My Long Lost Mate - Chapter 138

I opened my eyes, relieved to see a man with eyes as red as a ruby, hair as dark as the night, and a voice as deep as the ocean. It was the man I’d grown to love over the course of our few months together, the man who’d become the refuge I sought.

I couldn’t even put into words how relieved I felt just being in his presence. Even tears had unknowingly escaped my eyes, blurring my vision. Luke slowly put me down on the ground, taking my trembling hands in his.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his concern palpable in his voice. “Are you hurt anywhere? Another question came as he carefully took the weapons from my hands, replacing them with his warm hands. He looked around frantically for any wounds and was relieved when he couldn’t find any—until he saw my neck. There were red marks from where the man had strangled me. “Who did this?”

“W-where is the man?” I ignored his question and asked my own, still feeling my heart beating like crazy. The adrenaline rush I’d felt before was still there, and it was likely to last until we successfully stopped the ritual from taking place—finishing.

“What man?”

“The tall man with milky eyes.”

I’m not sure if it was because of the relief I felt, but my body immediately felt weak when I realized it was Luke and not anyone else. It was fortunate that Luke was quick enough to stop me from stabbing him.

He frowned, but then seemed to realize who I was referring to when he pointed to the open door, which then revealed the same man I was talking about passed out just outside the door. “You mean, him?” So he took care of him.

I nodded, feeling even relieved to see the man knocked out. I couldn’t even stop the man after giving it my all, and yet, Luke took care of him in a matter of minutes—or seconds. Though I already knew that being strong was necessary to survive in this world, it became clearer to me today.

I spun around, seeing the little girl still curled up in the dark corner. Could I still protect her if it wasn’t Luke who came but the man—or worse—a black witch?

Given that I couldn’t even answer yes to that question, it was obvious that I needed to be stronger. I need to get stronger so that I can protect whoever I want in the future. I don’t want to lose anyone dear to me because I’m weak.

Not again.

Luke also noticed the little girl and helped me up, supporting my still trembling legs. I wiped the tears blurring my vision and walked towards the girl, gently holding her shoulders.

“Are you okay?”

The little girl looked up to me when she recognized my voice, her eyes swollen from the tears she’d shed. She’d been biting her lips to keep herself from making any noise, despite the fact that she was in a lot of pain from the bullet wound I’d accidentally caused her. She was stained with blood all over.

I tore the hem of my dress and tied it around her wounded hand, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. She winced at the pain but let me do whatever I wanted, knowing full well that I was doing it to help her and not to harm her.

“What is your name?” I asked, carefully holding her hands in mine. I had just noticed she was wearing nothing but a ragged dress and not even a shoe to protect her feet. Anyone could see that she wouldn’t be able to handle the cold in such thin clothing. I took off my cape and wrapped her small body around it, hoping to ease her trembling.

“Doris,” she answered in a voice as small as a whisper, wiping her tears away as she did.

“Doris, we have to get out of here,” I said, wiping the new tears that had just escaped her eyes. “It’s dangerous here—we have to get you somewhere safe. Will you come with me?” Perhaps scared to go out of the safe little corner, she avoided my eyes. “There will be a few warriors out there who will be able to protect you from… from everything that is going on here.”

“But lady, what is going on?” Her voice trembled as she recalled the events from before, the memory of the man still fresh in her head. “I… I don’t remember anything. I was playing with my mommy, and then all of a sudden I felt this pain right here,” she raised her wounded hand, showing how the cloth I’d just tied was already turning red with her blood.

I hesitated, not knowing if I should tell her the truth. What would she think if I told her that her parents—the entire village—were being turned into puppets? And that she, too, was one of them?

“You see, Doris, there’s a really bad group of people here in the village,” I said, quickly receiving a question from Doris.

“Like the man from before?”

“No, like the people controlling that man,” I shook my head. “The man from before was controlled by a bad group of people, and they wanted to make that man and all the other people in this village to be bad like them.”

Upon hearing this, her brows drew together and her mouth fell downwards. Her eyes were getting teary again as she asked, “Mommy and daddy too?”

“Yes, mommy and daddy too,” I gave her a wry smile. “But don’t worry! There’s a really dependable group of warriors out there and they’ll certainly save your mommy and daddy. You see that man behind me?” I pointed at Luke, who raised his brows at me. “That man is also one of the warriors, and let me tell you, he’s really strong! He’ll go and beat up the bad people and make things like it used to be—no, even better!”

“Really?” Doris peeked at Luke, who then stuck out his tongue and made weird faces at her. She didn’t seem convinced. “Is that man really strong?”

“He is very strong, so you don’t need to worry about your mommy and daddy,” I smiled, softly patting her head. “All that you have to do is to head to safety and wait for your mommy and daddy there. Can you trust me?”

She took a couple of seconds to stare into my eyes, pondering her decision before nodding to my question. I smiled and helped her up, tightly holding her hand in mine.

As the magical barrier has already been broken, I no longer have to worry about having to do everything by myself. All of the warriors must have gone into the village and proceeded to stop the ritual from being completed.

We went out of the house, immediately seeing how the village was empty of the villagers. All of the people must have gone to where the ritual was taking place, leaving only the warriors around. The sound of the bell had died down, making the area to be grave quiet. I assumed the bell was used as a way to call the people to where the black witches were.

There were a lot of warriors—way more than the amount I’d seen before I entered the village.  They were spread all throughout the village, searching for where the people were. Even till now, there was no sign of a black witch.

“Here!! I see people!!” Shouted one warrior, making the rest of the people shift their attention to him. We soon followed to where the warrior was, seeing a group of people in front. Those people had their backs towards us.

One of the warriors turned one person towards us as we walked closer, then immediately backed away when he saw that those were not people—but puppets. Soon after the first person saw us, the rest of the people also turned their bodies towards us, charging at us.

Their limp bodies charged at us in full tilt, eyes white and teeth bared. All of the warriors immediately drew their weapons, trying to eliminate the sudden threat.

Those people—I’d seen them before. These are the people from the next village!! The first group of puppets. Did Mary call for them to prevent us from stopping her?

“Get behind me!!” Luke said, pulling me behind him.

As the people came charging at us, I took the time to see what was beyond them. I noticed that behind this group of puppets, was another group of people—the villagers. They were standing in a circle, with children in the middle. They were singing.

This is bad—really bad. With all of these puppets preventing us from going closer, it would be hard for us to stop the ritual. I needed to find a way to sneak between the chaos and stop the ritual. I needed to stop them at any cost.

“Doris, can you stay here and—” I halted, startled by the color of her eyes. Again, it was those same milky eyes. “Doris?” I called, but she remained quiet, only staring at the group of people in front.. She then slapped my hand away and ran towards them. “Doris!!”