Where We Stay

Chapter 0.3 - The Void

Chapter 0.3 - The Void

"HOLY SHIT!!!" I heard someone yell. My eyes snap wide open when I found my head on the earth. Wait, the earth?! It's supposed to be grass! Actually it's supposed to be Constantine's shoulder but he was no where to found. I looked around in search of him but to no avail. Although my mouth was hanging wide open in shock.

"Where am I?" I whispered. I was in a jungle, the soft soil between my fingertips proved that and the thick vines.

"MORGAN?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" a voice screamed. Possibly Constantine.

"I'M OVER HERE!" I yelled. There were leaves rustling and twigs breaking. Then came out Constantine, he had leaves stuck to his hair, it made me grin. He looked absolutely pissed and worried. He suddenly ran over, and shook my shoulder hard.

"DID YOU SLEEP?!" he shouted at my face. My expression turned serious when I heard the panic in his voice.

"What?! Why?" I questioned as I pushed his hands away. He wouldn’t remove his hands and stared at me sternly. I stared at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"ANSWER THE QUESTION! DID YOU SLEEP?!" he shouted again. I nodded frantically. He closed his eyes, jaw hard, hands balling into fists. He was breathing raggedly. After a while, he opened his eyes and glared at me. He moved away from me then exploded and kicked a tree, it split in half and fell down in an instant. I gulped. Remind me not to piss you off next time, I thought.

"YOU TOLD ME TO REST SO I SLEPT!" I screeched. My voice breaking, since one: I was terrified of Constantine; two: I was really terrified of Constantine right now, I might soil myself. He stopped kicking every tree in sight, and gave me a look that could kill.

"I TOLD YOU TO REST NOT SLEEP!" he yelled, moving closer to my face. "IF I HAD MEANT SLEEP THEN I WOULD'VE TOLD YOU TO SLEEP!" he seethed.

"What difference does that make?!" I jutted my pointer finger at his chest. He looked at it and then looked back at me, his jaw hardening.

"Rest means just sitting there! Staring at the horizon! NOT SLEEP!" he said through gritted teeth, he removed my finger. I glared at him and he glared back, I am not backing down and neither is he even though he’s pretty intimidating now that I know that he can break trees. 

Something suddenly rustled from the canopy, the birds flew away, there was a deafening roar that shook the ground. I looked away to look at my feet, they were shaking. Constantine grabbed my arm immediately and we sprinted in the trees.

I heard a jaguar like sound from my right and I looked over to find it was something that looked like a dog, a huge dog but it was made of bones and it had red glowing eyes.

“What the hell is that?!” I screamed, my eyes fixated on the being.

“Don’t look at it!” Constantine screamed back, I turned my eyes away from the creature and concentrated on running since it was already chasing us, I felt Constantine pull me to the right, I stumbled on my foot but managed to stay on my feet. I see where he was heading, the falls. He stopped by the edge, and held out his hand, I looked over my shoulder and grabbed his hand and jumped.

The wind almost blew my face away and then I hit the water hard.  I had my eyes shut tight, I felt bubbles around me. I swam upward, trying to find air. I gasped and breathed in a lungful of air for me to be pushed back down. I struggled to get back to the surface but something was pushing me down, I opened my eyes and made out Constantine’s face. He was motioning with his hands to wait. I held in my breath until I forgot how to breathe. He moved upward to take a look and he pulled me up after a couple of seconds.

I broke free and breathed in air like it was my first glass of water and I was a man who suffered a long journey in the desert.

Constantine motioned for me to swim towards him, he was already swimming towards the shores. He watched me as I hauled myself out of the water. I glared at him. “Gee, thanks for the help.” I muttered. 

“Gee, we wouldn’t be here in the first place if you had listened.” he muttered back, he ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe this, now we get side-tracked, just great." I heard him whisper to himself, he was walking towards the jungle again. Oh yay! Go to a place with more of those creatures that could be waiting for us and not towards safety, I thought sarcastically. My shirt clung to my skin. I looked around, the sun was almost setting. I realized that I have no idea where we are.

"Wait! Where are we?!" I called after him, trying hard to stay on my feet. The roots of the trees weren’t very helpful.

"THE VOID! THE FREAKING VOID!” he threw his hands up in the air. “YOU BROUGHT US HERE! THANK YOU MORGAN! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" he shouted sarcastically. I glared at him as I pushed the leaves the size of a giant.

"HOW DID I GET US HERE?!" I argued.

"YOU SLEPT! I SAID REST NOT SLEEP BUT NO YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND A SIMPLE INSTRUCTION!" he stopped to turn around and yell at me. "NOW WE'RE SIDE-TRACKED! HAPPY?! I TOLD YOU NOT TO SLEEP!"

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING!" I yelled back.

“YES I DID! WHEN I SAID YOU COULD REST! WHEN YOU LEANED ON MY SHOULDER!” he snapped back.

I opened my mouth to shout when I realized what he had said. I dropped my outraged aura for a sheepish one. “Oh, so that was what you were saying?” I scratched the back of my head, he gave me a look of disappointment and turned back to move forward. “Hey, wait for me! What do you mean side-tracked?" I called out, trying to quicken my pace to match his.

"The Void doesn't have Rips like the Vortex. This is the only place in the purgatory that Guardians cannot control. If we cannot reach the Rip by tomorrow, it will close and who knows when will it open again. Besides we are going to be late." he kicked a rock.

"Hold on a second, is there a deadline or something?" I stopped and asked. He turned around, suddenly looking alarmed.

"You're supposed to be meeting your third reason by now, this is totally unexpected if it weren't for your stupidity! Ugh!" he groaned sounding really frustrated.

"So, is there a rip somewhere?" I asked, walking a little faster so I can be near him, I have no self-defense against things bigger than me which is frustrating. I tried really hard to fight off the people who have tormented me but it was physically impossible. I’m not Wonder Woman who can whoop guy’s ass any time she wishes. 

“Yeah, the one that we entered in but it will close soon, and we need to make it there before nightfall."

"Why?"

"Things will start ripping us into pieces if they find us. Do you want to die a second time?! There's a reason why this place is off limits." he suddenly stops when he spots the sun. He cursed under his breath and started looking for something else.

“You mean like the thing that we saw a while ago?” I asked as I followed. 

“Yeah, I’ll explain that later. For now we have to find shelter if want to make it through the night.” he said. We walked around for a few minutes and he grinned like he just won a million dollars when he found a cave that was hidden by thick moss and vines, it was concealed enough that you can't see it immediately.

 "Come on, we'll stay there for the night." he motioned and walked over to it.

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