Enigma Of The Woods

CHAPTER 4: THE END OF THE BEGINNING

JETT'S POV

This time around, as I rode my way to the forest, I got equal amount of stares from the children who were usually preoccupied with playing and the adults from their haven of a house. Surprisingly I didn’t see Ravi. Maybe he had given up on his trying to discourage me.

Or so I thought. Standing in front of the forest entrance was Ravi, carefully standing under the sun. He had a frown on his face, now common to me. His arms were crossed and he planted his feet apart, stumping his left foot ever so slowly like an angry father ready to reprimand his incorrigible son.

‘You’re wasting your time…’, I said as I got off my bike. ‘If you came to stop me that is’

‘Well then I love wasting my time’, he replied sarcastically as he started approaching me. As he reached his hands out to place them on my shoulder he said, ‘ Don’t do this. It’s not worth it’.

‘ Are you insane?! My freedom is worth my life cos if I ain’t free then I ain’t alive’. I walked past him and turned around to face him, ‘ I’m gonna win. Trust me’.

He gave this sad, forlorn smile as his eyes turn red and reflected the sunshine like the surface of the water. ‘Come back alive, okay?’.

‘ Promise’. A chill ran down my spine, I wasn’t the type for all the affectionate words and expressions. I disliked cheesiness and cringy statements. However this was inevitable, I had to reassure him else he might end up like spilt milk on the side walk like Tess did.

I started to sweat and hands started trembling as I stood on the sunny side and looked at the shadow on the ground. I knew as soon as I stepped in the shadow my life would literally be dangling off a thread. I was not scared. No I wasn’t. I was terrified; petrified. I knew I might not make it out alive. I felt like turning around but I still decided to move into the forest. I couldn’t for the first few minutes because my legs felt very heavy and my heart was beating faster than I could comprehend.

My palms were sweaty and the sword almost slipped from my hands. I switched on my torch light and moved in. The torch light was a very bad idea because I’d stand out from the dark background but I needed it to see in this dark murky last frontier. Today it was especially darker than before.

Even with my torch, the light could only guide me a little. I was hearing buzzing from the flies having feasts on the corpses that lay on the forest floor. The fallen ones. Soon my mind started zooming through different thoughts. What if I end up a member of the fallen? What if I don’t make it out alive? Is this sword really able to hurt that creature? I was so lost in thought I didn’t even notice when I stepped on something. It had structure but felt soft and loose and slimy. I regret looking down. It was Cindy’s face half eaten and rotten. There were maggots pouring out of her eye sockets and nostrils. The flesh was torn apart and dark and cloths of blood were everywhere. Her head was surrounded by a thickened blood pool and an ancestral line of flies having a family reunion.

All that was left was her head. Her body was MIA. I didn’t realise when I started vomiting on the decayed head, pouring some wine for the flies. I began cry again. What was all this? Why? Why? Why? But I have to be strong. Someone has to tell the story. Someone has to live. Someone has to save us. I’ll be the one to do all that. I must. I will. I will.

I was so caught up in my fears that I failed to do the one thing I should have been doing since the moment I stepped into enemy territory. I failed to PAY ATTENTION.

It was right by my side looking at me or so it seemed. It didn’t have eyes just horns that curved backwards and to the sides. It had a pale blue body that we’ll defined with way more muscled than any creature I’ve ever seen. Its hands had four fingers with long and sharp claws. It was wearing a pair of harem pants and had a piece of cloth tied around its waist and golden beads and anklets on its legs. I was surprised; they wore clothes. It had a huge smile showing it’s razor like teeth that was now shining red from from the blood in its meal. I froze. As it stood from its sitting position it’s shadow covered my entire body. It wasn’t happy that I was disturbing it’s meal. Freshly decayed Cindy with a side of flies. I was scared and felt like peeing my pants at any moment but more than anything I was vexed. He had killed my friends and had the nerves to feast on them in my presence. This was the end. For me or for it; I didn’t know but I knew only one of us was leaving that battlefield alive. And it would most definitely be me.

I swung my sword at it without even realising that I had done so. A piece of the metal cut me on my cheeks. It shattered on impact with the skin of the beast. Even though I realised there was no hope, I still brought out my pocket knife and reached to stab it’s abdomen.

What I saw next was my left arm flying in the air. ‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!’, I let out a scream as I placed my hand around the abode of the missing limb. I fled. I fled with my tail between my legs. At that moment I knew I had made a huge mistake. I should have never sought freedom. No! No!! Even if I had not sought freedom eventually we’d be sent out here to “look for greener pastures”. I was trying to make my way out of the woods when I fell. I looked down at my legs and saw they were missing, there was just blood everywhere.. The pain was unbearable, I screamed out loud. I saw it approach me with its evil grin and my legs in its hands. I tried crawling away but soon it was above me.

I wished I could see my face at this moment. So I could laugh at my own stupidity and cowardice. How could I ever believe I’d win against this… But at the least, I’d rather go down trying than not trying at all.

‘What the fuck are you? Why the fuck won’t you leave is alone? Let us go. How dare you kill my friends?’, I said my last words with teary eyed and a heart full of rage and resentment as I looked at it raise it hands with its fingers close together like a spear, ready to impale me.

‘Answer me!!!’

‘I have no obligation to answer to you, little bird’. It spoke. It actually spoke. I was surprised but what was the use. It was the end of the line for me. I wish the next adventurer luck. As it gazed down at me, with its mouth open, a drop of blue fluid fell from his mouth into mine. It was tasteless but disgusting.

It impaled me and my whole body turned icy cold. I screamed but not out of pain or fear but anger. I screamed while looking at its face full of satisfaction from killing yet another prey when my eyes began to glow. The dead star had been reborn.