The Fourteenth Year

Chapter 3: Starless Nights

"It's hard to believe a lie...but sometimes, believing the truth is harder still."
-Willow

If you had told me a week ago that, at this particular time in my life, I would be running from wild dogs and bullets -- I would have only semi-believed you. If you had told me that I would be running from dogs and bullets in a world called 'Hiroz-meene' with Lesel, Jik, and worst of all, Lakey...I would have questioned your sanity.

Yet, even I know, that once every hundred years or so, things happen that challenge human credibility.

I know.

I know because I am running through foreign fields, away from three uniformed gunmen and their drooling beasts, alongside Lesel, Jik, and, you guessed it, Lakey. So many questions flood my mind. Where are we, exactly? Who are those men trying to kill us and why? Where are we going? Is this all a hallucination? When can I wake up? Have I really been out an entire week?

As much as it burned within me, I kept my questions to a minimum. Wasn't this what I wanted? To 'get lost' so that I could 'find' myself?  

But that was before I was being chased by mongrels and blaring firearms. 

"Don't run straight!" yelled Lesel as he ran in a peculiar weaving pattern toward the mountains. The dogs were yapping close behind while the men shouted and shot.

Jik, a surprisingly fast runner, made her way several feet ahead of us. With such agility, she weaved, jumped, and rolled like an expert gymnast through the grass. Lakey, on the other hand, ran with her hands flailing in the air, screaming as she went. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" was her mantra. 

I attempted my own sort of parkour, a kind of jump, dip-squat, weave, and quick spin; which, is surprisingly difficult to do when you're carrying a load of stuff. I wasn't very agile, to say the least, but the bullets still missed me.

"Alez!" the men shouted from behind, "Alez, or you will face the purge!"

My heart was racing so fast I was sure it was going to burst out of my chest. My head was still pounding and the gunshots and dog barks made it worse, but the moutains were getting closer with every fancy step we took.  

"Follow me!" Lesel shouted as we approached the foot of the mountain.

The men were still a couple of football fields behind. Only this time, they were shouting, "Purge! Purge!"

Then....I saw her.

Once again, from the corner of my eye, she grinned mischievously. No one else seemed to notice the sultry woman in the long white laced dress, stroll over the grass toward me....not even the dogs. But she walked sullenly and unphased. Her hand dangling by her side, held a wilted rose. Her long black hair flowed gently in the breeze. And suddenly the sound of the dogs barking, the guns blasting, and people shouting became an echo and, for a brief moment, time stood still.

Over the humming of the echoes and across the vast fields, she whispered slowly to me...."Mor-ti-fa".

A shiver ran up my spine and I felt a sudden urge to vomit. This was the same woman who had chased me through the woods back home. What is she doing here?

I wasn't sure whether I was more afraid of the dogs and bullets, or this.... this... 'mortifa'.

Just keep your eyes on the mountains.

My, somewhat torpid, movement had me falling behind my companions. The dogs were gaining on me. I knocked off the 'parkour' and ran straight toward the mountain where Lesel stood, waving his hand for us to hurry. I braced for the final sprint, the heat of dog breath on my heels.