D.D. (Devil's Dagger)

10

I felt a great gloom in my stomach as the tall, musculine man pulled the lair's door open. On the threshold stood a tan-skinned man. He was very like my uncle who's our neighboor in the country where I came from: large, beefy, and purpled-faced. He even had a bushy mustache. In one hand he held an enormous suitcase as if he just arrive right in time with us. On his other hand tucked under was a golden brown walking stick.

"Where's the poniard?" He roared. I don't know if he was talking to me so I just remain silent especially that I don't get his question. What is a poniard anyway? I still don't get it. Is it a thing? I mean, I know I'm a teacher but hell did I know about things that I barely heard.

Then a young man came waddling down the hall, his hair plastered flat to his fat head, a bow tie just visible under his many chins. The mustache man that look-like my uncle thrust the walking stick as the young man approached near him, knocking the wind out of the man's throat.

"Is she really the king's woman?" The mustache man asked to the young man. Panting from the effort to answer he show something to the mustache man that seems like the lord of this dangerous lair. It was a picture. I quitely laid my eyes to them, fear still surging through my heart, observing to the blank expression of the mustache man. Who is in the picture? Is it a family picture?

"Bring her to the cavern." Whichever way I looked at it, I never had a chance to escape. What are they going to do to me there? I supposed, the strange man who's with me a while ago was already been killed by the hideous beast guarding this lair. I never knew that this wolves can transform into humans. Stranded and quite alone in the hands of this two strange creatures whose now gripping my shoulders as if I can able to escape from them, I walk hungly strung with them. If they are going to put me in a cavern, what are they going to do to me? Are they gonna kill me too?

I shivered and looked up as we approached the natural cave carved into the rock. It was widened into an underground canal with two torch soaked in tallow that illuminates its way to the entrance. I had sensed rather than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the cavern and the door where we walk from. I swallow the lump in my throat thinking that I was the only one who can sensed it among the three of us. I squinted at the black alleyway towards the cavern. If only it moved, then I'd know whether it was just a stray mouse or something else. The other man is now trying to unlock something behind the two-standing torch. I presumed they use a secret code to open something inside the cavern.

Then there was a defeaning BANG, and I threw up my hands to shield my eyes against a sudden blinding light. With a yell, I step back from the cavern's entrance just in time, taking a sudden release from the other man's grip onto my shoulder. A second later, a pair of familiar cold hands clasp exactly to my waist.

"Intruder!" The two man screamed as the they saw the man standing now behind me. For a split second, I had been push by his cold hands and knocked down to the ground.

"Ouch!" I muttered as I feel something sore in my elbow. Still trying to sit in the ground I saw the intruder fighting with the two man whom I surely know are wolves. I tried to sit and hide myself into the dark outside of the cavern that the torch can't give light. With the feeling of unease, I looked up again to the fight scene that's very close in my naked eyes. The intruder was wearing a mask and I'm sure that this is a different man. Is he my second savior? Is he really here to save me? Too many questions are circling in my head while praying silently for my final freedom and safety.

I close my eyes for I can't bear to see their fight. I hate the idea of seeing bloods. It suddenly give me a traumatic feeling. I heard another tremendous BANG, and the next moment I found myself lifted by a cold shoulders. I opened my eyes and stare at the dark face covered with mask whose now saving me from this hellhole. Who is he?

I pulled myself closer to him and wrap my arms to his neck. I feel safe by this very moment though I still not know if he can be trusted or if he was really here to save me. I close again my eyes and pretended to sleep as I feel ourselves jumping and sometimes running to find the safe exit of this lair, if there is. I clasp myself towards him once again as I heard the growls and sombre roar of the wolves. I know they're still chasing us and trying to skin us alive. I suddenly wondered why they really wanted to get me. Am I a fugitive in my past life for me to experienced this much? If I am, I'm praying to save my ass from it and make an atonement later.

A loud puffing from behind makes us stop from escaping. I open my eyes and try to see what's happening and then, I saw them...again. They are the same group that I see in the veranda in my first day at the academy. So, if they are here maybe...

I blow a sudden air in my slightly opened mouth as I realized whose this man that unexpectedly saved me. I thought he will never think about me. I thought he was not serious about me, and I also thought...

I will never see his alluring and cryptic eyes again.