Blood on her

dug dug, dug dug

"This is only a dream!" a half baked giggle, "I will wake up now." she said in a whisper while pinching and slapping herself. She counted, "1..2..3..yea".

She opened her eyes only to see pitch black surrounding. She is still there. She is lost. This is not a dream. She felt the soreness of her legs and feet as she scrambles to hold on to something. Her body suddenly felt weaker as she realizes that this is happening to her. Her left hand caught a trunk and held onto it as she slid down slowly, just as the energy from her body is dissipating. No hint of any light and only the crickets sounds in the area. The wind blows softly, of cold chills.

"This is not happening!" she started to cry silently.

"Where am I?" she whispered to herself with a trembling silent voice. She was holding a kitchen knife. Upon realizing, she immediately tossed the knife few feet away. Shocked by the sticky fluid she felt on her forearm, no. She tries to widen her eyes hoping to see something but it was too much for her that she decided to give up.

"Papa?", tears are forming again in her little eyes. "What's happening?" No one was there to answer. She curbed and hugged herself while crying. She was confused, shocked, and afraid.

"Mama?" She suddenly felt something is about to come out from her silent monologue. In her mind, she was wailing but in the darkness of the night she was still. Then came out from the bushes...

A white rabbit.

The creature is so white that it illuminates in the dark. Ajia was able to see it despite the pitch black of the forest. She smiled as hope refills her cup. Why such beautiful creature resides in this forest? Ajia has never been to the forest. She was always forbidden to go to that direction. Her mother would tell her stories about the rare creatures in the world and some resides in the deep forest. She always think that it is just scary bedtime stories for kids to keep them at bay. But now, she is inside the forest, and looking at this seemingly friendly creature. The rabbit jumps from the ground to some rocks and back again. It stumbles occassionally but stands back up to try again. Ajia was very fascinated by the rabbit that she totally forgot what happened to her. The white rabbit suddenly stopped moving. It's head turning left or right as if crossing the street, or as if looking for something. The rabbit then fixes its gaze to Ajia who is in the corner watching the creature play for several minutes now.

Ajia's gaze met with the rabbit stare. The latter slowly leaps toward Ajia's direction. Ajia tried to be alert and prepare for whatever might happen. It could be another surprise. Not now, because she is too weak to run even for a meter distance. The rabbit leaped again closer to her feet. It stayed for a while in that spot while face down. Ajia noticed that the rabbit eating something near where she rests her feet. After few minutes the rabbit stopped moving. The rabbit looked at Ajia's face and suddenly was shaking hard then moment later its stomach started to split open. It sounded like a paper being torn apart slowly bit by bit. Ajia while watching was horrified! How can such creature turn out like this? The white fur of the rabbit suddenly turned black and its eyes flashes red while its teeth grew sharp ready to attack Ajia when a searing arrow hit the rabbit dead!

That was close. Ajia didn't bat an eye and everything happened so fast. Realizing that someone killed the rabbit suddely scared her again. The bush where the arrow came suddenly let out a human - he was with a lamp that lighted the blooded Ajia.

Ajia tried to stand up while scrambling for support upon seeing a light. She was standing when she can now see who the person was - Elric, her classmate, the bully classmate.

"I guess you own me one now, Ajia!" in an arrogant deep voice he tells her while his eyes never left her which made Ajia uncomfortable.

Elric realizes his stare made her twitched suddenly withdrew his eyes and immediately look to the other direction. To break the growing silence it is becoming awkward, "The rabbit was corrupted. Seeing you know covered in blood, where did you get all those blood?" His stare this time was both serious and curious, and a little bit concerned.

Ajia answered, "Zombies, undead in our neighborhood. I got away when one captured me. I was able to kill it with a kitchen knife and drew blood on me. I have to kill it to get the keys out of the house where they took me."

Elric was amazed. He swallowed to clear his throat before speaking again, "You killed a zombie? That explains the blood on you, which the rabbit drank." Just like a detective Elric figured that he rabbit was corrupted by drinking the blood of the zombie.

Ajia was speechless. It made sense why the rabbit was face down and near her feet because there were blood drops from her body to the ground. "I see." Ajia uttered.

"You must be a champion as well." Elric said.

"A what?" Ajia asked. "I am also a champion. The people in the house left for some reasons I don't know and ended up here in the forest. By the way, I think you should clean yourself first." Elric answered while getting ready to move out.

"Come with me." he said.

"Where are you taking me?" asked Ajia.

"Somewhere... just follow me, no question." a bit irritated Elric said to Ajia. It has been an hour walking and finally Elric stopped.

"See that mountain over there?" asked Elric.

"Yes, is that our destination?!" wide eyes Ajia exclaimed.

"Good, that's not the one, carry on." Elric gave a smirk with his joke and prank as he turned away from Ajia seeing her exasperation.

Ajia thought to herself, "What an arrogant bully!" and they started walking in the vast and semi-dark forest. The moon shines their path. Ajia is travelling now with Elric into the world of unknown.