Chapter 2: YOU’RE SAFE NOW

Chapter 2: YOU’RE SAFE NOW He stared at the man with cold, unfeeling eyes as he continued to playfully twist the sword in his chest to increase the pain. The man was now gasping for air. gurgles could be heard as he breathed. his lungs were punctured. He could do nothing but twitch on the ground in the blood pooled from all the other dead fellows. The boy suddenly stopped. He held the hilt of the sword with one hand and waved his other hand over it. "Eclipsed binding" Several thin strings shot up into the air from the sword. They were black and invisible to the untrained eye. The boy only had his eyes on the man and didn’t even bat an eye as the strings shot downwards toward the man. They entered through his open chest, and unbearable pain started to spread through him. His body immediately received energy, and he started thrashing on the floor, screaming in pain. "Stop it! please!...make it stoppp!!!" He desperately begged. His shouts and screams were unheard by the boy who only stared at him with emotionless eyes. Not long after, his legs had turned into blood, and his waist was slowly being torn apart into very tiny molecular pieces. The strings made their way slowly, and painfully to his torso, tearing him viciously into very minute parts that only looked like blood. They entered his head and his vision was now becoming crossed by a black net formed from the strings. His vision was now gone, and the strings now spread into his mouth, tearing at his tongue. His voice was abruptly cut off, and his body became consumed. The boy pulled out his sword, and it dispersed into a dark mist that sunk into his hand. He turned around just in time to see the girl waking up. She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was a corpse. Its face was contorted in a strange mixture of shock, fear, and confusion. She screamed, the sound tearing from her throat, raw and desperate. Her breath hitched as she pushed herself up, her body shuddering with each movement as thick, sticky blood pooled around her. The metallic scent was suffocating, and the sight of the bloodied, distorted figures left her gasping for air, as though she could not breathe in enough to calm the terror rising in her chest. She couldn’t stop her screams, they erupted from deep within her, guttural and frantic, as she scrambled back, away from the gruesome scene. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, and her hands shook as they clawed desperately at the floor beneath her, as if she could escape the blood-soaked nightmare. The boy appeared in her vision. He looked at her with calm, the same eyes he had looked at those men before killing them. He picked something from the floor and examined it, wiping the blood from it. He studied it a while before his eyes landed on her again and he started to walk towards her. Tears streaked down her face, mixing with the grime and blood as she continued to shriek, her voice trembling with fear. "Stay back! Please! Go away!" she screamed, her words breaking off into sobs as the boy approached her with cold, emotionless eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as her body trembled violently, and her vision blurred with more than just tears. She felt dizzy, weak, and utterly helpless as he closed the distance between them. She felt her heart race faster, fear coiling tight in her chest, suffocating her. "No, please..." she begged, but her words were swallowed by her panicked gasps. She had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. His figure suddenly shot toward her at an alarming speed, and she screamed, knowing that was her end. She heard herself gasp loudly when he got close enough, but she didn’t feel the pain she expected, or the unconsciousness either. The boy only held her tightly in an embrace. she couldn’t think and started struggling and screaming to get out of his hands. He just held her tightly and didn’t move. after some time she heard an all too familiar voice in her ear. "It’s okay, I’m here. I’m sorry for not getting here in time." The boy held her tightly, as he spoke softly in her ear. "They’re gone now. You’re safe." She struggled a bit before calming down and gulped as she found her voice. "A-Aramith?" her voice came out weak, filled with fear. The boy moved his head from her ear to face her, a sweet, soothing smile on his delicate, pale face. "I’m here" "Oh, Aramith!" She hugged him and cried all her eyes out "I was scared! I thought I was going to die!" she cried loudly now, tears flowing down endlessly as he spoke reassuring words to her to calm her down. She was being calmed by him, but she was unaware of how heavy he felt in his heart. I killed them. I took away their lives. He was in so much sorrow for killing those people and taking their lives. They could have had families. some could have children, but he killed them. He felt like crying like she was, but that would only make her feel worse. At the moment, calming her down was the priority. After she had finally calmed down, he drew back his face, and carefully moved her damp hair from her face. His heart was troubled as he looked at the reddened, and swollen half of her face, the part the man had slapped. he tried to touch it, but she winced and shifted her head away from him. He studied her face carefully and pulled out a small pouch from within his robe. From it, he pulled out a white pill. "Eat this. It will help you." She took it and without a second thought, put it in her mouth. She consumed it, and in mere seconds, could already feel the pain decreasing drastically. He then looked at her arm which the man had gripped. It wasn’t serious, but the sight of such marks on her skin made him feel sad and incompetent for not reaching her in time. He took another pill for her to swallow, and rubbed a paste on the cuts. She tightened her jaw against the burning sensation as the medicine took effect. "How do you feel now?" he asked her. "Good," she nodded, and got up to her feet, but staggered forward to be caught by him. "You’re still weak. You lost a lot of energy," he said, knowing clearly that she was in that state mostly because of their gory surroundings. She was weak and hated blood, he knew and was even surprised that she hadn’t passed out from the blood, or fear. Maybe the fear was what was keeping her awake and conscious. "We should leave this place." She only nodded in response, feeling groggy. "Come on, I’ll carry you. We can leave faster that way." she looked at him, then shook her head "No, I can still walk. " "Don’t be stubborn. You know you’re weak." " No, I can do it." she smiled innocently at him, pushed herself carefully from him, and tried to walk again, but her legs gave in. He caught her from the side again and watched her in pain. "You can’t do it. Let me carry you. " she bit down on her lip and glanced at him, partly ashamed "Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I can carry you easily." She then nodded and he helped her get onto his back. He started to walk slowly from the place. "I’m sorry for not getting here earlier, really sorry but it won’t happen again. I promise. No one is ever going to hurt you again. No matter what, I’ll protect you," he said in a whisper that only the two of them could hear. "It’s not your fault, Aramith. It would not have happened if I ran faster. I was weak, and I made you kill them." she was crying again, and he could feel the tears falling down the side of his neck. Why do you have to blame yourself when I killed them? I’m the murderer here, a dirty creature that everyone wants to get rid of. He thought. "Don’t blame yourself for anything that happened, and don’t think about it. We will be safe." From a different roof, a lone figure of a man stood. His eyes were locked on the two children that made their way through the night. "He killed them all. Quite impressive for a child," he said with a menacing look in his eyes. "Things have been laid out as you planned, master. " a voice came from behind. He didn’t turn to look at the kneeling figures behind him as he responded. "Give them five minutes before you proceed. The others failed as I planned. Guess it’s time to create more fun." "Ye-Yes, sir." He was left alone. "A child, but you have truly entertained me." He chuckled and left the roof. Aramith moved slowly as if wanting to lull her to sleep. He stopped and looked up at the sky. He blinked as a tiny drop fell on his face. Rain. Little drops started to fall then, a slow drizzle. "Aramith..." she said softly in his ear "mmm?" "Aramith..." "Is something the matter?" he noticed her eyes were tightly shut "Aramith...Aramith...I-" "Aramith! Wake up, you-aah!" Aramith jerked upright from his slumber, but before he could know what interrupted his sleep, his head painfully hit something hard. "You cruel..." the little voice said All he saw was white before the pillow hit him in the face, and he was attacked. He grunted when the weight came on him, quickly getting under the thick, white cover on his bed "You’re so mean! You meanie!" the voice squeaked at him, coming from the weight on him. He secretly rolled his eyes and rolled to get away, but the goddess of luck seemed to have a grudge against him and he found himself falling hard on the cold, marble floor, headfirst.