Eliana's heart was pounding as she ran through the dense jungle, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and Vincent's men who were fast catching up with her. She could hear their footsteps pounding behind her, their harsh breaths sounding like growls in her ears. She couldn't afford to stop, else the key got to Vincent."Stop running, Eliana!" Vincent's voice boomed behind her. "It's pointless. We'll catch you eventually." Vincent growled as he increased his pace.Eliana didn't dare turn around, she could feel his eyes on her back, burning into her like hot coals. She knew he was right, knew that she couldn't outrun them forever. But it was better than giving in to his callous threat. The key had to be protected at all cost, let it get into the wrong hands and Vincent isn't the best option to be in possession of the keys.As she ran, she noticed a flowing river through the trees and increased her pace. Without giving much thought to it, she changed course and ran t
Eden and Arnold were consumed with grief and anger after Elaina's death. Eden's thirst for revenge kept him going and he vowed to stop at nothing till Vincent paid, even with his blood.Arnold sighed,"Eden, I know how much this hurts you, I want you to…""I did not solicit any advice from you Arnold… It's my wife in question here, you don't know what it feels," Eden said, slightly raising his voice.Arnold stared at him in silence for a while, "Maybe I didn't lose my wife Eden, but I know what pain is,""Then you should help me fight this course Arnold, fight with me, let's avenge her death and get the treasure," he said in a shaky voice.Arnold walked over to his friend, "I'm here for you and you know it… let's go,". Eden's face lit up at Arnold's words and they set out to find Vincent.Their journey was filled with danger and challenges, but Eden was too focused on his revenge to stop. He pushed through every obstacle and danger they faced, determined to catch up with Vincent and hi
Elaine hummed to herself as she flipped the pan over, avoiding the utensils that would no doubt make clanging sounds and wake the entire family. Eden had been occupied recently with trying to find a good job and while he never spoke of his troubles to Elaine, she knew it bothered him a lot. The constant sneering and mistreatment from her family was beginning to wear him down. It had taken her pleas and cries to even get him to move in with the family and that might have been the biggest mistake ever. The least she could do was make him a hot meal. He’d come back so tired, he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. She sighed and started to lift the plate off the counter, but it slipped from her oily hands and crashed into the tiled floor, shattering to bits. Her eyes widened and she fell to the floor, gathering the broken shards of glass. Shit, shit, shit! They couldn’t find her in here. They couldn’t find herhere. . . The sound of slamming doors and shuffling feet f
Elaine flailed while helping Eden up the stairs. Every step hurt and Eden groaned when he couldn’t keep the pain at bay. “Sorry,” she cried for the umpteenth time, adjusting slightly to keep him injured arm from grazing the size wall. He wondered why she bothered apologizing to him when she had cuts scattered about her palms too from trying to gather the broken glass pieces. He would scold her for injuring herself so, but he could hardly speak, and she’d probably done it to try cover for him. She twisted the door knob and they both staggered into the room. Eden’s knees gave out and he collapsed with a muffled cry, pulling Elaine down with him. She apologized and knelt by his side, pulling of his battered shirt slowly before disappearing to get a first aid kit to tend his wounds. The air was filled with his muffled grunts and groans as burning liquid touched his wounds. Once she was done, he opened his eyes to the emptiness of their bedroom. It was painted in varying shades of
The interview didn’t turn out as well as Eden had anticipated.It didn’t turn out well at all. The moment they heard his surname, they turned him away with the excuse that they weren’t hiring. Every other location he visited gave him the same excuse. He went from door to door, searching and asking, but no one was hiring. As he followed the path down from where he’d just left, he was lost in thoughts of the day’s events. It was just another day of disappointment. But then, he shouldn’t really be surprised. His hope was long lost and he’d known better than to hope that today would be any different. Still, the frustration he felt wasn’t lost on him and he wanted to vent. Needed to. Else he would break down. He couldn’t afford to break. For Elaine, he had to keep going. She was the only reason he kept going.He wanted to be worth everything for her. He wanted to make her proud. So much so she would proudly say one day that she was the wife of Eden Vangot. Lost deeply in his th
His lips split and pain throbbed in his cheeks as fist collided with flesh. “You should have just said so if you had no cash,” the taxi driver yelled, punching him again. At this rate, he would be heading home with a black eye. “I’m sorry,” he murmured to the driver, but it did little to calm the man’s anger. He kept punching and hitting Eden, demanding that he provided the fare he was charged, but Eden had nothing to give. He emptied out his pockets, showing the driver but the man didn’t stop hitting Eden. “Okay! Okay! I’ll make a call,” Eden said, panting, when the man raised a hand to hit him again. He had no idea who he was going to call but he had to figure something out before he would be beaten to a pulp. “You’d better!” The man yelled, letting go off Eden’sshirt collar. Eden staggered from the man’s grip, wincing at the pain in his body. A truly horrible day this was. He was almost tempted to use the cliché sentence, “Could it get any worse?”, but he knew it could. Fr
