Ephemeral

Burned to Ashes Part 2

"I want to go home," Jack's voice came from beside me. 

I glanced at the younger teen, seeing how terrified he was. It was easy to tell with the amount of trembling that I noticed even in the dimly lit space. I wasn't able to dismiss his fear...nothing that I said was going to change how he was feeling.

I don't think an 'Everything will be alright' generic, blanket statement would have been appropriate at this time; I didn't want to tell him lies or say something that wasn't even close to being true.

"Jack-

"Found you..." came a voice that sounded more like a growl from behind me.

I glanced towards where the inhuman-like sound had come from. My eyes locked onto a figure, it was looming, towering, and dark – it blocked out all the light from busy street in Japan. It felt like it absorbed all of the light into its void, nothingness.

A black hole...

Jack and I were in an alley, it was away from the busy foot traffic from the city, which was bad news. The thing standing in front of us was preventing us from heading in the direction we had come from. The alleyway itself was cramped and devoid of any distinguishable light and there were no ladders to escape along the sides of the buildings on either side of us. 

It would be harder to venture deeper into the alleyway without a flashlight of some kind.

I pushed the younger boy behind me, wanting to block him from the monster's sight. The urge to protect him was strong, and I had wanted to protect Ryan, Sean, and Hunter as well. Although, they had already been captured by Aidan's men at this point.

I could do nothing for them...but I  might still be able to save Jack.

It noticed what I was doing and chuckled boisterously at my action. 

"Women aren't meant to be strong!" It boomed loudly, causing me to cringe at the intensity of its mocking voice. It had sounded familiar to my ears – as though I had heard it before somewhere other than this alley.

I felt an intense loathing towards the thing in front of me...needing to kill it with my bare hands.

"Go!" I ordered Jack without turning my head.

I needed him to at least make it out of this rotten situation we had all found ourselves in. I wanted him to at least be safe from Aidan and his torturous ways – I wanted Jack to return home to his family instead of getting sold to an unknown country.

"Run-!" I ordered, turning to look at Jack, only to find that he had disappeared and seemingly vanished into thin air. The word had died on my lips, and I felt my shoulders slump in mild defeat – what had happened to Jack-?

How did he suddenly vanish-?

You know what happened to Jack.

I was alone in the back alley that was located somewhere in the backstreets of Tokyo, Japan. It was at that moment that I noticed how quiet everything around me was, even though I must have been somewhere in the center of the city. There were no outside noises from cars or the distant muttering of people – it was eerily silent that I could hear a pin drop.

I was alone --

Where was everyone else-?

The rapid beating of my own heart was deafening to my own ears -- the same rhythmic intense, pounding that rattled my eardrums. 

At this time, I was left to fend for myself against the monster that was in front of me. No one else was going to come to my aid or provide any help. I glanced at the shadow figure that didn't seem to have a face...it was a large black mass that stood present in front of me, waiting to see what I was going to do.