Kreachers of the Night
It’s funny how time seems to laugh at you and speed up at all the moments you wish it’d stop completely. This was one of those moments.
The towns small jail was cold and moldy, murky drops of water dripping every few minutes from a leak in the ceiling. I couldn’t decide whether the tap, tap, tapping of the droplets were keeping me sane or driving me over the edge. But I did know that without any sound at all I’d get lost in the silence.
The jailer was a stout woman, Mauren, always kind and fierce and always at every festival. She had the prettiest voice out of us all. She would take care of me at times where my parents needed the help and she’d bring us bones for broth when my sister or I grew sick. But now… now her voice was trapped in the awkward air between us. She couldn’t even speak to me as she kept her gaze to the single window, the beginning of a beautiful sunset starting to glimmer through.
It was almost time.
“Please,” I begged for the hundredth time, she only screwed her eyes shut and ignored me. “Please don’t let them have me,” I nearly sobbed, “I’m not what they say I am. I’m not bad luck, I’m-” the words died in my throat as she began to hum to herself, there was truly nothing else I could say. So instead I got up and wrapped my hands around the rusted bars of the cell. I shook back and forth like a mad man, rattling the entire building when it actually was hardly causing a creak in the floorboard beneath me. But it felt nice, to let go and go from begging to just being mad.
“This isn’t right!” I yelled. “Stop humming and listen to me!” But it was to no avail, she only began to hum her song louder. But someone did answer me, and the voice was so much worse than the rude hums of Maruen.
“Baby!” rang my mothers voice, half hysterical and half hard as stone. Rage and despair carried on a soundwave. “My baby!” she wailed again. I heard some gruff voices and then some sort of hustle, I knew she was trying to get in, they would not let her.
“(Y/N)! Don’t….dont worry!” called the voice of my sister. Tears pricked my eyes at the sound of my father grunting and then a loud clash. They were fighting the guards. Mauren stopped her humming and when the sounds registered she shot up from her seat and raced to the door.
“Let them in you dogs,” she said, scowling at the young guards who quickly released my father from a headlock, one was sporting an already bruising black eye.
Before they could even get the word “ma’am” out, my entire family spilled inside, nearly knocking over Mauren.
“Get ‘em out of here, Mar,” pleaded my father. She only shook her head causing my mother to join in, a beggar’s look in her eye that must run in the family.
“Please. We have a place to go, far from here. Where we’re safe, and…” she gave me an apologetic look, “and the towns safe from (Y/N).” The words felt like a dagger thrown straight through my chest to the moldy wall behind me. I knew she was just saying that…right? The very thought of my parents thinking I was bad luck because of finding Old Man Jono’s body was nearly enough to bring me to my knees.
“You know I can’t do that. If (Y/N) is what they say, then they’re our only real chance at peace.”
“You can’t really believe that.”
“Maybe not…but it’s hope. And ain’t that a bitch,” she said, she turned and walked back to her seat with all our eyes glued to her. She only gave us one last glance, a frown on her lips. “But I’ll give ya some time…sundowns over soon.”
The words struck a somber truth, death is soon. The Beast is waiting. The cell was drowned in silence before my mother stepped so close to the cells she could reach a shaking hand through and grab ahold of my own, her breath turning white in the air.
“Be brave, little one. The gods will reward your courage,” she said, my father scoffed behind her.
“The gods have left us long ago,”
“Pa!” my sister scolded, hurt flashing across her eyes. I only laughed bitterly, her eyes finding mine.
“He’s right, but so is Ma. Courage will serve me more than the gods will.” My dad gave me a smile close to being something proud but ended up being sadder than anything I’ve ever seen. He wordlessly stepped forward and wrapped his big hand over Ma’s and mine. My sister hugged herself just behind us, eyes glued to the floor.
“But…. I’m scared,” she said. Maruen looked up with watery eyes and the whole room shifted into something tragic at the cracking of her voice. I begrudgingly left my parents and moved slightly to the right and reached my arms through the bars awkwardly. My sister looked at me for a long, depressed moment before inching forwards into my arms. I hugged her the best I could.
“You’re allowed to be scared, but have faith too. Faith that I will come back to you,” I whispered to her softly. Her response was a sniffle and a meek word.
“How?”
“Because I am a person with too much to lose to just give up. And I’ll miss your scones too much,” she laughed softly before stepping back and wiping her nose.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said.
“I’m counting on it,” I replied, a bittersweet smile on my lips as Mar tugged softly on my moms shoulder, the roaring of the townspeople could be heard even through the stone walls of the prison.
“Times up,” she said, tears pricking her eyes. I wanted to feel mad. I wanted to feel the same rage as my parents, but I couldn’t. Not when everyone looks just as afraid and heartbroken as me, maybe not for the same reasons, but we all still felt the same.
There was hardly time for a hello and now there was no time for a goodbye as the Mayor burst through the heavy wooden doors, hair falling into his crazed eyes.
“Grab her,” he spoke lowly, like the warning growl of a predator and like all Alphas have been, he was obeyed. A dozen townsfolk stepped forward, my heart lurched as my father, still limping and bloody, stood before me, my mother next to him and my sister by her, all holding hands forming a wall.
“Please-” my father tried again but his words were cut off as the people I grew up with and adored, grabbed him by the shoulders, arms wrapping around my mother and tugging at my sister. I squeezed my eyes shut as they screamed and cried. I flinched when the steel door to my cell creaked, I tried not to, but I wailed when calloused and large hands gripped my forearms, lifted me off the ground and all I felt was cold air when it should be warm; but even the weather knew this to be a somber event.
