Chapter 10- Nightmare

[CW- This chapter includes body horror. Please look after yourself while reading.]

In the dim light of the forest, she could just make out a reddish wolf. It was more slender than Nieve, with a distinctive black tail. It was standing incredibly still, its deep brown eyes focused on something. Nieve crept forward, his hackles raised. Nieve then looked back at Eli and Peggy. She could feel Eli tensing next to her. Their unease made her heart race, and she didn't understand why.

“Another one?” Eli whispered. Nieve nodded.

"Another what?" Peggy whispered to them.

"A... Another..." Eli looked at Peggy, afraid. "A big one."

"Eli just tell me-"

Suddenly, the sound of birds flying away in a panic and small creatures scattering filled the air. The ground seemed to shake somewhat as something moved through the forest.

A shot of fear spread up Peggy’s spine as the smell of turpentine drifted out of the trees.

EEEEEUUUUUGGH

Something inhuman-sounding cried out from deeper into the trees. Peggy tried to look for it but the thick treeline made it difficult for her to see anything. Her human eyes were attuned to see movement, to handle chasing after small prey for miles and miles. The persistence hunter wasn't used to being hunted.

Suddenly, a large, bony hand reached for one of the tops of the trees. The skin was black with a green oil-slick-like hue.

It was too big.

“Nope, nope, nopity nope, let’s go,” Eli said, grabbing Peggy by the arm and jogging up the path toward a hill.

“What is it?” Peggy asked.

“Another rogue, but this one is way worse,” Eli explained.

“They can get worse?!” she gasped as they raced up the hill.

“Oh yeah,” Eli said. “And you’re about to see it if Nieve and Yonus don’t lead it away.”

“We’re just leaving them back there?!” Peggy cried, looking behind her and skidding to a halt.

“They’re big boys, they know what they’re doing,” Eli said as they stopped running, too.

“We have to go back. We have to-”

Thump

Thump

Thump

Peggy’s eyes widened in horror as she saw the shape shambling out of the trees.

Thin, spindling limbs with desiccated skin clinging to bone and sinew. Dark, thick, rot seeped down its body, falling in rivulets down onto the floor. Goo dripped down its cheeks from empty eye sockets; its skull was partially exposed to fresh air. Peggy desperately searched its form for something recognisable. Instead, she saw a hole in its skull. Something crawled in there. She tried to take it all in, but even up the hill, her neck couldn’t accommodate the angle she had to move it at. Its bones cracked and twisted in unnatural ways, as if the werewolf it used to be were still mid-shift into a wolf form…

Her eyes watered from the smell, her heart racing as she desperately tried to understand what she was seeing. Her brain wanted to tell her it was fake, that this was all a trick, that any moment now she would wake up again and eat eggs again and-

“Peggy, breathe,” Eli whispered.

“Wh-” Peggy turned to face them.

“You can’t run if you don’t breathe,” Eli said, their eyes wide.

Eli was afraid, too. They were right, though.

A freeze response could get them killed right now.

Peggy nodded and took a shuddering breath.

EEEEUUUGHGHG

The rogue cried out. Peggy looked at it and saw Nieve and Yonus attacking it. They looked like flies bothering a horse more than apex predators taking on prey. Yonus tried to bite through its rotting leg, but his jaw didn’t quite have the strength to break through the thickened bone. There was no muscle or sinew for him to hold onto, either, and the rot sloughed off without any resistance. Nieve lept at the creature. The rogue swatted him from the air. Nieve landed hard, letting out a yelp of pain. The rogue leaned down to try and bite him, but Yonus tackled Nieve out of the way.

As the creature stood again, the back of its head sloughed off, revealing a cavity where the brain had once been. Engorged centipedes and maggots skittered out.

That was too much for Peggy. She turned away and vomited her breakfast onto the grass. Egg didn't seem as appealing anymore. She coughed and spluttered, getting the last of the bile from her throat.

"We need to go," Eli said as they grabbed her arm and started sprinting up the path.

Peggy heard the crack of bones and looked over her shoulder. The rogue's skull had flipped 180 degrees, so its empty eye sockets were facing Peggy and Eli.

Peggy froze, her mind screamed at her body to move, but she just…

Couldn’t…

“Peggy!”