Work Text:
Maybe it had been your over-enthusiastic sense of adventure that had gotten you into this situation. You weren’t too sure.
You had always fancied yourself as somewhat of an urban explorer - a few YouTube videos were enough to instil a confidence that couldn’t be backed up with any experience, really; not unless you counted poking around in a few derelict old factories on the outskirts of town.
But you had heard of an old house that sat nestled in the heart of the woods, just outside town. It wasn’t too unusual, but the allure of the rumours that hung about that old house were what had caught your attention. They circulated around your sleepy little town like a common cold, the occasional topic that would rear its head when there really wasn’t anything else to talk about. Hey, did you hear about that house in the woods? Haunted, isn’t it?
That is how you found yourself in the aforementioned woods, just as the sun was setting. That hadn’t been intentional - you had been kept up at work, covering for a coworker that had called out sick last minute. So you had only begun the journey through the tree line as the sun was on the last leg of its descent, painting the sky a pale salmon.
You don’t know what you were expecting. You had always valued the opportunity to take a nice walk through the woodland - even if it was cold, and dark, and your allergies sometimes got the better of you. Maybe it was just the chance to peer into a part of the woods you hadn’t seen before - a chance to clear your head, and dwell on the day. Maybe it was the chance to have a good rummage through an old house; one time you had found an old picture book in a cupboard in a derelict old shack, and although it was usually common etiquette to leave things be, you couldn’t resist but to take it home. It was still sat in your dresser, grimy and wrinkled, an insight into the lives of people you would never meet.
You were dressed in your boots and big coat, but it did little to fight off the bitter chill that had been settling in over the past few days. You shivered, pulling your coat around you and stepping over a twisted root. You hadn’t had a very good day - a seemingly endless slew of problems and irritations that had slowly but persistently wriggled under your skin. You were glad to have some time to yourself.
You didn’t know exactly how far away this house was supposed to be, but you hoped it wasn’t too far. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, and it was getting dark and cold - quickly. The dark seeped through the trees like a fog, and you had kind of wished you had brought a torch or a flashlight or something. You didn’t even have your phone, deciding it would be best not to risk dropping and losing it like the clutz you were.
So, you stomped your way through the trees, relying only on the waning sunlight to guide you. You were hoping that wandering in the general direction would prove successful - you know the train station? Go down the path from there and follow it, it’s around there, somewhere. You would hate to get lost and have to spend the night trying to find your way out. You had work in the morning, and if you were tired from your woodland shenanigans, your boss would no doubt use it as an opportunity to complain.
About an hour into your adventure, when the sun had fully set and the thought of actually being lost was lingering on the fringes of your mind, you found it! Or, you found something that looked like it. Cloaked in darkness, the hulking shape of it was an intimidating shadow; it was a lot bigger than you expected, more of a mansion than a little hut, which is what the rumours had described it to be. You decided that it would be beautiful, newly built and bathed in the sunlight. Ornate windows that must have gleamed like gemstones were now dead and dark; ivy clung to brick walls, and shrubbery had overtaken the door and porch. A rusted little gate was all that separated you and the path to the front porch. It creaked open with an ominous whine, like a typical cliche, except it wasn’t funny and was rather disconcerting.
The wooden steps groaned under your ascent, and as you stood before the large front door, you had the fleeting thought to knock on it, just as a little joke. You decided against it, because the accompanying thought of something answering, or knocking back, made you shudder. The chance of the door being open at all was unlikely, you thought. Still, it was nice to see the outside of this beautiful house - to see what the rumours were borne from.
The wood was cold and chipped, sharp under your fingers. And, surprisingly, the door swung open easily. Air rushed out as the door gave way, stagnant and freezing. Only the vague shapes of old furniture could be seen through the darkness, and you wished once again you had brought a flashlight.
It would be a wasted trip if you didn’t at least have a look around. So, you shuffled through the doorway carefully, trying your best to avoid any cracks in the floor or unexpected obstacles.
You could somewhat see with the sparse moonlight that filtered through the filthy windows; the ornate, twisting design that spiralled along the back of a dusty and broken dresser. Wallpaper, ripped and peeling from an ivy-clad wall. You felt along the walls with your hands, guiding your way around the house. Through the doorway, into what must have been, at some point, a living room; into a dining room, now a dark and lonely husk of mould and filth and rot.
Above you, a floorboard creaked.
