Silence is worse than screaming.
Her hand was shaking, she was running as if something was chasing her, her eyes wild with panic.
Asmara had disappeared into the mist,
I stood there, motionless, my shoulder open.
The blood pulsed out of the wound, steady, insistent, as if to remind me that I was still alive.
For now
Joy approached slowly.
- We have to catch this crazy girl, said Joy, angrily, get up, I'm going to tie up this wound
"If we find her, please don't attack her," I replied.
So they left.
They relentlessly pursued the traces left behind her.
The light was fading, swallowed by the branches closing above them.
- ASMARA, shouted joy.
Silence
- over here!, yelled disgust, she's here
Asmara's footprints were there, fresh, but in a circle.
Was she going around in circles?
Roum gritted his teeth.
His wound was bleeding even more
- Keep going. Don't stop. We have to find her.
He whispered worriedly.
He wanted to understand. He wanted to know why Asmara was screaming "demon."
Then, around the bend of a tree, he saw her.
Lying down. No... no no no it's not her.
It can't be her
It shouldn't be
Joy brought him closer and moved the body with a branch she had picked up….
I'm going to vomit
The body of one of his teammates, angry, his face torn off, his eyes open to nothing. Right next to him, his arm torn off and the second one hanging in the branches,
my mouth twisted in an expression of horror. I nearly vomited, my vision slowly flickering, as if someone had hit me in the back of the head.
Joy took a step back, her hand over her mouth.
- No... no... she did that?
- How can you accuse him, I growled, but my voice was shaking.
This corpse bore the traces of a brutal fight, scratches, burns, and especially these dark marks on the neck.
"She's lost her mind, I tell you!" cried Joy. "Asmara killed him!"
"No," I replied, my jaw clenched. "It's not that. I'm not sure, but it's not her."
And as if to prove him right, a noise was heard.
Footsteps. Behind them.
Roum turned around abruptly.
Asmara stood there, panting, her eyes empty, her face covered in blood.
- Asmara! I shouted. What are you—
- Get out!
Roum turned around to see what she was talking about.
Not a monster.
Not a blurry shadow. No.
A black, sharply defined humanoid being with… a look….
Joy
- Don't come any closer, Roum, murmured Joy, they're not real, move away, come with me.
But… But there were others.
Dozens.
All with their faces.
Who were the real ones?
The shadows spoke, laughed, imitating their gestures.
They whispered their names, their memories, as if they had known them forever.
And among them stood a man. Tall, with a calm face, dressed in torn, dirty clothes.
- I was waiting for you, he said.
His voice was neither human nor monstrous. Just… perfect.
I take a step back, detaching myself from the others, a hand on my shoulder
- Who… who are you?
- A local, replied the man. You are the educated ones.
And suddenly, the shadows attacked.
They pounced on them, silent, quick.
I pulled his gun, damn it wasn't there
She took it from me
Asmara screamed, striking out with an energy knife, slicing through the air like a hunted beast.
She shouted the names of her comrades,
-CLEAR, CLEAR, ANGER, GET INTO FORMATION, FORMATION
screamed, still believing they were alive.
But every face she recognized was just a mask.
- Asmara! I shouted, but she didn't listen to me.
She was already gone, fleeing into the trees, pursued by her doubles.
Joy chased her, but a dark hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her away.
She bumped into a tree and fell unconscious.
I felt the tension rising.
All around, the forest had turned into a bloodbath. The trees formed a narrow corridor, like a living trap.
Every step we took brought us back, every time we escaped we returned to the same point: the hanging bodies, the laughing shadows.
And in the middle of all this, the black man advanced slowly, his eyes fixed on me, on the ground closed in on myself, arms over his head, trembling
- You're nothing but a parasite! You're not entertaining
Then he raised his hand.
The shadows melted into one another, forming a black wave.
I dove to the ground, trying to escape, desperately searching for Asmara.
I saw her in the distance, still fighting, her blade cracking under the blows.
But the shadows were too numerous.
They overwhelmed her, dragged her, a scream, then nothing.
I run towards her, but…..
The ground seems to be getting closer, a black mass springs up before my eyes, in a suffocating cold I collapse….
Move…
Get up….
Standing…
My arm?
Where is my arm?
-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AHAAAAAAAAA A, MY ARMSSSSSSSSSSSSS
My vision is getting blurry.
Everything became silent.
Then, a long beep in my head as if I had just been screamed in my ears.
I felt nothing anymore.
He blinked.
I freeze.
Is this… a dream?
I looked around me: the corpses, the forest, the blood. Joy, Asmara…still fighting
Just me, alone, shaking in the middle of a war
Suddenly, a pool of blood began to spread beneath me
A soft, almost mocking voice rang out:
-I cut badly, I wanted to take your head
I looked up with difficulty,
He was the "habitant"
.. FLEE.... FLEE… I MUST-... I MUST-
MY hand?
I lost my hand too?
I gather the little strength I have left... To drag myself away, like a newborn
-You're tough, you're still moving even though I cut you in two, murmured the "habitant", watching me as if I were a cockroach whose limbs had been torn off but I was still moving
Cut in two almost vertically, lost my entire left arm and just my right hand but I no longer had the rest of my body from the abdomen to the foot, I pulled myself along with the rest of my right arm.
I'm going to die...
It's a real shitty ending.
I just wanted to know the color of the sky and live in peace…..