Rise Of Pandora

Rise Of Pandora : XXIX. Believe In My Humans

"Sometimes it takes losing your mind just to stay sane."

-Genesis

XI. Foreigner

"Let's try this once more," he grumbled while gripping an arrow firmly in his hand, "You three were looking for me. Why?" 

He lowered a vicious gaze down at Gaijin who was pinned flat on his stomach, his body bound to the cold floor by two arrows that tore through his hands and deep into the ground. He rose like a tower the way he stood over Gaijin, a demented look swaying about his slightly bruised face.

With a look of apprehension, he glared coldly at the man, not a word escaping past his lips.

Becoming impatient, he hurled yet another question. "You are not all the way human..." He said while stepping upon his two wings. "What are you are?" He paused suddenly. "Do you not speak?" It was clear in his voice that he was becoming vexed. 

Again, Gaijin endured in silence aside from the few grunts he would mutter. Whenever he tried moving, he felt the cool shaft of the bow shoving deeper into his hands. The vibrant crackling of bones and ligaments left him numb around the knuckles.

The man sighed as a wearisome expression to his face. "So be it..."

He crouched his body down low while squeezing tight on the arrow in his hand. He still had his foot pressed upon Gaijin's ruffled wings, his foot crushing heavy on his back. He then raised his hand high, almost like he was trying to reach for the sun and crammed it down hard.

The pain shot through like a grand thunder erupting through him. Down into the joint of his elbow, the arrow rammed deep. Blood gushed thick from his wound like sap leaking from an aged tree, the bones at his joint snapped like twigs, and his nerves soured tight, leaking a numb feeling coursing to his feet.

In the midst of the pain, he looked up at the man who was crouching beside him. There was this cold gleam beaming past his eyes as he looked down at him. He noticed how he glared at his wings with two curious eyes. He grunted in distress but withheld from expressing his anguish too much in the face of his foe. He looked at the man as he began to stand up and walk some few feet away. He stowed his bow gently on the snowy ground behind him and let it rest there. The bow did not break away into those black, little particles as it had in the past whenever it was relinquished from his grasp. 

A sinister half-smirk seized his face as he held up four fingers. "I counted four times you should have died...you truly are not ordinary. The normal ones tend to stay down when I shoot my arrows into their chests. We may take interest in your abilities," he said with a domineering tone. Suddenly he wrapped his arms around his torso almost like a hug, and said with a menacing smirk, "But before that..." he crept lower, his voice softening in a hushed whisper that glided into Gaijin's ears, "let's test this immortality of yours."

Surprised by those words, Gaijin's face became gripped by a spiraling sensation of horror. Bound to the ground, he fearfully awed at the wrinkles that began forming around his eyes and lips as they stretched into a sneer. He wrapped his arms as much as he could manage around his body; he flexed and tightened his muscles until the veins on his upper body appeared as snakes confined under hot flesh.

Grunting and muttering, he tried wriggling the arrows out from his hands but these arrows were especially stern and robust and so after some struggling seconds, he gave up the effort and then averted his attention to the sinister enigma who stood so menacingly before him.

The man's body gradually beginning to quiver agitatedly. A small swirl of wind rose high, bringing small patches of snow with them. 

He stared down at Gaijin in the manner similar to a predator staring down its prey. He could feel it; that cold sensuous touch of darkness creeping onto the surface of his body, its black glow obscure and its touch persuasive. He had done well to suppress it but now his fears had gripped onto him hard.