Escape Attempt (Ch3 – Part 2)

Orb heard more small pebbles being kicked in his direction, but he did not delay for a moment as he sped away across the wide pathway for several meters.

When he tried to turn right, he hit a tree trunk and fell on his back. Someone burst out laughing a few meters behind him.

Unsure it was Vermon, he quickly stood up and resumed running. Orb sweated and panted. The soil ground, the pebbles, the grass, and the heavy singing of night crickets … the monster’s house must be located on the capital’s outskirts!

He finally heard someone’s voice loud and excited, “I told you! He’s a ferocious devil who doesn’t act like an ill, blind man!”

“I can see that.”

“How can he move, jump, and easily infer directions?”

“I think I have an idea, Vermon.”

Oh, no! He’s here! Not him! Not him, please! Orb ran as fast as he could despite the terrible pain in his injured body and the difficulty of breathing, but the two pursuers did not let him go far.

Someone flew over him lightly and gracefully landed before him while the other stopped behind him.

“Your night’s adventure is over, you devil!” Vermon smirked.

* * *

Orb kept turning around in distress, glancing in the direction of one enemy behind him and another unfamiliar one before him.

In his right hand, he held his cane, which he was keen to bring with him during his escape.

Panting, Orb asked, “How—did you—follow me?”

Vermon crossed his arms, feeling triumphant as he snickered, “I have set up this ambush for you myself. I was expecting your escape attempt, but not so quickly.”

Then, in a sudden commanding tone, Vermon shouted, “ORB, YOU INSOLENT SLAVE, I COMMAND YOU TO KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER!”

“Go to Hell!” Orb shouted in defiance.

“You are in Hell!” Vermon replied coldly. He seemed in a good mood and wanted to provoke his prey.

“KILL ME!” Orb shouted at him in rage with his eyes wide open.

At that moment, Vermon’s friend stood next to him. “You really did enslave him, Vermon,” the cold-voice person sounded slightly amazed, “and indeed, he is blind! Someone did this to him as a form of torture.”

When Vermon’s friend tried to approach Orb, taking one confident step toward him, Orb took a step back. Vermon’s friend crossed his arms, and despite his feeling of a sudden headache, he added in amusement, “Vermon, this young man is extraordinary. He is a Roaming Star[1]. He can infer directions, even if his eyes are damaged. Not many humans possess such ability.”

“A Roaming Star! No wonder then,” Vermon smiled.

He finally understood how Orb could find his way to the stone fountain three days ago. That little discovery about Orb excited him more than ever.

To their amusement, Orb disregarded their presence and attempted to run again, “His defiant nature and rebellious behavior are intolerable,” Vernon remarked. “He is restless,” he added. He disappeared into thin air and reappeared before Orb, blocking his way and making him bump into his chest and fall in shock.

Then, Vermon’s friend stood next to him again, smiling. “I thought his rebellion excited you!” he squinted his eyes at Orb and wondered, “Could he be of a noble bloodline...?”

The two stared at Orb grimly when the latter raised his cane in a defensive position. “Kill me—kill me,” he growled in apparent despair, “What are you waiting for?”

“Ah! I believe you have offended him, Vermon.”

Unlike Vermon’s fierce, loud, and rude voice, Orb heard the cold voice of Vermon’s friend whispering in an icy, sarcastic tone, which prompted Orb to quickly break his thin cane as he shouted in rage, “If you don’t release me, I’ll kill myself.”

“Do it. Let me see you try. I won’t stop you,” Vermon retorted indifferently, confidently approaching him.

Orb instantly grabbed the sharp tip of the cane with his hand and cried in pain as he stabbed his chest before falling to one knee.

At that moment, