Dark Faïz (Book 2) [Completed]

Chapters 5-5

During our exploration, I took care to stay with Faïz to avoid any scandal on his part. Only the sound of the waterfalls outside the cave broke the thick silence that reigned here. A stone suddenly caught my eye with its strange shape. I immediately bent down to pick it up and noticed with surprise that it was a small steel alcohol flask.

"What does that mean?" I whispered, puzzled at this find.

"A fisherman must have lost it during a trip at sea," said Zerkô, scratching the back of his head.

"It's still lukewarm," I pointed out to Faïz.

At that moment, Faïz's face twisted in fury and in a burst of rage, he grabbed our guide by the throat, sticking him against the wall with such brutality that his feet lifted from the ground.

"Zoe!" yelled Faïz. "Go to the boat and leave!"

I stayed speechless in front of this surreal scene, unable to make the slightest movement.

"Get out of here! It's a trap. Flee!" Faïz continued to scream, eyes out wide.

"I...I... Not without you. I refuse to leave you here."

Faïz released Zerkô, who collapsed on the ground, and with a hurried step, walked towards me. He grabbed me by the shoulders when suddenly a silver hoop wrapped around his upper body, and then a second one wrapped around his legs.

"Run, Zoe!" he ordered me before collapsing on the ground, a prisoner.

Without waiting, I turned around and rushed towards our boat. I stopped short after just a few meters, my lungs on fire, realizing that I was abandoning Faïz to his fate. Turning around again, I saw Zerkô above him and trying to hold him.

"Leni! Come and help me!"

Without thinking, I threw myself with all my might on his back and plunged my fingers, as hard as possible, into his eyes. A cry of pain came out of his mouth, echoing throughout the cave. It was then that a lasso wrapped around my throat and literally took my breath away. I was dragged for several meters with the cord tightening around my neck. My vision gradually became blurred. The suffering I felt was unbearable.

"Throw her in the water. It will be faster!" cried Zerkô, breathless, to his friend.

At that moment, I felt myself lifted in the air, ready to be thrown violently into the depths of the waters of the cave. The painful impact seemed to break my bones into a thousand pieces. Still conscious and on the verge of suffocation, I tried to reach the surface in order to regain the oxygen I was missing as quickly as possible. As I was about to catch my breath, something deep in the water grabbed my ankle to pull me back down again. I tried to free myself from the grip of the aquatic plants that held me, but in vain. Little by little, exhausted by the fight, I felt my last strength abandon me. I had only one thought: Faïz.

I beg you, spare him.

And then the darknesscaught me.