The guardian woke up.
Sofia said it in a low voice, but those three words seemed to fill the entire room. The air grew heavier. Even the roars pounding against the fortress from outside faded into a distant murmur.
—What is the guardian? I asked.
Sofia raised a finger to her lips.
Don't make a sound.
That was what she had said before. Now I understood that it wasn't a suggestion.
The footsteps continued drawing closer. Slow. Heavy. Each one landed on the earth with enough force to shake the ceiling. Dust fell from the beams onto our shoulders. Sofia closed her eyes for a moment, as if counting the steps.
—How many are there? I whispered.
—One.
—And the ones outside?
—They don't matter.
I looked at her, not understanding.
Sofia crouched beside the door and pressed her ear against the wood. The color had drained from her face. I wanted to ask her what was happening, but my tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.
Outside, the creatures continued pounding on the wall.
Then the guardian passed over us. Its footsteps drowned out every sound and left us breathless. I didn't know what was happening, or whether it was good or bad.
I didn't see it. I only heard something enormous scraping against the ground, followed by deep, irregular breathing that could be heard even underground. The smell of wet earth and rusted metal seeped in beneath the door.
I covered my mouth with both hands.
The footsteps continued past us.
Sofia slowly turned toward me. Her eyes held a desperate command: don't even breathe.
The silence stretched on for several endless seconds.
Then, from the other side of the door, someone said her name.
—Sofia.
The voice wasn't a roar. It was human.
I took a step back.
Sofia grabbed me by the wrist.
—Don't be afraid.
—Who's calling you?
—It has to be Tommy.
The voice called for her again.
—Sofia, open the door.
I recognized that deep voice. It was the man who had saved me in the field. The one who had shot the beast. The one who had ordered me to run.
—It's him, I murmured.
Sofia nodded.
—Yes.
—I heard him.
—I know.
My body reacted before my mind could. I moved toward the door.
Sofia yanked me back so hard I nearly fell to the floor.
—No!
The cry escaped her lips.
On the other side, the breathing stopped.
For the first time since I had arrived at the fortress, everything became completely still. The roars outside ceased. The pounding against the wall died away. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Sofia closed her eyes.
—Now we're really in trouble.
—Why?
—Maybe it heard us.
Tommy whispered from the other side:
—Stay still. It's about to begin.
The guardian's footsteps echoed, much louder now, as if it were trying to intimidate the beasts.
Once.
Twice.
The door shook in its frame. So much dust fell that my body felt heavy.
—Cover yourself! Sofia ordered.
She dragged me to the darkest corner and stood in front of me. She shielded me with her body and hugged me again. It was ridiculous: compared to me, Sofia was small and could barely protect me. But she did it with all her heart. She held me with both hands and hugged me so tightly that, for a moment, I felt safe from anything that might happen.
—What happens now? I asked.
—We don't know what it does or how it does it. We only know that we'll be safe at dawn. We'll have to clean up out there; there will be too many dead beasts.
—So, is the guardian our ally?
Sofia looked at me over her shoulder.
—No. We're only hiding in its house. When the beasts attack us, it wakes up and kills them. But if we're outside, it can't tell us apart from them. It will kill us without hesitation.
The door vibrated. On the other side, Tommy shifted and braced his back against it. He would keep it closed in case something managed to get inside.
Sofia pulled a blanket from a bag in the room. The people there had already settled in, as if this were routine. The children clung to some of the adults. I didn't even know whether they were family or whether, like me, they had closed their eyes and woken up in that hell.
—Keep this in mind, Sofia told me. If something happens and I tell you to run, don't ask where. Just run and take shelter. We'll be almost safe at dawn.
—What about you?
—I’ll follow behind you.
—Are you sure?
A whisper came from the other side of the door:
—Don't worry, Abigail. I'll protect her. I'll protect all of you.
Sofia smiled, though she was terrified.
—No, she replied. But you have to believe me.
A massive explosion shook the fortress. The guardian had begun its massacre.
Then came a deafening scream, along with howls and growls that made my bones tremble. The battle had to be fierce. The ground vibrated. The walls shifted. The room filled with dust until I could barely see anything.
I couldn't know what was happening outside, and from what they had told me, it was better never to find out.
At the back of the room, a man holding a child in his arms broke the silence.
—Right now, the guardian and the beasts are fighting. The guardian's goal is to tear them apart; the beasts' goal is to finish it off. We don't know why. We don't know its history, and we don't know why they're enemies. We discovered this a couple of years ago. I was part of that group. Many of us died that night.
The child hid his face against the man's chest. The man continued speaking in a low voice without taking his eyes off the door.
—We thought that since the guardian attacked the beasts, it was our ally. We were wrong. It killed more than twenty men and women that night. The guardian attacks everything it sees. If we stay hidden, it won't hurt us.
—Have you seen the guardian? Do you know what it looks like? I asked.
The man nodded.
—Yes. I've seen the guardian and what it can do.
Another blow shook the ceiling. The child began to sob, but the man covered his ears and kept talking.
—When the beasts attacked us that time, we had oil lamps burning. A serious mistake, if I may say so. When we saw the guardian begin attacking them, we gathered our courage and fought with the weapons we'd found. Then that shadow-shrouded ally turned toward us.
The man swallowed.
—It was the first time we'd seen its enormous red eyes, glowing like coals. It ran so fast we didn't know what to do. We only heard the screams. As it advanced, it collided with a woman and tore her apart. Then it turned and crushed two men at once with its fists. Many ran. Many of us stood frozen. Everyone who ran that night died.
Outside, something struck the wall with brutal force, stopping his account for a few moments.
—I had the lamp lit, and I was frozen with fear, he continued. I only saw those enormous eyes drawing closer. I reacted out of panic and threw the lamp at it.
The creature turned toward him.
—The black liquid covered its body and burst into flames.
The guardian howled.
The sound was so intense that it buckled my knees.
The creature staggered back.
And then something impossible happened.
The light burning across its back went out all at once. Its wounds began to close. The gray skin contracted and split like an old scab. Beneath it appeared an almost human face: pale, covered in black liquid.
Sofia stood perfectly still. It was obvious she had never heard that story.
—Don't look into its eyes, the man whispered. Never do it.
The man lifted his head and looked at me. The fear from that time was still visible in his pupils. There was also an immense, ancient sadness, almost familiar.
For a moment, I had the feeling that he wasn't talking about the guardian.
But about another beast he didn't care about killing.