NIGHT TERRORS

Part II

By Wesley Overhults

Transia, Earth-4

“I’m thinking right about now that your trail was a good idea,” realized Goblin as the pack of werewolves circled around them.

“Told ya,” retorted Bruiser.  “I mean really I just like breaking stuff but there was a purpose behind it too.”

Goblin couldn’t answer.  The lead werewolf of the pack gave some sort of command to attack and the other wolves followed suit.  Goblin used a bolt of hellfire to stop one of them in mid-lunge but he felt another one tackle him from behind and sink its fangs into the back of his neck.  Harry rolled over onto his back and blasted the creature off him, tearing a chunk out of his neck in the process.  He swiftly got back to his feet and then got into the air, knowing that he could do more good there.  He knew that his wound would heal with time but that it couldn’t be his main concern at the moment.  While the werewolves focused their attention on Bruiser, Goblin rained down a fiery salvo of death from above that caused the wolves to fall back.

“You don’t need to coddle me like that,” said Bruiser as she hit one of the wolves with a punch so vicious that it broke the beast’s jaw.  “I’ve been through enough that I’m not scared of these things.”

“I think they’re the ones who should be scared of you,” noted Goblin as he used a blast of hellfire to encircle Bruiser with a ring of fire to keep the wolves away from her and her away from the wolves.

“Yeah well how about you watch your own back then,” suggested Bruiser.

Goblin was about to say something but he failed to notice that one of the wolves had scaled a tree behind him.  The werewolf leapt from the tree and tackled Goblin to the ground, Harry’s chest taking the brunt of the fall.  He grappled with the beast as best he could but the werewolf delivered a few vicious blows to his face that dazed him. The monster got its teeth into Goblin’s shoulder, ripping a hunk of meat from it and making Harry actually scream in pain.  Molly moved to help him but one of the wolves pounced on her and pinned her to the ground, intent on doing to her what its companion had done to Goblin.  The two Exiles were being overpowered by their adversaries’ numbers.

“There’s too many of them,” realized Goblin as he broke away from the pack, using bolts of hellfire to free Molly as well.  “We need to get away and come back when the sun’s up.”

At this point, Molly wasn’t inclined to argue.  Both of the Exiles regrouped and began to run into the woods.  Bruiser kicked some of the trees and caused them to fall towards the werewolves, using them to create a barrier that would buy them time to get away.  The wolves backed off and faded into the darkness, intent to give up the hunt for the time being.  The two Exiles kept running, trying to put enough distance between themselves and the wolves.

“Can you fly us out of here?” asked Bruiser once they were safe.

“I took a pretty good beating from those things but I’ll heal with time,” explained Goblin, leaning against a tree to use it for support while clutching his wounds as best he could.  “I think I’m too weak to fly right now though.”

“Great, looks like we’re camping out then,” decided Bruiser.

“I don’t have to sleep anymore so I’ll keep watch while you sleep,” declared Goblin.  “In the morning we’ll pick up the trail or I can fly us back to the town.”

“Yeah, assuming those things don’t kill us first,” said Bruiser as she sat down and leaned back against a tree.  It only took her a few minutes to fall asleep.

East Transia Village

“I’m going after him.”

“No, you’re not.”

Sandman folded his arms across his chest and glared at Wasp.  He knew that she and Harry were a couple and that she wasn’t crazy about him sending the demonic Exile into the woods without her.  Kate put her hands on her hips and glared right back at her team leader.  It wasn’t that she didn’t think Harry could take care of himself.  She knew he was more than capable of handling himself.  The problem was that . . . well, she wasn’t exactly sure what the problem was.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was nervous after almost dying.  You could prepare for everything and yet something would still go wrong.  She didn’t want to lose him now that they were finally together.  If that meant she had to be a little pushy and paranoid then she was willing to deal with that.

“They haven’t come back yet,” informed Songbird, she and Whiplash coming in from their patrol.  “Something went on out there though.  I got a good look at the woods from the air and there are a lot of trees down.  Some of them are in a big clump which makes me think that they used it to cover a retreat.”

“Which means they’re out there somewhere on their own,” realized Sandman.  “I’m going to assume that Osborn is injured otherwise he’d just fly them back here.”

“Injured!” snapped Wasp indignantly.  “Those things could’ve torn them to pieces and you just think he’s injured?”

“Seems like you don’t trust him to handle himself,” noted Sandman.  “I think that says something about your relationship.”

“I swear to God I will smack the crap out of you if you say anything like that again,” warned Wasp.  “He’s out there somewhere and he’s probably hurt.  I love him.  Do you get that or do I have to draw you a picture here?”