Eden took one step into the room and Elaine whirled, fuming.“You know what they will do to you for standing up to them.You know what happens when you fight back. They will hurt you back a hundred fold. Why then, do you keep doing that? Do you want to die?!” Eden sighed, dropping back to lean against the closed door. “I’m sorry, El. I just had a terrible day. It was too much to handle all at once.” Her eyes softened and she went to stand in front of him, concern written all over her features as she took him in. “What happened out there, den? You have cuts and bruises everywhere,” she said softly, leading him away from the door so he could sit on the bed. She disappeared for long enough to get the first aid kit—she’d been doing that a lot recently. He really would need to stop getting into trouble so he would stop needing to get fixed up. He winced when the wet cotton wool touched his lips and fire exploded in his cut lip. “Sorry,” she mumbled, green eyes fixated on the inju
The door was suddenly flung open and Eden’s heart lurched with it. He tried running, but a huge burly man had him dangling by his collar and something cold pressed against his throat. Eden stopped moving when he realized there was a gun to his neck.Fear gripped him. Real fear, and it paralyzed him and his senses. The man’s nostrils flared and he gazed into Eden’s eyes. He frowned slightly and dropped Eden slowly, deigning him unfit to be a threat. He lowered his gun, sizing Eden up and pulling him aside from prying eyes. “Who are you?” the man demanded and Eden’s gaze dropped to the gun in the man’s tight grasp. One wrong move, one wrong breath and he might just shoot him. He shivered, and it had nothing to do with the chilly air in the hospital. Just how did he keep finding himself in these sorts of situations? It would seem he had a penchant for trouble and terrible situations, seeing as he kept landing in them when he wasn’t even trying. His lips parted to answer, but he
Eden and Arnold were consumed with grief and anger after Elaina's death. Eden's thirst for revenge kept him going and he vowed to stop at nothing till Vincent paid, even with his blood.Arnold sighed,"Eden, I know how much this hurts you, I want you to…""I did not solicit any advice from you Arnold… It's my wife in question here, you don't know what it feels," Eden said, slightly raising his voice.Arnold stared at him in silence for a while, "Maybe I didn't lose my wife Eden, but I know what pain is,""Then you should help me fight this course Arnold, fight with me, let's avenge her death and get the treasure," he said in a shaky voice.Arnold walked over to his friend, "I'm here for you and you know it… let's go,". Eden's face lit up at Arnold's words and they set out to find Vincent.Their journey was filled with danger and challenges, but Eden was too focused on his revenge to stop. He pushed through every obstacle and danger they faced, determined to catch up with Vincent and hi
Eliana's heart was pounding as she ran through the dense jungle, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and Vincent's men who were fast catching up with her. She could hear their footsteps pounding behind her, their harsh breaths sounding like growls in her ears. She couldn't afford to stop, else the key got to Vincent."Stop running, Eliana!" Vincent's voice boomed behind her. "It's pointless. We'll catch you eventually." Vincent growled as he increased his pace.Eliana didn't dare turn around, she could feel his eyes on her back, burning into her like hot coals. She knew he was right, knew that she couldn't outrun them forever. But it was better than giving in to his callous threat. The key had to be protected at all cost, let it get into the wrong hands and Vincent isn't the best option to be in possession of the keys.As she ran, she noticed a flowing river through the trees and increased her pace. Without giving much thought to it, she changed course and ran t
Vincent stood at the edge of the cliff, scanning the vast expanse of jungle below him. His eyes narrowed, and a fierce look crossed his face as he thundered at the top of his voice,"We've just been outsmarted by that serpent Eliana! She's stolen the key from me! And we're not going to let her get away with it!""We're going to find her, and we're going to get that key back. And we'll do whatever it takes, even if we have to kill her!". He thundered as his men looked with trepidation at his outburst.Vincent knew that it wouldn't be difficult to track Eliana down. She was alone, vulnerable, and didn't have anyone to protect her. He gave orders to his men, "Spread out and search every inch of this jungle until you find her. And if you see her, don't hesitate to bring her to me.""We would do as you have instructed, Sir" one of his men answered as they bowed in terror and scurried off into the jungle.Vincent took a deep breath and clenched his fists, "I don't care what it takes," he mu
