by K R Leikvoll
The man's eyes were so pale that they looked like someone had drilled a hole in them and drained them of their color. Gray was the only shade I could register, though they seemed to be nearly colorless. They reminded me of the moon as they glared down at me. It was almost the same color as his skin. His face was narrow, framed by long, black hair. I mean long; he was some kind of metal head, obviously. He never stopped glaring. At least it looked like a glare; he could just have a resting bitch face.
"Where am I?" I asked, laughing nervously, still holding my temples. "Is this the afterlife or something? Doesn't seem to be heaven. I don't see any fat little angels."
The man pressed hard into my shoulders. I couldn’t help gasping from the painful pressure.
"I will be asking the questions," he hissed, holding me in his damn titan grip. He leaned down and stuck his face so close to mine I could smell his hair. It was all starting to seem like a vampy fanfiction when he opened his mouth again to talk, revealing several pairs of fangs. "Do you have the ring?"
The ring? The ring! I nudged the ring with my thumb on my middle finger. Yep, it was still there. In fact, it was clinging so hard I could feel deep welts forming where it was digging in.
"That would be a negative. You can't have it. It was a gift from my—" I said before I was violently shaken again.
"You stupid girl!" he snapped in an obvious fit of anger. "You better not ever take that thing off! You hear me?"
Another man telling me not to take off a ring that was digging into me. Of course I wanted to take it off to relieve the pressure clamping my flesh. The moment my fingers brushed against it with the intent to do the opposite of what the man said, I had a mental flash of the demonic eye I had seen in my... fit.
All of his shaking was surely giving me bruises, though.
"Could you stop fucking shaking me, sir?" I yelled at him and tried to pull away. He stopped, but the force threw me a few feet back onto my ass.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I said angrily as I stood up.
"I could ask you the same question. You don't look like her. You don't sound like her. This is clearly a ruse by James," he said, shaking his head and turning away. James? He knew James? Someone other than me knew James!
"I actually am, okay? I am Valentine! No reason not to believe me!" I snapped. "Where are we anyways?"
The man turned sharply and was back in my face again.
"You don't recognize your own home?" he asked in an agitated whisper that trailed off into pissed mumbles I couldn't understand. Home, though? I looked around again. We were standing in an empty valley with nothing surrounding us but long, pale grass.
"This doesn't look like the PNW to me," I said, gesturing at the damn planet in the sky.
"I'm not listening to any more of this insanity. We're leaving. Let's go," he hissed pulling me behind him by my shirt.
I let out a few "heys" and "stops," but he kept dragging me along. His steps were so big, I had to run to keep up. The vomit smelled rank and finally reached my nose. Not a good time to be without a change of clothes.
After what felt like forever, we reached the edge of the clearing and entered a forest. The trees were odd. They twisted upward toward the sky in all sorts of weird angles, covered in varying shades of blue foliage. I didn't realize how dark it was until I couldn't see the clearing behind us anymore. I could barely see at all! He was dragging us through the woods and I was blind as a bat! I tried to stay directly behind him to avoid branches, but I still managed to trip several times over roots protruding from the ground. It was easy to lose track of everything. A million questions were buzzing through my brain. I wanted to focus on where I was or where that asshole was taking me, but trying not to face plant was my number one priority.
So instead of falling again, I slammed into his rock-hard back when he stopped abruptly. His grip on my shirt loosened and he yanked me in front of him. I was a feather compared to this guy’s strength, really. He had to catch me, stopping me from my own momentum.
"You are filthy. Clean yourself up," he growled before pushing me gently to the right. At least I didn't fly into anything again. The quiet sound of rushing water sounded like there was a river nearby, but it was too dark to see clearly. I really wanted to ask where we were again. I wanted to ask a bunch of things.
"What am I supposed to wear? Wet clothes?" was what I decided on before I could stop myself.
He reached into his massive cloak and pulled out a leather bag. With a sarcastic, aggravating expression, he tossed it at me. It still hit my arms and chest like it was full of bricks. This guy was really starting to piss me off.
