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danetobelieve · 4 years

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If You Go Down To The Woods Tonight || Solo

Winston fucks up.

Sometimes you have moments when you really realise that you fucked up.

This can happen in a million ways, maybe you’d previously justified it to yourself. Somehow you’d told yourself lies and made excuses for why this wasn’t your fault and why what was happening was to blame on someone else, but in that very moment you know that this was no one’s fault but your own.

Winston was feeling that now.

Their arms burned as they did everything they could to stop the snapping iron teeth from clamping down on their jugular and draining them of any blood they had in their veins.

In that exact moment, Winston was reminded of everyone of their teachers who’d had this misfortune of teaching them their very worst subject. They would all be feeling incredibly smug now. Not to mention Ricky, who had loudly and vehemently told them not to do what they were currently doing, going after the Asanbosam was stupid.

Hindsight was also 2020.

Winston had assumed that they would be fine, after all they had magic and they knew what they were doing. They’d pretty much spent the entire time since Ricky had been hospitalised reading up about the best way to deal with vampires, the Scribe library had more information then Winston could’ve imagined and they’d learned the proper way to create and treat a stake so it was most effective against vampires.

They’d collected their supplies together in a small rucksack before sunset. Before leaving they had assessed the assorted and very odd collection on their bed. A crucifix, a vial of holy water, three stakes, a flashlight, some flares that they’d found in one of Dee’s shed (they’d also found some buckshot but had been too afraid to ask Dee if they could borrow her gun), some energy bars and a very sugary drink had all been packed into the bag alongside a first aid kit and their phone, wallet, keys and some headphones.

They’d set out into the night, still driving Ricky’s very dented truck, hoping that the scent of Selkie would be thick enough on it to attract the Asanbosam like it had last time. They drove quickly as the sun began to set and a very full moon began to rise, they were heading for the spot where they had been attacked. Parking the truck up on a small country alley they carefully hiked to where Ricky had been dragged from the truck. Reaching their destination, settled down to wait.

It took them ... maybe ... five minutes to get bored.

Originally they’d planned to sit their vigilant, watching like a hawk, ears like a fox, crouching like a tiger, hidden like a dragon. There could be no distractions, only focus. All of their senses had to be entirely fixated on the task at hand. After all, just a single clue missed could lead to their death or worse, the Asanbosam getting away. But it had taken maybe ten minutes more before they’d compromised with their own boredom and slipped a single ear bud into their left ear and had started listening to a podcast.

Even then, it had taken hours before anything happened. They kept looking at their watch, the seconds ticking away into minutes, the minutes turning to hours and by eleven in the evening Winston was convinced that they weren’t going to find anything.

Maybe all of this had been a waste of time.

Their eyes began to grow heavy, and it didn’t take long until they felt themselves dozing off.

They jerked awake, pulling the energy drink from their bag and drinking it as quick as they could. Swallowing mouthful after mouthful of the fizzy and somewhat artificial tasting drink praying that this was going to help keep them awake.

It was in that moment that Winston decided that ‘stake outs’ sucked. They was bored, they were tired, they were uncomfortable, their neck was sore and they were literally no closer to dealing with the thing that had put their best friend in the hospital.

But they’d waited this long and they weren’t going home without doing what they’d come to do, so they kept going.

An hour or so later and they heard it.

The rustling of the trees. The leaves and branches moving as a silent weight danced from branch to bough to trunk.

Winston held their breath, convinced that their moment had finally come. After all of the boredom, after all of the discomfort that evening held in store for them. After ignoring all of their friends' texts, after ignoring Ricky’s advice, after everything that they weren’t doing that they knew that they should be doing.

Winston was going to get the chance for vengeance and to keep the community that they loved safe.

They waited, and they waited, they watched the time tick by on their right wrist.

Yet there was nothing.

They waited some more.

Still nothing.

A further five minutes and they were convinced they had imagined the sounds.

They had obviously made a mistake. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t them, they weren’t a slayer and they weren’t qualified to be out here.

They wrestled down their anxiety, but there was a single thought that wouldn’t leave them alone, that kept bubbling to the top of their thoughts and stream of consciousness.

