DEFYING MY MATES

My Human Shield

It was almost midnight and I was lying wide awake on my bed with numerous thoughts going on in my head. In just a matter of minutes, it will be the sixth day.

The cameras inside the house were working perfectly fine. The security locks were good too. There wasn’t any chance for him/her to break in other than the windows. Because obviously, the intruder wouldn't take the chance to alert me.

However, I should have installed cameras outside too. At least I might have got an idea who was lurking around the house. But, who knew this would have happened?

The police aren’t very helpful either. I mean I could die and that would be just another murder to them. I might have said the murders didn’t scare me before, but now, I want to take it back as my name was on the-to-rip-out list too.

In this town, I haven’t made any friends or foes. I mean to reach that kind of level, I had to have a conversation with someone, right?

But, I didn't, aside from my boss.

So, who is after me?

Time was running out and every clue that I got my hands on was a dead end. Whoever is behind all these threats is too smart and good at playing games. He weaved the web ever so graciously that I couldn’t think of anything other than running away.

Although, I should have run far from here when things started getting crazy. But, no.

I had to play the little detective and see how things are turning out now.

But, will it work?

Running away, I mean he knows my address and number.

All I can do is hope. Hope he hits his head and forgets about me or maybe takes a break from his deranged fetish.

This is the part where my mind started playing the brutal killings like a broken record.

"No, no. Please don’t go there." I said to my stupid head, patting my cheeks lightly to break my trailing thoughts.

“Marisha dear, he won’t reach you unscathed with all the traps you have laid inside your fuckin' house.” I persuaded my heart to think a little positively about this scenario, which certainly worked.

Yeah, traps. You read it right. I mean if this is the way it's going to happen. I will make sure of it, he has a hard time doing it.

Booby traps were illegal, otherwise I would have used a few. Instead, I spent hours on the traps, which included fart spray, thumbnails, and air horns. Lame, but still it will buy me some time to run while I had the cane right beside my bed just in case things didn't go as planned.

I went to sleep around 5 in the morning when nothing suspicious happened, which wasn’t very wise of me. But, I did set an alarm for a sharp 12’ O clock while I dozed off into a deep slumber.

Exhaustion and Agony. Thirst and hunger. These are the only things that I could feel. I was running around blindly in the dark with no certain destination in my mind. I don’t know why I was running or who I was running from. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t stop myself from running when a certain light came into my view and I clung to it as desperately as I could to get out of this suffocating darkness around me.

No, no, no. Not again. When I got out of the freakish dark thingy around me. My surroundings took a 180° turn.

Beautiful.

It was a garden blooming with roses of so many colors that I didn't even know existed. I was awestruck with the beauty of the scenery. The scent of roses mingled with the smell of freshly cut grass and moist forest lingered in the air. I bent down to smell the ever so tantalizing scent of a beautiful blood-red rose when a manly, full-blown laughter caught my attention. I looked around a bit for the source, but couldn’t find him.

Can someone's laugh be tagged as beautiful?

If so, then that was the definition of beautiful. f**k the roses.

Walking a few minutes deeper into the garden, what I saw took my breath away. The most beautiful man species I have ever laid my eyes on was sprinting across the garden. He chased around a woman, but I was so busy ogling him that I didn’t even acknowledge her presence. I couldn’t see his face properly as my eyes got stuck to his back muscles which flexed with each and every movement. I bet he looked as heavenly as his back when my eyes fell on the woman.

Even though I wasn't into women, I would have happily turned gay for her if she was a lesbian too, which certainly wasn't the case.

She was short in stature in comparison to the man, probably 5’2”, while the man was around 6 feet tall. She had smooth porcelain skin that I couldn’t help but notice, unlike my almond skin color. Her golden locks shone like an amber stone in the sunlight. Her baby pink knee-length dress was raised up a little while she held it down to keep it from blowing with the wind. It was like a Marilyn Monroe moment. And, she looked so...so gorgeous that I couldn’t help but wonder what she would really be like in person?

They were probably playing a game of tag. And, they looked so… so happy and in love that it pricked my heart a little.

It could have been Eric and me. Me and Eric, if you know, he just realised that he liked me too. Stupid!!

When, suddenly, the man fell, interrupting my train of thoughts. I panicked when he held his ankle, cursing like a sailor, and ran towards him as fast as I could. But, before I could even reach him, the girl took hold of him worried.