You froze immediately. You knew, you knew in your mind, it must just be the house settling. An animal, the wind, the dilapidated old wood. It didn’t stop your heart from leaping into your throat, hammering away almost immediately. You’d been in enough abandoned places to know that if someone was hiding out in one, it wasn’t usually someone you’d want to be chatting with - especially not at night. Still, it was more likely just the old house settling. Yes, that was it.
You made your way further into the dining room. It was larger than you had expected it to be, and now the trees had blocked the moonlight, cloaking the room in shadow. You felt along the wall still, meeting what must be a beam, and turned further into the room. You wondered who must have lived here, tried to imagine their lives, living so secluded and so wealthy. Why they must have left this house to fester alone, hidden in the woods.
It was then that there was another sudden noise - a creaking, closer, louder, coming down the stairs. Your stomach dropped, the icy chill of dread sudden and jarring. You spun on your heel, back to the wall, your heart fluttering in your throat.
“H-hello?” You called out, your voice shaking despite the thought still in your mind, it’s just the house settling, surely. Surely? Your mind raced with the desperate assurances of what it could be, what it couldn’t be, what you definitely hoped it wasn’t.
Another thudding step, and a voice called out:
“Is there someone in my house?”
The voice was a deep and drawling croon; it wasn’t a question, but instead a taunting jeer, bordering on a monstrous snarl only possessed by something very clearly not human.
Another step, and faint dual pinpricks of light emerged down the hallway. Immediately, a fear unlike what you had ever felt before settled in your veins like ice; a freezing terror that seemed to grip your very soul in its talons, cementing you to where you had pressed yourself against the wall. And that dread curled and writhed from the thing that stood at the end of the hall.
Its head must have been grazing the ceiling with how high its eyes were, and you could discern the shadow of long and gangly limbs. It took another jolting step forwards, and you heard it give a deep, horrible laugh.
“A little bird, in my house?”
It took another step. With that, you ripped yourself away from its glare, and darted away.
You heard it give another grating chuckle. You had no clue where you were going, and you crashed and weaved into furniture and corners in your mad dash to evade this thing. You would have made a bolt for the front door, if that thing hadn’t been standing in the hallway just before it. This must be what rabbits feel like, in the clutches of slaughter. Your heart was thrashing, heaving and gasping; you were vaguely aware of the sting of tears as you ran yet again into what could have been a table, could have been a wall. You just needed to get away, away, away, your brain consumed only with the need to escape. You could not let this thing catch you, because you knew somehow that it would mean only an unfathomable horror.
You raced into another room - indistinguishable from the rest, and realised suddenly that this was a dead end. You spun around on your heel, and were met with the looming shadow of the thing in the doorway. It gazed down at you with a blood-red stare, its eyes glowing like dying coals. You took a step back, and another as it approached. Another and another, until your back hit the wall and you were well and truly trapped.
The thing stooped further down, creeping towards you. Slowly, its face shifting into a thin slat of moonlight that fell through the grime on the window, you got a good look at it. Its face was a black disc, like a shadowy void, surrounded by a halo of amber rays that resembled the shape of the sun. Its eyes were gleaming in the pit of its darkened face, a horrifying smile of jagged fangs stretched from cheek to cheek; its body was lanky and thin, draped in an old and beautiful robe of lace and velvet. It resembled the pictures you had seen of a solar eclipse, an endless shadow crowned in light.
It moved closer, stooping lower to peer at where you were pressed against the wall.
“Little bird, you’re not where you’re supposed to be, hmm? What could you be doing out, all alone?”
The Eclipse stood before you now, and took a large hand, clawed and midnight black, to your cheek, tilting it as though to study you. Its skin was ice cold, and, as it moved ever closer to you to press its flat face nearer to your own, you let out a terrified sob.
As it stood in front of you, large body crouched and contorted so that it could push its horrifying face closer to you, its long limbs coming to rest on either side of you, your brain came to a sudden and unexpected halt. It was as if, in the fog of terror, it recognised, with some sort of primal and automatic instinct, that this thing in front of you was a predator - something you could not even hope to outsmart or outrun. Now that it had you, literally within its grasp, you were hopeless to escape. You were going to die.
It made a growling, shushing sound, and you felt it reach a claw to catch a tear.
“No crying, now. Do not tempt me so. Tell me - what are you doing here?”
Looking into its eyes, you stuttered out a shaking, heaving response.
“Please don’t kill me. Please, p-please. I didn’t mean to - I’ll leave, won’t tell anyone. Just please -“
“Oh, I wouldn’t,” the Eclipse crooned, tilting its claw so it caught on your skin, cutting slowly into the flesh. You whimpered in pain, and its eyes gleamed. “I have fed already, and I try my best not to overindulge, even when it is so tempting …”
It gave a little humming sound, and tilted its head, the rays around its head catching the light and shining a deep orange.
