They have been waiting

Instead of an answer, I shut my keyhole and push his hands away from me. He staggers back with a sharp intake of a breath and I turn on my heels to glare at him.

It's easier to be angry with Zeke for getting into my personal space without permission again than to pay notice to the lingering weight of his palms on my shoulder. He's too intense, too focused on me, and my stupid brain is too affected by this.

The power Zeke sent through me feels to be half-stuck in the crack of my keyhole. It's a strange and uncomfortable feeling, as if I have something jammed in my esophagus. I open the keyhole a little again, and Zeke sucks in the rest of his tentacle.

I mechanically rub my chest with my left hand. It's bizarre how natural all this Lock stuff is to me. So much so, that it doesn't come to me to be shocked, or disbelieving… Or maybe the reason for my current calm is the amount of shock I've lived through recently.

If there are any emotions left, I push them away.

"Don't shut your doors on me so roughly again, my Maya," Zeke's voice is low. Not a threat, but a clear warning.

"Can't promise you this," I say, putting my hands on my hips. "Since I'm not yours. I have to say this, so you wouldn't get any delusions. Any more delusions, I mean."

On that, Zeke gives me a thin smile. "Oh, no you *are* mine, my Maya."

I frown, but don't protest again–that'd be a waste of breath. Instead, I walk outside of the church—though, as the roof has mostly fallen, there's not much of a difference. Zeke again follows close by.

"Will you let me go now, Zeke?" I ask over my shoulder.

"Yes, but remember what I told you about. If you wish the creatures that killed your friend to be destroyed, Maya, you must bring the skull here."

"Uh-uh." I think I won't do anything like that. I think I'm going to run to the nearest phone and call the police. Maybe, if monsters exist, so do Men in Black, or something similar. At the very least, I will definitely not have to lie about my kidnapping.

Zeke walks with me towards the town. But I spot several people ahead long before we reach the invisible border he can't cross.

The townspeople are still intent on getting me, and judging by how comfortably they sit on the ground with a deck of cards, they've been here for a while now. Just several feet beyond Zeke's reach. They have taken off their hoods, too, and I see they are the same people I've seen in the pub. Frank and three more of the workers I've asked my questions about Rose.

I stop in my tracks. "I think I should take another path. Maybe go around…"

"Other paths are much more dangerous. The grass is tall." Zeke shakes his head. "I will protect you from these mortal gnats, you only have to let me."

He's not wrong. The grass here, between the church and the city, is mostly of the knee-height—but farther into the plains it gets taller. I can't tell how much, but getting through would be problematic even without anything hiding within.

And the idea of going in there makes my skin crawl and my intuition rings warning bells in my head. Still… I look at the men ahead.

"I don't want you to kill them, Zeke," I say.

They finally notice us then, and our conversation is interrupted by alarmed shouts and yelps. Everyone scrambles for their weapons, but today, instead of ropes, the men are armed with guns.

I gasp and step back when Frank points his gun at Zeke. "Maya! Move away from Noctis and come towards us!"

Zeke immediately glides to stand towards me, blocking my views of the men. "Even for most mortals, you have rotten brains," he hisses, his voice darker and more dangerous than I've ever heard. It makes me tremble in my knees—or maybe this entire situation does. I don't want to fight.

A gunshot thunders through the air, and another, and another. I jump closer to Zeke, some instinctual part of me seeking protection in the closest tall, solid object—person—I can see. Only then I realize that the shooters were aiming at him.

"Zeke! Are you alright?!" The stupidity of my question—and my actions—dawns on me only when I stand in front of Zeke, staring at two holes in his body: one in the chest, another one near the "legs". He already showed me he can live just fine with a hole in his chest!

The only emotion on Zeke's face is thick anger, directed at the men who still have their guns raised… Except now it's me who's in their way.

"Maya!" Zeke lowers his eyes at me, and I'm immediately blocked from the shooters with a vertical wall of darkness that ends near Zeke's "mantle". "Don't stay where these worms can harm you!"

Another gunshot startles me again. I chew on my lip, fear and anxiety freezing my legs in place. "Zeke, we have to go back! I can't just go towards the bullets!"

"No. You can, and you will—with my help, Maya," Zeke's tone gives no room for protest, but then he softens and leans towards me. "Open for me, and I will protect you from anything, my Maya…"

It's almost a whisper. Creeping, quiet, lingering, seductive. Compelling with a promise of safety from anything… except Zeke himself.

There's only one thing that stops me from grasping on that promise with both hands. "You won't kill them, right? I don't want any more people hurt. I-I don't want to see any more dead people."

"Don't worry, my Maya…" He leans even closer, so much that I should feel his breath on my face—but he doesn't breathe, doesn't he? Zeke's "body" is just a visibility. "You won't."