Story 2: The Ominous Village - Chapter 3

I abandoned him and ran away like their was no tomorrow. While running down the line, with every blink I was able to see Jasper's face being torn apart by those so called Hunters. Even after seeing the arrow being pierced right through his heart, I could still see him pulling out his hand in an attempt to reach mine. But-

I... I knew it was nothing but a false hope. My own horrors were making me think like that. Every time I was blinking, I was able to see Jasper surrounded by those HUNTERS and each of them taking turn to tear apart his limbs, one at a time, until... he dies of extreme pain.

Even though I called him my friend knowingly who helped me get a life, no tears were shed through my eyes and fell through my cheeks. My eyes were dry as desert and my heart pounding at the speed of a bullet train. I was not able to contain myself but I didn't stop running at all.

I was out of breath, but the thought of stopping and being ended up like him kept me moving forward as I was gushing downhill. 

While running down the hill, I could still hear people screaming but I was paying no attention to any sounds aside from me running. While this whole screaming and me running down the hill was happening, an internal war was burning up inside my head. The clash of who I really am? 

"I ran away abandoning Jasper. WHY? were you not his friend, or you never considered him to be your friend. Are you just a mean or a leach that leaves their prey when no need. You are nothing more than a scum which got lifted to the surface by some of the good people."

"Stop It." I shouted in my mind.

"I know, I know how I am and this is who I am. Always... always taking advantage of the people who die for me, but... but I never, look back at them." 

My deserted eyes started pouring out of my eyeballs. It was a blast of multiple emotions tangling altogether to disrupt my survival goal. No matter how much I tried to stay away from trouble, but always end up in some bad situation. Meanwhile, I reached almost at the ground level, and noticed a house whose lights on the first floor was on, but flickering.

Initial thought was to get in and see for myself if I could get any help or at least to find someone sane enough to help me get out of here. I slowly moved at the foothold of the house and stopped. At that time, thought of Jasper or his condition was slowly getting wiped out of my head and the only thought on my mind was, "should I get in the house or not?"

I could see that the door was barely locked so I got one step closer, but the thought of this being a trap got me two steps back. While deciding to go in or staying out, I heard the voices of those HUNTERS running down the hill. Taking a risk of my life, I got inside the house, locked the door with a heavy table, and finally sat down to process, "WHAT the HELL happened?"

I was close to the door, sitting and sobbing and mumbling about what I had done or what I should have done in that situation. "I... I lost my friend, to... to those wild humans. Jasper, I... I'm sorry, I... won't leave you alo- alone anymore."

I was lost, and exhausted. Both physically and mentally. The thought of leaving Jasper behind to die was still a thing which I was faking for myself. "It's not real?" "It must be one of his pranks that he used to pull when we were still new to each other." "Yeah. Right" I was having a breakdown as I kept on smiling weirdly, I kept on saying weird things to myself which we talked about, and what he wanted to do after getting out of here.

Suddenly a THUD! on the door cleared my mind out and I got back to the harsh reality. Someone was slamming the door hard but I shut myself by covering my mouth. I was practically biting my own fingers just to stay awake and to stop myself from knocking out because of this sudden shock. I didn't wanted the same to happen at the time like this which happened previously at the time of that boy. 

The voice outside started to fade away and I slowly removed my hand from my mouth. I bit so hard on my fingers which made them bleed. I... I thought that bleeding could become dangerous if they could sense any strong smell. So I moved into the house to get anything to cover that wound or hide it's smell.

It was dark as I was on the ground floor, and was getting inside searching for any goods. The wooden floor was making slight creaking sounds. The wall as lined up with heads of animals and an image of a person holding a rifle in one and a deer's head in the other hand. I thought I might find something useful as it looks like a house of any animal hunter.

While searching, a strong smell struck my nostrils. It was a foul smell of something, like rotten flesh or veggies kept for over a month all together at one place. I moved slowly thinking that there might be someone else in here. I reached near the staircase and saw blood streaming slowly through the stairs from the first floor.

My mind was exhausted, and was not able to think anything straight. I started to move upstairs instinctively, and slowly reached the first floor. But as I was moving upstairs, the blood stream was getting wider and wider.

I took a gulp but reached the first floor. In front of me, was a wooden door varnished by the blood at the bottom. The foul smell got stronger but my instinct took me over. I thought about not opening it, but I was not able to take a peek to get a look inside. 

While trying to peek, I made a creaking sound. I got panicked, but then I heard a voice saying. "Are.. You... human?"

These mere words gave me the whole recap of my entire life till how and why I got here. It was a simple question, but in my mind, it was like a question on my existence, "why I even exist?" I snapped out of it and somehow handled myself yet scaredly replied. "Ye... Yes."

For 2 minutes, there was no response from the inside. It was a complete silence in a sense that I was able to hear the clock ticking below and the swirling wind outside wrapping around my ears. I hearts about to burst out and I could sense the blood flowing rapidly through my veins. I was sure that it's a trap and was thinking that I might have made a huge mistake. But then the voice said again. "Please, come in. I... need help."

I got scared of that voice and in that panic, I opened the door. But what I saw their, was nothing like I thought. I was ready for an ambush or any human attacking me thinking of me as one of those HUNTERS, but what I saw was a completely different, a horrible picture in that sense. 

That scene etched into my mind. In that room, there was a person impaled with three spears, right in his guts, and both the arms and legs been stabbed into the wall. It was like their version of crucifixion or something.

The man was barely able to speak as he had already lost too much of his blood. I took a look at him and noticed a badge which he was wearing. It said "Chief." He might have been the chief who got assigned to this village.

Fully knowing that he was at his death doors, I asked. "What the hell is happening here?" I don't know why I asked this suddenly, maybe jasper's curiosity got me good in this, but I also wanted to know because of the eerie feeling I received when I took my first look on the village.

He smiled and said. "Good to know that a curious person is still being sane... in this insanity *coughs*" He was spilling blood, and was about to go dim. I grabbed him by the collar and asked agitatedly. "Don't play words with me, just tell me about what is going on here?"

The chief smiled at me, but dropped it right away and said. "I think you have lost *coughs* someone close." "Shut up!" I shouted. "So, I was... right." he replied with a smirk on his face cause he was right. "It's nothing of your damn business you old-" I lowered my voice and stopped by understanding my surroundings and situation. In a calmed yet frightened and breaking voice, I said. "Please, let me out of here. Please."

----- To be Continued in Chapter 4 -----