After sometime which felt like decades, we arrived at a clearing near a pond. Full moonlight shone above it making the transparent water glimmer beautifully. It was a bit cold, wind caused small ripples upon the pond making the lilies sway idly. It could have been a romantic scenario if I wasn't so f*cked up!

He left us each beside a separate tree trunk and went over a stone slab at some distance on which he put something.

*Clunk*

Is it really what I think it is.....? And to my horror it really was..... Weapons, not only one but of many types, katanas, flails, arrows, short sword, gauntlets, sickles, you name it. I gasped at the collection, immediately realizing my biggest mistake.

 The figure turned, his hood covering his features, making it almost impossible to see underneath. In the blink of an eye he was standing in front of me. Such inhuman speed, I thought to myself, while he crouched down to his eye-level, lifted my chin with his index delicately, as if he was a fragile thing that would broke the moment he hold him a bit tightly. I shivered at the touch, even though his hands were gloved, he still felt eerie coldness seeping through it.

I tried to look inside the hood, although it was a dangerous move, but curiosity got the better of me and to my surprise he tilted his head enough to make features of his face a bit visible under the moonlight. His skin was pale with blood red lips pursed in a tight line and his glimmered so bright that I couldn't look at them for too long. even though our eyes met for the briefest moment, I got chills down my spine by his cold gaze, full of hatred.

Why so much hatred....? I couldn't even decipher any of us doing something bad enough to lead to this. Maybe it was about something else...but what could it possibly be?

At that moment he released my chin and as silently as he came, he went back to the slab. I released a shuddering breath that I didn't realize I have been holding before. I blinked, twice, my mind filled with questions with nobody to answer...

When did he move, with such inhuman speed, never making a noise and those eyes of his, they were definitely not normal...…

In the midst of my thinking, I heard someone moving, making me panic. I silently prayed for him to stop making noise but to no avail. Zane opened his eyes slowly, hissed with pain and asked, barely audible,  "Ouch! What the hell is going on-----!"

*THUD*

The figure bashed his head with the back of a small knife, making him unconscious again. Afterwards, he put a cloth in Zane's mouth, dragged him in my peripheral range, picked the short sword in one hand and Zane's hand in the other. I panicked and stuttered, barely audible, "Stttooppp….". my throat was hoarse, parched by the lack of water. Not paying any heed to me, he pulled Zane's pinky, "Sttoopp iittt! Don't ddoo thisss!" I pleaded again but he didn't care, only to have brought the short sword in the moonlight, its metal glinting and pierced through his finger. I cursed under my breath feeling completely useless, with every ounce of energy in me I shouted, "STOP ! LEAVE HIM ALONE", but nothing seemed to matter, he only kept on stabbing from one finger to other, than his palm, shoulder and so on. My eyes stung by the upcoming tears, "Please.... stop... don't hurt him".

I kept on pleading helplessly, writhing and squirming my body while the thorns pricked even deeper, blood coming from everywhere it pricked deeper but I couldn't careless though it was completely useless as my body refused to move much from its position as if paralyzed completely. I was trembling, petrified to the core, tears ran down my cheeks. I felt hopeless and angry at myself for not even being able to help my friends. My breath became ragged and I shut my eyes hoping to wake up from this hellish nightmare and thinking

How the hell did we end up in here?