The Destined Protector (The Chronicles of Mistar - Book 1)

Nineteen · · · Tapalla (.2)

It all started with the body. As Tapalla and Monta ran through the darkened halls of the Payfil Mansion, Tapalla remembered tripping over the big lump in the middle of the floor. When she crawled to it, Tapalla remembered the feeling of warmth dissipating, turning cold as the man died. Her fingers, traveled over the dead man's lips, nose, until she touched the goo of his eyeball, searching for his eyelids to close them. When she finally did, Tapalla reeled back in disgust that she had just touched a dead man, but also remorse that she couldn't do anything but hide as he took his last dying breath. Unable to contain it, Tapalla had let out a blood-curdling scream. In that moment, all Tapalla could think about was Monta and how his own warmth could disappear at any second just like the man in front of her. She felt cold without him touching her, but when his warm hands slipped over her mouth all that despair flew out of her system filling her with relief that he was still alive and cold like a living ghost.

As they had kept running, terror filled the inside of Tapalla's lungs until they got to the door. Just as before, a twang of relief washed over her as she thought of the door as survival, but the fright returned when it wouldn't open. Tapalla remembered pleading and pleading until her voice was almost hoarse. Then time seemed to stop when she heard the crack of wood splintering over Monta's head. He crumpled to the floor as Tapalla watched screaming. All she could do was stare as they started to drag him away. Then they came for her. The Night Warriors grabbed Tapalla's arms as she tried to fight though she was exhausted to the brink that she felt as if she had nothing left to live for.

Along the way, to the Night Warrior's campsite in the mothball arena, Tapalla pretended to become unconscious like Monta really was. She remembered how rough they had thrown them to one of the ice pillars and how the piercing pain had formed in the middle of her head as it hit against the pillar when she slid across the ice. With a long ice cold chain, which was tied around the particular pillar, held their hands in cuffs. Tapalla remembered how cold it was that it felt like it was burning her skin, but was a different kind of burn. It was a slow burn. One that you can feel, but after time it feels like needles poking into the skin, bleeding to death, until there was nothing but numbness.

Next to Monta's unconscious body, that was where Tapalla found Janna and Cass. Horrified, the two sisters had woken up when Tapalla and Monta had been thrown. They tried crawling over Monta to get Tapalla, and even that didn't wake him up. Barely able to reach each other, all three hugged Monta to keep warm even though his powers weren't working as he slept. When her head was on his chest, Tapalla remembered the feeling of his slow breaths against her ear as he wheezed. Only then, she didn't know what was happening to his voice.

Filing through her memory, the haziest part, Tapalla thought she remembered seeing May, though she wasn't in chains like the rest of them. The ten or so Night Warriors had encircled her as she snapped at them, threatening to bite their ears. In their hasty conversation, Tapalla remembered hearing the name Jack mentioned which sent shivers up her spine.

From what Tapalla had seen, or heard, of Jack back at the cabin, he sounded like a nasty man. A ruthless man that gave orders, didn't take them. And then he entered the circle. From the middle, somehow he latched eyes with Tapalla and only laughed as he threw his head back in a deadly way. Finally, after he finished scaring the stars out of Tapalla, Jack turned away and bellowed, making everyone turn silent, "What's the problem that I must solve?" He then turned to May, taking her face in his hands and hissed, "Such a lovely face." Jack pushed her face away laughing to himself, "For my wall!"

To comply and not get themselves killed, the rest of the Night Warriors laughed along with him, their pitch-black faces giving no sign of their emotions. When Tapalla looked into their eyes, that's when she really saw what they were really feeling. It was a mix of fear and respect for their fearless leader. Respect for a man with no morals almost made Tapalla want to laugh just thinking about, but she didn't because if the Night Warriors were afraid of Jack, then Tapalla knew she should be afraid too.