Jo was walking down a chilling road his head slung down as he gribbed a bouqet of flowers tightly.
'Damn them, they're gonna tell me it was just what would have happened. Bullshit, he said he had atleast a month or so, dying in a week when he was just about to get discharged. Now they can't find his body after its supposed passing. Who in their right mind would believe such nonsense, not just that, his body turned to frosty ash.'
Jo thought these things in furry as he saw a blazing inferno climbing the skies. This tower clung to the black gasses as Jo looked in horror. He was near the coast line where the brothel Maah would often visit. It was now bubbled with flames as a decent sized stone engraved was begginning to crumble.
'How? Who? Why?'
As Jo questioned in fright, he didn't take the time to comprehend the closeness he was getting to the flames. Once he was toward the intense heat that walled off the entrance, Jo saw multiple hands turning black and disintegrating as they fell out the crimson orange windows. The front door was completly subdued, Jo could hardly believe it as he saw it crumble in a folding wave of raging heat. Scorching Jo's arms and face, singing his hairs, snapping open his braids, with them intrectully unravelling. His skin began to peal back as he coughed from the black dust that swept to his face. A pure powder poured from his fist. The dry eyes cracked as he dropped down, his breathing becoming shot.
In the torrent of pain Jo assumed to hear light footsteps coming up to him. His assumption was right. Hoyes.
'Hoyes! What is he doing here?!'
"Y-ya, cough, blegh!" Blood splattered from his mouth as he dropped even more to the ground. The dryness in his throat made it impossible to breath, with lips so cracked that they simmered up blood every time he tried to move them.
In the fuzzy blaze he could see Hoyes getting down to his level as he mouthed, "He is alive. 'Fear' is still around us. Goodbye."
***
Jo's eyes snapped open in shock as he shot up his head swivelling around like a disturbed clown. He was lying in a white bed in a sanitized white room, the cool breeze from the slight opened window that shook him out of his biwilderness.
'I'm in the hospital.'
Jo then finally realized there were a few kids staring at him. He ignored any questions they may have had, for he spoke rough and sturn like a bored boulder.
"He is alive."
"..." They all looked at him as if what the hell is he talking about.
Jimi was the first to come to an answer, but he felt it was highly improbable.
"Maah."
"...No...Something much scarier."
The kids' faces froze, scarier than Maah, what the hell was that.
"Fachtna is still alive."
"What! I thought you and Maah handled that weird scenario."
"That's what I thought too. Even if it is just a hoax, I... He's probably telling the truth."
"Who?"
"...The 'Demented Forest.'"
They all looked puzzled, for they knew HOyes well enough, but he never mentioned the nickname, so they were all quite scared without realizing they have already met.
"Let's go."
Jo stepped up out of bed, grabbed a curtain slipped some scorched clothes on from a basket in the corner.
"W-wait, what? Where are we going, aren't you still hurt?"
Jimi exclaimed in fright as he hussled behind Jo.
"No time, no need, we all must hurry."
The rest got up from the benches and started following Jo without question, it was a weird situation to be in, but it was what it was.
***
They were all outside, near a large board. It was the map of the entire island. Though it was a large island, it was still small enough that all it took was about four to six hours to walk from one end to the other.
"We need to make this quick without much precariousness. Yaffa, JImi, and Lull, we're gonna search for Fachtna. He probably is guarding a place and staying quiet for now. We need to get to his quarters. Jeanne and Jinu, go inform my siblings I'll be home late. Jinu your good, but Jeanne if anyone that you don't recognize, kill them. I'll handle the reprocussions if it was mistaken murder. Understood."
They all had stunned faces, a squeezing feeling burrowed in a few of their stomachs. Jeanne simply pulled Jinu along, JInu seemed like he was about to cry. Jeanne kept his solid appearance and dragged him along. Yaffa was calm relativly, which was a slight oddness for to other young boys. She simply nodded and started running off. Jimi was shivering, but tried to keep a serious face.
"Hey, it will be alrigh, Lull you go alone, Jimi you'll come help me."
"Ah, alright."
Jimi then stammered as Jo turned and walked in the opposite direction of Lull. Jimi pumped himself up wiht a couple slaps as he skipped over to Jo.
"Haah. This seems problematic," Lull said with a dreary face.
Lull looked towards a dark mountain as he traversed over there.
***
The night was soon arriving and it seemed that none of the searchers found anything. So they all came back to the map to call it a day.
"Hey where's Lull?" Yaffa said whilst folding her arms.
