Chris NightOwl's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Chris climbed out of the pit as the sky went wrong. It was full night now, and the stars had dimmed. Above the rooftops, two eyes opened in the dark. They were huge and yellow, wider than the whole neighborhood. They found him at once. The thing was already dropping toward him, fast, and the pull in his chest matched every foot it fell. He gripped the amulet and made himself stand still on the broken ground. He knew almost nothing. He did not know what it wanted, or how it would strike. Guessing wrong could get his neighbors killed before he raised a hand. Behind him sat his own house, its porch light still burning, and past a leaning fence stood a dense wall of tall hemp plants swaying in the wind the creature pushed ahead of it. People were in these houses. He could not fight blind and hope. So Chris opened himself to the thing instead. He let the hum in his skull run both ways, out toward those eyes. He asked it, without words, what it had come for. The answer poured back and nearly dropped him to his knees. It did not want the town. It did not even want him dead. It wanted what he wore. The amulet. The starlight in his hands. The eyes were hungry, and the hunger was aimed at his power alone. The creature believed the gift of the red moon belonged to it, and it had woken to take it back. That changed everything. Chris did not have to guess anymore. He knew the one thing it would reach for. He made the choice fast. He would not defend the amulet. He would use it as bait. He lifted the chain off his neck and held it up so the gold caught the light. The eyes fixed on it and the creature dove, all its weight aimed at his raised hand. It had stopped watching the houses. It watched only the prize. At the last second Chris flung the amulet sideways, into the tall hemp field, and threw both hands up at the diving eyes. Starlight tore out of him, white and hard, straight into the face of the thing. It shrieked. The blast did not kill it. But it knocked the creature off its line, and it crashed past the rooftops into the empty ground beyond, far from the sleeping houses. Chris stood in the smoke and breathed. He had drawn first blood and learned the thing's one weakness. It craved the amulet more than anything. Then the cold hit him. He had thrown the amulet away. Without it, the wild heat was already rising again behind the cracked wall inside him, and his hands began to shake with light he could not hold. He turned toward the hemp field to find the gold. The creature, wounded and furious, was already dragging itself upright to find it too.