Feeling like an utter idiot, I reached down blindly, trying to find the water's edge. It was ice cold. I stood back up and looked in the man's direction. He was staring back. Rather than glowering at my eyes, he scanned my body, starting at my feet. Chills went up my spine.
"Are you some kind of pervert too? Screw off already!" I yelled motioning for him to turn away.
"Pervert? I'm making sure you don't do anything stupid. I will turn away, but you better not try to hurt yourself again. I couldn't care less about your emotions," he hissed back. I could barely see him in the dark, but I knew he could see me if he wanted to. He had those creepy eyes! At least he listened; he crossed his arms and turned away.
I took off my vomit-soaked V-neck and torn-to-shreds jeans. My shoes seemed to be okay at least. Better than the state my ripped pants were in. I walked forward in the water, only to my knees, keeping my back to my captor. I splashed it on my skin. The cuts and bruises were really starting to ache. Rather than relieve it, I was only chilled to the bone. I climbed out as quickly as I could, not taking the time to clean the various body fluids staining my skin.
Feeling out the shapes of my borrowed clothing in the darkness was not an easy task. I could make out a wispy top and thick leather pants. Jeez, was all his crap leather? I dressed at record speed and laced my boots back up. What he gave me wasn’t near enough to keep the chill away, though. I couldn’t help the loud chattering of my teeth, breaking the eerie silence.
The man turned back toward me. The stupid, annoyed look he seemed to favor was on his face again. He tugged off his cloak and threw it around my shoulders. Damn it was heavy. It was like some kind of bear rug on my back. Still it was warm, though... and soft.
“Don’t you dare get it dirty or tear it, stupid girl. Don’t make me regret my kindness.”
Kindness… ha. If that was what he considered kindness, he’d better be prepared for me to be a stick in the mud the entire way. I buried my face into the thick black fur. Despite appearances, everything in that strange, alien place felt so real. Was it a mental episode? Was it a dream? Was I dead?
The man beckoned me to follow this time (you know, instead of dragging my ass). We walked several yards through the brush before he stopped. He braced his back against a nearby tree and slid down to sit.
"You will sleep here tonight." He motioned to the forest floor beside him.
"No fire?" I asked barely above a whisper. The walking, the abuse—it was all taking a toll on me. I was pretty exhausted now that he brought it up.
"No fire," he said evenly, never looking away.
I sat down slowly opposite him. The ground wasn't so rough with the cloak beneath me. I laid down, letting it swallow me until only my head poked out. We made incredibly awkward eye contact for a few minutes. That guy didn’t seem interested in anything that wasn't me when we were immobile. The wear of the past few hours weighed me down. My shoulders hurt. My feet hurt. My damn head hurt. I felt sleepiness growing in my eyes. I yawned.
"What's your name anyways?" I asked, rolling away.
Before sleep took me, I heard him whisper, "Kirin."
Chapter Three
The odd sound of a rushing stream and wind whistling through the trees stirred me from my dreams. It almost reminded me of soothing nature noises used for sleep aid or meditation. It’s not like I fell asleep in
the woods that often. I stretched out, gasping in pain from the soreness of my body. I kept my eyes closed the entire time. Did I pass out by the bridge and hallucinate? My hands explored around me as minimally as they could. It was overwhelmingly warm. Hot even. I rolled over.
Oh... right.
The man, Kirin I think he said his name was, was sitting against the tree still. His face was calm with his eyes shut peacefully. He actually didn't seem like as much of an asshole when he was asleep—probably because his mouth wasn’t running. In the light, I noticed giant black bags under his eyes. He looked more skeletal in the daytime. He definitely seemed gaunter and far less alluring.
I tried to sit up as quietly as possible; I didn’t want to wake him so he could continue his tirade of insults. After the decades it took to get into a sitting position, his eyes shot open. It startled me so badly I flinched and fell backward, knocking my skull on a tree stump.
