When Mom's patients used to come in and tell her that they felt as if a hundred horses ran over them, I had always wondered what that would feel like. If I had to guess, I was pretty sure this was how it felt like.

"She's awake now." I recognized that calm and soothing voice to be Tristan's.

"Miss?" And there what that high-pitched voice that belonged to a cute little blond boy.

I squeezed my eyes and then opened them slowly, blinking fast. Yuri's and Tristan's heads came into focus as my eyes grew used to the light. They both smiled in relief and helped me up against the bed's frame. My eyes traveled down to my arm as they pushed me from the back.

Although the gauze bandage was barely bloody, it still made me feel nauseous to see the blood. Even though I had been in numerous fights already, I still couldn't get used to the sight of blood.

Speaking of blood...

The image of the boss's eyes flashed through my mind. I felt my breaths shorten, and a cold sweat slick down my back. Looking away from the blood to ease the tightness in my throat, I looked up at Tristan and shakily asked, "Where are we?"

"Catherine demanded that you rest in here. She wrapped you up." Tristan answered. "Are you alright? You just turned ten times paler."

"Hm? I'm just a little tired and lightheaded. That's it," I replied, looking around. "Where is Justin?"

"He's busy at the moment," Tristan said. I couldn't help but notice he wouldn't meet my eyes as he answered me. Narrowing my eyes, I tried to get out of bed to confirm my suspicions but Yuri immediately sat on my covers so that I couldn't move. I glared at him, and he responded with a smile.

Suddenly, the door banged open. The three of us swiveled our heads simultaneously to see a steaming Catherine.

"I told you guys not to disturb—" she started before her eyes met mines. "Sakura?"

"Hi," I smiled.

She stared at me for a few seconds before launching herself at me.

"No—"

I breathed in relief when Tristan caught her mid-air just in time. Catherine laughed bashfully; Tristan sighed before putting her back on the ground gently.

"Did you sustain any serious injuries? How about Julia?" I asked worriedly.

She shook her head. "I just have a scratch above my eye and little cuts up my body. Julia regained conscious by the time we got back to the village. But..."

Catherine paused to look at my arm. "You lost a lot of blood. Like a lot. I could've used it as water to wash my feet. You were so pale."

A knock on the door interrupted us, and I turned my head, surprised to see Justin and Ethan standing at the doorway. They walked in and while Justin leaned against the bed, Ethan went to stand by Catherine. I couldn't help but notice that the atmosphere between them seemed to be a little tense.

"Where's David?" I frowned, looking around.

"He's coming later," Ethan responded shortly.

There was an awkward silence; I busied myself with picking at my bandages.

"Don't do that," Tristan smacked my hand away.

Catherine jumped on the bed with a roll of new gauze bandage in her hands. She grabbed my hands and unwrapped the bandages. I peered curiously at my wounds. Unlike the little scratches that were already healing on my palm, the wound in my arm was deep and pale. There was still some dry blood flecking my skin around it but before I could reach out to pick it, Catherine covered it up with the new bandage.

"Thanks Catherine," I smiled.

"There was something we found lying on the ground of the cliff when we went back to see if they held anyone else captive," Yuri said slowly, turning my attention towards him. I lifted my eyebrow and motioned for him to continue. "...And we found this."

Yuri took my hand and placed something into the palm of my hand. Curiously, I looked into my palm and felt my heart stop. Quickly, my hand flung to my neck. I felt around, praying it was still there.

Feeling my heart shatter into pieces, I looked down at the broken necklace split into two in my hand. My heart twisted sharply and suddenly, I felt like crying before realizing I was in a room full of people watching me. I hung my head low and took a deep breath but exhaling it out lightly.

When I looked back up, I was smiling. "Thanks Yuri. It's alright though. It's just a necklace."

Yuri stared at me seriously and opened his mouth to say something when there was another knock at the door. We turned our heads to see David walk in through the door. 

"You doing alright?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded, slipping the broken jewelry pieces into my pocket.

It had been a mess the past day but now I could see more clearly of what David looked like. He had fiery red hair with gray, silvery eyes. He looked young—around his mid-twenties.

"Do you feel like you can walk?" he asked. "I want to talk to you in private."

I nodded my head and swung my legs to one side of the bed. Before I could get up, Justin stuck a hand out. I looked up at him, confused.

