Sinister (COMPLETED / TO BE REWRITTEN)

7 👣 The Pursue

Everything halts as two figures reveal themselves behind the door, lurching Raiden's heart like a train in a narrow tunnel.

Springing off his bed, Raiden snuggles under the bed's musty space, planking his back to the floor. He drags it sideways to peek over the bed.

They've left the door. Now stalking around the room with their branch-like arms stretched and twig-like fingers grazing surfaces. Also bare feet as terrifying as Bigfoot's.

What are these people? Why haunting one's room in midnight without words or violence?

A figure half the door's height appears, announcing her haughtiness through a phone call. "I was the one who stole the onyx from the cave. So it's mine."

Raiden has to repeatedly blink to adjust his sore eyes to the surroundings above him.

A headline from the local paper struts into his head, blinking a giant sentence. 'The Sixth Jewel Missing in A Week, Coincidence?'. The latest site to be ransacked is the local glow-worm cave, Kirminai.

Is this woman the thief who has set the city's detectives raging in tantrums?

Does she aim to heist over Saba's hidden jewels, shall he possess some?

Raiden shrugs off the anxiety worming in his nerves. He tightens his grip of himself while curling smaller, despite his brain's attempts to force him fleeing the site.

"No," the woman hushes, "The six heists were all my schemes. Divide the useless five jewels for yourselves, but this onyx is mine." Emphasis. A shove into a zipped purse, followed by a huff. "Bèn dàn."

Stupid egg. Fool. Idiot. Moron. That iconic Chinese insult is often thrown to his face by a specific girl.

His longing heart concludes the woman's identity, but his logic states the opposite.

"He's not here. But I saw someone." One of the men's voice resembles a fish's gurgle. A slam bounces off a surface, indicating a tremendous force, or frustration, applied to it.

"Search one more time. He's escaped from us and alerted the whole shelter about it. Such a troublemaker, curse. We should hunt him."

Where did Saba run away from? There weren't any signs that he left the shelter last night, according to the sleepless.

What has Saba gotten himself into?

A pair of knees crouch near the bed, checking underneath. The short distance of their breath hurtles realization to Raiden's frozen state.

Flames ignite within his limbs when the man's shock mirrors his.

Raiden lets out a stream of pants as he claws sideways, out of the hideout.

The men strike Raiden's thrashing legs with scratches and pounces. Mimicking a foal which is against its constraint, his physique riots.

However, his offense is anything but useful.

A recognized face peers over the gap gawking under his thrashing toes.

Damp bangs, slit-like eyes, bony cheeks, dimple-less skin.

He knows well who this girl is, after straining his neck to its maximum extent. He knows her by a name. And that can't be a jewel thief's name. "Ece?"