"Fuck!" I gasped, holding my already pounding head.
"No wonder you are so stupid. Probably brain trauma," Kirin said as he stretched and stood up. He took a step forward and reached out his hand toward me. I smacked it away utterly furious.
"You are going to stop calling me stupid right now! Stop being such an asshole! If you don't, the ring and the body it's attached to aren't going anywhere!" I yelled to get my point across. Nothing in the woods reacted to my outrage, including him.
"Is that right?" Kirin asked with a devilish smirk on his face. I knew what he was going to do before it even happened. He pulled me up by my shirt and effortlessly threw me over his right shoulder.
"What the fuck are you doing? Let me go!" I said with urgency. I tried to wiggle free, but his grip around my waist was unbreakable. Kirin started walking through the forest with me over his shoulder casually as though it was a normal afternoon walk. He even began to hum. I dug my nails into the back of his neck and tried to escape his grasp again. Kirin didn't even flinch! He didn't even seem to notice. He just kept on with the stupid humming.
I fought him for about an hour (probably a half hour, but it felt like an hour) before submitting to defeat. I wanted to start hammering him with my questions, but what I really wanted was food. Maybe afterwards I would punch him in his stupid, smug face. Talking at that point seemed to accomplish nothing. I attempted several times to start a conversation, but I stopped mid-sentence every time. What was the point? He'd probably call me stupid again. He seemed to get pleasure out of my anger which in turn made me more irritated. What was the word for that? Goading?
I gave up eventually and tried to focus my energy on studying my surroundings. The forest was fun to look at, like I was in a movie or something. During the day, everything was alien. The trees were growing in countless directions desperately trying to reach the sun. Or at least I guessed. I hadn't really seen anything that looked like a sun yet, but I assumed that's what they were trying to reach. The grass and dirt were more mauve-colored than Earth, but it wasn’t as vibrant as the view above. What sky I could see through the canopy was purple. It was a trippy place, my strange purgatory.
Whatever forest we were in was encased entirely on either side by mountains. They weren't the pretty kind common in the Pacific Northwest though. They were rocky and seemed to jut out of the ground in an unnatural way. So unnatural that it made me question if they were man made. Maybe the entire valley itself was man made.
Gradually, the ground turned from long grass to brilliant flora. Stunning blue flowers filled every direction of sight. They grew on the trees, rocks and ground like a beautiful moss. The very woods itself began to smell sickly sweet. It was enough to make my stomach growl.
"Hey," I said evenly to Kirin. He glanced at me from the corner of his gray eyes. "You can... um... put me down now."
He stared at the path in front of us for an eternity. I was thinking of how to convince him when he gave me another tense look. He let out an apathetic sigh; his grip loosened around my waist. I took the opportunity to slide off his shoulder before he could change his mind.
"Give me back my cloak before you drag it on the ground," he said aggressively. I let him tug it off me, keeping my demeanor calm. "Don't touch the flowers."
He didn't slow down for a single moment, and I struggled to keep up. I was beginning to regret my decision when I realized how incredibly sore I was. My whole body ached like I was feverish. My weak knees made me stop after several yards and sit down on a fallen tree. Kirin kept walking ahead, naturally.
Where was I? How could a mental trip be as real as this was? Was I dead? My mind wouldn't shut up. To make matters worse, the ring was burning lightly into my middle finger aggravating the sore cuts beneath it. Or maybe it was the cuts burning. Rings don't spontaneously feel like they are on fire.
When I was able to pull myself away from my fragile mental state, Kirin was nowhere to be found. Some kidnapper he was. Technically, I could run away. I hadn't seen anything dangerous in the forest. There was some mild rustling earlier, but besides that, it was apparently cleared of wildlife. It was so beautiful, I couldn’t imagine anything sinister hiding in the bushes.
Still, though...