"Hmm, he does take his time, so maybe."
"No, we can't be lax about something like this, for all we know he found the hideout. He could've been caught."
"W-well, what should we do?"
Jimi's face was quickly going pale...but his fists gave a different impression, rather than worry, it was rage.
'If anything happens to him, all use the full force of my father's influence to give them a bomb that will eradicate their existence.'
Jo was simply watching, noticing Jimi's change in mood, and as he kept looking he saw Jimi's face getting more and contorted.
'Holy shit! I thought he would be sad or scared, but he's pissed. I've never seen him like this, what in the world. His face starting to give me chills.'
"Hey calm down Jimi, it will be alright. Do you know of a way to track him down? Your both quite close aren't ya."
"Y-ya." Jimi snapped out of it as he felt to firm grips on his shoulders.
'A way to track, a way to track, a way... That's it. Mildred!'
***
In a dark hall a young boy with a colorful bandana the pulled his hair back with samll clips and snuggly covered his forehead.
'Thank the universe I'm so small. I can't really belive my luck. I really thought I may have to give up with how many guards were outside. I think I got myself in a worse situation though. Haah, I knew this was going to be bad. This was stupid. Seriously man, when were this greedy.'
Lull quietly thought as he snuck around another dark hall's corner, swiftly slipping through eye ignoring walls. He soon arrived at a hall that was the most well lit and saw two large men in all black, with black masks. They had two large rifles that could be perscived as oddly narrow cannons.
'Now how am I going to get past that. Hmm, I may need to try it out. I haven't practiced it a lot, but it could...No it won't work, they seem to well focused. Haah, really, this may be your 'true' death. What other things can you pull from this tiny brain. I need to get them away from the door. But what if I only get one away from the door. Then this would become impossible. Shit, the layout of this place makes it give you zero options. Okay then I need to pull out my next best trick. Lying.'
After Lull's quite long thought process, he took the gamble and walked softly down the decent lit hall as the two men stood as stiff as stone. The second Lull got into ten foot range he saw them whip up their guns, two red dots pointed at Lull's forehead and chest.
"I have come in peace, a message."
"..."
'I had to do a little deduction skills. Their can only be so many important people.'
"Hoyes sent me."
The two men stared at eachother for a slight second, then turned. They kept silent with their guns still pointed at Lull. One of them mumbled in his mask as the other began to speak clearly, but also so softly.
"What's the code?"
'Code? Shit! How am I supposed to know? Well I'm dead anyway, might as well keep going.'
"He didn't give me one, he said once Fachtna hears of me he'll understand."
The two guards looked at eachother similar to last time, and then they seperated themselves from the door. Leaving a open passage to the door handle.
"You may go."
'Really? That was it. Is this a trap. It should be fine. I have been talking to myself quite a lot recently, its oddly familiar. Is this deja vu, have I... Hmm, I can feel it. I'm getting, is it drowsiness...? Well no matter.'
Lull then slid down the handle and walked into a black room with one small shaking light, a man with grey hair. Blood shot eyes, and an abnormal amount of physical scratching as he huddled himself in the corner.
'Is that Fachtna?'
Lull was somewhat surprised, he looked almost noting like how he had seen him back at the coloseum. Lull took a step from the door as it slammed behind him, the back handle swiveling like a wheel as pressurized steam pist out the seams.
'What? Damn is this really a trap.'
"W-who are you? WHere did you come from?! Begone! Begon! BEGONE!" Fachtna frantically screamed as he rolled around in his feces. The second Lull grasped a good look at him a gun was pointed at his face.
'Well I figured.'
Fachtna was shivering with a foul smell wafting off him, he was crouching on a rusty desk with the drores in shambles on the ground. He was slowly mumbling then went into a histerical cackle. A seven chamber revolver which was quite the gem when it came to guns. Even Lull admitted right before his death that if he had to get shot, atleast it was from a pretty gun.
Then a click rung as the bang echoed in the room, the flash revealing the small quarters the two were in. A spray of light colored blood sprouted from Lull's skull as he dropped back his head slamming into the steel door. The pustulant splatter that made Lull's head look light a bashed melon.
Whilst Fachtna was pissing in ecstacy and revaling in his 'great' deed, he got interrupted. For above him he could hear from multple stories up where the surface was. High above the low bunker where Lull's corpse and Fachtna's degraded self were. A rumbling could be heard, the bounding clamours kept getting louder and louder until they quickly and quietly stopped.