I don’t know why, but I didn’t like the way she was holding him. I didn’t like how close they were. I didn't like how beautiful she was in comparison to me. Don’t take it wrong. I love myself, but I just didn't like her aside from her appearance.

I was in this loathing space when he instantly turned around and caged her between his chest and the ground. He tricked her while he tickled her senselessly, threatening her not to run away from him ever.

It was pure torture. I could hear their heartbeat mingling while they kept closing in, almost kissing. I don’t even know them. Never seen them before in my life, then why the hell did I feel like beating the s**t out of them?

It hurt like a b***h to see him in another woman's arms, as if he belonged to me. I could feel a storm raging inside me, begging me to rip the woman’s arm around his waist. Before I could even act on my rage, the man turned towards me, staring right into my eyes as if he could sense my death stare at her. He looked as angry as a bull whom I disturbed who was ready to mate with her female. Thank god, this was a dream otherwise I would have been long dead even before the psycho killer could get me.

What chilled me to my bones wasn’t his dirty looks that he was giving me right now? But, his heterochromic eyes.

And, I woke up.

I could feel my heart drumming wildly inside my ribcage as I held my forehead massaging it to lessen the strong headache that was coming along. I already had too much on my plate. Now, him bugging me when I was on the verge of dying wasn’t really helping.

Elias Andino, the man I’ve been dreaming about since I came here, the one who almost made me insomniac, and whose cane I have been clinging to since I found it in the tunnel. Why in the holy world have I been dreaming about him?

"Frozen Satan on a Flying Pig!!!", My eyes bugged out of my sockets when it fell upon the clock. It was 3 in noon.. f**k!! I didn't even hear my alarm ringing. It’s all his fault and now, I have almost 3 hours to execute my plan before the sun sets.

To be specific, I really didn’t have a plan. More or less, it included me running away from here with no exact destination in my head.

I'll probably book a ferry back to Italy.

Yes, that’s what I’m going to do and I really don’t have to tell the exact reason to my parents. Anyway, they would buy my lies if I said I missed them immensely. At least, it’s better than to stay at a motel where no one will even look for you if you go missing.

With that thought in mind, I took out my duffel bag and packed all the supplies: clothes, snacks, water, flashlight, Elias’s cane and my heirloom: the golden compass. I freshened up as fast as I could and wore a hoodie along with tights, comfortable and flexible. And running shoes to go along with it.

I grabbed a few cookies to satiate my hunger as I pulled my bag out of the room as cautiously as I could in between the dozen of the traps that I laid last night.

I glanced around my house for anything unusual. Everything was untouched until my eyes fell on a teeny tiny detail. The thumbnails were aligned. I placed them randomly, but now they are aligned perfectly, making it a square shape. Then, I checked the other traps, there wasn’t definitely any kind of foul smell in the air from the fart spray. The tapes which I fixed on the hallway with red chili powder stuck on them were, as usual, untouched, which really wasn’t possible until the culprit didn’t come from the main door. So, I checked the windows, which itself made the situation a lot more confusing. The windows were locked and it didn’t look like anyone had tampered with them.

So, where the hell did he/she come from? And, what kind of person breaks into your house just to do that kind of nonsense?

But, who cares? I’m out of here whether it was a threat or not.

I looked outside my office window. It was getting dark sooner than I thought. I need to leave before it’s too late. Before I could leave the office, my eyes fell on the journal. How in the world did I forget it?

Hurriedly, I left the office while I picked up the journal and kept it inside my bag. I glanced around one last time before I took out my luggage and tossed it inside my grandfather’s pickup truck. I locked the house while my eyes trailed around to see any kind of being lurking in the bushes with the small amount of light that was there.

If it weren’t for the lights illuminating the houses in this area, I would have thought there was no one here except me. One can’t see anyone outside after dusk.

After the murders, the town has been like that. Cold and dead.

Walking towards my car, I turned on the ignition key, and the car roared back to life. Maneuvering out of the parking lot, I sped up and drove alongside the forest which looked dark and evil in the absence of the moon. I would have taken any other way than this if that was possible, but this was the only way out of town.

It felt all too quiet, which wasn’t really natural when you’re passing through a forest. Nonetheless, I felt a little relieved as in a matter of minutes, I'd be out of this crazy town. To disrupt the deathly silence, I switched on the radio. I hummed along the song that was playing on as I focused on driving through the forest as the fog thickened every passing minute. At a certain point, the visibility almost became nil as I couldn’t see past 300 meters.

