Daffodils and Hyacinths (3rd book in the Forgotten Truths series)

22. SEPARATED

~Myeong-Jun~

  Ken'ichi grabs my hand, urging for me to follow him to escape. I shake my head. I wasn't the type to just flee from the danger in front of me. I was ready to face the danger head on.

  "Go. Run." I briefly say to him, before taking out my blade to fight the guards. Ken'ichi looks at me with a worried expression across his face. He protests, "But, you're going to get killed!"

  "I'll get killed if you stay here!" I snap in reply. I had to ensure the safety of Ken'ichi with the best of my capabilities. I couldn't let him die, I refused to. I glance at him, with my eyes and expression practically pleading and begging for him to leave.

  "Alright, I'll go." Ken'ichi sighs, "But don't die on me, okay?"

  I nod, and Ken'ichi flees with the rest. I ready myself for the guards. I ready myself to kill, as here, I had no choice but to do so. I pluck a star-shaped leaf from the tree, before burning it into a crisp.

Amidst the hurry to leave, none of the others noticed that she chose to stay. To fight.

One of Her Majesty's warriors just growled, "You better run."

They didn't raise their swords or weapons to attack. They didn't charge in to make a kill. No, they just... stood there. Something was off.

"Why are you warning me to run when you can't even lift a dagger?" I retort. The feeling of the uneasiness then begins to creep over me, consuming me. I felt myself taking small steps back, as if I were backing away. I felt a need to recheck on Ken'ichi's status, of whether he was alive or dead. Of whether he was injured or safe from harm. There... there was no way of which he had been harmed.

If I just defeated the guards here and now, Ken'ichi would be safe. This is what I'll believe. I halt myself from baking away, and I attempt to strike one of the first line of guards. I bury that uneasy feeling of which I had away, and avoid the preposterous feeling it gave me... for now.

Suddenly, the lead warrior, the one who talked first, raises his fist. All of the fighters immediately charge. They keep it quiet, except for the pounding of hooves. No whoops, or yells.

"Shoot," I think to myself instantaneously, as I recognize that I had forgotten about the horses the soldiers rode. I could.... Burn down the woods, but the negative effects of which would occur struck me. I didn't know whether Ken'ichi and the others were safe yet. If I burnt down the woods, then there's a possibility of me being the killer of Ken'ichi and myself. It was just something I refused to do.

I choose to run in the opposite direction of which I last saw the others fled. The forest was... unfamiliar to me, however. I traversed through the woods, lost. All I hoped for was for me to find a path of which I could lose them and assail them further on. I throw daggers at them here and there, striking them whenever I could.

Slowly, I began to take them down one by one. But that was too good to be true for me.

"Get up, you imbeciles! Don't get taken down by some freak!" One fighter yells to the fallen on the ground.

They keep at a rather slow speed. Almost as if they are planning for their criminal to escape them. It's like they want to be taken down, one by one. They drive into an alley.

'Are they asking to be killed?' I wondered, but I dismiss the thought. I felt... strange as I went into the dark alley.... Did they decide to trap me in the alley?

I find myself cornered in the dark alleyway. Walls surrounded me, while the guards blocked my one escape route. I back away enough till my back hit something behind me.

I turn, and a gasp escapes my throat. I drop my weapons on the ground, causing for the sound of collision to occur. I had ran into a dumpster, and on the dumper was a corpse.

The carcass leaned over the edge of the trash can. Lifeless. Blood was smeared all over the corpse leaning over the trash can. It's white hair was turned into a darker, red-like color. The corpse... the corpse.... was Ken'ichi's. Ken'ichi....

I fall to the ground on my knees. Tears stream down from my face and hit the ground, one after another. I crumple into a ball, and tuck in my legs. I hug my legs tight, letting the water in my eyes fall.

I don't bother with the guards anymore. He... died. Ken'ichi died. I swore to myself to keep him alive, but now he was dead. My entire body trembles. How... how?

I felt as though I was just stripped of ambition. As I've been so close to Ken'ichi, I gained a will to keep him safe. For him to just die like this stripped me of a will. Maybe I should've listened. Maybe it was true. Maybe being close to someone was truly a weakness.

"Go away, you fools!" Shouted a figure from up above.