Maybe this was too much, maybe they should leave.

They sat there for five minutes longer, waiting in silence, arguing with themself. Should they stay or should they go?

Then a branch cracked and without warning the face of the Asanbosam had come into view.

Winston remembered seeing it in the darkness int that moment. They weren’t sure what had happened to it, but it seemed to have obviously been in a fight of some sort, and Winston didn’t just mean from the other night when it had attacked Ricky. This was something more. It’s tail in particular looked as if it had been badly burned by something or by someone. There were grizzly slashes and claw marks along the things' side and dark ichor like blood still seeped from some of it’s wounds. It glinted gently in the rays of moonlight.

But Winston didn’t really have time to pay attention to any of that, because it’s eyes were what terrified Winston the most.

Two crimson spheres hanging maybe a foot away from their face. Winston was so shocked that they barely had time to yelp before a clawed foot swung down and pinned their shoulder to the tree trunk. Painfully Winston felt their flesh tear as the claw rended it apart. The asanbosam hoisted them upwards, dragging them off of the ground so that their feet hung there. Helplessly they flailed, kicking their legs, hoping to push this thing away.

They panicked, trying to think. They had prepared for this. They remembered that the vial of Holy water was in their jacket pocket and with their free arm they reached for it, managing to fish it out and pull the cork off of the top of the vial with fingers that shook and fumbled.

They tried to throw it at the thing, but their throwing arm had never been quarter back worthy, they’d never been a pitcher and they weren’t about to start now. With that throw they were convinced that they wouldn’t have even made it onto a children’s softball team, let alone something like little league.

The vial didn’t even shatter, it just bounced off of the Asanbosam’s burned and clawed skin. There was a sizzle as a few drops sprinkled on it’s skin, but Winston watched as the majority of the holy water leaked out of the vial as it hit the ground. It didn’t take the soil long to absorb it all.

Winston was panicking now, the other clawed foot was digging into their shoulder and as they scrabbled for the stake, they knew that they were quickly running out of options.

Their skinny fingers were sweaty as nerves encompassed them. They stretched and groaned, doing everything that they could to reach the pocket of their jeans in which they had stowed their stake, they struggled and flexed but to no avail.

The claw dug into their shoulder, cutting it deeper then it previously had and Winston screamed in pain as they felt blood seep into their clothes.

They knew they had no choice, the vampire leered down at them. It’s iron jaws snapping as it prepared to kill Winston, ripping out their throat and feasting on their blood. Winston panicked, and with the last of their strength they caught the mouth.

They could see the time ticking past on their watch.

3:15:17.

3:15:18.

3:15:19.

The vampire forced itself closer, Winston’s own meager strength hardly enough to keep it’s jaws from closing and certainly not enough to stop it in the long run.

It was almost as if they could feel the cogs of their watch turning and whirring on their wrist, time was running out and Winston would be dead any moment soon if they didn’t do something. Do anything.

They weren’t entirely sure what happened next, the vampire moved in to bite, Winston knew that they couldn’t stop this thing forever, they would have to give in soon.

A final surge of adrenaline shot through them, a last stand, they had never got that movie analogy until now, but as the power erupted from them they had to admit that they couldn’t tell you what had happened, all they knew was that one moment they were being pinned to a tree and the next the Asanbosam was cowering away from it.

Winston wasn’t sure where the fire had erupted from, they were glad however that fire was apparently the element they could control, or at least magic, they weren’t sure why but it came easiest to them.

Exhausted as they were, they scrabbled on the ground and plucked up the stake. The Asambosam had clearly been hurt already, then it had been severely burned by Winston. It tried to get away, tried to crawl from Winston, but Winston was quicker, despite the fact that their bones felt like lead and the exertion it took to scoop up the stake was greater then any they’d experienced.

Stumbling, they managed to pin the thing to the ground, raising the stake, they drove it downwards through the chest of the asanbosam and through it’s heart.

It turned to dust immediately, and as the thing dissolved into ash, tears began to freely roll down Winston’s face as they sat their covered in vampire dust.

#wickedswriting #If You Go Down To The Woods Tonight #para #solo #wickedsolo

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