16: Fiends

I only stood there, frozen. I was just staring at the monster and the man in front of me with widened eyes and lips slightly apart. I was totally dumbfounded because of what I just saw. Everything that happened, they were just sinking in my head. As if everything was still on the process of being understood by my brain.

Well, I just woke up in an abandoned place that seemed like a former kindergarten. I woke up having all these crazy feels around me. I went into a room and there were these crazy noises I'd been hearing. I saw a head of a baby doll, that was only lying on the floor, transform to some kind of a terrifying monster combined with the legs of a spider. I was chased by a gigantic monster. And just a few minutes--or seconds--ago, I was about to be slaughtered up by that creature. Then someone appeared out of nowhere and killed it with a simple knife. Scratch that. A dagger, actually.

I sucked in a deep breath and screamed my lungs out when everything already sunk in.

"Whoa! Don't shout, you moron!" The man ran towards me, his head looking side by side as if something was about to come. Before he could come near me, I moved away fast and put my hands up in the air. "N-no! Don't come near me! I'm going to scream if you do!" But I already am. I told him with a shaky breath as I pointed a finger at him. I still can't get over with what just happened! Well, what the hell was that monster?! Why the hell did something like this happened?!

His lips twitched, which also told me that he was irritated by what I said. "Goddamn it! Just stop shouting, would you?!" Then he took another step towards me.

I quickly panicked when I noticed the distance between us getting shorter. "Nononono! Do not come near me, I said!" I shouted at him once again, and he let out an annoyed sigh. He turned around, and took a few steps away from me, then faced my direction again.

My breathing slightly slowed down, I somehow felt relieved and put my hands down to rub my arms. I was still trembling, but I tried my best to stop my myself.

"Now, is this enough?" He asked as he gestured to the space between us. I was sure he was faking politeness.

I quickly shook my head from side to side, "No! Move a little bit more!" He let out another annoyed sigh and took a step back. "There. Stay right there." I demanded.

A few moments of silence passed, I wasn't speaking. Him neither.

I gulped as I glanced where the monster was lying, I couldn't help but flinch at the sight. Its figure was slowly melting down to a thick black fluid that dissolves into thin air after. I looked back to the man who killed it. He was really staying where I told him to with his arms crossed over his chest. I looked back again to that monster my with narrowed eyes.

"What the hell is that thing?" I mumbled to myself. Well, I was only talking to myself, but I snapped to the guy who killed it. In less than seconds, he answered my question with his head tilted a little bit to the side. "A Fiend."

I just stared at him for almost a minute. A lot were rushing into my head at the moment, I couldn't even prevent myself from having this grimace on my face.

"A Fiend? What are you talking about?" I paused for a second, narrowing my eyes at him as I felt heat rushing up my body. "It's a monster! And why was it chasing me?! How did it transform from a doll to something like that gigantic monster! Why were there b-black bubbles popping around its body?! God, that's just disgusting! W-why did it want to kill me?! In the first place why am I even seeing that thing?! I thought monsters don't exist in the real world! Have the people gone mad and they did an experiment on a spider and a baby?! They created a monster?! W-what the hell is going on?!" I managed to yell out even though my voice broke a couple of times. "And who the--" I wasn't able to finish my sentence when I just found my mouth being cupped by the guy.

"Shhhh." He hushed me, and my eyes widened because he was just so quick. I didn't even know how he was able to move that fast toward me in a matter of seconds. "Look at me." He told me in a low voice. I only glared at him and tried pushing him away. But again, he was way too fast that I wasn't even able to distance myself away from him for about three feet, instead, he cupped my mouth again and snaked his other arm around my waist to prevent me from pushing him away.

My eyes went even wider. "I said look at me." He told me once again, saying each word with emphasis. And yes, I did. And I was, for the hundredth time, shocked again. I did look up at him, I looked into his eyes. You know what I saw?

Violet eyes. They were violet, just like Chase's, my pet cat.

I just stared straight into them, I couldn't help myself. I can't avert my gaze from those eyes even if I wanted to. Slowly, I noticed that his eyes were becoming brighter and brighter. Like something was glowing inside those eyes. I felt more... relaxed then. My body stopped trembling. My breathing became normal. I didn't feel the panic, adrenaline, the heat, and fear anymore. My eyes almost closed too, because I felt my energy being sucked out all of a sudden.

That was when the guy finally looked away from me and pushed me away. I even stumbled and nearly fell down, but I managed to balance myself.

Well... I blinked a couple of times, as if I just woke up from a nap. Did he just do something to me? Or was it just me?