“I get it but if he didn’t acknowledge Melissa’s flyover then we can’t wander around there all night trying to find him and Molly,” said Sandman.

“William is right,” agreed Whiplash.  “I am not liking it either but Osborn and the little one will be safe until morning.  We will need to rest.  It will be easier to accomplish mission in daylight.”

“Fine but I’m the one who’s going to go out and look for them when the sun comes up,” stated Wasp.  “Anybody says any differently and I’m going to sting them until they start crying.”

The Next Morning

“Wake up, we should be safe now.”

Molly Hayes stirred and reflexively curled herself up against something.  That didn’t make any sense in her mind because the last thing she remembered was leaning back against a tree.  She looked up and nonchalantly brushed off the fact that she was curled up in Goblin’s arms.  She pushed herself away from him, yawned, and stretched her weary muscles.

“What happened?” asked Bruiser.

“They were closing in so I had to move us,” explained Goblin.  “I figured it was safer for you to use me as a pillow so that way I could keep a better eye on you.”

Bruiser brushed herself off and wordlessly nodded.  Goblin vaulted up above the trees and looked at his surroundings.  He could see the village off in the distance but the village wasn’t his main concern.  He felt that attraction inside of him, that internal radar that was tuned to anything demonic.  He knew exactly where the pack of werewolves was and now that the moon had gone down they were completely human.

“Which way?” asked Bruiser once Goblin returned.

“That way,” said Goblin as he pointed east.  “Let’s go.”

Goblin scooped up Bruiser in his arms and then rose into the air.  He flew east towards where he knew the werewolves were.  He looked below and could see that the pack of monsters had made some sort of camp.  He landed unceremoniously in the middle of that camp and was surrounded by the werewolves though they were all in human form.

“They don’t look so scary now,” commented Bruiser.

“Where’s the girl?” asked Goblin.

“My name is Jack Russell and I’m the leader of this pack,” said a muscular man as he stepped forward towards the Exiles.  “We were chasing you two all last night but we had to give up the hunt when it started to get light.  I can see that both of you made it through the night.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” reminded Goblin.  “We were sent to make sure that girl was unharmed and to bring her back to the village.  Where is she?”

“We attacked you because one of our pack came back hurt and we thought you were responsible,” explained Russell.  “You’ll have to forgive us since we’re not very rational while we’re in wolf form.”

“Man, I thought Chase had the worst case of ADHD I’ve ever seen,” piped up Bruiser.  “Seriously, where’s the freakin’ girl already?”

“Jameson brought her to us last night,” said Russell.  “She was dying thanks to being bitten by one of those vamps.  John didn’t have a choice.  He bit her because he knew that if he turned her into one of us then it would heal her and stop her from dying.  He did it to save her life and then he died thanks to someone using silver bullets.”

“It was the constable and he meant it for Dracula but your guy got in the way,” said Goblin.

“The girl’s managed to get away from us while we were hunting you two,” explained Russell.  “I have my best trackers on her trail right now.”

“Very reassuring,” said Goblin sarcastically.  “We’ll track her down and bring her back to the village.  I don’t trust your people, Russell.”

“We’re not like those vamps,” said Russell.  “We just want to live in peace away from everyone else.  We were going to make sure Jameson got back to us without anyone else getting hurt but we had to call off the rescue because of you and those flying rats up there on the hill.”

“I think we just stepped into a really bad horror movie,” decided Bruiser.  “I mean vampires and werewolves are so played out.  These days everybody likes zombies. Maybe we could fight some of those while we’re here?”

Rahne Sinclair was never more afraid in her life than she was at that moment.  The night before was a complete blur of pain and jumbled images.  She vaguely remembered Dracula biting her and then she couldn’t remember what happened until she was in the campsite.  The creature had brought her inside one of the tents and then he sunk his fangs into her.  That was when the pain ascended to a new level and she could feel the transformation take her over.  Even the memory of it made her reflexively curl herself into a ball.  How could this have happened?  She was just a simple, normal girl.  Why did God place her in the company of these vile and hellish monsters?  She had never done anything wrong to anyone, quite the opposite in fact.  She always strived to live a virtuous life, the kind of life that would bring honor to her family.  How could this have happened to her?

“Dear Lord,” she whispered to herself as she continued to take shelter in the opening of a small cave. “Please have mercy on your humble servant.  I have always brought honor to your name, Lord.  Please take this curse away from me and deliver me from the hands of these wicked creatures.”

