ADOPTED?

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 Elish took frightened steps back. His eyes wide and staring hard at his hands. He was scared. It was a familiar frightened feeling and it sent frozen chills down his spine. Goosebumps riddled his skin.

Those were not animal blood, he was at least good enough to tell so. It belong to people like them but who did he hurt? The blood looked like it was leftover after efforts to wash everything off had been made. Is that how he ended up here? Running from the place where he had committed an abomination. Did he also hurt the girl?

"Ah! Shit!."

He yelled out, crumbling to his knees. What the hell happened? What the hell did he do? His eyes were pinned on the ground, heaving like a marathon runner who won first place. Cold

sweat building up around all the areas that could grow hair. His brain rocked for a decision.

'What am I going to do now' He thought.

I can not just go back there. If I really hurt somewhere, If am really on the run then it means they are on the hunt and they probably want me dead like I did to their own. Should I not be running away?... He had no answers to any of them. His head suddenly hurt and he began to ache everywhere. Then there was the fear of being hunted. Everything was just coming all at once but somehow, there was the inner assurance. Like a tiny peace making him feel no emotion towards the thought of murdering one of them like he did not do what he thought it did. The peace made him feel tremendously sick inside. So he was a remorse less killer.

"Ah."

All these thoughts, slamming on his mind like doors and they hurt his head pretty bad. Innately, he looked up to the sky. A plausible sign of day breaking, lay on it. He was now sitting on the sand near the river, stark naked and thinking of what to do with himself.

Many times over, he breathed. The last came as a huff. He as standing on his feet the next moment. He had decided. He would trace the house, but stealthily. At least he deserved to know what exactly he did and possibly understand the tiny calming feeling that he so much hated right now, which was making him entertain the thought that he might not have hurt anyone there.

Eyes averting to the forest, he tried to find any large leaves he could hold onto. A little conciliation would do his nude body some good. To his luck, he spotted one, a little distance away. He went for it. His legs pulling him through the bushes that tickled him when they rubbed around his thighs, legs and abs.

 'I have many sensitive spots'

He realized as he reached out and pulled on the leaves of the huge plantain tree. It was very easy to rip out and it went round his waist. He pinned the end with his finger. The plant ticked the tips of this hand, he flinched, suppressing a suspected giggle.

"Crap. I feel like a girl right now," he mocked himself.

Huffing, upset. He turned anticlockwise. The river in sight, he made for it. In just a few steps, he was far from the green and dried autumn brown; and heading down along the edge of the river, dull cream colored sand beneath his feet.

 He walked tirelessly, following the river all the way down. His eyes up and around. The duplex was very big, he remembered. It's roof should be able to stand above a few trees here which means he could be able to spot it, even by a little bit. It was as if the house heard his plight and revealed its dark thatch roof overgrown with climbing weeds. That algae green color; he spotted it immediately.

"Oh Yes," he jubilated quietly

.

The house was still about six miles away but he could trace it now without having to follow the river. However, the water separated him from the other side he needed to follow to get to house. There was no way he was going around either. Bot for a river that looks like I never stops flowing. He would have to cross the river like that. There was no reluctance from him, surprisingly. He dipped his legs in to the walked and began to walk across, fighting the current below. He was tall so the water only rose to his abs but his loose Leaf skirt was completely submerged into the water and when he finally won the river war, the skirt suffered collateral damage, half of it taken by the water.

Elish did not notice. All his mind on his destination. He had gotten with their range of contact. If there were waiting for him, it would be around here.

He was alert and sound conscious at the same time, nearing the house slowly. It took him time but he finally arrived, still hidden away behind the tall grasses. He was at the backside of the of the building. He waited patiently, trying to see if he could hear any sounds from the house. He did… chattering sounds in fact and a giggle.

Unknowingly, he straightened up at the instant he heard the sound. The calm in his heart grew out even more, his nerves easing surprisingly. 

… Is that her voice?...

He was distracted. He did not hear the footsteps coming from behind him. He did not notice the silent noise the breeze made as it cut through it.

LEO 

 I walked into the sitting room with a glass of cool water. Anamay stretched out her hand and took the glass from me. I swear I was tempted to let my finger caress hers a little before they took away the cup but I Held my desire in. Instead I cursed sleep and why it made me close my eyes at that last moment. To think I slept by four in the morning and Anamay woke up thirty minutes later. She did feel a little sore but she could move. She had noticed that the sweater she wore had been ripped apart and she was In her underwear. He was fast sleep hanging on the stool in a position she must have been marveled by how he could actually keep it without falling. Well, she took the chance to get her clothes, put them on and return to the bed. It was her ruffling noise, my dad had told me, that made him come into the room. He thought that me, has Leo, was still up but he was shocked to see that it was Anamay, eyes wide open and smiling.

