A Contained Space

"Looks like you're eager to be alive again," I sarcastically said, avoiding eye contact.

"You think I like that idea." He began to sound frustrated with the situation, "you can't beat that thing fair, so you'll have to play dirty to even have a chance."

"And how should I do that?"

"Exploit her loneliness," he almost sounded regretful as he said that. "I can tell she cares about you; otherwise, she would have killed you already."

"And why's that?" I fumbled around with my teacup. "I'm just someone who got up here by accident."

"Because you treat her like she's human when she's clearly not."

"Are you joking? She looks just as human as I do, and like you, all she has is a gorilla's strength, but I don't see why you shouldn't call her human."

Rose clicked his tongue, "I see there's no getting to you."

——————————————————————

From the watchtower in the reserve.

"That thing's so massive, we can even see it from here without the binoculars," Jacob mentioned as he looked on to deep blue peering out of the surface of the ocean.

Deep blue is not originally from the earth and is said to be an aquatic creature that captivates those that see it, as stated in the holy text.

Deep blue is a long serpent-like reptile with large oval-like dark blue scales that give it a glistening glow in the sunlight.

"How big did you say that thing is?" One of the slayers asked the Manager.

"Around 2 kilometers," he answered, "but most of it is underwater, and if you're up closer, you could see bits of it."

"Kilometers?" The slayer responded with disgust. "Since when did you start speaking foreign."

They all laughed at his comment.

"Didn't they say something about how it's mentally dangerous to get too close to it?" Stella asked as she put on her binoculars, seeing the people behind set up barriers take pictures with their cellphones and professional cameras.

"I've heard some old Chinese stories that it's the dragon-like head along with the size of the thing that makes people go insane if they get too close."

The Manager's answer felt certain even though none of them had ever heard of such a story.

——————————————————————

"Do you feel that?" Joseph asked as he sat with his team a short distance away from the tourist gathered behind the barrier.

"Yeah," Raquel complained as she sipped on her mango tea. "It feels like insanity is griping at me."

She turned to look at all the people in amazement of Deep Blue.

"How are they not feeling anything from it?"

"Probably because they're not awakened," Tiresias tried to play off the misplacement of his fruit bowl as he spoke. "Normal humans, Elves, and Dwarfs don't tend to feel supernatural phenomenons."

"What even counts as normal?" she continued.

"That's kind of complicated."

——————————————————————

Off in a northern village, a boy walked to the outskirts of his village, seeing the four rabbits scouting it out.

He curiously stared at them, unaware of the danger that he could face.

"What is that thing?" The white rabbit asked as it got closer. "Looks like the other ones but smaller."

"I am feeling hungry after our walk over here," one of the gray rabbits said.

"Wait," the black rabbit interrupted them as it stared at the boy. "If they were able to communicate with each other, then they can also notice if one of them is gone."

"Are you saying we shouldn't eat it?"

"Exactly," the black rabbit took a short pause. "Actually, we can follow it and get rid of them."

——————————————————————

"Hey, I have a question," I opened my eyes, expecting her to be there.

The cell was empty. Actually, why was I in the cell?

I tried getting up but was stopped at my wrist before I could fully stand up.

Turns out she chained my right hand to the wall, stopping me from leaving.

"Hey, you know I'm awake," I shouted up, hoping she would hear me.

"Could you not shout," she innocently poked her head through the upstairs doorway. "It's annoying."

"Then let me go."

"Why don't you just get out," she giggled. "With that power of yours."

"..."

I glared at her, practically wanting her to get closer.

"Finally, a normal response from you," we made eye contact as she walked down the steps, holding an amused grin.

"What do you mean by normal?"

"Oh c'mon, you know what I'm talking about," she explained. "You're completely clueless about what I am; maybe they didn't tell you the many stories of my kind."

"What are you talking about? You barely look old enough to see a rated R movie unsupervised. In fact, I bet if we didn't use our powers, I could easily beat you."