The prayer didn’t help.  For the first time in her young life, Rahne didn’t think that God was listening to her.  It left her with an empty feeling inside and that scared her more than her current predicament.  What if God had turned His back on her?  What if there was no God?  She couldn’t think about that, especially not now.  She hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the previous night.  She needed to either find some food or try to make it back to the village.  She couldn’t go back though.  When her father realized what had happened, he would disown her.  He would cast her back into the woods like the animal she was.

“She’s this way.”

Rahne whimpered quietly and mentally recited every single prayer she had ever heard before in her life.  She could feel the monsters coming closer to her and her heart threatened to burst from her chest.  She couldn’t imagine living like this, living with this terrible beast inside her.  She heard the footsteps coming closer and closer but she was too afraid to run deeper into the cave.  There was nowhere to go anyway.  Her life as she knew it was over.

“Please just leave me alone,” she whimpered.

“Lord above,” muttered one of the two girls.  “Lucia, you deal with this crap.  I’ll lead the way back to the camp.”

“Get up and quit whining,” ordered Lucia Callasantos.  “You’re one of us now and you have to start acting like it.”

“I don’t want to go back,” pleaded Rahne.  “I just want to die.”

“You belong with us,” said Lucia, grabbing Rahne’s arm and jerking the girl to her feet.  “Now let’s go.  We’re missing breakfast just to get your sorry ass back there.”

“You shouldn’t curse,” noted Rahne.

“You shouldn’t run off from the pack,” retorted Lucia, practically dragging Rahne behind her as she followed her sister.

Neither of them got very far.  Goblin and Bruiser landed in their midst and the two sisters moved to protect the newest member of their pack.  Goblin dissipated the hellfire he held in his hands as a show of peace.  He was through fighting these people.  If anything, he should understand how they felt.  He was also cursed, trapped in a body that he was never meant to inhabit.  At least they had the ability to return to normal.  Harry didn’t have that option anymore.

“We’re peaceful,” he explained to the two sisters.  “I really don’t want to go through this crap again and I know you two can’t take me when you’re human.  Let’s just make this easy and all go back to camp together, okay?”

“Aw, I wanted to get in another fight,” said Bruiser.  “I bet if Ivan came with me instead of you, he’d let me get in a fight.”

“Who?” inquired Goblin.

“You know, Ivan,” said Bruiser.  “Scary Russian guy with the whips?  Whiplash?  Oh yeah, forgot you didn’t know his real name.  It’s Ivan.  He told it to me like a million missions ago.  You guys just can’t keep up.”

“Great, thanks for the information,” said Goblin.  “Back to the matter at hand now?”

“Fine, we’ll all go back to camp,” decided Lucia, realizing that Goblin was right and there was no way she and her sister could fight him in their human forms.  “Here, you deal with this little brat.  I’m going up front with Maria.”

“You’re safe with us,” assured Goblin.  “I know you probably don’t like the way I look and that’s alright.  I’ve gotten used to it by now.”

“I’m afraid that doesn’t matter very much anymore, sir,” said Rahne.

The group of werewolves and Exiles made it back to the campsite without any other altercations.  Rahne kept her head down and avoided looking at anyone.  She only spoke when spoken to, which wasn’t very often.  She knew that the Exiles would want to take her back to the village but she couldn’t face her father, or anyone else for that matter.  She belonged with these people now, belonged to the wild where no normal human dared to travel.

“Another one of yours?” inquired Russell.

Goblin grinned at the sight of Wasp standing there with her hands folded over her chest and a decidedly unhappy look on her face.  He guessed that she had been in a surly mood all day and that was even taking into account that she had slept.  She didn’t have to worry though.  He had been taking care of himself for a long time, practically his whole life.  A pack of werewolves wasn’t going to keep him from seeing her face again.

“Worried about me?” he asked Wasp.

“Don’t scare me like that again,” ordered Wasp in return.  “You’re my boyfriend now, Harry.  It’s my job to worry about you when you go off into the woods with a bunch of bloodthirsty savages.”

“He can take care of himself,” assured Bruiser.  “He makes a comfy pillow too.”

“Oh we are definitely having a talk when we get back to the village,” confirmed Wasp.

“I think it would be good for the pack to come back to the village with us,” suggested Goblin.  “All of us share a common foe and it would be better to work with each other rather than be at each other’s throats.”

“We were fine before John brought that girl into our pack,” noted Russell.  “You do have a good point though.  I’ll go back to the village with you and I’ll take one of the pack along as my personal security.  Pietro, you’re coming with me as a bodyguard.”