"She's lost a ton of blood," Justin told David. "It's not safe for her to get up just yet."

"I'm fine," I insisted, slightly irked that he wasn't paying any attention to my opinion.

I swatted Justin's hand away and stood up. To be honest, that wasn't exactly the smartest idea to do. I did lose a lot of blood while trying to protect Catherine and going through the rocky hideout, and now I felt super light headed. But with everyone's eyes on me—especially Justin's who would find any tiny matter just to make me go back to bed—I shook it off and followed David out the door.

"Hold on, let me follow then," Justin said, trailing after us.

"If anything happens to her, I'll protect her. You don't need to worry," David said.

Justin's face darkened, but I sent him a reassuring smile. We walked out the door and the feeling of sunlight on my skin felt so good. I took in the heat as we headed across the porch.

"Where are we headed?" I asked.

"To the house where the other members are being held," he responded.

"Why did they let you out then?" I frowned.

"Catherine," he said.

"Oh," I said, nodding my head. "That makes sense."

David smiled at me. A sad pang echoed through my heart. What a broken smile. 

"Hey David?" I asked, as we made a turn. "If...if Ethan doesn't let you guys stay in the village, where will you go?"

There was a pause before he answered, "I haven't thought about that yet. Everyone is pretty close to each other so we'll probably make an executive decision then...the boss was the only one who was the different from us. He liked to kill and terrorize."

I was surprised David had suddenly opened up about his story but kept my surprise hidden. "Why did you follow him then?"

"We didn't have a choice. We were orphans. We had nothing. No parents. No friends. So when the boss came along and picked us up, we just followed like ducklings. And ducklings didn't care if their mother was a crazy murder—they just followed."

"You should've escaped into the village or asked Ethan for help since you guys were still little," I said.

David shook his head. "The boss was already attacking this village even before he got us. The only reason why he let us come with him was because he needed more people to back him up and fight. That's one reason why our swordsmanship is pretty good."

He chuckled. "Well, all of us tried to learn and the only ones who turned out to be good was me and Bai-"

David choked on the name and cleared his throat. The heavy moment hung over us. The memory of the sword plunging itself in Bailey's body made my stomach turn.

"Is he really gone?" I whispered to the ground.

"...Yeah. The boss couldn't have survived that fall either so..."

I took a deep breath and bit my bottom lip. I hadn't even known Bailey for less than ten minutes but for David, Bailey was a precious friend. He was family. And now, Bailey was gone. David had gone through the same thing I did. 

"Why are you crying?" David's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Huh?"

I blinked and realized that tears were running down my cheeks. Hurriedly, I wiped them away.

"Something just got in my eye," I said, looking away.

"It's alright to cry," David said softly.

I hated it when people pitied me. But for some reason, David didn't seem to do it out of pity. He understood. He had someone precious taken away from him too.

It was different from those who just thought a simple "I'm sorry" would ever take away even the fraction of the pain you were going through. How much you realized you had treasured that person before they disappeared right in front of your eyes.

He understood.

I shook my head over and over, but tears started to blur my eyes again. A sob escaped my mouth, and I slapped my mouth to cover it but it slipped out and suddenly I was crying.

David reached for me and brought me close to his chest, stroking my hair. I pushed away from him and through blurry vision, I could David's silent, hidden feelings too. Hurt. Pain. Sadness. All welled up.

"You miss him, don't you?" I choked, my tears flowing down my face. "Cry. Just let it out."

David looked at me incredulously before forcing a laugh.

"Don't be sil-"

I began to laugh and cry at the same time while shaking my head. David looked at me like I was crazy. I tilted my head up to the sky as tears streamed down from the corners of my eyes. "Just let it out."

David stared at me like he no longer knew me. A laugh started to come out of him too, but it was suddenly choked down inside his throat. He smiled at me, trying to cover up his mistake, but tears were already streaming down his face before he could stop them . His face suddenly fell, and he covered his face with his hands.

"I couldn't save him," he sobbed. " I couldn't..."

As I watched David shed his raw emotions, I remembered how when I was young I used to think that the monsters Mom used to tell me in her bedtime stories were scary. But after everything I had been through so far, I realized humans were much more scarier.

"What in the world happened to you two?"

