Summoner: The Book of Dimension

84 Hostage

Of course, Peter wouldn’t kill someone that easily. Unless he was pushed to the limit, he was left with no choice but to kill that person—or creature.

Before they found the book, he had never once thought of killing someone nor a poor creature. He was sympathetic to those who have lives. But after he had been a magnetizing danger, it became so natural to his nature to kill if he was in grave danger.

The Dark Abyss Regiment members were still on the ground, and they showed no sign of rising to their feet any time soon. Peter glanced at them and looked at Beth. “Decide,” Peter warned, which made Beth jolt a little as he pushed the sword to Bryan’s throat.

“Don’t,” Bryan pleaded Beth. “We came here this far,” he added. “These guys won’t kill me.”

Peter scoffed. “What makes you feel so sure about that? You don’t know us. You don’t know me. You don’t even know if I killed someone or not.” he said. “Just to tell you, I can kill you, and I would if you don’t let us through,” Peter warned, his voice was overflowing with too much confidence that he was kind of scary to Ray and Zack.

They never saw that side of Peter. Sure, he killed few creatures, but it was because he was left with no choice. What made them feel a little scared about him was when Peter mentioned that the enemies don’t know if he killed someone. They remembered the time when Peter returned to Josh's mansion, and he was covered with blood.

They knew Peter wouldn’t kill without any serious reason, and they knew that Peter was using that reason for them to escape. But he could probably hurt Bryan if it left Peter no choice.

Beth looked mad. “You’ve got it all wrong,”

“Let us through!” Peter yelled, putting his flaring left hand near Bryan’s neck, which made the latter gasp. “Let us through, or your friend is going to die. You choose; whether he burns or he gets decapitated. Or both,” Peter sounded serious. He just wanted to leave the place and escape. He knew something bad was about to happen if they still stayed there.

“Okay, okay!” Beth yelled back, furious. “Just leave Bryan alone,” she said with a sigh.

Peter looked at her one last time and looked down at Bryan. He looked to Ray and Zack and nodded at them. “Go to the bridge. I’ll catch on,” he said softly.

“Are you sure? We can’t just leave you here,” Ray said, and Peter just showed him the sword and his beaming hand. “Okay. You better catch on quick,” he said and patted Zack.

“Be quick. I’ll catch on,” he said before the two started walking away.

Peter watched the two and the others get the casket of Josh, and they walked past him, past the Dark Abyss Regiment members who were on the ground and Beth, who stepped aside for them to pass by.

When they were near the bridge, Peter pushed Bryan away and pointed his beaming hands as he walked past Beth and the Dark Abyss Regiment to get to the bridge.

He was walking back to see that Beth was tending to Bryan, who had a small cut on the neck of his skin. They didn’t look at Peter as they took their leave. Zack and the others helped carry Josh’s casket, and Ray waited until Peter got to him. “You okay?” he asked Peter.

Peter turned to him and nodded. “Let’s go,” he patted Ray’s chest, and they ran to the others by the middle of the bridge while Zack and the others who were carrying Josh’s casket got to the end of the bridge.

Just when he turned around, he saw that the Dark Abyss Regiment leader was standing up, and he was looking at them. “Quick, let’s go!” Peter yelled, and everybody started running faster.

But then he felt something under his feet. A sudden movement that nearly made him lose his balance. “Go, go!” he yelled, but the shaking got intense that the rest who had still not reach the end of the bridge fell to the ground.

Peter gathered his balance and stood up, holding to the concrete railing of the bridge. The bridge was not that long, but it was wide enough for a truck to pass by. It was just a one-way bridge, though. It didn’t look like two vehicles could pass by simultaneously and under the bridge was a deep river.

Everybody else who was before them reached the bridge's end while Peter, Ray, and Linda were still left behind. The bridge was shaking intensely that it felt like there was an earthquake.

Peter looked below his feet and noticed that the ground was starting to have large cracks. Other than that, something was roaming. The shadow creatures that came with the Dark Abyss Regiment.

It was a trap. The Dark Abyss regiment let them through and made them reach the bridge as a trap. Peter cursed under his breath.

“Ah!” Linda squealed when she stumbled by the railing of the bridge. Despite the struggle with the balance, Peter quickly ran to Linda and caught her by the hand. The sword fell on the river from his hand, and he had to remove the beaming power so he could use both of his hands.

While he was helping Linda up, his bag's strap on his chest and abdomen loosened, making the bag only hanging by his shoulders this time. The bridge continued to shake intensely, that it was starting to crumble.

His eyes widened when suddenly the part where he was standing started to crumble, making him lose his hold on Linda. Ray finally reached to them, but he was only able to catch Linda’s hand. Peter lost his balance, and he was the one who stumbled by the waist-high railing of the bridge.

The time felt so slow. He fell on the water along with the bag on his shoulder. Fortunately, he could swim. He removed the bag from his shoulders and swam to the riverside. There, he saw Zack waiting. “Peter!” Zack yelled at him and pointed Peter before he decided to jump to the river.

To his surprise, Peter looked up, and cracks from the bridge were about to fall over him. He was about to swim away, but he was too late. A great pang of pain was felt on top of his head.

Darkness surrounded his sight.

Peter grunted to the sound of faint laughter he could hear far from him. It sounded muffled, like it was coming from outside. He fluttered his eyes, and the first thing he noticed was the dim room. The ceiling was dark, and it looked like it wasn’t painted with any bright color. It wasn't fascinating.

He sat up, and a pang of ache wrapped around his head. His eyes roamed around the room, which had nothing but an oil lamp that lit the whole room. He was lying on the floor, with nothing underneath him to protect him from the coldness of the floor.

He stood up, but he felt slightly dizzy. He held onto the wall for balance and started walking where the laughter was coming from. His feet brought him to a metal door with a small portion opened for ventilation. The whole room was just enclosed, and somehow, that information made him feel suddenly suffocated.

“Hello?” he spoke through the small hole on the door, making the laughter disappear.

He waited until he heard footsteps coming on his way. Right when the footsteps stopped in front of the door, he saw a pair of glaring eyes peeking through the hole of the door. He stepped back and stared at those pair of intimidating eyes and then saw the person leave.

“The hostage has woke up,” he heard a deep voice said from outside. He never heard anything after that.

“Hostage?” he murmured to himself. He recalled what happened before he woke up, and the last thing he remembered was falling from the bridge and the bridge cracks falling to his head. His eyes widened when he remembered about the book. His panic was cut off when he saw another pair of eyes peeking through the hole on the door.

“Who are you?” Peter asked.

He heard a chuckle from outside. “We met yesterday,” the person asked, and he sounded like he was a middle-aged man. He tried to remember the voice, but he could only remember the similarity of the voice of the Dark Abyss Regiment leader. Based on what he said, he had passed out since yesterday.

Peter glared at him. “Why did you take me here?” he asked.

“You know why we held you as a hostage,” the leader of the Dark Abyss Regiment said. “But if you don’t remember because of your head injury, let me remind you that we’re after the book.”

He knew that. But based on what he was saying, they sounded like they didn’t have the book. He didn’t know if he could be relieved it was not on their hands, or he would be worried it was on another person’s hand. Either way, nothing was better.

Suddenly, a plan appeared in Peter’s mind. “Why don’t we negotiate?” he asked them with a grin.