Dark Dreams, Bright Nightmares

Chapter 24

I felt the wind as it furiously send my hair in all directions.

‘Louise!’ I heard Tony scream at the top of his lungs, and I felt tears coming up. I didn’t know if it was because I was going to die, if it as because Tony sounded so broken, or simply because of the wind.

Jinsei had to dive to the side to dodge another arrow, and the last thing I saw was that Tony clamped onto Jinsei’s neck. At least he didn’t fall. If I die, he is Chesaré’s last hope. If I hadn’t let go, I would’ve pulled him with me and Chesaré would have been lost. No one else knew what Christopher did, and the inhabitants of Chesaré were still captured. We were the only ones that even had a small chance of saving them.

I was surrounded by leaves, and clawed at my surroundings. The top of a smaller tree scraped my left side, ripping my shirt slightly. My wakizashi got stuck behind a branch, and it stopped me. But not for long: the belt broke from the impact and I fell down again. I tried to hold onto the first other branch I saw. It slowed me down slightly, but my speed was still too high so my arms were yanked off of the branch soon. My shoulders took the blow, and I bit the side of my cheek to keep me from screaming.

I failed.

My right leg hit another branch, making pain shoot up through my already injured leg, and I wrapped my arms around another branch. My arms scraped it as I slid off of it once again because I wasn’t strong enough, and then the air was knocked out of me as I hit the ground on my back. I groaned and closed my eyes. Well I thought I did, because all I saw was blackness for a while, but then it cleared again and I gasped, desperately trying to get some oxygen in my lungs again. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I wrapped my arms around my ribs. I groaned again. I’m lucky Jinsei was closer to the ground than we actually wanted him to be. My arms were covered in scratches, they even bled a little, and I felt a slight bump on my leg. I let my right hand slide over my head. Another bump was forming on the back of my head, from when it hit the ground, and I felt something wet trickle down my right cheek. When I touched it and looked at my hand, I saw it was blood. I felt again and discovered I had a cut right above my right eyebrow. It prickled slightly, and I pushed my palm against it –I hissed when my hand touched the fresh wound–, looking around for something better to stop the bleeding. I don’t think it’s a deep cut though. I stood up, my right hand still pressed against my head, and my vision turned black again. I wobbled on my legs and I felt lightheaded. I remained in place until the feeling vanished and I blinked so the last black spots disappeared. My head still hurt, and I limped with my right leg as I walked. I didn’t know if I was still heading in the right direction, but I had to move so those guys wouldn’t find me. My eyes dropped, and I now saw the gap in my shirt. There was another bleeding cut in my left side and I know remember the treetop scraping me there. It suddenly started to hurt. Funny how some wounds do that – start hurting after you discovered it.

I ripped the lower half of my shirt –since it was already ruined and open anyway– and pushed most of that against my side and a little piece against my eyebrow. I continued limping, gritting my teeth. But the pain was too much. I let out a strangled cry as my bruised body gave out, going limp. I wasn’t lucky enough to lose consciousness before I hit the ground. And believe me – that hurt.

ஜ Tony’s P.O.V. ஜ

I stumbled over another root once again, and furiously pushed a branch out of my way. Of course I love the forest and all, but if I have to see it for much longer, I will go crazy.

‘Slow down Tony! Wait for me!’ I stopped and looked behind me. Jinsei jogged through the bushes and trees like he was running on a road. Lucky bastard.

‘We don’t exactly have that much time, Jinsei. Are you sure this is the direction you saw Louise fall in?’

‘One hundred percent.’