Chap 3:They’re Not After Us
1052 Words
Chapter 3:They’re Not After Us
I still held the piece of paper in my hand. The clumsy letters had just been written, the ink still faintly wet. “Don’t trust the map”—but what map? I didn’t have any map on me.
“What’s that?” Taichi stepped closer, glancing at the paper.
I quickly stuffed it into my pocket. “Nothing.”
“You hiding something from me?”
“No… just a scrap of paper.”
“Is that so?”
But Taichi didn’t press further. He gave me a curious look, his eyes lingering on mine for a moment, then turned away. I knew he was suspicious. He had always been a little unpredictable.
Quigo walked ahead, his slow steps steady and unhurried. He didn’t speak, nor did he look back. His tall frame, the slight hunch of his shoulders, and his arms always hanging loosely near his knife made him seem ready for anything at any moment.
“Hey…” I spoke up. “Earlier… when you mentioned the bell… what exactly is it?”
Quigo didn’t stop. “If I told you, you wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
“Come on—” Taichi cut in, his tone half teasing, half challenging.
Quigo just smiled, but it was the kind of smile that sent a chill down my spine. “There are sounds… when they echo, it means something is coming. And you don’t need to know what it is. It already knows where you are.”
We fell silent. Only the sound of the wind rustling through the dead trees and our footsteps crunching on the dry earth remained. In my head, the phrase “Don’t trust the map” kept repeating like a curse.
Suddenly, in the distance, came the sound of metal striking — slow, rhythmic, and eerily familiar. Fear tightened in my chest. I turned around. Through the mist, figures in armor were approaching us, slowly, as if they were in no hurry at all.
“They… have found us.” Taichi panted.
Quigo shook his head, his expression unchanged. “No. They haven’t found you. They… are heading somewhere else.”
“Where?” I asked.
He stayed silent for a moment, then replied in a voice as soft as a snake’s hiss, “The place your map leads to.”
The sound of metal striking metal echoed in steady rhythm, like the ticking of a clock deep inside my mind. I glanced at Taichi—his face had gone pale, his eyes wide as if he were about to cry, but he swallowed it down. As for me… I didn’t even know why, but my heart was racing—not just from fear, but from something else. Something that… felt like recognition. As if I had heard this sound before.
I looked at the scrap of paper in my pocket—“Don’t trust them.” Just a few simple words, yet now every step from the armored figures ahead pushed that warning deeper into my thoughts.
“Let’s go,” Quigo said, his voice rough but steady.
We stepped into a narrow path lined with dense trees, so dark we could barely see a few paces ahead. Leaves crunched beneath our feet, and the air smelled of damp moss mixed with the faint tang of dried blood.
When the metallic rhythm finally faded, my heartbeat slowed back to normal. Still, the sight of those towering suits of armor and the bloodstained hammer from earlier replayed in my mind. The unease lingered like a shadow that refused to leave.
“Quigo…” I called softly. “How do you know they won’t follow us here?”
He didn’t look back. “Because… whatever’s after us… isn’t human.”
His answer slid into my ears like a shard of ice. Not human? Then what was it?
Suddenly—a sharp ding! rang out. Not a hammer. Not footsteps. It was like a bell, but faster, sharper, almost impatient. Quigo instantly froze, then moved forward quickly, urging me to follow. From the left, through a curtain of mist, something began to take shape—tall as a man, hunched like a twisted tree. Its “arms” lashed like dry branches, swiping through the air with a c***k.
Taichi sucked in a breath, but before he could cry out, Quigo covered his mouth. I stood frozen, unable to blink.
“Don’t look at it,” Quigo whispered. His voice slid through the fog like a ghost.
I lowered my gaze… and in that moment, a memory returned. One evening, when I was ten, lost in the forest near home. I’d heard a faint bell then too—and seen a tall, warped shadow moving between the trees. I had told no one—not even my father.
I blinked, and the creature was gone. Only a veil of white mist remained, along with the sound of Taichi’s quick, uneven breaths.
“Move,” Quigo said, his voice sharper than usual.
We crossed a small slope, then stopped before a large moss-covered rock.
I glanced at Taichi. He was trembling, yet his eyes didn’t hold fear—there was something else there. Something… like expectation.
In my head, a single question kept repeating: Do I truly want to escape… or do I want to know what’s calling me here?
By chance, I turned my head and saw a faint glow filtering through the treetops. I stepped toward it without thinking, weaving through silver-gray tree trunks wrapped in thick moss. As we entered a small clearing, a cold wind swept in, carrying the heavy scent of damp earth that had clung to my feet since we first set foot in this forest.
Ahead lay a field overgrown with tall grass that reached my knees. In the distance, the sky opened up, and at its edge stood the roofs of scattered houses under the fading afternoon light.
“We’re… out,” Taichi said, almost collapsing to his knees, one hand on the ground, breathing hard.
Quigo said nothing. He just kept his gaze fixed on the forest behind us, eyes scanning the leaves as if waiting for something to follow. Only when he saw nothing did he nod.
“Go. Quickly.”
- Writer
