Work Text:
Prologue
Chapter:
The Dark Horse
Pain
That is all they felt as they lay on the destroyed cemented road. They groaned as the throbbing pain in the back of their head grew even worse with each passing second. The sound of the ground rumbling caught their attention and, despite being disoriented, they were able to lift their head from the ground and turn in the direction they heard the rumbling coming from. In the distance, they saw a tall building crumbling down as the walls were blown into the air and landing on the ground with a loud thud, along with the shattering of windows planes, and car alarms going off as they got crushed by the debris. The screams, cries, and yells of all the men, women, and children have long been silenced.
‘What the hell happened?’
A thought came to them as they shakily got themselves up on their feet, only then had they taken into account how badly they were injured: Their clothes -or was it a uniform?- while some gashes were splayed on their exposed skin, some were old and some were new, but this was nothing that they couldn’t fix, right?
They experienced , survived through so much worse, they were trained to deal with this kind of stuff, they’ll live, right? Right. A deep breath was heard from them, briefly wincing from the ache of their ribs, their eyes closed as they concentrated as much as they could on the excruciating pain from their head as it seemed to sharpen for a split second before turning it into a dull numbing sensation, a breath of relief escaped from their lips as some of the gashes on their skin, bruising, and any other injuries had begun to heal themselves.
With blurred vision, they were barely able to make out the deserted streets and night sky that glowed with a bright red-orange hue from the burning buildings within the vicinity. The smoke flowed out of the broken windows and the fumes in the air weren’t any better as it got to the point of almost suffocating, their eyes watered, and their lungs were starting to burn from inhaling it. Despite the soreness in their arms, they quickly placed one of them over to cover their nose and mouth and broke out into a jog, or in their case into a hobble, as fast as they could.
They made their way over, avoiding rubble and other debris from broken construction, to where a slanted lamp post was close to falling - the light bulb was barely flicking- and just before they could take a step away, they were able to catch an almost inaudible groan of pain off to the left of them and with a head turn they were barely able to make out a silhouette on the ground. Upon further inspection, they felt their breath get caught in their throat as they were able to see who it was; their sibling, their twin .
In a few quick steps, they made their way over to them, stumbling a little as they trip over a brick that lay a few inches away from their twin who was lying on their side. A glance was all that it took for them to see how badly injured they were; their arms had cuts scattered all over them - most of them being across their arms and some on the face- and blood had dried around the cuts, they also noticed some light bruising on their exposed skin, they grew worried once that was able to make out the dried blood from the corner of their forehead, carefully they raised a hand and ran their fingers across the spot and luckily the gashed was sealed, concluding that they too had healed themself before losing consciousness- with a sigh of relief and their shoulders sagged from the tension they then laid beside their twin, wrapping their arms around them and pulling in close. Their twin breathing was a comforting sign that they were still here, injured and unconscious, but still here.
Before they could close their eyes the sound of something trotting against the broken street, and the distinctive sound of wheels squeaking caught their attention, looking back up they saw a dark figure in the distance that was coming in their direction, and even though it was far they couldn’t help but feel a slight shudder as they noticed a slight shift within the air, it also didn’t help that it has glowing red eyes.
Once the figure had come within proximity they were able to see that the dark figure was in the shape of a horse and the shadow-like tendrils that wisped in the wind from the top of its head to the back of its neck represented its mane, as if sensing their stare it let out a pleased neigh, almost like in approval or if it had found what it was looking for. Their vision had started to blur once more, whether it was from the fumes or just complete exhaustion they didn’t know, the sound of a door creaking opening was the last thing they heard before falling into unconsciousness themself.
“For me.
For them.
For you.
We are all running out of time.
No matter what, never let go of my hand.”