I'll need a vacuum.

31

I ran to catch up with Maki, it was safer to stay together. The building was very dark, and looked abandoned for years. There was a quantity of various debris littering the ground and making progress difficult. Maki moved cautiously, observing the surroundings with the reflexes of a hunter. I followed her closely, very worried. Where could a child hide in the middle of nowhere, wind open ? At the moment that thought crossed my mind, I heard a scream and immediately turned in its direction. Maki stopped, seeing me alarmed.

"What's the matter ?"

"Didn't you hear ? The cry there, it sounded like a child."

She lifted her head, alert.

"No. I do not hear anything."

"Maybe I was dreaming. I don't like this place at all. Let's finish quickly."

We resumed our search, rummaging through the rubble, and this time I was trying to detect the cursed energy, having learned from my previous mistakes. I had to be vigilant for two, Maki not being able to do it. We passed through dilapidated rooms, containing rusted structures that matched abandoned medical equipment. Dark dried puddles smeared the ground, and dust covered everything in a thick gray layer. I suddenly wanted to sneeze. I raised my elbow, and the violence of my sneeze echoed. Maki jumped and a child appeared in the frame of a door on the side. Before I could scream anything, I sneezed again, and once the fit was over, I rushed at the little boy. I almost slipped in my haste, and held back a cry of exclamation so as not to terrify the little one. He looked like he was 5 years old, cheeks smeared, covered in dust and scraped knees. My heart sank to see him so lost and sad, and I slowly approached to coax him.

" Hey, hey.. hello little boy. It's okay, we'll get you out of there and take you back to your parents. Everything is fine." I whispered, reaching for him, after crouching down to his level.

The little boy looked at me a little scared, then his face wrinkled and a whole set of emotions crossed him. He started to cry and rushed into my open arms. I hugged him tight and stood up, holding him close to my chest. Poor thing, he must have been scared to death, all alone here. I absolutely had to get out of there to bring him back to safety. I turned to Maki, who hadn't flinched while I picked up the child, oddly. She looked at me with a horrified look.

"Molly ?!?"

"We have to go out now to bring him home !! Why are you making that face ?"

Before she could explain to me the reason for her dread, she moved into an attack position, her face focused on a point above me. An icy shiver ran through my body and I knew there was something that had just appeared behind me. I immediately activated my power to create a shield protecting me and the child I was carrying, and looked up to see a figure towering over me. I hadn't felt any cursed energy, which surprised me again : was I poor at detecting it or was he hiding it well ?

The curse attacked while I was thinking, and collided with my shield. Maki stormed in and unsheathed her spear to close the distance more quickly. She threw it, but the curse dodged and kicked me hard, the shock sending me spinning. I somehow protected the child by falling to the side, then immediately got up to move away from the combat zone. Maki had drawn a small, short sword with an engraved pommel, and bent with incredible flexibility and speed to escape the blows, moving closer to where her spear lay in order to retrieve it. I watched them as I backed up to exit the room and lead the child to safety before returning to help, but the curse saw me and stared at me before smiling oddly. Something was wrong. I hugged even tighter the little boy who said nothing, trembling and hidden in my lap. Maki took advantage of this impromptu pause to shout a sentence at me that froze me :

" Molly ! Why have you been holding a skeleton in your arms for a while now ?"

"WHAT ? A skeleton ?? No, it's the little one we were looking for !"