Sanctuary

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  Tyler was running. They were all running. Left Paw kept pace with them, racing along in the trees, guiding them. It was just a little further. There would be a break in the trees and a path and a cabin. Thana’s cabin. Where Benji was.

  Sarah was faster than Tyler. She dislodged her pack from her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground with a thud, and raced ahead. Grandpa motioned for Left Paw to follow her. No one was speaking. They couldn’t, they were all breathing too hard, trying to get to Benji. Sarah disappeared around a bend in the trees with Left Paw’s red form beside her. Tyler shed his own pack and tried to run faster. He felt, more than saw, Grandpa do the same. Without the added weight, Tyler broke away from his grandfather and sped onwards.

  Tyler broke into a reed strewn clearing ahead of Grandpa. He heard a scream as he rounded the mountain ledge and spotted a gray cabin. The door was wide open, the space beyond glowing strangely. He leapt over the threshold and almost crashed into Left Paw who was growling at a tall spidery woman. The room was so bright, Tyler went blind for a moment.

  In the few moments it took for Grandpa to get there, Tyler’s eyes struggled to adjust. The old man charged through the door behind him, tumbling into Tyler. Grandpa rubbed his eyes against the brightness, but Tyler’s vision was already beginning to clear. A dark, spindly woman was leaning over Benji, pulling at some kind of white light. Except the light was coming from Benji’s chest! Sarah had apparently charged the Immortal and knocked the woman over, but her long gray fingers still clung to the stream of light, pulling it out of Benji’s body.

  Sound melded into white noise. Everything blurred together. Tyler froze in the doorway, watching his sister struggle with Thana. Left Paw suddenly rammed Thana’s side and she shifted to fall on top of Sarah. The woman was grinning like a jack o’ lantern, still pulling the glow out of Benji’s chest. Sarah tried to grab her hand and Tyler saw a needle clasped in it, somehow attached to Benji with the light. Left Paw tried to bite Thana’s wrist, but she flung him back into a stone wall with enough force that the wolf yelped and whimpered.

  Sarah was pinned and the Immortal took advantage of her leverage banging Sarah’s head into the floor. Grandpa tried to rush the woman, but he was flung back, his head hitting the stone wall with a resounding crack.

  Tyler, suddenly unfrozen, tried to fake her out. He went left and then lunged right, jumping over Sarah and tackling the woman. Left Paw appeared beside him, his large paws holding Thana down as she screeched in rage. Sarah staggered up and grabbed the hand holding the needle, prying it out of her gray fingered grip. Her purple eyes bugged out of her head. She screeched and hissed in rage and tried to lunge up, but Tyler slammed her shoulders back into the ground at the same time Left Paw jumped back onto her chest. Her head hit the dirt floor with a loud crack and she was still.

  Breathing heavy, Tyler turned to check on Benji. Sarah was guiding the needle back to his chest. The light went with it. It was some kind of string, a glowing thread retracting back into Benji’s body. When the tip of the needle touched Benji’s chest the light disappeared leaving the room dim and shadowy. The sound of rushing water echoed hollowly in the cabin.

  “We need to leave,” Left Paw growled. He was trying to help Grandpa up, but the old man wasn’t conscious.

  “Can you take Benji?” Sarah directed the question at Tyler. He nodded and knelt, lifting Benji into his arms. He couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not, but he didn’t wake when Tyler lifted him.

  Sarah roused Grandpa, but he was unsteady, barely managing to walk with his hand braced on Left Paw’s back. “We have to get off the mountain,” Grandpa yelled over the watery din. Sarah took some of Grandpa’s weight and they hurried out of the cabin. Tyler glanced at the dark woman on the floor. Sticky black blood was oozing onto the dirt. He had no idea what Thana had done to his brother, but in that moment, Tyler was glad he hurt her.

  The injured troupe zigged and zagged its way back down the dirt path as fast as they could manage, collecting their fallen gear along the way. Tyler practically slid down the mountain with Benji cradled against him. His pack was a dragging weight that hindered his balance. Grandpa fell a few times and Sarah and Left Paw strained to carry his weight. Sarah slung Grandpa’s gear across Left Paw’s back, but it didn’t make it much easier for the old man.

  The journey seemed to take hours, but they reached the foot of the mountain just as the last rays of sun disappeared. The wolf left Grandpa and Sarah abruptly, snatching his bundle from Tyler’s pack and careening into the forest when the last echoes of daylight faded. Tyler sank to his knees where he stood with Benji still gripped in his aching arms. With exhausted irrelevance, he realized the whole ordeal took barely half an hour.

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  Chapter 30: Another Secret