I didn't know if Kirin was evil. He knew who James was and that was information I was curious about. He also would've killed me for sure if that was the plan, or at least not let me walk freely. His behavior the day before with the shaking hadn't seemed like he was trying to hurt me; maybe he was just upset. I don't know why I was justifying his behavior, but his absence made it easier to be empathetic. Without his condescending attitude, he had the potential to start growing on me. I doubted that would last too long.
I stood up and started walking in the direction which Kirin had disappeared. I couldn't say which direction it was with the lack of sun overhead. It gave me more anxiety than I anticipated for such a small detail. I remembered being told during elementary school that it was important to leave breadcrumbs so you don't wander in circles. Looking around, I couldn't see anything that wasn't covered in blue flowers. Wasn't there something mentioned about not touching the flowers? I walked slowly through the forest, feeling more and more disoriented. There were a lot of them. So many I felt like I was losing my sense of direction.
"Screw this," I said, dropping to my knees. I ripped at the ground until a mound of dirt was left in its place. It took a lot more energy than it should have. Between my feverishness and the stuffy weather, sweat was already forming on my forehead. I stood and brushed the earth off of my hands.
The sound of snapping twigs made my heart flutter with fear.
I looked up. Nothing. I turned around. Nothing. Just me. I had to glance at the dirt mound to remember which way I was supposed to be going. I started walking as fast as my shaky legs would carry me. Another cracking sound to my left made me turn around. Again, there was nothing. A chill went up my spine like I was being watched. I crossed my arms across my chest nervously.
"Kirin, if you think you can jump out and scare me, you’re wrong!" I yelled apprehensively at the air. The silence following was deafening. I put my palms to my forehead. There was no one there.
When I was able to bring myself to climb over a fallen tree branch, I was greeted with the best view I had seen thus far. A stone bridge not covered in any damn flowers. The river from earlier flowed underneath it. It was so crystal clear I could see my reflection; definitely not as much of a welcome sight.
The top part of my shoulders was blossoming with purple bruises. Every other part of me was covered in tiny scratches and dirt from the forest. I'm pretty sure my breath smelled foul. My hair was starting to get knotted. I should've tried to kill myself with it tied up.
I reached down and filled my hands. I hadn’t realized how horribly dehydrated I was. My throat burned from the chill. I dipped my hand back in and rubbed it on my brow. It was very soothing—unlike the night before. Better than Fiji water.
Something dazzling caught my eye across the bridge. The other side of the river was completely bare of the sma
ll blue flowers. In their absence, a giant one was positioned along the tree lining. It reflected the light like it was made of metal, but it was still blue.
I crossed the stone bridge and approached it. On the inner lining of the petals, I could see tiny, yellow speckles creating a stunning mosaic. The smell reminded me of apples, but not quite. I put my face to it, inhaling deeply. There was a hint of something else.
The world suddenly gave out underneath me. I let out a high-pitched wail of shock as my heart dropped into my gut. Four vines coming from the ground had wrapped their way around my ankles and proceeded to swing me through the air. With incredible force, I felt it start to retract itself. It began yanking me back toward the flower from before, almost giving me no time to react. I screamed again and desperately clawed at the ground trying to latch on to something. My body was so weak, yet my adrenaline managed to help me cling to a mass of tree roots.
I glanced at the source and let out another panicked squeak. The flower had been replaced with a massive fanged mouth. It snapped its jaws at my legs, and the fear almost made me lose my grip. Inside the gaping blue maw was the flower from before, sitting there inconspicuously like it was innocent.
"Help!" I finally managed to blurt out when I remembered how to speak. The vines dug deeper into my ankles. It was pulling so hard I was convinced it was going to rip my feet off. The next scream that escaped my lips was from pain rather than fear.
A dark shadow appeared in the corner of my eye. I reluctantly glanced back down at the carnivorous plant and felt a tinge of relief. Kirin was standing next to the jaws with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed.
"Stupid girl," he said and let out a hollow sounding laugh. "I thought I told you not to touch the flowers. The carnivorous ones like to eat easy prey."
