D.D. (Devil's Dagger)

09

Two hands covered with fine stubbles tickled my face like the first grass of spring tickled my toes. My eyes gently open but my mind is still unconscious and cannot think out straight. Where am I? What really happened? Where is Jen? So many questions are roaming in my head. I nestled closer into the depths of a soft couch as I recognize whose unfamiliar hands it was. Who is he?

"It's okay...I won't hurt you." He sounds like he knows me. Is he also a professor in the academy?

"W-Who..." I can't talk well. It seems that my throat gets dry and there's something struck on it.

"Don't talk...You're safe." He assured me so I stay lying on the couch helpless and confused. Where am I? I noticed a dust web in the corner of the ceiling. Is this his house? I guess it is. I suddenly feel startled by the shrill sound of the telephone that made me more nervous. I saw him walking towards it to answer the call. I can't heard what he was saying for it was just a mumbled words. Who is he talking to anyway?

The hard blue lamps of the tattered sofa beneath my body were a great comfort to me. I feel glad somehow that I'm safe though there is a strange built of man standing before me.

"We have to go." I don't get him. Where are we going? Are we still not safe here?

I did not move when he carry me without hesitation. Why did he act like he was so concern for my safety? Are we the only survivor? Just as I had suspected, we went out of the house. It was cold. My body trembled as I don't feel any warmth even in his body. I blow out a freezing air for I can't no longer take the cold. I guess he noticed my discomfort when he stop from walking in front of a wood planks with one lamps hanging on it. It was lit in small fire.

He walked again while carrying the lamp on his one hand that illuminates our way towards the densely wooded area. Where are we going? I wanted to ask that to him but no voice comes out in my mouth as if my own tongue was glued in both of my incisors and canines. I sigh heavily when we enter the dark woods that seems to be a horror place in the movies that I've seen. I started to examine our way. It was occupied by big and tall wild trees with grass, vines and weeds in competition with the creepy air and sorrounding.

"Close your eyes. It's an illusion." I heard him say. What? An illusion? I sternly look out on our way but it doesn't goes that way. It's not an illusion. What he was just saying was really weird.

"Look at the moon." He said again so I look up and then saw the crescent moon. It looks creepy. I mean, there's a lot of nocturnal bird flying around the moon. It's the last quarter I think.

"Hold me tight. We have to escape. They're following us." I did what he said. I was at his back and my eyes literally shape into round as he jump up into one of the wild trees. What was that? He can jump that much? I panicked when he jump again to another tree.

"Don't worry, you won't fall. Just hold me tight. We have to hurry." He said and jump again to another tree. Confused and slightly amazed, I hold tight at his chest and encircled my two thighs on his waist. I was holding my breath as we accidently fall down the tree but thanks to his cold hands, it abruptly hold a branch that makes a cracking sound. Whoah! That's intense.

I can't count how many jumps he did at the top of the branch of these big and tall trees but it makes me more nervous but surprise about what he can do. Is he an alien? What kind of ability is that? Why he was capable of doing that? Is he not a human? So many questions are circulating in my head. He kneeled down as we reach the cold ground of unfamiliar place to me. I look out the sorrounding. It was still covered by wild trees, weeds, vines and grasses but there is something that caught my eyes. Faces.

"Is she the one that the king have been looking for?" Asked by a thin man on his thirties who was wearing a black hood that only his pale face are exposed. I mean they're all wearing black hoods and their pale faces are really creepy that makes me blink twice and hide closer to this strange man's back.

"Don't mind them." I heard him whispered. I look at the three men in front of us. They were not an ordinary human and I'm very sure of that.

"Let us take good care of her, young man." The other man suggested. Why are they taking me away to this strange man? Are they really fetch me?

"It will never happen." He strongly disagreed and pulled me closer to him. His tight grip on my hands lessen the intense and breath taking nervousness I have in my heart right now. I'm sure that this three men might kill us. Oh God! What kind of situation I am in right now? Can someone save us from this hell. The three men keep silent and looking at us as if they were examining our moves. The beats in my heart doubled the race when we all heard a growl from somewhere in this woods. Its a familiar sound that caught me alarmed and agitated. I'm sure it was the same sound from the monsters I've seen in the academy.

"Run!" The three men exclaimed to us. This young, strange, gentleman put me again on his back and throw away the lamp that he's holding. But I guess its not too dark to escape for the crescent moon is still spreading its creepy shade into the woods. He run fast as I hold tight again to his body. This time, I can feel his worries and threatened breath. I'm sure we are so close to death. I know that the monstrous wolves are still chasing us like what happened in the academy. I don't know where the three men go but I'm sure we run on a different path. I never dreamed nor expected this kind of adventure I'm experiencing right now. I'm very aware to the creepiness of the academy the moment I decided to land a job on it but to see creatures like wolves and pale, cold faces similar to vampires is very unbecoming to me.

I miss Jen. Is she okay? Is she still safe?

The strange man carrying me in his back suddenly stop from running as we both realize the death end of the path we've chosen.

"Shit!" He cursed and if I had the same voice right now I will surely do the same. A pack of wolves are looking at us. We unknowingly reach their trap, their dangerous lair.