David and I headed back to Ethan's house without visiting the house where the gang members were being kept because we didn't want them to see our red eyes. When we arrived there, everyone was waiting in the main room. Of course, both David and I didn't expect that all of them would actually wait for us so we entered the room with bloodshot and puffy eyes.

"Never mind that," Justin said, looking strangely smug. "I didn't know an eighteen-year-old girl could make an adult cry."

"Shut up," David and I chorused at the same time.

"Did you guys at least do something else besides crying?" Justin chortled.

David and I looked at each other, trying to telepathically come up with an excuse and simultaneously opened our mouths.

"We visited the house —"

"We didn't do anything—"

Both of us looked at each other in desperation and the rest of the people in the room gave us a you-guys-suck-at-lying-so-much-that-even-a-pig-could-do-better look. I sighed and rubbed my temples.

Catherine suddenly cleared her throat loudly. Everyone's heads turned in her direction. A strange new light of determination in her eyes as she took a deep breath and turned towards me. "Sakura. While you were resting, Yuri and Tristan filled me in on the details about going on a journey."

My eyes skimmed over Tristan's and Yuri's, holding them for a moment before looking back at Catherine and nodding my head slowly.

"Is there anything wrong with that?" I asked. I wasn't sure how much they had told her, but I had to be careful with what information I could give out.

"No," she shook her head. "But...bu-but..."

She opened her mouth but no words came out. I tilted my head. "But?"

"I-I- Iwanttotravelwithyouguys!"

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"I want to go on the journey with you guys," Catherine took a deep breath.

Silence and shock filled the room. Everyone's eyes widened a considerably big size. I glanced over at Ethan who was near the wall of the house. 

Oops. One... I plunged my fingers into my ear. Two....everyone looked at me in confusion except Catherine who seemed to get it and followed my example. Three.

Ethan exploded. "NO! THAT IS DEFINITELY A NO!"

The house shook, and the other cringed away from the loudness of his voice.

"Catherine! What are you thinking?!" Ethan yelled.

"Please!" she begged. " I want to explore the world. I can't stand being holed up in this house anymore. The village is finally free. You can become the head of this village with David."

"David? Him?" Ethan laughed harshly. " You expect me to trust a thug like him to help me run this village?"

"Ethan!" Catherine snapped. "Don't say that! I already told you that—"

"You think these people change, Cat?" Ethan shook his head. "They're crazy! They were trained to kill from when they were little! Look at the state of our village! They're killers!"

Catherine stared at her brother with her mouth wide open. I glanced at David at the corner of my eye, but his face was facing the ground so that his hair was covering his face. As I glanced back up at Ethan, I felt a flame burning in my heart and took a deep breath.  I didn't feel like being in this room anymore.

Shooting a glare at Ethan which went unnoticed by him, I turned on my heel to get out of the house. Before I could exit the house, Ethan called after me. "Where are you going?"

"I don't want to stay in the same room as you if you are going to look down on someone like that," I spat.

"I didn't even say anything wrong!" Ethan protested.

I stopped at the doorway. "Even though you lost so many people through your life, you still had Catherine with you. How about David? Do you think he had a choice?"

"He could've walked away!" Ethan said.

"And then what?" I snapped back. "Who would take care of him and or save him? Judging by the degrading words that just flowed out your mouth, it didn't seem like you would've helped him." 

Ethan looked shocked and opened his mouth a few times, although no words came out. Then he sneered and said, "Who gave you the right to say these things to me? You're just some stranger who barged into our life—"

"I don't think so," Justin interrupted Ethan. " A random stranger? Is that some kind of joke? I think she was the person who just risked her life to protect your sister. These two girls were just strangers to her too."

Ethan looked stunned and suddenly dropped to the ground, covering his face. I took a shaky breath and focused my gaze on just Ethan so I didn't have to look at anyone's else expression.

"I suggest you apologize to David and the others before doing anything else," I breathed before leaving the house.

When the door behind me closed, I started to run. When I spotted the hill, I ran up the slope and into the forest. This time, I didn't go far and picked some tall tree that shaded the sunlight away from me to cool down. 

A sudden flapping of wings overhead startled me from my thoughts; I looked up to see a blur of black heading towards me. I flinched as it swooped down towards me and squeezed my eyes shut instinctively. My shoulder suddenly felt heavier, and there was a sharp prickling into my skin.