"Fine then," she went to open the cell door and then release my wrist. "If you somehow manage to win, I'll give you a whole minute to run."

"How 'bout if I win, you let me go."

"No. Can't have fun if I just let you go."

'Rose, I'm going to make a run for it.'

'To where? You have no idea where we could be.'

'I'll go to where that boy was heading. That must be where the village is.'

'Good luck,' I heard his dry and unenthusiastic sigh.

'How many seconds do I have?'

'I'd say 5.'

'Perfect,' I could feel a grin growing on my face.

"I see you're eager to be beaten," she said as she stretched her arms and legs.

——————————————————————

So he's got a short time limit, she thought as she finished stretching.

That means it hopeless for him to try and run; this'll be a cakewalk.

The next time she went to open her eyes, he was gone, followed by the sound of one of the front doors slamming shut.

"That damn brat!!!"

——————————————————————

I didn't think about being silent as I left; I bolted past everything to be most efficient with the time I had.

"He went straight forward from the doors, so it shouldn't be that hard to find the village."

It only took a couple of seconds after noticing how tired I was.

"If only I had a healer with me, can't really be effective without them."

"There you are!!" I heard a shout behind me, almost like a roar.

I turned back, seeing her sprinting after me.

"What the hell," I shouted as she closed the distance in only a short time and dodged by diving to the side.

I continued running between the trees, hearing her trail right behind.

"When I catch you," I heard a whisper behind me as it escalated to a rage. "I'll make sure to carve it into you that you're nothing!!!"

The moment I felt I was going to be grabbed, I simply sidestepped out of my sprint and saw her fly down the path I was going.

Before she could even get up, I began running again, towards where I thought the village was.

"That's it!!!"

Her screams shook me to my core; I bet if I was closer, it would rupture my eardrums.

The sky then turned a dark red from its light blue, but that didn't stop me from running; a wall did.

"What the hell?" I stumbled to the ground.

I reached out, feeling a wall that was stopping me from moving forward.

"Don't tell me this is the barrier to this portal?"

"Hey," I heard an impatient voice say behind me. "Is there something wrong?"

I looked back, seeing her, slowly approaching me.

What do I do, what do I do?

"Why'd you stop running?"

I froze in a panic, still trying to find any openings that led to me escaping.

"DON'T TELL ME THAT THERE'S A WALL BLOCKING YOU? HAHAHA."

"She's gone completely crazy," I muttered to myself.

"I heard that," she continued glaring, "anyways, what do you think of my spell? You can praise me; I know it's great."

"Yeah, really good stuff," I nervously clapped her up. "I can tell you put some hard work into it."

"Thank you," she smiled with closed eyes, only to put on a firm expression. "Now then, where were you planning on going?"

I blankly stared at her, "well, I wanted some fresh air."

"You ran pretty far for some 'fresh air.'"

"Exercise is good."

"Yeah," she instantly dashed towards me, "but I hate your bullshit!"

I managed to dodge her leg once more but wasn't able to give her the slip as I ran past.

"Restricted space," I heard her say as I ran into another wall, making my head spin.

"BAM," her body slammed into me right after, knocking me to the ground.

——————————————————————

"Finally got you," Summit said, exhausted by all the running we did after we both laid on the ground.

Kaira clicked her tongue as she ran up to the both of us, "you always give me so much trouble when I'm it first."

"Wow, a 30-minute survival game," Diamond said as she walked up with a stopwatch."

"hahaha, guess I got a new record." I breathlessly said.

——————————————————————

"Hahaha." I couldn't stop myself from laughing after remembering that.

"What's so funny?" The red-eyed lady said as she pinned me down.

"Oh, I just remember one time I played tag with my family."

"Jeez, can't you read the room; you should be terrified."

"Yeah, right," I lazily continued, "the red sky reminds me of a time I went to an arcade."

"Huh," she expressed with a confused face.

She clicked her tongue as she loosened her grip on me, "you ruined my mood. Now shut up."

"Oh, right, I never asked." I ignored her request. "What's your name?"