I sat across her another one of the cushion chairs, looking at her as my dad blabbered on about what happened while she was asleep. He even went on to detail the looks of the ass who brought her back. Anamay's eyes glittered with each description of him. I boiled with disdain where I was but I dared not show it. Let Anamay have the fun now. Dad must have decided to go first and lighten her mood before the really serious things began… Asking Anamay to narrate what happened that night.

 Well, I too should enjoy her smile while it lasts before things get hot but… you know I think that guy is a bad omen. Nothing good has been happening to me ever since he came. I mean look at now, immediately I decided to enjoy Anamay's smile, I was met with a frightened frown. She paled like a ghost in just a space of five seconds. We all noticed the change. Dad stopped his story.

"Anamay dear. What's wrong?" dad asked.

 "So it's not a nightmare. He is really dead. He is not here which means Demetri's gone."

"Anamay," her name fell out of my mouth involuntarily.

She did not look away from the ground. I found myself coming close to try and hold her but when my hand touch her, she gasped in a way that frightened me off. I just stood close to her instead. My dad took over from me. She didn't shove him off when he held her.

Classic girl Behavior. Always close to the dads, I presumed. Dad tried to calm her down, it worked and about three minutes later, she was not only calm but when dad asked her of she could talk about that night, she agreed. Most of the men had left. Only Commander Gene and Dr. Joe remained. Aside from Gene, everyone else in this location were in this room.

Anamay was still in Dad's arms when she began.

 "I remember running with the wounds in my leg. I could not go too fast because of it. I stumbled on a tree stomp and I tripped, falling on my neck. I heard my neck break, am sure it did. My legs crippled too. I tried to get off the floor, to safety but I could not move. But crawl, so I did. There was a hollow tree before me. I tried to hide inside it but I could only get my head and hands in when the beast came to me. It…" her voice broke like my heart when she made that pause.

It was like I could feel her fear and I could do nothing to help.

"I don't know what it used." She blinked back her tears.

"But it hurt a lot when it dug into my back. I actually begged it to stop because it was dragging it down. Funny Thing is, the beast stopped. Instead, it pulled me out of the tree and flung me away. I think I hit something before I landed on the ground. When my eyes was closing… I think.. I don't I but it kinda looked like I saw." I bent closer, my whole attention fixed on her. Everyone was too anyways.

"I think I saw a ma…"

 A shriek echoed from outside. All our eyes flew to towards it immediately.

… What was that?...

Anamay and I were frightened the most. I was sure of it because like me, we could not move an inch. Dad flashed a eye at Dr. Joe. The man went in to the house and out with two loaded revolvers. Dad slipped away for Anamay immediately, picking up the gun Joe had held out to him. The two of them made for the outside. I wanted to follow. It's this ridiculous fear that kept me from moving fast enough to Help my brother. I was not letting it work on me again.

'Move Leo. Move'

My legs refuse to.

'Come on, Leo. Come on!'

The budge, I practically staggered forward the first two steps. Anamay caught my hand, the touch I was looking for but in this moment, it didn't give me the riveting feeling I wanted.

 "Leo what are doing. You can't go outside"

 I bent on one knee close to her, my gaze and hers intertwined.

"Anamay listen, I will be fine. I have to go. I can't leave them to do this alone. I can't leave my dad alone out there. I will be right back okay."

 I stroked her long hair behind her ear and pulled out of her reluctant grip. I was soaring thorough the stairs the next moment. Dad keeps a pistol hidden inside the wooden floor of the house, some stops away for the front door. I crouched to the ground immediately I got to that exit. Hitting my hand continuously on the planks, looking for the one with a hollow sound.

I was fast, fast enough to find it. My hands felt the edges for the crooked part. It was well clasped to the other wooden framed of the house but once my fingers hit it, I pulled it open immediately. I could hear dad's voice yelling at something to come out into the open. Thanks to heaven I had a good aim, I picked up the revolver and hurried outside. Not too fast though, I was the hidden weapon at this point so staying invisible was imperative.

 From where I hid, I took a peep at dad. Dr. Joe was in one knee, over Gene. He seemed to be hurt. Dad was pointing his gun at the moving bushes. Something was certainly coming from there. It wasn't something big but it could hurt Gene so much that all Joe's efforts could not stop the bleeding.

 There was so much tension in the air now. So intense, o didn't know when I sucked in my breath as a bloodied figure emerged slowly form behind the grasses. It had a bad wound on its back and it was holding a silver cutlass on its left hand. I know that naked body anywhere… it was Elish.