“Although …”
The Eclipse levelled you with a gaze that you could only describe as ravenous, dark and cunning, peering seemingly past you and into the recesses of your soul. You shuddered, eyes darting to the doorway behind its giant figure. It pressed its face closer, and its mouth opened, jaws parting with the snapping of its many horrible fangs; its tongue swiped over your cheek, lapping at the bead of blood that it had drawn.
It made a delighted sound, its tongue drawing back into its mouth, and with that you made a lunge for the door. You weren’t quick enough; it grabbed you by the shoulders, slamming you back against the wall and trapping you beneath it.
It growled, deep and guttural in its throat. “Naughty, naughty. Breaking into my house, waking me from my slumber, and trying to avoid discipline? I should teach you a lesson on manners, little bird.”
It reached its hand across your throat, tilting your head up and exposing your neck. Its jaws parted, and you felt its tongue trail along the side of your neck, from the slope of your shoulder to just below your ear.
“Please!” You cried out, your hands clawing against its wrist. You thrashed wildly, scratching and kicking, and the Eclipse ducked its face closer to your ear.
“Please don’t struggle,” it breathed, its voice strangely gentle, “It will be over soon.”
You struggled despite its hushed snarl, sobbing and gasping.
“Please, don’t!”
“Shh.” The Eclipse reached its other hand to rake its long claws through your hair, matted from sweat, and then to smudge your tears across your cheeks. “Sweet little thing. Oh, how I can hear your heart beating … how delicious.”
Its face bumped against your neck, and you stopped, going limp. This thing is going to kill me, you thought. Your body, exhausted and terrified, hanging in the claws and the mercy of the Eclipse.
You felt its mouth open again, its tongue smoothing against your skin, and you shivered. Then, a sharp agony as it bit down into your neck. You cried out, twisting slightly; you felt the power in its jaws as they clamped against you, the thrill of its bite as it sunk its fangs slightly deeper into your throat. You couldn’t find it in you to kick and writhe, now - you clutched weakly at the fabric of its robe, your head lolling backwards. With its teeth buried in your neck, you were suddenly overcome with a strange, pleasant calm, cold as though you had just come out of a freezing rain, the dread and the terror dissipating as the Eclipse drank your blood. You were pressed against it now, it cradling your body in its clawed hands as it bent over you.
As it fed from you, your flesh in its teeth and your blood running down the flat expanse of its chin, it brought both hands up as if to cradle you, pressing its large body so closely into your own. Your hands scrabbled weakly at its wrists again, and you whimpered pathetically. Pain blossomed over you like an icy chill, and in your delirium, you only vaguely made out the way that the Eclipse brought one hand to cup your face, its fingers working gently to wipe your tears.
You didn’t know if it was your own fear, exhaustion finally hitting you, or the effect of the teeth in your neck, but, with your eyes clamped shut, you felt your head begin to swim, foggy and filled with only the thought of the being in front of you. You groaned at the pain, never subsiding, even as the Eclipse pressed itself further over you.
Your blood was hot in its mouth, coursing through the hollow space of its freezing body like a raging fire. The Eclipse couldn’t help but to pull you as close as possible - it adored the way you trembled in its grasp, how you shuddered and writhed so beautifully against it. Its claws grazed against fragile skin, and it was near impossible not to succumb to the urge to tear and maim and devour you whole. It had been truthful when admitting to an earlier feeding, but it seemed like a mere morsel in comparison to the allure of your blood, sweet and hot and delectable. You fell completely against it, then, your head ducking neatly against its shoulder. It was only then that the Eclipse urged itself away from you, pulling its mouth away from your flesh with a final scrape of sharp teeth.
The Eclipse drew away from you. There was the faint, blurry image of its face before yours, your blood staining its mouth. It licked at its teeth, snarling low in its throat; its hand came to the back of your head, the other coming to swipe up the blood that ran in rivulets down your collarbone and the hollow of your throat.
The last thing you saw before falling into unconsciousness was its looming face, its glowing eyes and bloodied fangs.
-
You woke up propped against a tree, just on the edge of town. It was only a ten minute walk from your house; the sun was just peeking above the horizon as you awoke, painting the sky a beautiful red. You woke up with a headache, a chill in your bones, but you woke up alive, with only the faintest memory of a strange dream you had had the night before, about a strange house and a darkened sun.