Pursued

The footsteps were moving away. I sighed quietly and shrunk back into the tiny nook hidden in the woods.

Suddenly, I screamed, “AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

The guards had found me. As one of them bent down, a wicked grin plastered on his face. I ducked down, punched him in the stomach, and ran as fast as I could. Panting heavily, I ran through the trees, my foot thumping along the rocks, jumping over fallen logs, ignoring the panicked cries of the guards. I didn’t even care that brambles were scratching me till I bled so much I couldn’t run anymore. Luckily, just in time, I found a small and quaint little cottage. I used my last ounce of energy, pumped my legs as fast as I could, and got on the doorstep. I barely stayed conscious enough to rap my bloody knuckles frantically against the wooden door until I fell, going down, down, down; a blanket of black wrapped around me.

I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I woke up. A soft cocoon of warm blankets was wrapped around me, all my scratches were bound tightly in bandages, and my muddy and torn clothes became a white cotton t-shirt and ripped blue jeans that did not look like it was done on purpose. My blurry vision slowly cleared up, revealing three pairs of hazel brown eyes staring back down at me. I scrambled about on the bed, trying to get a grip on my knife on my leather belt that was supposed to be at my waist. Instead, my fingers clawed not at my knife, but at the air.

I winced as I finally jumped up, growling, “What have you done to me? Where am I?”

The woman, her grey hair tied up in a knot on her head, stuttered, “we found you sprawled out on our doorstep, blood flowing from your injuries. We also heard some noise that sounded like yelling coming towards our home. So, we decided to let you in, which was probably a bad idea because the yelling people were guards. After we put you in Griffin’s bed, the guards came to our door and asked if you were here. We said no in reply, and they just left.”

I could see that they were flabbergasted by my appearance. People give me that face every time they see me. I was tall and lean, about 5’7, with a muscular body and blond hair. I had sapphire blue eyes that were very different from others. They glowed when I was super angry, sparkled when I was happy, and darkened when I was sad. I have no idea what that’s all about, but I never took special notice of it.

“Where’s my knife? Don’t tell me that you stole it. It’s the one and only thing that I care about.” I glared daggers at them.

The young man had flaxen hair; he was about my height, with an athlete’s body. He looked about my age, 18 at most, and snickered, “You know you tried to kill us with that knife, right?”

“What?” I sounded confused like a newborn.

The man put a firm hand on the younger man’s shoulder as a warning, “Sorry for that interruption that my son just blurted out, but to be honest, you actually did try to kill us with that knife, so we had to pry it out of your hand.”

Putting a practiced scowl on his face, the younger man muttered, “Even unconscious, you managed to rip holes in my favorite pair of jeans.”

“Who are you?” I was curious; it was mysterious enough.

“I am Erica,” the woman said kindly, “This is my husband, Aaron,” the older man tipped his hat towards me, “and this is our son —”

“I can introduce myself, thank you very much, mom. I’m Griffin, 17 years old; nice to meet you.” He cocked a grin and offered a hand for me to shake.

I look at it carefully before shaking it myself. “I’m Rex, 17. Can you give me back my knife please?”

Griffin chuckles to himself, then reluctantly hands over the knife with my leather belt. I fasten it around my waist, closed my eyes, feeling the comfort and familiarness of it.

My wounds seemed to heal right away, all the damage on my body disappearing into nowhere. All the blood seeped back in, the skin repaired itself back to its normal state, the scratches and bruises faded away, and I looked brand new, showing nothing that revealed me as a fugitive. The faded red and white strips of gauze that were wrapped around my injuries loosened itself and fell down onto the brown wooden floor.

⦿ ⦿ ⦿

After I opened my eyes, I had a clear vision of Erica and Aaron with their jaws dangling down to the hardwood of the floor, their hazel brown eyes, as round as saucers, as big as the moon. Only Griffin didn’t seem as fazed.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, wondering what made that action happen to them.

“Th-th-there was a bright blue aura around you, did you know that?” Stammered Erica.

“Huh? Oh, that. I knew I had this weird thing around me ages ago, I just didn’t know what it was.” I shrugged casually, hoping to let this topic drop.

“Bro, we are gonna be best buddies now; I have the Aura too!” Griffin exclaimed excitedly.

All of a sudden, a sheen of bronze unfolded itself over Griffin’s head, making his Aura come alive. I stared in awe at him, thinking if my Aura was that cool of a performance. I was shook out of my thoughts when I heard a shocking gasp.

“We didn’t know you had the Aura. Oh no, what are we going to do now? But, now, the two of you together, in our house…..”Erica cried out, clearly alarmed about what just happened throughout the past five minutes.

“No no no no no no noooo, why is King Elomnis so eeeevil.” Groaned Aaron, who also clearly shared the same alarming feeling.

Griffin and I turned from staring at each other to staring at Erica and Aaron. Then, we turned and grinned at each other, the same bumptious grin I used to share with……

“My memories… I can’t remember so many things.” I mumbled quietly, feeling dizzy.

“When… Where… Who… What… Why… How… ” Griffin continued, eyes glassy and wild.

“The stage, oh my gosh, you guys have reached The Stage.” Erica whispered, like she just saw a ghost floating right in front of her.

Suddenly, there was a loud, banging noise at the wooden door.

We snapped out of our trances and faced forward to the door as if nothing happened.

The voices of the guards that were chasing me not so long ago boomed, “Let us in now, or we’ll break the door down!”

My face drained its usual tan, becoming pale and pasty in that second. “They’re coming for me — “

With surprising speed, Aaron shoved me in the back, pushed me under Griffin’s bed and whispered, barely audible, “Stay there and don’t come out no matter what. We will cover for you. Also, don’t activate the Aura.”

A body abruptly slammed into mine, squashing me against the wall. I was just about to scream, but the person’s hand slapped over my mouth, making the noise muffled.

“It’s me, Griffin, now shut up and don’t move.” A voice hissed fiercely.