Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 7: To Fight the Fright

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"I don't know what the hell's in there--but it's weird and it's pissed off!" - The Thing (1982)

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It looked like those monsters – trolls, Sasuke now knew they were called – were everywhere outside of the house.

"Those monsters are freaky," Naruto said in horror, inching closer to Sasuke on the bed. Dimly Sasuke was strangely grateful that he wasn't the only one completely terrified at their current situation.

"They're not monsters. They're fairies," Mikoto said very quietly. Naruto turned a disbelieving and incredulous glance her way, before his head whipped back around to once again look at the gray-skinned things crawling outside their window.

"Why aren't they coming in?" Naruto asked. Sasuke weakly turned his head to give Naruto an incredulous look of his own.

"Shouldn't we just be grateful that they're not?" Sasuke asked.

"It's the light. They shy away from it. If you look closely, they don't stay at the window long. They take turns looking in at us because even looking in at the light hurts them. The refraction from the window glass prevents the light from hitting their skin directly, but it’s still unpleasant for them."

It was maddening for Sasuke to hear his mother talk about those things out there so calmly, as though she were explaining the strange habits of a newly discovered creature.

"When morning comes, they'll retreat. The light of the sun will agonize them."

"Are they like vampires or something? Afraid of the light?" Naruto asked.

"Actually, they have been linked throughout history as sort of vampire types. Naturally their decayed look and the coldness that they radiate give them a very stereotypical vampire look. But are they vampires? No. They don’t suck blood. No, the story of vampires dates back centuries, becoming most famous during the time of Vlad the Impaler..."

Sasuke was only paying half attention to his mother, lost in his own thoughts.

His world had turned so upside down the past few days; he didn’t know what was going on anymore. Secret upon secret had been kept from him and Naruto. He was apparently a fairy. Fairy. Sasuke almost snorted. Those troll things were fairies too. The thought that he was closer to those monsters than humans was unnerving.

Sasuke only barely registered his mother's calming voice as she went over the history of how Vlad the Impaler had been wronged for something or other, and how he'd ended up seeking his revenge by killing off lots of people and impaling their dead bodies on stakes for others to see – hence how Vlad the Impaler received his name. There was something also about how he actually drank the blood of the people he slaughtered – another reference to the vampire thing.

"But what might really interest you, is that the name of Vlad the Impaler's father is Dracul, and in their language, Dracula, means son of Dracul. So in fact, author Bram Stoker based his novel off of that name versus the original name he was going to use for Count Dracula: Count Wampyr."

"Count Wampyr? That sounds like another way of saying Count Vampire, only with an accent, and not quite as scary," Naruto said, his eyes drawn back to Mikoto's.

At least Naruto found his mother’s story interesting enough to draw his attention away from those hideous things outside the window.

"I think it would have been a scarier name if we’d never heard of the name Dracula. We’re just used to hearing Dracula instead of Wampyr. Of course, historians argue that Bram Stoker didn't really base his character off of Vlad the Impaler, but historians will debate over anything if you give them enough time to do so. Put ten historians in a room, and you'll get twenty different opinions."

Naruto pondered the math for a moment and finally gave a little laugh at her joke. Sasuke knew his mother was trying to distract their attention from the monsters, but it wasn’t working for him. There were monsters outside his window, and even though he knew what they were, he couldn't think of them as fairies.

Naruto seemed less panicked now, the story clearly interesting to him.

Sasuke wished it had calmed him down. Instead, images of those gray-skinned creatures sprouting fangs with a thirst for his blood filled his mind. The memory of his first encounter with them when he was four rushed back to him, and he shuddered as he remembered that cold feeling. The thought made him slightly sick to his stomach.

Not to mention the fact that he felt extraordinarily weak. What was he to do if the monsters decided to rush them and destroy the light? There was no way that Sasuke could do anything akin to fighting. Hell, he didn't think he'd be able to run from them, let alone try and defend himself.

