The Dark Wolf

Chapter Eight

Neko ran so far that even Jace lost sight of her after his killing spree of all the hurtful humans who tried to capture her. What were they doing there? Why were they here? Where were the ghouls when Jace needed them most?

Jace cried out "Neko!" many many times, but never received a reply from her. He started to think one of the humans got away and caught up to snatch her from him. Whatever the case was, Jace was out for blood.

"Where did she go? Is she okay? Was she safe?"

Jace looked cautiously around with the battle axe in his hand. He was drenched in the blood of the people he stayed that tried to take Neko as hostage. He wasn't himself, so much so that ghouls even saw him as an invasive species.

"Neko! Come out please! It's me Jace! You can trust me! Please come out!"

He almost lost hope in what happened and sat down against a tree to let the defeat of his mission on finding his small companion. He leaned his head back and stayed into the dark sky. "Please come back." He muttered as his eyes closed shut in dismay.

A couple days past and Jace was much more fit to survive in the forest than he first walked in. His body was drenched in ghoul blood and his battle axe was always shined clean from the blood. He searched for Neko and killed whatever came at him as he continued to walk.

Neko howled for Jace and Jace continued to look around in hopes that the howl was hers. He's never heard her howl before and hearing a howl could mean she's around. She could be anywhere!

The more he searched for her the more he felt like he was in a maze of confusion and frustration. Almost like his world was upside down with issues and problems, flooding the small room he was forced to stand in. Like a volcano not being able to erupt it's vicious lava, or a contained atom that wishes to be set free.

Jace was that volcano, that person in the room, the maze runner, the contained atom. And there's so many reasons and heartbreaking things as to why. His wife is going to conceive a child that isn't even his and hid it from Jace, His fake friend Gabriel was killed in front of him, and he almost died from a car crash. It was so much on his plate and now he did not want to lose Neko at this point.

Instead of sitting and crying about it he started running towards any time Neko howls. He didn't even stop when he got tired. He just kept running and running until he eventually found the howling wolf who was stuck in a bear net trap.

Thankfully Jace killed all the humans so they can't take her for themselves and used his battle axe to cut the bear net off of her. He's never been happy to see another thing in his life until he saw her safe and sound. Kind of.

"Please don't leave me again Neko! I got so scared that I would never see you again!" Jace said as tears streamed down his face hugging her slim body. Neko seeing Jace look the way he does makes her feel like he has not attempted to leave the forest at all. She licked his face clean as a way to comfort him and her him to stop crying over the situation that happened.

"Sorry.. sorry. Let's get out of this forest Neko. I want to take you home."

Neko smiles and started to lead Jace down a path that she knows well about. Jace trusted her so much that he followed her. How long has he been in this forest? Felt like forever and he thought it was just like space. If you were to stand in space then time flies.

It took the two travelers a week to find their way out of the forest. But getting technical it was two weeks because of their consistent stopping, eating, and resting stops. It was great for them because they started bonding and getting closer than ever. Who knew? A wolf actually bonding with a human.

On their journey, Neko introduced to Jace where she entered the forest and exactly where she slept. The many holes in the ground were he dens and she loved being in them alone. Jace was happy to see these happy moments but she lead Neko to the car crash he endured and Neko started whimpering feeling so bad for her new friend.

He talked to her about his living situation and about how his ex wife cheated on him while he was on vacation, or somewhere along those lines. Neko growled, she didn't like hearing someone break his heart and started jumping up to Jace trying to get him to look at her. Which worked for her.

"Don't worry Neko, she means nothing to me and the guy she left me for died in this forest out of shear luck."

Neko smiles to him and they both continued on their way out of this god forsaken forest. Some of the signs Jace saw on his first visit made him smile about their warnings. "Turn back, they said. It's dangerous, they said." Jace said jokingly as he spotted Gabriel's parked car that hasn't been moved at all.

"Time to go home, Neko."

Neko was so excited but was scared of the huge machine that he calls a car. But Jace opened up the car by breaking the window and got her inside and buckled in. He reassured her by stroking her head that everything will be alright and that he's a certified driver.

To Neko, that was comforting and to Jace it made him happy to know he's going to have a best friend at home. After hot wiring the car to get it to run, the two made their journey home away from The Dark World Forest.