Days turned into weeks with no clue on how to find the treasure or anything relating to the note. Despite all of these, Eden and Arnold continued the journey,trekking through the thick jungle that housed tall trees and harbored wild animals .They kept on searching for any hint or meaning behind the mysterious number "27". Still, they had yet to come across anything that could offer them a clue. Eden was growing increasingly frustrated and discouraged, feeling like they were going in circles without making any progress."I don't know what we're supposed to do, Arnold there's no hope!" Eden said, kicking a stone in frustration. "We've been at this for weeks and we're no closer to finding the treasure."Arnold sighed heavily. "I know, Eden. But we can't give up… not so fast. We have to keep searching.""What in heaven's name are we even searching for? At first the note seemed like it had some kind of message embedded in it and now… now it's like there's no hope.We don't even know what
Arnold and Eden trudged along the dirt path, their feet heavy and weary from the long journey they had been on. The sun beat down on their backs, making their clothes cling to their skin with sweat. Arnold's face was dripping with sweat as gasped for air.He let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, trying to shake off the fatigue that had settled in his bones. "Man, I'm starving," he groaned.Eden stared at him equally feeling exhausted, but he wouldn't stop till he found Eliana… and the key. He chuckled. "Yeah, me too. We should have packed more food.""I didn't think we'd be on the road this long," Arnold replied.Eden sat on a small rock and rubbed his forehead slightly, "I know we didn't bargain for this but we have to keep moving,"Arnold scoffed, "Keep moving? Keep moving, you say, if that woman didn't steal the keys to the treasure we would have been at home, and none of all these would have even come up in the first place!" He said, his voice slightly raised.
The journey was beginning to get the better part of Eden. Not only was he frustrated with the fact that they weren’t catching sight of Eliana, he was sad that she had the strength to run away from him without returning. The depth of the betrayal was heavy on his soul and that prompted him to start behaving in an erratic manner.Earlier, he and Arnold stumbled across a pack in the city. They successfully stole some meals that was brought in my people in the pack. It was a crazy experience for Eden since the last thing he wanted was stealing from innocent people, but they had no choice. Once they showed their guns to them, the people gave up their food and even, some of their money immediately.“We shouldn’t have collected any part of their money”, Eden suggested the minute the left the are where the people were.Arnold scoffed and chuckled calmly, without an iota of guilt in his eyes.“We did what we had to do to survive! I hold no remorse”, he said and immediately, Eden stopped right
Eliana rushed into a small hut that stayed at a hidden part of the city. She looked behind her as she tried to confirm that she was not being followed.“Who are you?” A man in his late fifties asked as he blew a whistle, prompting some guards to rush over to him.They all stared at Eliana, like a threat who must have come to wipe them out.“I’m not threat! You have to believe me”, Eliana said as she gasped heavily, trying so hard to catch her breath.She looked back again while the men tried to monitor her closely and ascertain what she was currently up to at the moment.“Why are you running?” One of the men asked, walking closer to her and looking into her eyes as though the answer to her question laid there.Eliana took in a deep breath and sighed heavily. There was no way she would open up her mouth and tell the men that she was running because she had a key which would unlock a great treaure. That would only mean putting her life in trouble.“Some men were chasing me! I did nothin
The ravine walls were steep and slippery, making it impossible to climb out. The river flowed rapidly, making it too dangerous to swim across. They were trapped, with no clear way out. Eden's frustration and desperation grew as he realized that they may be stuck in this ravine for days, or even weeks. He worried about Elaina's safety and the possibility that someone else may find the key before they do.“What are you thinking of?” Arnold asked as he tapped Eden’s shoulders lightly. Eden took in a deep breath and forced a smile to his face. He was deeply worried and despite how hard he tried to conceal it, it still showed on his face. “Are you worried about her?” Arnold asked as he gazed at Eden who nodded his head in affirmation.A small scoff escaped his lips the moment he took note of Eden’s response. He couldn’t say why Eden was more worried about his wife than himself.“We are the ones lost in the middle of a ravine. We have no idea of how we are going to survive and if we are
After the encounter with the strange people, Eden and Arnold became stranded in the middle of a ravine. They had been following a long river, in hopes that it would lead them to Eliana and the key. However, they didn’t expect the drop in the terrain.“This is all your fault! You picked this location and now, it seems like we are lost”, Eden suddenly said as he turned to look at Arnold who was looking around and trying to decipher the next part to head to. “My fault? You would have stopped me when you saw me walking towards here…but instead, you supported me and walked with me”, Arnold scoffed and rolled his eyes at Eden who was now beginning to get enraged with the way and manner things were beginning to turn.“This is all your fault! Tell me…are you trying to see that we suffer?” Eden asked and for a minute, Arnold thought that he had heard wrongly. He took a step closer to Eden who was looking at him with a dead glare, not batting an eyelid.“And what do you want to do?” Arnold a