"...they’re more like stereo-typical trolls in what history has described them."

"Trolls? Isn’t that their name? Why aren’t they just classified as just trolls, and not fairies?" Sasuke said, catching the tail end of his mother's latest stream of babble.

"But trolls are a type of fairy due to their semi-magical abilities, I already told you that," Mikoto explained.

It didn't matter if they were fairies or not. Thinking of them as trolls was easier than fairies. Fairy – he was a fairy. Or so his mother said. He didn't want to try and relate what he was to what those things were. Troll and fairy were very different in his opinion.

Then again if he were considered a fairy, it was very different that those little cutesy things he'd seen on television. Maybe he could rename himself as something other than a fairy. If he knew what “abilities” he supposedly had, badass sorcerer might be a good thing to rename himself as.

"So fire fairies due stuff with fire, right? Why don't you just make a fire and have them disappear? Shouldn’t all that light scare them away?" Naruto asked Mikoto curiously.

"First of all sweetheart, the size of a fire to scare all of these trolls away would burn the house down with us inside. We'd die. Second," Mikoto said, unaware of the blanch on Naruto's face, "I am a fire and muse fairy descendant. However, my abilities lie more toward a muse fairy."

"What can muse fairies do?" Sasuke asked interested. He was part muse fairy as well after all.

"Muse fairies do things with the mind, influence memory, cast illusions – mostly called glamour. Glamour is a type of illusion that allows fairies to hide their appearance. I've been keeping up a ward on the house that makes it impossible for other fairies to tell that it's here. Naruto, when I first heard that your house was house-napped, as you had said, I thought it was just that there was a strong illusion placed on the house to make it invisible to magic users. Knowing the location, I could tell that there was no magical illusion. The house was actually gone."

"Hey!" Naruto said excitedly, "Could you just use an illusion to make them think it was daylight outside so they’d want to go away now?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto. "That's a good idea," Sasuke murmured.

"You sound surprised," Naruto said, sounding rather huffy.

"Is it possible? Could you do that?" Sasuke asked his mother. Mikoto looked thoughtful.

"You know, it is possible. However..." she trailed off.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, looking slightly crest-fallen that his idea wouldn't work. Sasuke mused it was almost amusing that Naruto had been so against the idea of them being fairies, and now he was the one who had thought about the fact that she could use magic.

"I might have enough strength to make it appears like daylight outside. The only problem with that is then we would then need to attempt to vacate the house as soon as possible."

"Attempt?"

"They would realize that it was an illusion after a couple of minutes, and try and storm the house. There’s no guarantee that they will not stop crawling over the house, and we’d still have to attempt to get through a sea of troll bodies. Plus, the fact that they are all over the house and that there is not a horde of police cars outside means that there are other fairies here, non troll fairies. Either way, several other fairies most likely know the general location of where you are, Naruto. That's why I said that I would have told you sooner rather than later that you were fairies, or in Naruto’s case, a mix of things, because I could tell that others were coming close."

"Then why didn't we run for it sooner?" Sasuke asked.

"Never run from a horde of trolls. It only excites them."

Naruto shuddered.

"Do you remember sweetheart? They attacked you. That's how you came to be with us. You were attacked and your mother sent you here. You had claw marks down your back. That is one of the worst things about the trolls. Their nails are lethal, and they have a numbing poison that makes the wound worse."

"No, I don't remember."

"I remember. I woke up covered in blood," Sasuke said. "But..." Sasuke stopped, his head throbbing slightly. The memories were coming more freely now. He remembered how Dr. Ibiki had said that he wasn't supposed to tell his mother that they had talked about the monsters, and that Sasuke had been the one to save Naruto.

"But how did he survive? Was it because we heal each other?" Sasuke asked, trying to word it carefully. There was a strong urge for him not to mention that he’d talked with Dr. Ibiki.

"Heal each other?" Naruto repeated, confused. Sasuke nodded.

