1 CHAPTER 1 - An Angel, A Bullet and A Cult
Ouch, everything hurts.
My surroundings remain blurry for a moment as my eyes try to adjust. My eyes meet the trees and the moon's staring at me from above. My hands move around feeling the hard rocky surface below me.
Where am I? My body ached and my head was spinning. I use my hand to steadily lift myself from the ground. As I look ahead, I immediately face three men standing, a few feet ahead of me, their faces contorted into a look of shock; with their backs towards a cliff. Their clothes looked like something out of a historical drama and their faces were drenched with horror.
"Hey, you guys know me? Fans? I'll give you my autograph if you help me out." I say, hoping they would get me out of here. Instead, they scream soo loudly that my head stopped spinning with startlement. The next second, one of the men turns around and jumps off the cliff...
Wait, what? He...he jumped off. W-Why?! I was freaking out.
"Why did he jump off??!?!? Are you people okay???" I ask the rest. The shock of that guy jumping down wasn't helping my aching body. The two men look at me one last time in fear before they run into the forest. Why in the world are they running when I can barely stand? I try to sprint after them with everything I've got. The moonlight constantly gets hidden by the trees, reducing my vision.
"HEY!, please don't run" I try to shout. My voice gets weaker than before and my breathing gets heavier. The ground was rocky and uneven, making it harder to navigate. As I was about to reach one of the guys, he slips and falls onto a sharp branch that passes right through his body, effectively impaling him.
Blood and other fluids seep out from his stomach. The man makes subtle painful movements as his eyes slowly shut. My stomach churns at the scene. I've never been much of a blood and gore guy. Here I am fighting the urge to release the sandwiches that I had for breakfast. I quickly look around to see the last guy looking at me and the body from a distance. Our eyes meet and then he continues to run, full speed.
"I DIDN'T DO THIS, PLEASE STOP RUNNING!" I yell with all the energy I have left. My body feels numb and tired from all the running. The man was getting further ahead but he suddenly came to a halt.
Did he finally stop?
As I make my way towards him, he falls to his knee and crashes to the ground. There was blood all around him. Oh god, This is way too much blood for me. What is this?... A movie set?... A dream? Something about this place is not right. This guy just fell and bled to death? No, someone else was definitely around.
"Hello? Is...someone...", my voice gets caught in my throat as my eyes land on a figure standing in the shadow of the trees. The figure steps forward from the darkness into the shimmering moonlight. The sound of the breeze hitting the branches and leaves fill the dull atmosphere. The night was cool and pleasant.
A beautiful person with long silver hair, dressed in a black cloak over an orange Hanfu-like dress strode towards me. Wow, an angel? No way I'm pretty sure they killed that man. Can angels kill innocent people? What if it's the devil messing with me? It makes no sense.
There can be only one conclusion - this is a cult. A cult that enjoys fancy role-play and death. And I think I'm dying next. My mind goes on a train of thoughts and my body freezes. It would be only reasonable for me to run or even try and attack this person before they attack me. My body just refused to cooperate.
The cult angel stops in front of me leaving very little space between us. My heart beats faster. He or she, I can't say, this isn't the time I can ask if the person is male or female or what they would like to be called. Anyway, if this person is going to kill me, at least I can say that I died in the hands of a beautiful angel.
"Rhys", the person says with an expectant voice and eyes filled with sadness and hope.
"Who?" I ask confused. The angel's expression turns into complete disappointment. They rip off a bracelet from my hand and looked at it with a pained expression. They had exquisite honey golden eyes that I didn't notice before. I looked down at my clothes and noticed that this isn't what I wore earlier or ever.
"Hey ...soo I am Jay". The angel looked at me with an unreadable expression and nodded lightly. Suddenly, they run their hands over my body. They start at the tip of my figures over to my arms along my shoulders, stopping only when their hands reach my chest. Cult angel removes their right hand that rested where my heart is and looks at the blood on their fingertips. Blood?!, they looked into my eyes briefly and then ripped my shirt off.
"Woah, wow. Your moving too soon, this is sexual harassment!", I say wrapping the torn fabric around me. The angel just stares at my chest without a word, making me look down once again, only to find a small hole right where my heart is.
"Ahhh, am I dying?" I ask. My fear keeps escalating every second. I was going to die young in an unknown forest.
"Follow me. I can make sure to postpone your death to another day" They say as they turn around to walk away. Bold of the cult angel to assume that I'm going to follow them. But my body feels like it's a great idea to just toddle behind them. My brain and my body just don't function together when I need them to.
So here I am following a complete and beautiful stranger after witnessing three gruesome deaths and discovering that I have a bullet in my heart. What a day to truly feel alive?
