Death

Eric rushed and stood before his mother while brandishing his weapon. Zhang also rushed to his mother's side and tried to stop the bleeding but it was impossible.

A huge chunk of her shoulder was already gone and most of her veins had ruptured, allowing blood to flow freely and at a rapid rate,in a short time, her grey kimono was soaked in her own blood.

Eric stood there with rage in his eyes. He had been known to have anger problems and what he just witnessed spurred a huge portion it.

Gripping the hammer tightly he rushed at it and raised it above his head.

"I'm going to crush your skull, you mad beast!"

The creature snickered and rushed at him also and brandished it's claws.

Zhang eyes widened and he yelled to Him frantically to stop but he was too late. The creature caught Eric's arm which held the hammer and it dug it's nails into his chest and drove it through his back.

"Cough!"

Eric spurted blood from his mouth as he felt an intense pain in his chest, and immediately lost consciousness.

"Noooooooooo!" Zhang screamed.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he watched the creature put him down and eat away at him,starting from his brain.

"Zha.....Ng" His mother said weakly. She was lying in a big pool of her blood and would soon die. For some reason, the blood was flowing very fast and he could see as they came out in waves.

"R.. u.. n, pl..ease, I d..on't w..ant y....ou to die" She said while tears came from her eyes.

After saying this her eyelids shut slowly and her breathing slowed. Without further thinking, Zhang stood up and ran to his room. Frantically opening his window he jumped through and was running as fast as he could through the forest.

As he was running he glanced back at the house and saw the figure of the creature as it climbed through his window and bolted towards him as well.

Seeing this, his speed increased drastically but it was only a matter of seconds before he could run no more. Even though Zhang was the oldest, he was very weak physically and was also weak willed.

After minutes of running, the adrenaline his body released was gradually depleting and his speed slowed as his limbs started to ache.

The rain had stopped and was drizzling currently but the downpour had left the ground wet. And as he was running he struggled to keep himself from falling.

"Help!!!" Zhang yelled out loud.

He could not think of any other action apart from running and screaming for help.

They were miles from the town and he didn't expect anyone to be in the woods but yet he still did yell.

As he was running he looked back but he could not find the creature.

'Where did it go?' Zhang thought as he looked around swiftly.

With his weak physical state, he could not run fast anymore and his legs also could not take it anymore and they eventually gave way and he fell on the cold, wet muddy ground.

Despite the cold temperature and rain, he was sweating all over. His heart was pounding hard and it felt like it would burst out any moment. His lungs were trying to recover all the lost oxygen so he was left with breathing very hard.

As he was enduring the pain, he heard crunches and his heart sank as he saw the creature,about 20 metres away running towards him.

As if out of instinct he yelled out loud again!

"Help!Anyone!Please!!"

The creature seemed irritated at his screaming and increased his speed towards him. He shut his eyes tightly and awaited his fate as he asked himself.

'Is this how my life would end? Eaten by a mad creature? Never again to see the light of day?"

A tear escaped his eyes as the footsteps got louder.

"If only I was stronger. Don't worry Mum, Eric-san, I'm coming ".

SLASH! Thump!

He opened his eyes as he heard a slashing sound. He looked dumbfounded as he watched the headless creature lying stationery on the ground, with some dark smoke seeping out from all the parts of its body.

He looked around and spotted the head some metres away. It was releasing some kind of dark smoke as well. It's hands were also cut and we're releasing the dark gas.

"Are you all right?"

He turned his head to find the source of the voice. It was a woman. She had black hair was done into a pony tail style, although was a little wet from the rain, was wearing a Grey cotton made uniform and was holding a Katana in her hand with a leather backpack strapped to her back.

Her voice was calm and soothing and his heart warmed upon hearing it. He looked at her again dumbfounded. She was very pretty, with Jade like skin, forest green eyes, her chin was straight and pointy same thing applied for her nose.

Compared to her, the village's head daughter was nothing in terms of beauty.

She looked at him puzzled as he had been staring at her for a while. She coughed lightly and that seemed enough to jolt him from whatever he was thinking.

At that time, the body that was releasing that dark gas was gone completely. The only thing that remained of that creature was it's skull.

Zhang mind was Puzzled more and he stared at it disbelievingly.

"Are you Okay?" She asked again.

"Ye...Yeah" Zhang stuttered a little before answering.

"Where did it chase you from? Were you alone" She asked again while looking around.

"No" as he said it, his heart pricked and his eyes started to well up in tears, as he remembered how his Mum and Brother was massacred.

She saw his clothes drenched in blood but she didn't think it was his as he wouldn't be able to run far with such a wound.

Without saying anything, she sheathed her Katana, and approached him. Crouching to his level, she hugged him and rubbed his head lightly as he sobbed on her shoulder.