A large pounding at the window made them jump, and one of the trolls dragged its nails down the pane of glass slowly, a horrendous screeching noise reverberating through the room. The lights flickered dimly.

"Do you have any flashlights?" Mikoto asked as she turned to rummage through their closet. Naruto turned toward his former dresser.

"I had an froggie flashlight in here, but I don't know what of my stuff got moved," Naruto said as he rifled through the bottom of the drawer. Sasuke noticed that the drawers were definitely a lot emptier, but the frog flashlight was still thankfully hidden at the back. Naruto clicked it on to make sure it still worked.

Sasuke turned toward his dresser, and tentatively reached out a hand to point out where a small flashlight sat. His body still felt extremely weak, and he felt silly when his mother had to hand him the flashlight.

"There're a few in the closet. We had the one that changed colors when you moved the different lenses. You know, the one with the purple lens that kept breaking?" Naruto said, reminding Sasuke. Sasuke nodded. Naruto had bought it at the store because he liked how the lights changed to all the colors of the rainbow. However, when he got home, the purple lens had shattered. When he took it back to get another one, that purple lens had also shattered. Naruto just decided to use all the other colors. As long as the orange lens worked, he was pretty satisfied.

"What about that maglite flashlight?" Sasuke asked. As Sasuke was still weary, Naruto decided to dig through the closet to look on his own.

All in all, as Naruto searched through their closet, he ended up finding seven more flashlights: the multi-colored-lens flashlight (with the broken purple lens), a small key chain flashlight, a small hand held mirror that had a light in it, two maglites, and two larger flashlights.

Naruto grabbed one of the large flashlights, pointed it directly at the window where the trolls were moving back and forth, and clicked the on button.

The flashlight didn't work.

"That was anti-climatic," Naruto grunted as he grabbed the other larger flashlight.

He pointed it at he floor to make sure this one worked. Once he was satisfied, he pointed the light out the window, right toward the trolls and turned that one on.

The effect was immediate. Sasuke had to put his hands over his ears at the shrieking the trolls made, as well as the sound of their nails screeching along the paneling as they did their best to move away from the window as fast as possible.

"Please don't antagonize them dear. They're not very pleasant when agitated," Mikoto reprimanded slightly.

"No kidding," Naruto said, as he put a knuckle behind his ear and rubbed.

"What's that?" Mikoto asked as she peeked into the closet, gesturing to a box on the floor.

"What's what?" Naruto asked, leaning back around to look at what she was looking at. "Oh! That was a birthday present I bought for Sasuke. I don't remember giving it to him. Happy belated birthday Sasuke!" Naruto said grinning. Sasuke looked at the box. A pang of guilt filled Sasuke. He hadn’t been able to give Naruto his birthday present because of everything that had happened on Naruto’s birthday and since then.

Then again, as Sasuke really looked at the box, he realized what it was.

It was the box for the black light that Naruto had given him for his eighteenth birthday. Naruto hadn't forgotten to give it to him. He just didn't remember because Itachi had made them forget due to what they had done underneath that black light.

"A black light?" Mikoto asked, her voice sounding worried, more worried than when she had talked about the trolls outside.

"You did give it to me. It broke, remember?" Sasuke said, trying to sound as though having the black light didn’t matter.

"Uh, it did?" Naruto asked. He rubbed the back of his head. "Why didn't I go back and get-"

"Could we have used it against the trolls?" Sasuke asked his mother, effectively cutting off Naruto. Mikoto paused for a moment.

"Not quite." She turned to look at the black light box, then at Naruto, and then back at Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't help the blush on his face. "I see," she murmured.

"What do you see? Are they doing something again?" Naruto wondered anxiously. He looked out the window to see if she was looking at the trolls, but Naruto didn’t see how her gaze never left Sasuke's.

"We'll speak later," Mikoto said to Sasuke before she turned her attention to Naruto. Sasuke swallowed. Did she know? How could she know? Yet with the black light…something weird had definitely happened underneath the black light. Maybe she could explain it.