The silver-haired werewolf nodded his head.  Russell knew the younger man had a personal stake in this battle.  His twin sister was Wanda Maximoff, one of Dracula’s brides.  In much the same way Jameson had saved Rahne’s life, Russell had saved Pietro’s and it was this debt along with the desire to save his sister that made him join Russell’s pack.  The boy was a fierce fighter and also was the fastest runner Russell had ever seen.  If something went wrong and Russell needed to get a message back to the rest of the pack, he knew that Pietro was his best bet.

“I’m afraid that Rahne has to go too,” decided Goblin.

“I can’t,” said Rahne.  “Please don’t make me go back there.  My father is the minister.  When he sees what I am now, he’ll disown me.”

“You’re the reason we’re out here in the first place,” reminded Goblin.  “This isn’t negotiable.  If your pack wants peace with the village, Russell, then she comes with us.”

“Good point,” agreed Russell.  “Let’s get moving.  The sooner we get all this over with, the better.”

East Transia Village

“We all want the same thing,” reminded Sandman as he looked around at the war council he had assembled.  “We know what needs to be done.  We have to kill Dracula.”

“Sounds easier than it actually is,” said Samuel.  “The Rasputin boy wasn’t the only thrall that Dracula and his brides have.  They have a virtual army of them that they use to guard the castle while they slumber.  I fail to see how Illyana managed to make it as far as she did.”

“Well if one teenage girl can do it then we should be able to manage just fine,” decided Sandman.  “You’ve got us and you’ve got the pack.”

“My people and I make it a point to ignore all vamps but we’re prepared to fight these for you,” confirmed Russell.  “Trust me, we hate those flying rats as much as you do.”

“I would prefer if members of my village were kept as far away from this as possible,” said Mayor Wagner.  “We have suffered enough under these undead tyrants and I won’t have any other villagers dying.”

“If you bring the whole pack then that should be the only backup we need,” decided Sandman.

“And Rahne?” inquired Samuel.  “She’s one of those things now?”

“We’re not things,” corrected Russell.  “We’re still human beings just like you are.”

“As long as the sun stays up,” retorted Samuel.  “Jameson had no right to do what he did to Rahne.”

“She’d be dead if he didn’t,” reminded Russell.  “One of them tore a chunk out of her throat.  I managed to get a look at the wound before the transformation began. Whatever you might think of the way he did it, John saved her life.  She’ll unfortunately have to come along with us.  I plan on bringing the whole pack and if I don’t bring her with us then she’ll most likely run off into the woods again, probably get herself killed in the process.  At least when she’s with us, we can keep an eye on her.”

“Fine,” conceded Samuel.  “In the interest of keeping the peace, I’ll allow it.  Let the record show that I’m not pleased with it.”

“Yeah, well you’re taking it better than her father is,” spoke up Sandman.  “I thought we were going to have to hold him down just to stop him from getting his hands on her.  You guys are pretty strict with your religious policies.”

“Reverend Sinclair has always been very resolute in his beliefs,” said Mayor Wagner.  “Are we ready to go over our battle plan now?”

“I think we can hammer something out,” answered Sandman.

“My father hates me.”

Goblin smirked at that.  He knew how that felt, how hard it was to win the approval of a father.  Harry had spent his whole life trying to make his father happy and he would have done anything and everything to get it.  Then, Harry grew up and realized that his father’s approval wasn’t worth that much in the first place.  Habits were hard to break though, even now when his father had been dead for many, many years.

“His feelings don’t matter that much,” he told Rahne.

“He is the only parent I have,” reminded Rahne.  “My mother . . . she died during childbirth.  For my whole life, it’s been me and my father.”

“I know how that feels,” admitted Goblin.  “On his good days, my father was mostly like yours.  He was distant, not very forthcoming with his emotions, but I kept telling myself that somewhere underneath it all he loved me.  All I had to do was be good enough, be perfect in fact, and he would express that love.”

“And on his bad days?” asked Rahne.

“On his bad days he was a real monster,” said Goblin.  “I didn’t always look like this, Rahne.  I used to look just as normal as you do.  My father looked normal too but he was always like this on the inside.  He didn’t need the green skin and the pointed ears to be a monster.  That’s the thing I’ve learned about situations like this.  It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a monster on the outside.  It only matters whether or not you’re one on the inside.”

“My father would disagree with you, sir,” said Rahne.

“Then maybe you should stop listening to your father,” he suggested to her.  “I mean after all, you said he would disown you when he found out.  If he disowned you then you don’t have to listen to him anymore, do you?”

