⚠️ Blood warning⚠️
"Oof, damn. Now that is just rude," I say, shaking my head as I stared at the opposite end of the knife, the silver part wedged deep inside my stomach. I lifted a finger to poke it slightly, watching it maneuver to my touch.
The man before me stumbled back in shock, his mouth fallen open as he rushes to create a distance between the two of us. "Y-you!" He stutters, pointing a wavering finger my way.
I blinked slightly, looking around the alley for anyone besides us two. "Me?" I questioned in confusion, pointing to myself as well. "What about me?"
The man falls onto the ground, his elbow digging into the dirty puddle. It splashed up, nearly hitting me in the process. "You are the devil!"
I let out a laugh, something that had increased his fear even more so. I could only tell by the way the tracker in my pocket, it's raging vibrations, informed me that the human was quite terrified at the moment, and I had not even done anything yet.
"The devil?" I repeated, crouching down onto the ground so we were eye level. "That's an insult to me. Why would you be so inconsiderate when calling me that?"
He slid backwards, desperately crawling away from me with his one leg injured from our previous fight. "Get away from me!" He screams out, yet nothing was in his possession now to help him feel protected. "Leave, you beast!"
I raised a daring eyebrow, making eye contact as I slowly and carefully reached up to the hilt of the knife, wrapping my hands around it before yanking it out. The man in utter horror screamed again, this time pratically flying backwards to create a further distance.
"Kya, come on. It's almost time for the meeting."
At the sight of my best friend and teammate Hongjoong, the man's eyes rolled in the back of his head before collapsing onto the ground. This caused the tracker to beep, indicating the human had finally been scared enough to repay his debt. And most importantly, he may never harm someone else again, in fear of Proteggere.
I turned, a smile plastered on my face as I looked at Hongjoong. "I see you are here to ruin someone else's fun."
He rolls his eyes with a laugh, grabbing my arm to take the knife from my grasp. "Fun? You were literally stabbed." In a split second the knife disappeared, forming a small cloud of dust to indicate it's existence. He blew the cloud away and patted his hands against his shorts.
I shrugged off his words, walking over to the human to check his pulse. Seeing as it was still beating, I had deemed my mission a success. I took the tracker out from my back pocket, hovering it over the man until it let out a small blue glow. The glow represented his memory, allowing this moment to always stay with him, but forget my face.
There was a rumour about us. Like any mysterious creature, we were really just a tale among the humans that was spoke of every once and awhile. Those who came across us knew that we existed, but none were ever able to speak about it. Instead, they were haunted by their own memories.
Proteggere were trained specifically to find those humans who had sinned greatly and were causing harm to others. These people were the worst of the worst, and often times difficult to deal with. But every once and awhile we ended up with show offs or punk kids, ones easy to scare some sense into.
Proteggere were the fancy names of the "protectors". These were creatures of power and time on their hands. Each one walked around with a tracker that alerted them the fear of the human they are assigned to. It only happened a few times when the Proteggere had gone further than they were allowed to for punishment, and those never ended well for either side.
Yet, somehow, Hongjoong and I had become one of the more powerful Proteggere. Some are born as one, and some are humans made to be a protector. A protector of the people being harmed by those who sin greatly and cause ruckus. For Hongjoong, he was once a human. Although he had lost his memory of being one, he was informed that his past life before being a protector was a human one.
And he was my best friend. The moment we met, I knew he was going to be the greatest person to me. It was only because he wore a shirt made by the humans with my favorite band.
He wore it the first day of the meetings. From then on, we became close. Often times would be assigned tasks together, or help one another when they were too difficult. In this case, Hongjoong had appeared because he wished to, not that I had asked for or needed any help...
Which brought me back to the case before me, allowing me to observe the man from another angle as he lied cold and passed out.
"Kya?" Hongjoong waves his hand in front of my face. "You good?"
I nod, staring at the human for another minute. "Yes, I'm fine. But it's strange. For such a small guy, how did he manage to capture so many women and take them back to his place?"
Hongjoong glances at me. "Maybe he had extra help?"
I frowned. "If that's the case, then we will be expecting a much bigger problem on our hands. "
Hongjoong pat's my shoulder. "No worries! I've got your back." He then slightly nudges the man. "Do we leave him here and go to the meeting or...?"
I grinned at my best friend. "We leave him here and never tell a soul!"
He nods in agreement, reaching out his arms to cross pinkies with me. Our thumbs connect to seal the agreement before we take off from the area and leave the scene.
2019
