Chapter 9

Exhaustion! Tired ! Bleeding.

[Arc - journey to Scarestown]

.....

As Zayn Wolfe ventured further into the eerie village, he found himself back at the house where he had slept earlier. The disorienting realization that he had circled back intensified the strain on his already fragile sanity.

"Wait a second....this ...this place ....isn't this place where I took rest ?"

Gritting his teeth, he scanned the surroundings for signs of human activity, but he found only the silent, cold, abnormal, and chilling atmosphere.

Zayn Wolfe knew his condition was getting worse , so he has to take rest now or else he will be finished. Since coincidence or unluckily he found the house again .

He began to think of taking a rest first !

"I will sleep for a while and think about everything later ...."

Feeling the weight of exhaustion, he decided to succumb to sleep. Inside the house, he lay on a wooden bed, tightly gripping his blunt weapon.

He didn't let go of his weapon even in his sleep , that's how traumatized and fear surged on him now.

As Pain surged through his aching body, and his injured right hand hindered his movements , when he faced the wall. After some struggling he finally rested and closed his eyes.

In the depth of careless slumber, time passed indistinctly until he woke up, less tired but still grappling with constant pain. Waking up , he didn't feel tired and dizzy but there was still a physical pain coming from his body . Especially his right hand which had serious injuries.

"This time ....I have to be very careful and avoid making noises "

Muttering slowly, he stood up and left the house.

Determined to leave the village , Zayn chose a leftward direction this time. Previously he choose left direction and he returned in the same direction , so this time he choose right side .

There were four directions forming from the place he resided , back , front , right and left . After walking in the left side direction , he met many strange phenomenon and had to run for his life . Yet he didn't find the exit of the village so now he began to choose the right side , hoping to find the village exit .

He just hoped that there will be no creatures in the right side ! Or else it would be his end !

Thinking deeply , he began to head right side. He traversed for a long time and he felt like something isn't making sense here . He is already been here for more than four hours yet the sky was still dark and there was no sign of daylight yet !

Frowning he took out his pocket watch and when he saw the clock timing he froze .

"Are you jesting with me ?"

Both hands were pointing at 12 :00 !

"Is my watch broken ?..."

If it was before , he would have thought like that but after everything happening here , he was feeling that something was not right here.

Keeping away the pocket watch,he began to walk and the feeling of watch being intensified. He knew that the other party was closing on him so he was very careful. Not knowing the other party intentions, Zayn choose to be cautious.

As he was thinking about the lurking person, he suddenly saw a strange scene. Not far away from him , there was a flock of sheep, chewing on the green grass. There weren't few sheeps but more than hundreds of sheeps across the land .

'A sheeps without a shepherd?'

Pondering slightly, he didn't know why would these sheeps would be here . This village was abnormal so anything resided in these place can never be normal at all.

"Don't tell me these sheeps are all monsters too?"

If that's the case then he better change his direction, with his injury he can never fight them , if they rushed against him.

Zayn looked around for a moment but he didn't see any shepherder . It was just the sheeps, after glancing them at while and confirming that there wasn't any abnormality in them , he choose to walk forward.

Even though he didn't find any abnormality, he choose to be careful and walk slowly. The sheeps were busy munching on the grass , so they all ignored him completely.

Seeing they didn't harm him , he sighed in relief and began to walk in fast pace . As he crossed past the sheeps , he accidentally bumped into a sheep .

He froze!

The sheeps who was bumbed , turned around and looked at him . It's black eyes filled with caution and panic , seeing it's eyes Zayn Adam apple quivered.

He slowly raised his arms and tried to show that he wasn't threat to it . But when he raised his hands , his blunt blade twinkled in shine.

"Oh s#hit !"

He made a mistake by raising his hand .

The sheep immediately screamed and its voice breaking the calm surface. Soon every sheep raised their eyes and scresmed along with the first sheep .

Zayn covered his ears from the sheep cries and began to rush out from here. The sheeps all began to rush forward and they began to rush past Zayn .

They were all in panic , so he is , the hundreds of sheeps were rushing ahead and he was stuck in middle of these rushing flocks .

"Damm it!"

He dodged many rushing sheeps but as time passed, he ended up getting head butted by a paniced sheep from behind.

He crashed on the ground and some of the sheeps stepped on him while rushing. Making his injury worse, he gritted his teeth from pain .

Even though he was vegetarian, his mind was telling him to roast all these sheep and eat them raw .

"I hate sheeps!"

Soon all the sheeps rushed away leaving behind empty land . They were all rushed forward in panic and god knows where they are headed too.

Cursing his bad luck , he dusted off his clothes and began to continue his journey. He began to walk until he reached a bridge spanning over the river. A stone bridge constructed across a small river , if he wanted to walk to other side then he has to cross the bridge !

"I never knew this village even have a river !"

He snorted coldly and took the bridge .

When he looked at the river , he was slightly surprised to see that the river's unsettling hue was a deep red instead of the expected blue.

Yes ! A deep bloody colour instead of blue one .

Gripping the blade tightly, he choose to be careful .

"Ah don't tell me a fish creature will come this time ?"

Intrigued and alarmed, he began to cross the bridge slowly but suddenly only to witness the crimson river start to tremble. At first it wasn't that much but soon it began to rise significantly.

"What's going on now ?"

Frowning he took battle stance and observed the river carefully.

In moments, a colossal, black, aquatic creature emerged. Possessing the body of a fish and a human face, it propelled itself forward with limb-like appendages ending in sharp nails. It had big black eyes and sharp nose , with sharp teeths.

"There was really a fish creature living in these red sea ?"

Zayn Wolfe anticipating a dire confrontation was beginning to worry until he felt a surge of relief as the creature merely glanced at him and swiftly passed by, leaving him unharmed.

It didn't attack him !

Sighing in relief he began to quickly to the other sides . The sturdy, old bridge gave an unsettling feeling, especially against the desolate backdrop of the dark sky with no moon.

Why is there light when there is no moon ? Or it it something else I'm missing?

Thinking quietly he crossed to the other side.

Zayn turned back to look at the bridge out of habits . At first it was a beautiful view even with the abnormal red sea but it all changed when he glanced at the reflection.

To his horror the bridge reflection in the red river portrayed a macabre scene—bones, human bones forming the bridge.

This wasn't what he expected!

The bridge looked very normal , if only one can ignore the reflection it's showing on the red river !

"What kind of hell I'm in now?"

He questioned his own sanity in terror .

Sickness welled up within him as the realization of the morbid truth struck. The strange village seemed to erode his sanity, layer by layer. The human bones forming the bridge was something he never imagined in his entire life .

Am I in hell ?

What is this place ? Why isn't this place marked on my map ? Where am I ?

Question after question surfaced on his already terror filled mind . His sanity begining to collapse slowly , he felt fear , cold and death in this place .

Frozen in shock, Zayn Wolfe suddenly heard a whisper, a haunting call of his name, echoing in the desolate air.

ZAYN~

Recalling his previous encounter with the mysterious voice and the bizarre monkey, he hesitated, standing alone in the chilling wind.

The question lingered in his mind—should he follow the beckoning voice once more?

ZAYN~

To be continued...