Assassin's Eye

Chapter 15.

Lucy and Nemos burst through the fog, sunlight finally reaching their sheltered eyes. It had seemed like hours-days that they had been running through the misty jungle, despite it having been at most one hour. The duo hadn't seen any more people in the mists, just felt the eerie presence of silence around them, pressing down on them like the feeling of being watched they immediately acquired after stepping into this clearing in the jungle.

Once again, there was a pavilion, a cherry blossom tree blooming in the top story, but this one looked much older, red paint chipped and peeling from the shingles and walls. However, there were no creatures or animals of any kind in sight. The silence here seemed even more impending. In place of the great tiger that lounged there before, a small plant sprouted. The leaves glistened in the weak sunlight like Jade. Lucy took a step toward the pavilion, but as she did so, Nemos put an arm out to stop her. He dropped her hand and began to edge around the clearing.

I don't trust this, he thought. It seems too easy. Nemos narrowed his eyes and scanned the trees, but all that was visible was the mist seeping into the sunlight. Nemos squinted, staring into the trees with more and more uneasiness. Something was wrong. He heard something at that very moment. The sound was thunderous, as if something ginormous was coming through the trees, and as Nemos looked, he realized exactly where he had not looked before that very moment: up. As he did so, he discovered the source of his uneasiness. Walking through the trees, though far away, the beast was gaining fast. It was huge, its head reaching almost halfway up through the canyon. The monster walked on two legs, emerald furs serving as ragged clothing, and it could have been human, if not for the one giant eye on the center of it's head. It was a cyclops. The cyclops raised its head and roared, then its eye focused on the two small people in the clearing: the ones he wanted to smash for disturbing his forest.

The sight made Nemos clench his jaw, then making a quick decision, he ran for the plant. Nemos yanked the Jaseron out from its roots and turned to look at Lucy. "Go, go, go!" He shouted. She nodded, but waited for Nemos to get close and grabbed his hand.

He looked at her confusedly but Sara's words came back to him all of a sudden. Don't get separated... That's what she had said... Only one will survive. Nemos cleared his mind and focused on running. The thunderous footsteps behind him seemed to shake the very earth, and he could feel the giant's one eye on them as they sprinted full speed back toward where they thought the stairs were. The fog seemed to be dissipating and as they bolted through the jungle, they saw more and more of their surroundings. People wandered around in a trance like state, occasionally stumbling and catching themselves, or yelling for help. There were dozens of them—hundreds of them, all lost. Nemos glanced down at Lucy, noticing that she was more stone faced than he was.

He squeezed her hand and ran harder. Finally, they saw the stairs through the dense forest, and as they burst out into the sunlight, everything seemed to happen at once.

Time stopped.

It was all Lucy could do to watch as something flew out of the trees and implanted itself in Nemos's back. Lucy turned as the world blurred around her and saw a familiar face peering smugly through the trees. Sara.

"You'll stay here and rot in hell with us, Nemos Dawn," Sara laughed madly, the years in the mist having made her mad. Lucy grabbed a dagger that was sheathed in Nemos's belt and hurled it at her. The knife hit Sara straight in the chest, and the woman collapsed, lifeless, to the forest floor. Then, Lucy turned to Nemos.

Lucy's eyes widened as she saw the crimson flower blossoming out from his chest. Nemos looked at her one last time, his eyes going dark. He fell. Nemos coughed, and blood splattered on the ground. As Nemos hit the ground with a thud, Lucy knelt down frantically, shaking his shoulders.