When I opened my eyes this time they were filled with rage, rage and sorrow. My eyes met the Mayors and I swear I saw him flinch…good. I growled my words at him, screaming and shouting before I was so far from the prison cell I felt only fear. The forest was in sight.
“Let me go!” I cried, mourning for my life. “I didn’t do it!” I screamed, mourning for Jono and his wife. “Please,” I whispered, muttering the words like a prayer. “Please. Please, please,” I considered actually praying, but I didn’t want to send my prayers to a god that would let all this happen. All the death, all the sin and misunderstanding. All the tragedy that was always just tragedy and never meant to be more, never meant to become my life.
My voice ceased to work after a mile, we marched in silence towards the castle in the forest. Leaves crunching in haunting harmony beneath their farm boots. The irony of their apparel did not slip from me. Farmers and shop owners all dressed for their day of work, not for a journey through the “haunted woods” to sacrifice one of their own. I could still hear my family’s screams carried on the wind, howling as if the source came from the throat of a beast.
I laid limp in their grip, exhausted and hopeless before my mothers words came back to me. Have courage, she said, I thought of her crying and wish I told her to have some too. That we would meet again, in this life or the next.
On a crack of lighting The Beast’s castle was unveiled by the white light only to disappear in the shadows of night again. Teasing and terrifying, the people let me down. The mayor, leading the pack, turned his back to the castle to face us. I glared at him with all I had left in me.
“You have ventured all this way, putting your fear and grief aside to make room for hope and peace. Peace,” he laughed softly, “what an odd word to remember exists in a time like this. But it does, and it can be forgotten no longer when it is peace that is so close to us now after all this time. When we find peace, know that it is because of all of you, and our sacrifice, our hardship. So I thank you, for bringing Pivot that much closer to moving on, to normalcy. You are all heroes of this town,” the mayor said, his voice level but his chest was heaving, he was afraid to be so close to the castle, it made me want to scream. The crowd cheered and shook me as they cried, half relief and half sorrow.
He turned his back to us now, another flash of lighting and I saw the Mayors face, distorned and dark as he gazed up at the castle, neck craned and wind blowing his hair. He raised his arms slowly and shook them as he yelled, the volume of his voice making us all flinch backwards, some even running. The Beast was sure to know our arrival now.
“We have brought you a sacrifice!” he shouted, “they are your chosen one, stumbling upon the wake of your demons! They are yours to do as you please on the condition that the murders will stop! We have brought you one last prey but that is all you can take from us again!” his face was red by the time he finished.
Thunder boomed as we waited with our breaths held and legs weak, the castle was taller than I thought any building could be. The walls covered in moss and crumbled, windows broken or sheeted in dust. It looked like death and torture. It looked like hell.
The mob screamed and gasped as a green flicker shone through one of the dusty windows. I felt tense arms shove me forwards, the Mayor caught me before I fell and with an unhuman growl he walked me towards the front door. I struggled to stay upright at the speed of which he was taking me, we stumbled up the steps and he slammed me against the door.
“Tell him our gratitude, the cursed do not belong with us as much as they do with him,” he sneered, his arm raised and I swore he was going to hit me, I closed my eyes but the pain never came. Instead, I heard the loud banging of wood as he knocked on the door, and then the cold chill of metal across my wrist. His smile grew curled and twisted as I looked down.
“You bastard!” I cried, hitting him in the chest with one arm, my other chained to the door handle of the castle. The Mayor has chained me to the gates of hell where demons were sure to find me. I planned on hitting him all night, until my arm grew tired and he grew sorry and let me go. But he left as soon as we came.
The others had left in a hurry the second I was pushed away, the last thing I saw was the Mayor flushed in light as lightning struck a tree in the forest, his face looked corrupted, changed with evil as he glanced at me through the woods before disappearing inside them. All was silent and still beside the thunder, the crackling of a forest fire starting to burn and the heaving of my lungs as I cried.
I wasn’t left in silence for long. I held my hand to my mouth when I could hear the sound of footsteps, shallow and clicking on the castle floor. I did pray then, I prayed that if I stayed quite enough The Beast would never find me, or that the town would come back and hold me until I forgave them. But I would never forgive them for what they’ve done to me, and as the footsteps got louder I knew my prayers would not be answered.
The door slid open slowly, each inch forcing me to stumble inside the castle as I cried out, my wrist twisting painfully against the door. But my cry fell silent at the sight before me.
“Ach!” the voice was as dark and dusty as the rest of the castle. I wondered for a moment if it was a man? If it was even human at all? Staring up at me with large and beady eyes, wrinkled over and harsh, was a creature less than half my size, a candle held between his long, pale fingers. He stared at me with a deep frown, he looked ancient but oddest of all was his ears, long and pointed and drooping down his long face, rivaling the size of his pointed nose.
Something caught between a growl and a rumble left him as he finally went to speak. “What brings you to the nobel and most ancient house of Black?” said the thing, he was insulting in the way he spoke, but perhaps most shocking was the sadness hidden in the words.
“I-” he cut me off with a sigh as his eyes landed on my wrist.
“Who dares vandalize the nobel house of Black,” he hissed, the venom in his eyes nearly knocking me off my feet.
“I didn’t-” I was cut off once again from another voice, soft and low like a somber song.
“Let them in,” said the voice, I could tell it was a man but as I tried to see inside the castle there was no one there, only shadows and endless hallways. The voice was calming in a way where I didn’t flinch at the leathery and cold feeling of the beast helping my hand out of the chains. My heart was no longer racing but perhaps that was the most dangerous thing about certain predators, they never let you know when you’re in danger.
“My name is (Y/N),” I said. I wanted to kick myself for the shaking in my voice. The little beast and wonder before me grimaces as he bowed,
“Kreacher,” he said, “loyal house elf to Sir Regulus Black.”