Heroes to Hunted

pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ As we speedily approached, the gray knight and I exchanged stares of challenge with one another. Or, I thought we were. I had no idea if he was paying my constant insults and threats any mind or just staring blankly into space while waiting.

Whatever he was doing, I couldn't keep my focus on him forever. Especially when a blend of both low and high-pitched screams screeched from the alleyways behind us.

Looking backward, I could see several others. They'd all been garbed with collars and rags, indicating that they were the remaining survivors of the herd of lemmings.

They bolted into the open streets, reaching for us…reaching for their salvation.

"Hey!" I shouted to the coward beside me. "Stop, we're helping them!"

"What?!" He cast me with a look of total disbelief.

"You heard me, you damn lemming!" I took a fist and seized hold of his collar, shaking him in place. "STOP THE DAMN THING!"

He pushed me back, thrusting me back into my seat. "NO!" He screamed. "We have to save ourselves!"

I snarled and readied myself to jump. If this bastard didn't want to help, then so be it. 'I'll save them myself if that's what it takes!'

I gripped the railing and prepared myself for a leap of faith back into what could've been the worst place to be, but I was stopped in my tracks.

Looking at who I'd wanted to protect, I was struck by something Nakamura had said.

'In some cases, you also become the one that decides who lives and who dies. It's when too many need saving that your mettle is tested to its very limits.'

Those words echoed in my mind as I watched their flesh be sundered in half. In the blink of an eye, the gray knight had appeared beside them.

He towered over their frail bodies, completely engulfing many of the lemmings within the shadow created by his massive stature.

They hadn't even had time to react before their life was instantaneously snuffed out. With a single swing from his mighty blade, he effortlessly separated the souls from their bodies.

Almost as if their blood was just as surprised at the slice, it took a few moments before the lemmings' newly formed corpses exploded into several fountains of blood.

As it ejected up and outward, the gray knight stood alone within the darkened red rain. The drops slid down his sleek armor, emphasizing the curves and indentations of the engravings on it.

I was stuck in astonishment. But from that, I had an epiphany.

I may not have been a doctor like Nakamura, but the premise was the same. If I'd stopped the carriage, if I'd tried to save those people…we all would've died. We all would've known how it felt to be separated into two pieces.

I didn't want to believe it, but it was true. 'You can't save everyone.'

My body went limp as I pushed away from the railing and back into my seat.

Unblinkingly, I just stared at the ground passing beneath us. I found myself wondering if any of this even had a point. Wondering if we were merely prolonging the inevitable. Wondering how arrogant I had been in the face of all that death.please visit panda-:)ɴᴏᴠᴇ1.co)m

After all, if everyone couldn't be saved, how long would it be until it was my head on the chopping block? How long before my brother was killed in battle? Before my mother was struck for the last time?

Though I had seen enough death to fill a lifetime by now, I only just now realized how fragile a person's life really was.

I had no energy to confront the soldiers that still barred our path. I only watched as the distance between us whittled away to nothing. Though I knew I should have fought, I had no fire left in me for it. Any semblance of the vigor that fueled me was totally sapped.

I did something I'd never do and apologized internally to everyone onboard. I couldn't bring myself to attack anyone anymore.

However, my thoughts of self-pity didn't last long. They'd been shattered once I noticed a wave of shadow passing overhead. Casting my sights upward, I saw the jagged metallic ends of a gate's portcullis while we sped past it.

'Are we free?' I couldn't believe my own eyes as I gaped in confusion.

I expected a chase, so I surveyed the road behind us.

To my dismay, the only thing that had been in pursuit was the unceasing stares of all the soldiers we'd passed. Rather than blockading our escape, they merely stepped aside.

I was too tattered to contemplate the "why" of what they'd done, so I accepted it.

After taking in the sights of the wilderness ahead, it was official. We had finally escaped from that hell! Which is why I had to laugh when I found out a new one had formed within my mind.

Though I had always dealt with trauma in my life, I had never felt so ensnared by it before. Like a fly in a web, I was entangled by the webbing of angst and fear.

*** Gray Knight POV ***

Swiping blood off his now stained blade, a knight of gray and gold stood amongst his subordinates. Marching to the gate, he watched as the carriage receded further into the wilderness.

Once he'd been beneath the portcullis, he stood stiffly still as he fixed an icy glare on the heroes that had escaped.

"Are you sure that that was okay, Captain?" A guard asked with a look of worry.

"It's fine," he replied, staring down the group of rats, "it's all according to my Lady's plan."

Throwing his black-gold cape aside, he sheathed his sword with a smooth grind resounding across the gate's stone brick entrance.

Though none could see it, on account of his helmet, and though none could hear it, on account of his stoicism, he had a turbulent eruption brewing underneath. Like a rumbling geyser, his anger was set to explode at a moment's notice.

"I'll be seeing you. "He cocked his head towards the now empty road,

"You'll regret your birth for harming my kin." He was ready to invoke revenge on those who'd wronged him.

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