Don't Get Eaten

Chapter Thirty Eight

I don't know which was worse, seeing a mouth full of teeth twisted and contorted in odd angles powering down towards me or seeing my boyfriend jump in front of them to save me. If he thought for a second that I could make it without him in this world, then he was dead wrong.

Because there was no way I was going to keep on living without him there with me.

I was about to scream in horror, not because of the monster, but because seeing him get in the way scared me more than getting eaten by that thing. But then he does something completely unexpected, and I sat there in a complete daze as he thrusts his dagger, that I completely forgotten he even had, right in it's throat and jammed it good straight through its skull.

I mean the creature did have it's mouth wide open for him to do it so easily too. And instead of closing in on him, it roars in this high pitch sound that made us both cringe and nearly go deaf. It scrambles back, not able to right itself, hitting the stairs like it was going crazy or something. I mean, it did have a blade through its brain after all.

Zared quickly reaches both of our lights and swings them right on the creature and we watch it start to burn away. I cover my ears watching in disgusted horrified terror as the faces all over their body start moaning and screaming in all kinds of sounds.

I pick myself back up and clutch to his backside watching along with him over his shoulder as the creature finally bursts in embers all around us.

"We should get the hell out of here." He whispers, turning around, grabbing my hand, and rushing down the last flight of steps after I grab my bag.

He thrusts the door open, and we were once again in bright daylight. I immediately pulled on his hand to get him to stop as the pain shot straight up my leg from my foot. I threw the bag down not caring of the noise it made and carefully sat on the ground wincing.

He crouches in front of me looking worried as he takes my left foot and gently takes my shoe off. I tensed just from the simple action of that. His brows furrow watching my reaction. But he doesn't say anything as he carefully twists and turns it.

"It's not broken, maybe just sprained a little bit. But I'll be fine if I just rest a few moments." I say to him trying to get my foot out of his grasp.

"We shouldn't move forward if you're hurt Jinsen. I'm not going to risk it-"

"I'm not going back." I say firmly with a scowl to my face.

He sighs deeply as he finally lets my foot go. "You almost died in there-"

"You almost did too, and you weren't even injured." I countered back.

I watch him rub his face in irritation before he stares me down. But I wasn't backing out of this. I was going to continue to push forward whether he liked it or not.

"If I headed back, you would have to as well and that would only leave four of them to rescue those people and I'm not going to do that to them. And yes-." I interrupted him as he was about to voice out his opinion. "You will be going back with me if I was to return. Because I definitely would have refused going back by myself."

His tiny smile eased my anger a little as he doesn't argue on that point. Instead, he leans in and presses his lips against mine firmly. Pulling away, he shakes his head in defeat.

"Fine. You always must have it your way, don't you?" He sounded aspirated, but I could tell it didn't bother him much that I was so highly stubborn.

I just shrug at him with a grin.

"Think you could help me up?" I ask, putting my shoe back on with another wince.

"You could piggyback ride for a little while." He says as he helps me stand.

As much as I really wanted to do that, it would only slow us down even more and it would exhaust him. I didn't want that to happen, so I decline for now. He looked a little disappointed, almost making me give in just to make him happy until we both hear a shuffle of running feet coming our way.

We both turn to the noise and, after the ordeal we just went through, became highly on guard and ready to fight or run if needed to. But it was the others as they quickly jogged down the hall, making me breathe a sigh of relief.

"There you guys are! We heard screams." Leo states practically out of breath.

"Yeah, that was us. We just fought against one of those things in the stairwell. You don't want to know what it looked like, trust me." I say as a chill went up my spine thinking about the creature all over again.

Nightmares were going to plague me for the rest of my life, I was sure of it.

"But Jinsen got hurt. He may have sprained his ankle." Zared inquired getting a death glare from me for telling them that little tidbit.

He gives me a grin. "What? It's not like you'll be able to hide it from them anyways." He shrugs.

Damn him and his manipulating ass. He said it on purpose, probably in the hopes that Lacy and the others would force me to head back to the hotel. But did he honestly think I wouldn't be just as stubborn with them as I was with him? What did he take me for?

Speaking of the devil she looks right at me with a frown. "How bad is it? Are you able to keep going?"

"Yes." I quickly reply before Zared had another response up his sleeve. "It's not as bad as he makes it sound. I can keep going."

She nods and I was shocked she was letting this slide so easily. Probably because she too knows their odds if I leave now.

"We got as much as we could carry, how about you guys?" She asks next.

"We were able to get everything we needed." Zared answers leaving me to voice my concerns about what we saw.

"We saw this weird cocoon looking thing in a corner in one of the rooms. It didn't even get affected when I shined my flashlight on it. I was wondering if you have seen anything like that before?"

She frowns deeper, thinking. "I don't think I have. A cocoon? That sounds suspicious. Maybe it's an egg sack or something? I would have to see it to figure it out."

"Forget it, it's on the fourth floor and we are not going back up there. Just because we killed one doesn't mean there aren't others lurking around. I would rather be safe than sorry." Zared voiced out with dead seriousness, and I didn't blame him.

"It's possible we could encounter more than just this one." I put in.

"What concerns me however is that light didn't harm it." She rubs her forehead in thought.

"Maybe the shell is too thick?" Lani asked.

"Maybe." Lacy sighs heavily now. "Let's not think about it now and keep moving forward. I want to reach our destination before it hits nightfall. Leo figured on a good location for the night since there's no way we'll make it out before the sun sets."

With that I grab my bag again, only for Zared to take it from me. I give him the stink eye when he just says, "The less weight you carry the better your foot can heal. I'm not going to make you injure yourself more."

I decide to let it go because honestly it was hurting like a bitch just standing here and I was thankful, just a little, that Zared could be just as stubborn as me.