Don't Leave Me Alone

~22~

⚠️TW: Mentions of death, violence

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~Ray's POV~

"Was that in the book?!" Gilda called back to me and Norman. Everyone else was in front of us.

"No! It's probably a demon!" I yelled at to her.

"It has similar characteristics to the ones Emma and I saw that night." Norman stumbled but quickly righted himself. "But those ones seemed a lot less feral. They wore clothes and masks, they could talk, and they didn't have tails."

"The demons from my memory were like that, too."

"So these demons probably aren't related to the farms, since it's clearly trying to eat us!" Nat yelped as the demon's tongue hit a tree near him.

We'll be eaten if it catches up to us. By those teeth and jaws...

Don made a hand motion, and I saw Gilda nod. They spilt up. Nat and Anna followed Don, and Lanni and Thoma followed Gilda.

"Just don't look back! It probably isn't very smart! Norman and Sister Krone were scarier!" Gilda yelled to everyone.

The two groups went down two narrow paths. The demon knocked down trees in an attempt to get to Don's group. I pulled Norman behind a tree, out of sight from it.

"We need to deal with the demon as quick as we can." Norman took a few deep breaths.

"How?"

"I'll figure it out."

I nodded, watching the demon push through trees. Gilda's and Don's groups were running further away, but the demon clearly didn't plan to stop anytime soon, and everyone was getting tired. Norman was too, even if he didn't recognize it. I looked to my left.

Sunlight.

"I know a way to stop him."

Norman turned in the direction I was looking. "Oh. Causing it fall below the roots?"

"Mhm."

"Okay. But first, we'll..."

"No. I can do this by myself."

I saw the color drain from Norman's face, and I immediately knew what he was thinking. Shit.

His bottom lip trembled. "Ray..."

"I'm not going to sacrifice myself, Nor. I promise." I gently grab both of his hands and squeeze them. "I'm just doing this alone because I know I can. Plus, who has better stamina?"

"You do..." He still didn't look entirely convinced.

I kissed his cheek reassuringly. "I promise I'll come right back afterwards. After I go, wait about ten seconds before joining the others.

Norman nodded. I released his hands and ran toward the demon. I heard his footsteps move away from me. Good. I don't want him to get hurt.

I stood right in front of the demon. "What's up, motherfucker?"

It swiveled its many eyes to look at me, and then it lunged toward me. I ran to where the sunlight was poking through the trees.

Just gotta hope I down fall down with it...

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the demon's head get cut clean off. I skidded to a stop and hid behind a tree. Crouching down, I peeked out into the clearing of roots. The demon, now headless and dead, fell through the ground.

Who the hell could have cut off that demon's head?

"We found them. We will capture and bring them back as soon as possible."

The pursuers. God damn it. Of course they arrived now. Was it because of the demon causing all of that noise? I'd be with everyone else already if it weren't for them. With Norman.

I felt a pang in my chest. Was he okay? He and everyone else are probably pretty far away right now.

I peeked out again. I saw two demons from the farm, but that didn't mean that there wasn't more. One of them was sniffing the mouth of the wild demon. It kind of looked like a deranged horse.

"It didn't eat any of the children."

The other demon turned toward the area where I was hiding. I quickly ducked away, pulled a pair of scissors out of my bag.

"You're there, yes? You can come out. The monster is dead. It can't hurt you."

"Should I drag him out?"

"No. Based on the height and hair color, it's either 81194 or 16194. It needs to be unharmed." The demon paused. "Are you alone? Where's all of your friends? Is 22194 alright? The higher ups would be very disappointed if he was harmed."

A realization dawned over me. Norman was probably the one that they wanted most, since he was the smartest kid at Plant 3. I craved into the tree with my scissors.

06-32
PURSUERS

There's no fucking way I'll let these bitches kill him. But this means that the pursuers don't know the whereabouts of everybody else. If I can just keep their attention on me...

I sighed, tucking my scissors back into my bag.

This would all be a lot easier if I was able to die. But that would absolutely crush Norman. And I promised.

I stepped out of my hiding spot and tugged on my scarf, revealing my ID number. "You're too late. Everyone else is already dead."

"It's 81194. Capture him!"

The deranged horse demon lunged at me, and about six more emerged from the trees.

Ah. Wonderful.

I ran, weaving through trees in a desperate attempt to throw them off. I threw my scarf at one of them. Bur it just seemed like more and more kept on appearing around me.

It's like playing a game of chess against Mom. I won't give up. I won't die. For Norman.

I stopped running. They had me completely surrounded. The tallest one approached me.

"It's over for you."

I turned to run, but my legs didn't work. I just fell.

Come on, damn it! Move!

"Give up."

My vision was starting to go dark.

Am I going to die without seeing Norman again...?

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A/N: Help I was cackling when I thought of the demons as deranged horses. It is 12 am.

I hope you all have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night! <3

Feel free to comment and vote :>

Word count: 1008 words