Naruto jumped back as claws reappeared at the window, making more screeching sounds. Naruto grunted in frustration.

"No fire because the house will burn down. No illusion because there's another fairy that will find us. What the hell are we supposed to do?" Naruto demanded as he paced back and forth. His pacing stopped when the lights flickered off and then on again. "They're going to turn the lights off sooner or later," Naruto noted, his voice hitching slightly in fear.

"It appears we'll need to fight, but I've never been good at fighting, and you two don't have any idea how to use the magic inside you."

"We would have if you had just told us sooner!" Sasuke accused. He rubbed his head, frustrated, and more than a little scared. They had flashlights now, but what good would that do against the number of trolls outside? And he was still feeling exhausted. "I feel crippled," Sasuke groaned out, hating to admit to that weakness. "Can Naruto heal me?" Sasuke asked, looking at his mother hopefully.

"That's right, you said something about being able to heal. Something else I supposedly don't remember yet?" Naruto asked.

"The claw marks on your back – I healed those. Didn't I?" Sasuke asked, directing his confirmation toward his mother.

"It appears that way."

"How? Can Naruto make me stronger now? If we touch, we heal each other, right?" Sasuke asked.

"It's not quite that simple sweetie," Mikoto said, looking sad.

"Well-"

"We'll speak about it later," Mikoto said. Sasuke frowned. She used the same tone in her voice when she had when talking about the black light. It didn't sound reassuring.

They fell silent after a while. There was so much to talk about that it made it difficult to say anything at all. Sasuke felt weak lying on the bed and felt his headache getting worse.

Naruto kept pacing back and forth, glancing out the window. Mikoto looked contemplative.

"Can we call for help or something?" Naruto asked after awhile, pulling out his cell phone from his pocket.

"Who do we call, the police? Yes, I can see that conversation now. Excuse me operator, there are trolls climbing all over the house, and if they scratch you their claws have a poisonous substance in them that causes greater bleeding, but an anesthetic in it that you can't feel it as you bleed to death. They're afraid of light, so just shine a big beam at the house, but be careful because when you do that because fire fairies will come and probably set you on fire! Oh, and I’m sure they’ll believe all that!" Sasuke snapped.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Naruto demanded angrily, shoving his phone back in his pocket.

"It was a stupid idea!"

"At least I'm trying to think of what to do!"

"Naruto, Sasuke, calm down!"

Sasuke turned his head away, feeling ashamed of himself. He shouldn't have snapped at Naruto like that. He just felt frustrated at his helplessness.

"What other fairies do you think are out there?" Sasuke asked. "And why aren't they doing anything to try and get to us?" Sasuke asked after a while.

"There is a long standing ward on the house. No fairies can see the house. In fact, at the moment, if they were standing by the street, they wouldn't even be able to see the trolls on the house, let alone the house itself. Due to the ward, they can't do anything magical to us until we leave the house."

"But the trolls – aren't they fairies?"

"Yes, but they're a type of Sound fairy which means that they actually see very little to begin with. Light wavelengths hurt them because they’re more intoned with sound wavelengths. Trolls, like all fairies, are sensitive to light depending on their type. Sound fairies don't really see, per se, but anything with a wavelength shorter than 800nm in length, hurts not only their eyesight but also their entire body. While they’re more sensitive to sound, and due to the fact that all fairies are sensitive to certain types of light, the way light affects them is amplified. Trolls are more sensitive to sounds, which are wavelengths that range from millimeters to meters in length. It’s a trade off."

"Wait, wait, I'm lost," Naruto said, rubbing his head in confusion.

"It's physics," Sasuke said, trying not to sound snappish. This was the information that he wanted to hear. Light affected fairies. He'd been affected by light – by that black light.

"I never took physics. Please don't try and explain this to me right now. I've had lots of explanations for one day. Just give it to me non-scientific or non-magical. Simplify it for me," Naruto pleaded.

