I've lived my entire life running from Night Men, and tonight they're here to kill my father

I knew they were coming when I awoke. They will be men from the sky, we had been told, and they would come on the wind. When I awoke in the darkness of the castle, our fortress, our home, and heard the strange wind in the distance, my bones grew cold and I knew they were coming.
They are coming, and they will be here soon.
They seek my father, a warrior who saw fit to stand against them. When most of our world cowered to them, my father rose as a child and battled them for 40 years. My entire life has been spent in the shadow of their pursuit, and the shadow my father cast to protect me from them.
In the darkness another noise, and my eldest brother emerged from the stairway with fear in his face.
?A storm is coming,? he said in the only tongue I?ve ever known.
?I know,? I said.
?Father!? He turned and shouted into the darkness. A light flickered on and illuminated our chamber at the pinnacle of the castle.
?I know, boy,? my father said. ?All to arms.?
?Yes father,? my brother said before turning to my sister and I. ?Girls, stay here and comfort your mother.?
I nodded as he disappeared back into the darkness and back down the stairs to join the others. They will be five strong as he joins two men who share the name Abu and their wives. I did not know what forces the Night Men would bring, and shuddered at the thought.
The Night Men will bring a horde. Will will not stand.
Outside the wind rose. It sounded like no storm I?ve ever heard before, like a dense flock of a thousand birds furiously beating their wings in the same direction, like the breathing of God himself, and the sound moved towards us from a horizon I couldn't see.
We have lived here in relative peace for five years; half my life. I remember the times before in darkness, always running under cover of the blackest night, from one dark hideaway to another. To arrive at such a fortification, a castle of stone with a courtyard surrounded by high ramparts with spikes upon them, and an iron gate to protect us, was a sense of safety I?d never known.
That safety is now gone.
The wind was close. I imagined a storm outside where I could not see, hunting and peering in and looking for us with a single massive eye. The sound grew louder, and the four of us huddled close, and I thought of a distant memory from before the castle. I recall that the Night Men carry the power of the storm, and with the storm comes lightning. My sister whimpered, and my mother was too terrified to make a sound.
?Hush, hush,? My father said. He loved our mother dearly, and had rescued her from a distant land where the Night Men lay their horrible desires. His eyes showed a warm, calm resolve, but behind them I hoped his fierce passion still burned. His face was tired behind a graying beard, and for a moment I thought he might weep.
Then the storm was overhead, as though feeling out the fortress for weakness. Suddenly outside but dreadfully close there was a thunderous calamity, like the sound of a great beast dying and then the storm died with it. The wind stopped and for that moment there was silence and calm, and I felt the last sense of hope I?ve ever experienced.
?Is it gone?? Mamma asked. ?Are we safe??
?No my love,? my father said. After a momentary pause with his ears perked like cats, he continued. ?They are in the courtyard.?
They are in the courtyard. They are past the outer ramparts.
Our bed chamber opens to an outdoor pinnacle surrounded by a two meter tall parapet, but beyond it I can hear movement on the ground ten meters below. I turned, and for the first time I saw a flash of fear in my father?s eyes. I don?t remember a single moment where he showed weakness, strayed from his principled beliefs or forgot his resolve to fight.
Far below I hear a thump that carries throughout our fortress, a mighty force followed by a tremor that travels into my bones. I heard the patter of footsteps, my brother, the protectors and their wives. And at that moment I knew.
They are in the compound. Past the inner rampart to the bailey, and now they?re right outside the castle door.
The light my father had ignited went out and they cast darkness over us. With their powerful mastery of dark forces, the Night Men had cast us back into the shadows as they plotted the breach of our fortress.
?They are here,? the elder Abu called up to us.
?I know,? my father shouted back. ?Go with God.? They exchanged blessings and for a moment the world fell silent again.
Another THUD shook the structure and it was much louder. For the first time I felt the strange noises disrupt the stillness within the fortress.
Oh God. They?re inside. They?re inside our home.
I heard familiar voices rise in anger as our defenders bravely faced the attackers. The younger Abu and two women called out a battle cry and invoked the name of God to fight with them and though I could not see it I know they fought bravely.
And then their voices fell silent forever. The battle was swift and I could feel its violence tremble through the walls into my bones and I shook against my shivering mother and sister, and only father held still.
Three are dead and only two remain between us and the Night Men. They are coming to the stairs.
The stillness and silence returned, and in the darkness it was terrifying. My soul ached and I prayed to God to kill the Night Men. Now my father trembled too, and I felt his grip on us loosen.
They are below us now, just one floor down.
Below us there was another commotion followed by another battle. I heard my brother?s voice rise in anger for the first and last time, and then silence again. I prayed that the battle had been won, but it was silent and I knew silence meant death.
We are alone. The four of us and the Night Men coming for us.
?Girls, you must go now,? my father said with a voice that was alien and filled with terror. ?They want only me, and you may hide in the dark and pray they spare you and take only me.?
?Father no!? I shouted to him but hushed me and pushed me back, and I knew his mind was made. My sister and I retreated from the chamber and moved to the landing at the top of the stairs, and backed into the darkness against a wall. I could still hear my parents quietly praying.
We crouched in the darkness as the fortress fell silent and was pitch black. The prayers stopped, my breathing slowed, and silence. And then a sound. And another. Pat, pat, pat, pat. Like footsteps, but footsteps that are so soft only a child?s feet could make them. Pat, pat, pat, pat.
Oh god they are on the stairs in front of us. They are so close that I could see them if not for this darkness they?ve cast onto us!
I was frozen in terror and my sister as rigid as stone against me, and I prayed and squeezed my eyes shut, begging God to make them go away. Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. The steps came up the stairs towards us with nothing left to protect us and I squeezed my eyes tighter and prayed harder.
Oh God in your greatness and mercy make them go! Kill them for what they have done, and to protect my father for he has only lived in your service!
The footsteps stopped. The silence returned.
God??
My sister shrieked and shattered the last silence I?ve ever experienced, and my eyes wretched open and the horrible green glow of the Night Men washed over me, and they stood before in all their horror, inches away from me.
They are not men at all. They are not of this world at all. They are demons.
One lunged at us and we were cornered. It had the lips of a man which spoke the tongue of the devil, and it had four massive eyes like those of a spider. It?s head was massive with a hardened shell, and it was creature and machine merged as one, and it wore the skin of the jungle draped over its form. It continued speaking in the heretical tongue I could not understand.
Behind it more of them rose from the stairs, and I heard my father scream in terror and in a glance I saw him alive for the last time with shock and awe upon his face. In a flash of lightning and a thunderous roar that shook the castle and everything in it, the Night Men struck my father down.
One by one, the Night Men struck him again and again, and with their lightning they carved a V into his face. Finally one of them leaned over and inspected the insidious work they?d done, but first he transformed. With a wave of a mottled green hand he took on a man?s face, and looked down on my father with a man?s eyes.
It looked at my father and then spoke into an electronic box it held in its hand, and the electronic response from another came back to him. This shape shifter with a man?s face still spoke in the devil?s tongue, but I will never forget it?s words. I will never forget the words it said after it and the rest of the Night Men killed my father.
?Geronimo.? It said. ?For God and country, Geronimo.?


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