing to stop the onset of tears.

“No, you're wrong. My name is Anthony… please”.

Miaris did not stop, he was at the portal now. He stepped his long limbs in and slipped in slowly. Just as the boy was slipping in he let out a loud scream.

“MOOOOOOOOOOM!”.

The gate closed just as police pulled up to the hospital. Everyone was pulled to the side for questions. The parents held tight onto one another, the dad was crying silent tears as his wife fell to her feet crying over and over, “my baby!”.

But it was too late, he was gone.

Hours later when an amber alert had been issued and the town was filled everywhere with cops from all over and volunteer search and rescue, the parents sent home for their sanity and news reporting the disappearance of Anthony Gordon. Another portal opened in the parking lot of the hospital.

Out stepped three women all with identical faces, identical clothing and all carrying swords. One stooped down to the ground and sniffed around. Another looked around the room with her blue eyes turning white. The last sat on the hood of a car with her arms crossed, looking down at the other two.

“What’s the point?”, she started, “we already know what happened here. We failed to complete our job and Mother Imeena will kill us for it”.

“Not me!”.

The first one stood and placed her hands on her hips with a glare.

“I’m going to fix this!”.

The second one turned away to roll her eyes.

“And how will you do that?”, asked the third.

“I’ll wait for an opening and kill the boy”.

The second one scoffed.

“It’s not funny! I can do it”.

“Why yes, you can and you will”.

The first and second looked at her up and down.

“Mother will not be angry if we correct our mistake but only if we do it before she finds out, so you will track down and kill the boy or I will tell her it was you who allowed him to be taken all those years ago”.

The first one cowered back, she opened her mouth to speak but closed it before anything could get out.

The second one turned away again to watch the cars drive by.

“Don’t worry, Miaris did not think twice about how easy it was for him to constantly visit the boy. The old fool, the sleep demon attached to the boy has done most of our work for us and when he is dead, Mother will be able to give birth to her own child in peace. Lady Elise has not birthed another heir for that family and there is no other, their family line will soon die out and ours will rise”.

Her sisters looked at each other with the same look, something bound to come did not mean it would be in their favor. But like always, they said nothing and nodded along to their sister’s demand.