Don't Say Something I'll Make You Regret

"What if he's-"

"Don't say something I'll make you regret."

Everyone looked at Ethan like he'd stepped over a line. He wouldn't contemplate the idea that something could happen to Zale.

"I lost Amy, I'm not loosing anyone else."

"Amy AND Joseph" Ian clarified. "You don't care about anyone else."

"Fuck you!" Ethan bit back.

Wei looked between them, then to the woods with paranoia.

"Both of you stop it" she finally hissed. Wei stood between them. Ian's gaze didn't leave Ethan, but he took a step back so Wei could get his attention.

"Ethan, we'll find your brother." Ethan nodded half-heartedly, he knew there was a but. "However, if we find him... and he's not him..."

Ethan knew what she was saying. Sae-ji couldn't bring himself to get involved but he could feel Ethan's cold, slimy glare.

Sae-ji wanted to go after Zale. He wanted to run into the woods and just keep going till he found him... and the fact that he said nothing pissed Ethan off.

"Fine" Ethan replied. "Let's go."

"No splitting up. If we go, we go together. Kapchi kapchida" Sae-ji insisted.

Though afraid, everyone agreed to the terms and headed off into the woods.
--------------------------------------------

While the others fought, Zale walked through the woods with a machete in one hand and his book in the other. The sting of tears was fresh in his eyes. Every time he blinked he could see the way Joseph's decapitated head rolled in the dirt, and the way his sister's chest had been ripped open.

"I can't do this" he muttered to himself.

He let the tears flood his vision. He couldn't take the smell of death around him. He wanted to give up and let the next thing that came out of the woods make mincemeat of his body.

Yet deep down he knew that the second something moved he'd panic and the feelings would fade.

The he heard a noise behind him and clamped the book closed. He recklessly froze, trying to figure out where the noise had come from.

He hoped it was Ethan... he knew that was a stupid thought. He turned, not seeing anything. He didn't smell sulfur or hear the groaning of a rotting body. He walked backwards and then felt the ground give out beneath his feet.

Zale tumbled back, fell over a log and down a short hill. He let out a yelp of pain as it tore his skin and he dropped his knife.

Disoriented, Zale scrambled to his feet, feeling the burn of what could be a twisted ankle. That could be the death sentence of a lame horse.

Then it appeared. Over the hill he'd fallen from, a shadow loomed. It took only seconds of his brain firing to guess what it was.

A Bés.

An eater of negative emotions. Feeding on his grief.

There was a pause as he looked up at the creature. Despite the severity looming over his situation, he spoke aloud.

"I don't want to die..."