Chapter 81 - Foolish Plan=Foolish Hope

Unsure of what Voxea meant by her strange statement, I took the opportunity to look behind me once more while skating away. The Grim Shrieker was indeed staring straight at us, but Voxea was flying to my left, meaning it could've just been staring at her

[Are you sure? You're right next to me, maybe it's staring at you], I asked doubtfully as I turned my head back towards the ice path.

[I'm sure it's staring you down. Watch this], Voxea replied.

She immediately began to drift further left from the intended path as we kept going down the ice path. I threw a other look back and saw that the Grim Shrieker was still looking straight ahead.

[Oh that doesn't mean anything, you're still in its line of-].

Voxea immediately flew straight up and out of sight of both me and the Grim Shrieker. I looked back again expecting it to fly after her, instead I was greeted with the sight of a still angry giant monster cat bird thing looking it wants to kill me.

[Well that's not good], I told Voxea as I doubled my efforts of going forward.

[Told you. It really wants to kill you despite me being the one to hurt it a whole bunch. It also makes it a tad harder for us to proceed with the plan], Voxea said as she flew back to my left side. I was about to ask her what's the plan now that the Grim Shrieker had its eyes locked on me, until I heard a ragged inhale of air behind me.

"Siiilvvviiaaaa", a damaged voice growled behind me as I skated onwards. A chill crawled up my spine as the voice echoed in my ears again. I heard it cry out my name before when it first touched down, but I figured that it was just fluke, maybe I misheard it or that it was like how goats mimic baby cries and the monster heard her cry out my name that night and just kept repeating it for some reason...not this time. This time I could plainly hear that the voice the Grim Shrieker was using clearly belonged to Savina.

[Voxea, you didn't say anything about the Grim Shrieker being able to copy voices], I asked shakedly. It's one thing hearing your name coming from a monster, it's another thing when the aforementioned monster uses the voice of your not-quite dead friend!

[Believe me, this is a new one to me], Voxea replied a little shocked, [If I had to guess, it's either copying your friend's voice like a demonic parrot to mess with you, or...].

[What's a parrot and why aren't you saying anything?!], I mentally screamed in frustration.

[Tell you later and I think your friend's soul-], but as Voxea was going to explain we hit the final turn in our path and I saw that our destination was in view.

[I'll tell you later, but right now we need to improvise the plan a bit], she said as she suddenly sped up and flew ahead of me

[Gya! Fine, where do I go now if it's after me]?

[Just go to the spot I was going to originally wait at, I have an idea], Voxea said before promptly blasting ice on the ground in a different direction from the path.

Gritting my teeth, I just pushed on ahead and skated towards our planned spot.

_________________________________________

"Oh Harmonic Mother, I pray to thee, please let Silvia's plan work...", Lavian prayed as they knelt by Savina's bed. They clasped their hands around a holy symbol in the shape of a musical full note and kept muttering the same small prayer, hoping that whatever god was listening would answer it and help.

If today was like any other Monster's Night, Lavian would holed up in the town hall bas.e.m.e.nt waiting it out and hoping that they wouldn't have to use plan B. But today was decidedly not like previous Monster's Night.

Earlier that evening, Lavian for some Inexplicable reason stayed out in the main hall longer than usual. They knew tonight would be dangerous, but something in his heart told them to stay for just a little longer.

That feeling soon went away and they found it prudent to go underground, but was disturbed by the sudden sound of knock at door.

Shocked at the sudden sound, Lavian stopped in their track as a second knock happened. They initially believed it to be some clever monster trying to get their attention before attacking, until the voice of one Silvia Rosewood called out to them.

Hurriedly, they opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Silvia in a strange outfit and an even stranger humanoid monster floating next to them. Before they could ask her what was going on, Silvia hurriedly told them of a plan to save Savina!

Shocked at her sudden forwardness, Lavian simply agreed to let Silvia do her plan and asked what they could do to help.

"Just keep watch over her and hope for the best", Silvia said before her and the strange monster turned away and ran into the night.

And so, Lavian sat near Savina and just prayed for help. Unbeknownst to them, Savina's drajule started to glow and hum after years of being inert...

_________________________________________

"Come on you big scaredycat...come at me!", I muttered as I stared down the Grim Shrieker, my back up against a familiar wall.