I heard the guy release another deep sigh, which also made me look up to him. I caught him rubbing his face with his hands before he slowly turned and faced me. "You feeling better?" He asked, but I gave him a questioning look. Well, I was certain that he really did something. I saw his eyes getting brighter, or again, was it just me?

I nodded as my response to his question. I still can't accept the fact that I just encountered something like this, but I can say that I was already feeling better.

The man then turned on his heel and began walking away. "Good. Now let's go before the others come here."

My brows furrowed, "Wait. I'm coming with you? Why would I even do that? And what do you mean by the others?"

He froze on his spot and looked over his shoulder with a grimace on, "Yes, you are. Because I saved you. You'll know later on." He then continued what he was doing.

I blinked. Not once. Twice. "Just because you saved me doesn't mean--"

"Come on, just stop talking and be aware of your surrounding!" My eyes widened at him, though he couldn't really see me since his back was at me, but I quickly narrowed them.

I should have said something back, but before I could even do, something made me freeze once again.

Howls.

A foul smell then filled the room and I instantly covered my nose in disgust.

"What the heck is that?" I snapped to the man who just saved me when I heard him curse under his breath. "Crap. They're near."

In a blink of an eye, I just found myself being dragged by this person. He was so fast I couldn't even match his speed. "Where's the exit?"

"You should know that. Where did you even get in?" He gritted his teeth.

"I jumped down from that huge hole on the ceiling." Okay. That was how, huh? Too easy. For him. The ceiling was so high for my height for goodness' sake!

We passed by the space where the monster now completely dissolved and walked into the hallway with its broken down walls. He restrained from dragging me when we were already in front of the kitchen where I went to before.

On our spot, we can see it clearly, a window. "There it is. Now let's go." He then let go of my arm and made his way toward the window.

Wait, I think I know what he's about to do.

When he was already in front of the mirror, I quickly made a move towards him. I was supposed to be telling him that he should not break the window open, but I was too late.

He already did, and I couldn't do anything but flinch at the scenario as I closed my eyes. I even yelled a swear word when he did because there were also bits of glass that flew toward our direction. When I opened my eyes he was already on the other side of the wall, brushing all the bits of glass he got on his all-black clothes. And me, well I was just staring wide eyed at him. Was this guy naturally born to move this fast?

"Stop staring at me like I'm a piece of s**t. Are you planning on just staying there?" He suddenly asked, pulling me out of my trance. I blinked and I realized I'd been standing here for quite a long time. I grabbed the edge of the window for support and stepped my boot on the sill of the window, I then jumped up. "Oh please, why are you so slow?" I immediately faced the guy who truly looked impatient. I just mentally rolled my eyes at him and first ignored his complaint. Because when I already got my feet on the sill, I already jumped down from it. It was sorta funny when I landed right in front of the guy, nice timing though.

"Shut up. I'm not slow, you're just too fast." I calmly stated as I faced him confidently.

But he just rolled his eyes, grabbed my arm and began dragging me with him. Running. That was when I traveled my eyes around me. We were in the midst of a forest, tall trees were around us. It was also dark, but the full moon had been giving us light. The night sky was also empty, no stars complimenting the sky. The night was too dead for me. I looked over my shoulder, and there was the kindergarten. Well, we're already quite far from the kindergarten because we were running.

And, I didn't regret calling this night dead because it truly was.

It really surprised me when there were wolves covered in green moss running towards the kindergarten. I wasn't even sure if it was moss or something, all I know was they smelled like rotten bodies. Maybe the foul odor was coming from them. I can also see those black bubbles popping from some parts of their body. Not only those, more were coming from the trees around, there were the heads with spider legs, and winged small creatures swarming up above the building. No joke. There really were. My eyes just widened again and snapped to the man who was dragging me. "Oh, fudge! What the hell are those back there!?" After I asked him that, the guy ran faster, and so did I since he was holding my arm.

"Don't think. Just run." He muttered in a serious tone. I couldn't do anything else, I just did what he told me to as I matched up with his speed of running. He even tightened his grip on my arm.

"And I must say, please, if ever you see more of them in this forest... pretend that you don't see them if you don't wanna be slaughtered up to death."

I gulped, I really didn't know what was happening with the world right now. Why do those kind of creatures exist? Since when? Questions were totally flooding up my mind. It just seemed like this wasn't the world I was born in, but it actually was. It just changed all of a sudden.

We were already just a few meters away from the trees, and that was when I looked back to the kindergarten before us. Even from this distance, I could hear their sickening cries, growls, and the screeches. I breathed out as I closed my eyes for a bit. I tried to calm myself down.

Don't worry, all of those questions in your head will be answered soon enough. I told myself.