"Trolls use a type of sonar so they don't need light to see. They also aren't as magical as other fairies, so they can get inside the ward by listening. Right now they are literally feeling their way around the house. Other fairies would be more affected by the ward around the house. At least, I think so. I thought that even trolls wouldn’t be able to get by the ward on the house, but they must have some other ability that I’m not aware of."

"Sensitive to sound – you mean they can hear everything we've said?" Sasuke asked, mortified.

"Of course not. I made sure to put up a sound barrier ward around us when I realized they were on the house. It helps them from hearing us, and they can't actually see us – though apparently light still affects them as that flashlight scared them off – but they know we're here because of the lack of sound. It's like a dead zone, telling them that we're right here."

"That's why they haven't come inside yet. They can't tell where things are!" Naruto said in understanding.

"Yes, and no. The do know where we are, and that’s enough for them to trap us. And they are in the house."

"What?" Naruto breathed.

"They're on the first floor, trapped in your bedroom. They came in when I went to look for you, Naruto. I had little time to deal with them. It was quite a shock, I must say, to see them coming from inside your room. They got in through the window, and since your lights were off they were able to come in through your new room. Of course they didn't get very far as the hall light was on, but I feel rather foolish for not thinking to turn on all the lights in the house."

Sasuke felt his face pale. They'd come in through Naruto's room. If Naruto had been there...

"Why can't we hear them?" Naruto asked.

"We can. That's why the hissing's so loud," Sasuke said in realization.

"What about-"

The lights flickered off before flickering back on. Naruto jumped, and Sasuke squeezed the flashlight in his hand. Even Mikoto's calm exterior was finally crumbling. The banging at the window intensified when the lights had flickered off, and to Sasuke's horror, he noticed a slight crack in the glass of his bedroom window.

They all turned on their flashlights and kept them on.

"We're not going to make it till sunrise," Mikoto murmured.

"What're we going to do? Fight them? Shine light at them?" Naruto asked, gripping his flashlight tighter. It was scary to think that the trolls couldn’t see them, but could feel where the window was, and the only thing stopping them from bursting in were the lights.

"Once all the lights are off there will be too many of them for the flashlights to be effective. Sasuke, can you stand?"

No, Sasuke wanted to say, but he made the effort anyway. He swung his legs over the side of his bed, and though his head swam with the movements, he found that he could still stand, if dizzily.

"Naruto, can you carry Sasuke on your back?" Naruto nodded. Even if he wasn't able to, Sasuke had a feeling Naruto would have said yes anyway. Leaning down slightly, Naruto managed to hoist Sasuke onto his back.

Sasuke did his best to grip his arms around Naruto as tightly as possible without choking him. Being so flushed against Naruto made memories that Itachi had suppressed surface to his mind. Sasuke tried not to flinch away from touching Naruto as he knew keeping his body as rigid as possible would help Naruto better carry him. Dead weight was always so much heavier and harder to carry, and Sasuke didn't want to be any more of a burden than he already felt he was.

The lights flickered off again before flickering back on. Sasuke kept his light pointed at the window to prevent them from breaking more of the glass.

"We don't have much time. Sasuke, take Naruto and go when I tell you too. I'll meet up with you later."

Sasuke took a few moments to process his mother's words. The first thing he processed was that they were clearly running out of time. Second, she had told Sasuke to take Naruto. It was Naruto who had to take him. Sasuke couldn't move, so how was he supposed to take Naruto anywhere?

And third, why would his mom be meeting up with them later? What was she planning?

"Auntie, where am I taking Sasuke?" Naruto said, clearly not having heard Mikoto's misspeak.

"Somewhere well-lit, and public. Sasuke, I mean it – when I tell you to, go."

Naruto frowned at her, as she looked right at Sasuke when she spoke. Sasuke frowned too. What was she talking –

The lights flickered off, and this time, they stayed off. Naruto and Sasuke shone their lit flashlights at the window while Mikoto shined hers at the door.