The sudden change in weather didn’t settle well with me.

My truck windows rattled with the strong wind. I could see my breath as the temperature suddenly dropped in the car. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering tightly. I could feel the cold wind sweeping in from God knows where, even though there weren't any cracks or holes.

I blew my warm breath on my fingers one after another to warm it up a bit when the radio went static. I restarted the thing in the hope of getting it working, which was a lame technique and works at times too, but unfortunately it didn’t. So, I banged it hard. As people say, desperate times call for desperate measures. And voilà, it worked.

Some lame song was being broadcast which I didn’t mind listening to. At least it was better than listening to the howling wind, rattling my windshield and windows at times, which made the whole drive a lot more spooky than it really was.

I took my eyes off the road for a moment when, out of the blue, a man came right in front of my pickup truck. He shocked me to my f*****g core that my body went from cold to dead cold. My mind went haywire and, out of reflex, I swerved the vehicle right.

Before I could comprehend anything, my truck went off the road into the forest and crashed right into a tree. My head hit the steering wheel so hard that I saw stars in the utter darkness that surrounded me. I went in and out of consciousness a couple of times before I regained my body movements.

Cracking my eyes open, I tried to see anything, which was a lame thing to do in the dark forest. My hands felt wet along with my hoodie. I felt light-headed. It felt like someone knocked the air out of my lungs. The truck was crushed badly. The windshield and windows broke into millions of pieces while a couple of them pierced my skin. My phone was crushed just like my truck. The crash jammed the doors and I was practically stuck.

I kicked the windshield hard, breaking the remaining glass in the process, picked up my duffel bag out of the passenger seat, and threw it out of the vehicle. Covering my palms with the sleeves of my hoodie to avoid the glass, I jumped out of the windshield as cautiously as I could, but still I couldn’t get out unscathed and nicked my skin here and there.

Laying on my back on the furry ground covered with bushy grass, I glanced up towards the sky panting heavily when a misty dew dropped on my button nose. The smell of dew drops lingered in the air when, instantly, I remembered the man. I just hope I didn't hurt him.

Rushing to my feet, I picked up my bag and limped towards the road where I almost crashed into him. It was very dark, but he was nowhere in sight. Luckily, I packed a flashlight with me. Switching it on, the first thing I saw was my hands, which were painted red with my blood along with my hoodie . Now, I know why I felt like s**t.

Turning the flashlight towards the road, I tried to see anything in the midst of the foggy weather. Luckily, there wasn’t any blood. I guess that’s a good sign. At least, he isn't hurt.

I was engrossed in my thoughts when a sudden force knocked me a few meters away. I could practically see myself getting thrown in slow-motion. What blew my mind wasn’t the assailant, but the thought of how in the world did he do such a thing without even touching a single hair on my body?

'c***k'. That was probably my ribs and elbow.

My mouth opened in a frozen scream as the immense pain paralyzed me. A sharp stone that I fell upon, punctured deep into my side. This was the second Near Death Experience I had in less than 10 minutes. I might have stood a chance against the unknown man if I wasn’t so much in pain and heavily injured. I was losing blood too fast.

I was struggling to get back on my feet when he walked towards me as if he was ready to pounce on me and rip me into shreds. I was shitless scared for my life. I didn’t even realise I was crawling back away from him unconsciously, when another man appeared out of thin air right in front of me acting like My Human Shield.

At that moment, I couldn’t even fathom what was happening. He just came out of nowhere like magic. And, I couldn't care less where he comes from in this scenario. He was definitely an angel sent by God himself, otherwise I would be as good as dead today.

I snapped out of my dream realm when he hollered a single word “Run” without looking at me. His voice seemed familiar, but my head was fogged with so much pain that I couldn't even think anything other than running away from the psychopath.

I knew I had to get out of here if I wanted to see another sunrise. So, I did what he told me. I turned around, picked up my bag, and ran as fast as I could, far deeper into the forest, ignoring that my body would give up at any moment. I ran and ran till I lost my sense of direction.

After running for a couple of miles, my surroundings got blurred. I knew this was as far as I could go. I tried to fight dizziness as hard as I could before everything went black.

And, I fell unconscious in the middle of nowhere.