She could only run
~~~
[~Lia~]
~~~
She didn't want to die.
She couldn't die.
Not yet.
Fear gripped her soul as she made her way through the dense forest.
But she didn't stop.
Her heart pounded loudly in her head blurring her vision and drowning out the sound around her.
But she didn't stop.
Her hands gripped her stave to the point where blood dripped from the handle as her palms bled.
But she didn't stop. She couldn't stop.
Hell, she didn't even notice.
She just ran and ran and ran, never stopping and never looking back.
She didn't know how long she ran but all she knew was that she couldn't stop, she couldn't slow down not even for a second.
She had passed the green zone of the forest and entered the black zone, the most dangerous part of the forest where monsters could easily kill even the most skilled of adventures with naught but a swipe of their hands.
She didn't want to die.
She couldn't die.
Not yet.
And so she ran, as fast as her legs could carry her she ran, as much as her feet hurt she ran, as much as her body screamed at her to stop, to rest she ran, as much as she wanted to go back she ran, as much as she wanted to break down she ran.
As her emotional state got worse and worse she let the tears fall but never once did she slow down or stop running.
She didn't want to die.
She couldn't die.
Not yet.
~~~
After finally making it out of the forest had Lia's legs gave out and she fell onto the dirt, the bugs the critters, and the nauseating smell of shit didn't seem to bother her as all she could do was cry.
Whether it was tears of joy or sorrow didn't matter as she had survived.
However, not long after had an intense and gut-wrenching pain washed over her entire body causing her to size up on the ground next to the outpost and scream out in agony alerting the guards to her presence.
The last thing she saw before she blacked out was guards rushing towards her location in what seemed to be a hurry.
~~~
[~Hideri~]
~~~
After wallowing in my own self-pity, whining about wanting to home (For about 2 hours), and crying myself to sleep under the uncomfortable bits of tree bark that dug into my back the whole time I finally had gotten my act together and got up.
'Ugghh, I hate everything about this situation right now' I grumble in my mind as I slowly get off the ground. My back had not healed it just kinda reset so I'm still in pain but at least I can move around now, so that's a plus.
Curse you spooky, why the hell didn't you warn me about the bomb? I made friends with the quiet kid I should have survived! *Sigh* Whatever, what's done is done, I'm dead and so is everyone else in the school. Still kinda fucked up that she blew up the school and didn't just take out Natsumi.
Not everyone deserved to die you dumb vampire bitch.
Like me, and Shunsuke-san, Shinobu-san, Tsushima-San, Kanami-sensei, and...fuck. I don't know. Who else wasn't a complete asshole in that class? Uhh, there was...Oh!
There was Wakaba. She was was...Something. I guess. She was just kinda there, in the class, in fact, most of the time I can't even remember her face. Huh, that's weird. Anyway, she got bullied too, don't you have to stick together in situations like that?
You know, freaks unite and all that shit.
And where the hell did she even get the explosives from? Enough C4 to blow up a school? No way she could have just bought that off the corner store. Did she get it from the dark web? She always liked going on there to watch gore videos, fucking weirdo. One time I had to literally slap some sense into her because I found her slumped over at her desk with the blinds closed and all the lights off watching some dude get his head blown off on a dimly lit computer screen.
Truly she earned the nickname vampire.
I'm gonna miss being able to slap the shit out of her.
Anyway, I should probably get moving soon, the beast that killed the wolf might come back and I'm not tryna be here when it does.
~~~
[~Lia~]
~~~
Why?
This is the only thought Lia had after waking up in a cell.
The fact that she woke up in jail didn't face Lia all that much. She knew what she did to deserve this. She had-No, They had broken the law. They let their desperation get the better of them and they broke the law.
She deserved to be punished for it.
They all did.
So why aren't they here with her?
She could not help but ask.
Where did it all go so wrong?
Why did they have to die?
It was the only thought she could articulate after such an event.
She couldn't reflect on herself and do better next time. There would BE no next time, her friends were dead, killed at the hands or teeth of what they thought would be easy prey.
She saw their corpses, she bathed in pools of their blood, she committed their terrified faces to memory whether she wanted to or not. They were dead, and her career was over.
Even if she was somehow acquitted of her crimes then she would never be able to work as an adventure again, she would be forever blacklisted by the guild and that was a fate worse than death for their kind.
Though it's not like she could ever move on.
She spend over 5 years with them, she loved Aria like a sister and Leon like a reliable older brother, she was indebted to them for saving her master at first but after spending time with them came to enjoy the time they spent together. As for Jason, despite his position, despite it being taboo, she loved him. She knew it was wrong, she knew it would never work out, but she loved him nonetheless.
So the fact that she saw him die would never leave her, his cold severed hand would be the last time she ever got to touch him, and the goofy grin on his face when she healed him would be the last time she ever saw him smile.
Why would she move on? How could she move on?
She couldn't. Not now, not ever.
After staring blankly at the wall in a trance, she heard something explode outside and looked to see a fireball blazing in the night's sky, except this one was a very dark shade of red, an almost crimson shade of red.
Her eyes widened, her mouth agape, and her body started to quiver. Red? the same red from before? The same color from before, why here? Why now? She couldn't take it, and as she curled up into a ball on the floor tears poured out from her eyes and the memories of their corpses came to the forefront of her mind.
Flashes of blood splattered across the ground, Flashes of the sound of flesh ripping, Flashes of their faces in death.
She wanted them to stop.
She didn't want to see this.
To see them.
She just wanted them to go away.
She wanted them to stop, she needed them to stop but she wouldn't be granted to reprieve, her pleas would never be heard and for the next 2 days, she just laid on the ground sobbing.
She tried to deny them during this time, to ignore them, but flashes of their faces would appear near her and taunt her with the looks they had when they died.
All she could do was cry.
She tried to overcome them, she tried to forget them, but then their voices would cry out in denial, they would scream at her, they would insult her...they would blame her.
All she could do was cry.
She then wallowed in it, she let all the pain in, but the memories of their time together would smash against her like a heavy two-handed hammer and continuously crush her soul the longer they played out.
She would never be allowed to rest, so all she could do was cry, and as she choked and sobbed she continued to ask a single question.
Why?
Why had they ventured into the forest?
It was for Leon's mother, right?
But why did they go so far just for her?
Was his mother really worth their lives? Was Leon's 60-year old already dying mother worth the terrible fate that had befallen her friends? The terrible fate that had befallen her as the only survivor?
Was it really worth it in the end?
???: "It seems the captain spoke the truth." A deep, gruff, and foreign voice invaded her ears broke her out of her sobs, with blurry and teary eyes she looked up and saw something that shocked her.
Lia: "C-count Hidan?"
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A/N
BOOM! CLIFFHANGER AFTER 2 MONTHS OF INACTIVITY AND A SMALL CAMEO BY THE MC THAT DID NOTHING FOR THE STORY AT ALL, ARENT I THE GREATEST?!
No, but seriously I'm back(Not) and ready to get this story moving(Not) so let me know if you liked this chapter or not, and just know that I'm going to try and upload at least every two days(Don't quote me on that)
I'll cya next chapter.
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Whenever it comes out.