The screeching and wailing of the trolls began to get louder, and Sasuke's heart raced. Every now and then a troll would get in the line of their flashlight and let out a screeching noise, but it was clear that the window glass breaking was the least of their problems.

More trolls had entered the house.

They could hear them moving around downstairs, and the sound of shattered glass from far away told them they’d broken in through more windows.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Sasuke's head shot toward the door as he heard them come up the steps and down from Itachi’s bedroom. BANG! BANG! BANG! The door began to shake with the force of the trolls' pounding. The door began to break.

The door splintered, and a fist shot through with long nails, though a few had broken from the harsh pounding. Mikoto shined her light at the hand, the skin of the troll's hand began to smoke as there was no glass to dampen the direct ray of light, making it screech in pain before pulling its hand back out from the hole.

Suddenly the entire door was off its hinges, the trolls using the door as a shield as they charged into the room, door in front of them to block the light.

"No!" Sasuke yelled as his mother took the hit from the trolls charging at her with the broken door, her flashlight getting knocked from her hand. The light shot across the room, and the trolls that had just stormed the door shrieked as the light hit them unexpectedly from behind.

The window glass shattered completely as more trolls began to rush them from the window, screeching and hissing as the light from their flashlight caught them in its rays.

"GO!" Mikoto bellowed, and suddenly Sasuke realized what his mother had meant.

Even in the middle of the chaos, a dim memory came to Sasuke's mind.

When they were both nine, Naruto had fallen from the monkey bars, and Sasuke had rushed to his side.

No, not just rushed to his side.

He'd flown.

Sasuke gripped Naruto harder, feeling a surge of adrenaline as he leaned forward, pushing Naruto's body weight forward. Sharp pains seared through his back, but the pain just fueled his adrenaline rush, and he felt a surge of strength enter his body. Naruto gave a startled yelp at Sasuke’s harsh grip, but Sasuke held Naruto tightly in his grasp.

Darting for the window, Sasuke narrowed his wings – wings! – letting Naruto shine his flashlight at the trolls (and kicking his feet wildly) as they flew through the window.

Sasuke felt the coldness of the night air assault him as he felt his wings beat higher and higher into the sky.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT! WE'RE FLYING!" Naruto screamed, half in terror half in excitement.

Sasuke felt a sense of euphoria as he flew through the air, and with a quick glance at his back, he took a look at his wings.

They were a fleshy-pale color, and for some unexpected reason, he couldn’t help but feel grateful they weren’t purple and pink butterfly wings like TV fairies were known to have.

But the adrenaline faded quickly even as Sasuke darted through the air, moving faster than he'd ever remember moving before, even in a car, and circled around until he came to the closest well-lit, public area: their school.

Sasuke half dropped and half rolled Naruto onto the ground, his already weakened body feeling even more drained and shaky. Exerting all that energy had taken a toll on his body.

Naruto was half-laughing half-crying at their quick get away from the trolls, but Sasuke wasn't able to share in with his laughter. The horrible realization crashed down on him that they’d left his mom back there alone with all those terrible monsters. Even as he tried to point this out to Naruto, he saw black creeping into the corner of his vision before he felt himself falling into unconsciousness.

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"The best way to fight the fear is to face it head on. And if whatever scares you is that scary, hightail it in the other direction." ~ Jelp

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Next Chapter: What Now?

Sorry for the lack of update last week. I was with my fiancé’s family. His aunt passed away. :( Next chapter will be in two weeks.

Anyway, I decided to post this chapter a little early because tomorrow I’m having a procedure done to my foot, and I don’t know if I’ll feel like updating tomorrow because a) I’ll be in too much pain due to the anti-cancerous fluid injections into the bottom of my foot or b) I’ll be so loopy from the oral vicodin. The last time I had this (only semi-successful) procedure done, it was extremely painful, and when I took the pain meds, well, let’s just say I wasn’t all there.

Wish me luck and hope I’m still coherent! (Oh, and what did you think of the chapter?) ~ Jelp