“We’ve reached a plan of attack,” stated Songbird as she came out of the room where the war council was conferring.  “All of the pack will come with us on the mission. That means you too, Rahne.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be of much use to you, miss,” confessed Rahne.  “I don’t know any trades, least of all the killing of vampires.  I have no real talents to speak of either.”

“Russell wants you around so he can keep his eye on you,” explained Songbird.

“I’ll be there with you, Miss Sinclair,” assured Samuel as he came out of the room as well.  “I told you before that I would keep you safe and I am a man of my word.”

“We’ve worked out all the details and we’re ready to go,” announced Sandman as he came out to greet the rest of his forces.  “All we have to do now is wait for the rest of Russell’s pack to get here and then we’re moving on the castle.  With any luck, we’ll get this done before the sun goes down and things start getting messy.”

Mount Wundagore, Later That Day

The contingent of heroes moved closer to Castle Dracula.  So far, they hadn’t encountered any opposition.  All of them suspected that would change the closer they got to the castle.  The werewolves were exceptionally good at tracking and scouting even while in human form.  Sandman had been employing them for recon to make sure Dracula didn’t have any surprises waiting for them.

“Making it up mountain is not easy,” noted Whiplash, using his whips as rope to scale the mountain.

“Molly mentioned that she knew your real name,” said Goblin, hovering along in the air to keep pace with the group.  “Why didn’t you tell the rest of the team?”

“I prefer being a mystery,” replied Whiplash.  “I was mercenary for long time.  I am not used to having real name.”

“You’re not a mercenary now,” reminded Goblin.

“I am not hero either,” countered Whiplash.  “Thank you for keeping Molly safe.  She is very young and does not need to be here.”

“From what I’ve seen of her behavior, this is exactly the place she needs to be,” said Goblin.

Whiplash reached the edge of a cliff and hoisted himself up to the ledge.  The rest of the group all stood there for a moment to look at Castle Dracula.  It was an imposing structure, made even more imposing when one knew exactly what was lurking within its walls.  They were going to storm what was surely the gates of hell itself.

“I can hear the footsteps of the guards,” confirmed Songbird.  “There’s a sizeable amount of them and they’re all armed.  They’re mostly concentrated on this side of the castle, probably because they expect a frontal assault.  My guess is that maybe Illyana slipped in through the back and that’s how she got as far as she did.”

“Russell, how soundly do these things sleep?” asked Sandman.

“You could drive a stampede of wild horses through that castle and they wouldn’t even notice,” said Russell.

“Good, then they won’t wake up no matter how much noise we make,” decided Sandman.  “I think most of us are going to go in through the front.  However, some of us need to go in through the back.  Samuel, take Rahne, Whiplash, and the wolves around back.  Mel, I want you, Kate, and Osborn up in the air and over those walls.  Molly, you and me are going through the front door.  Everybody clear on this?”

“I wish to remain in front with you and Molly,” decided Whiplash.

“I told you guys before that I’m not a charity case,” reminded Bruiser.  “I can pull my own weight.”

“It is not about pulling weight,” explained Whiplash.  “You are child.  Children should not be in war and this is war.”

“Whatever,” muttered Bruiser, shrugging with indifference.

“Fine, you’re with us then,” said Sandman.  “Hit them hard and fast before they know what’s going on.  If we’re lucky then we can down most of them in no time. Remember, we’re working on a clock here.  We want to get this done before the sun goes down.”

“All the more reason to stop talking and do it,” decided Samuel before leading Rahne and the other werewolves around back.

“Molly, go up and knock on the door,” ordered Sandman.  “We’ll be right behind you.”

“Yeah, I’ll see if they want some Girl Scout cookies while I’m at it,” said Bruiser sarcastically as she walked up to the front gate and then pulled back her fist.  It only took one punch to make a hole in the wooden door.

“Air support,” called out Sandman.

Songbird led the air raid with Wasp and Goblin right behind her.  The thralls that served as the castle guards pulled out their guns and opened fire but Songbird used her sonic wings to shield herself from the shots.  A sonic scream sent all of them either running for cover or falling to their knees and clutching their skulls in pain.  Bruiser managed to open the hole wide enough for the Exiles to get through.

“Make sure we get enough cover,” said Sandman to his airborne teammates before flinging a round of sandstone blunt weapons from his arm that took out the guards along the castle wall.  “Now, let’s just hope that Samuel and the others will be able to get in while we’re making so much noise.  With any luck, we’ll have this wrapped up before things get out of hand.”

Next Issue: The Exiles’ mission doesn’t go exactly as planned and the conclusion to “Night Terrors” isn’t what anyone expected.