Opening my eyes wide, I realized that a bird had landed on my shoulder. The bird hopped off my shoulder and ruffled its red and orange feathers. The bird's beady eyes stared at me with such intensity and closeness that I could see my reflection in them. I tilted my head. I raised my hand and tried to slowly pet its head, but it knocked its beak against my hand.

"Ouch!"

Rubbing my head, I tried to shoo the bird away, but it just flew off the ground and onto my head. My eyebrows knitted together. This bird seemed pretty familiar...

Then it came to me. This was the bird who had helped me find my way back to where I was resting that night I had killed a fawn.

"Hey it's you..." I said stupidly, pointing at the bird as it dropped its head down to my eyes level.

I reached out again and this time, the bird let me stroke its head. It felt surprisingly fragile and soft. The bird flew down from my head to the ground, facing me before sitting down, letting me to continue pet it.

"You're cute," I muttered.

"Miss?"

I turned my head in surprise to see Yuri looking at me with a startled expression on his face. Suddenly, the bird flew from the ground and onto Yuri's shoulder.

"Hello Rezin," Yuri smiled, tickling the bird's head.

"Rezin?" I asked.

"Ah, this is my bird," Yuri laughed, walking towards me and plopping on the ground next to me. "Well, more like he followed me after I healed his broken wing back to health when a storm struck."

"Were you the one who sent Rezin over to help me?" I asked.

"Hm?" Yuri looked at me in confusion.

"Y'know. When I got l-los...." I mumbled off, not wanting to talk about the embarrassing moment when I got lost in the forest the other night.

Yuri stared at me for a while before realization dawned on his face. "Oh that. Well... it was actually Justin who ordered me to have Rezin watch over you in case you got lost in the forest again."

"He really think I can't take care of myself, does he?" I growled.

"Ah," Yuri said hurriedly. "But Justin is still a good person. Even though he likes to hide his feelings, he takes care of other people."

"I know, " I muttered grudgingly. "But wasn't he mad at me?"

Yuri shook his head. " Nope. He was mad at himself for making you angry and already planned to apologize the next day."

I gave him a skeptical look. Yuri looked at me and burst out in laughter.

"But then, Ethan suddenly came running up to us for help," Yuri shook his head. " We were going down to the village since we didn't see you in the forest. But when he told us what happened..."

I rocked on my bottom, back and forth, trying to distract myself from the horrible memories.

"It was a good think Ethan had seen you guys get captured and had a vague idea where the gang were and led us there," Yuri said. "It took us a long time to find you guys because the hideout was underground, but once we did..."

"Well you guys came right on time," I smiled.

"Justin came right on time," Yuri corrected me. "Ran faster than I've ever seen him."

"I've still got to thank him for saving my life," I frowned at the idea of thanking Justin.

Rezin suddenly cawed. We looked up to see Tristan. He was panting hard like he just sprinted up the hill. 

"Next time you guys want to chitchat, tell us okay?" Tristan panted.

I raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Everyone panicked when you and Yuri didn't come back," Tristan sighed, falling to the ground on his back. " We thought something had happened again."

When I looked up, I realized the sun had already started to set. Rezin flapped his wings and flew over to Trisan, resting on Tristan's chest.

"Go tell Justin everything's alright," Yuri stroked Rezin's head.

Rezin lifted itself and flew high into the air before disappearing in sight. I listened until I heard the sound of flapping wings fade. 

"How does Rezin translate to Justin what you want to say to him?" I asked.

"Oh?" Tristan sat up eagerly with an air of interest. " You don't know yet? It's quite interesting actually, but the bird just knows what we're saying. I think he was a messenger bird before Yuri picked him up. He somehow can pick up what others are saying and relay it back to Yuri who tells us. "

I made an 'o' shape with my mouth and nodded. Yuri stood up and dusted his back before reaching his hands out of me and Tristan. "Let's go back down then."

As I took his hand, I felt something strange stir in my heart. A growling sensation in my heart moved as I caught his emerald eyes sparkle in the sunlight. 

As soon as I let go though, the feeling disappeared. I frowned and touched my chest. 

Hm.

~~~~~

Thank you guys for readingggg and a big fat viral hug for the ones who have supported me through my whole book you guys da best:)))) What do you think about this chapter? What will happen next?

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