My Long Lost Mate - Chapter 152

My heart pounded furiously in my chest, surprised—petrified—to see the five children standing next to each other, each with a smile as eerie as the night sky. It was unusually darker than any other day, with the moon nowhere to be seen and the stars hiding behind the clouds.

They stared at me, unblinking, and I couldn’t help but stagger backward. Their stares were so intense that I seemed to know what they were thinking in their heads—if they were thinking at all. The black mist hovering around them was enough to tell me that whatever was coming was not going to be good, and the knives in their hands were a dead giveaway.

I thought they were the same as the rest of the villagers, but how can they move? I haven’t even burned the sigil! Did they let me in on purpose?

“I-I’m not a bad person,” I said, not sounding very convincing as I held my knife towards them. “I’m only here to help you out,” but I knew they were here for the exact opposite.

What should I do? If they’re still under the control of the black witch, then there’s no denying that they’re here to kill me. They will either mutilate me to tiny pieces and send them to the black witches, or they will cut off my head and—

CLANG!!

The knives in their hands fell to the ground, leaving them with no weapon to use.

Huh? Are they not trying to kill me? Did I touch their hearts when I said I’m here to help them?

I kept my knife still, not wanting to trust them so easily when the black mist surrounding them was so obvious to my eyes. One thing I knew for certain was that black never sided with white, and we’ll forever be at the opposite end of the spectrum—should things remain the same as they are now. It’s obvious.

I watched the children as they continued to stare at me, still sending me those eerie smiles of theirs. There was a certain tension between us, a tension that made the silence too suffocating to bear and the dread too great to ignore. What’re they on now?

One of the girls among the children held out her hand, reaching for me as if she wanted to hold mine. She was quickly followed by the girl next to her, and then by the rest of the children. Now, all five of the children were reaching out their hands to me, and I had no idea what they wanted from me. They’re not asking for a handshake, are they?

“W-what?” I asked, but no words seemed to escape their mouths. There were five people here, and not one of them agreed to shed some light on me. Which one of them? Was it because they couldn’t—or wouldn’t? “I’m not holding out my hand before you tell me what you’re trying to do.”

When they heard my refusal, the smiles on their faces turned into scowls, the kind that would scare a wild boar away. Their scowls were followed by a terrible, ear-splitting scream.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,” they screamed after one another, looking like a child throwing a tantrum—a big tantrum—but not because they wanted toys or sweets.

It was me—they wanted me.

The children started to make their way towards me, ultimately making me run away from them with legs as weak as jelly. With their hands outstretched and teeth bared, they took their knives from the ground, wielding them towards me.

This is bad.

I ran as hard as I could, avoiding the five children as best as I could. They ran from different directions, but all with the same purpose of harming me—killing me. Their screams grew louder, fiercer, their eyes milky white.

What should I do? What should I do?

Question after question filled my mind, but no answer came to light. Should I run outside the sigil? Can I get back in after leaving the sigil? If I can, will they let me in? If not, what will happen to the people? How do I start another fire? How do I use magic? How do I fight?

I desperately squeezed my palm, hoping that the more blood I used, the faster the fire would start. I ran all the way around the sigil, letting my blood fall as I went. I could feel my legs getting weaker, my wound getting even more painful, my fear getting the best of me.

I’ve never believed in God, but if they exist, shouldn’t they help me? I’m running for my dear life, and all I wanted to do was to quickly get this over with and get a good night’s sleep! Was that too grand of a wish?

As if to answer my prayer, I bumped into one of the children and fell, tumbling to wherever the impact took me. They then swarmed after me like a swarm of bees looking for honey, hungry and mad.

I quickly rolled over to my side, just in time for a knife to become stuck to the ground where I had been a split second ago. If I had been a second slower, a knife would have pierced through the back of my head, forcing me to bid life farewell.

Not wanting to waste another second laying on the ground, I jumped back up, but not before a knife grazed my arm, and then another on my back.

“Argh!!!” I unconsciously yelped at the pain, staggering forward and dropping the knife in my hand—which wasn’t much of help given its dull state. Despite the stinging pain, I swung around, not wanting to have my back towards them.

Even though the knife was pretty much useless, I could feel how my heart was beating faster and my breath was getting shorter the moment I lost the only weapon I could rely on in this fight. My mind was a complete wreck, and everything I did right now was solely based on the flight response in my body.

As the children wouldn’t stop chasing after me, I had no choice but to keep running. This time, I was convinced that I should run outside this sigil if I still wanted to live a bit longer. I won’t die here because I have to keep my promise to Luke—that I’ll stay with him for eons to come.

And I also won’t die because I still want to take another bite of Bob’s heavenly chocolate cake.

I kicked the kid closest to me, then threw the leftover snow on the ground at another one right behind, blinding his eyes for a moment. I then took the opportunity to run as fast as I could towards the fire circling around us, not daring to look how close they were behind me.

With my awful luck, someone among the children managed to reach my hair, pulling me behind so that I fall straight to my back. The next thing I saw immediately after falling was a girl with her eyes wide, smiling as she pointed her knife straight to my head, ready to pierce through me. I’d be too late even if I tried to move.

Ah… is this it? The moment I die?

People say that when you’re about to die, your life flashes before your eyes, but how could Luke be the only thing that came to my mind right now?

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact—but it never came. I couldn’t feel the sharp knife between my brows, nor could I feel the pain of death. All I could feel was warmth, something hot and burning under me, beside me, everywhere around me.

Fire.

I begrudgingly opened my eyes, immediately seeing a strike of golden flames, blazing so fiercely around me. It was warm and comforting—healing, even. The girl, who had her knife a small distance away from my death, stopped and burned in the fire.

I gathered the remaining strand of my strength to move away from her, planting my feet firm on the ground—tried to. The sigil was burning, and so were the children.

I stood there in utter horror as I witnessed the scene, seeing how the fire burned all five of the children with such ferocity. They all stopped in their tracks, slowly falling to the ground as the fire continued to devour them.

I could feel my entire body shaking, not knowing what to do. I wanted to run from them, but I didn’t want to kill them—the real children. Now they’re burning in the fire I made, suffering in pain they never asked for.

“N-no…”

The sound of the fire crackling and burning drowned out my voice, making it sound smaller than a whisper. With my remaining courage, I tried to pull the girl out of the fire, but stopped when I felt how hot her skin felt against mine.

“S-stop… please,” my voice came as a desperate plea, but it was a plea that even I didn’t know who to address. “I-I don’t want this… I never wanted this to happen,” my tears fell, but such tears were not enough to stop the fire.

Finally, with the fire that came, the day came to an end.. But sadly, it wasn’t the only thing that it ended.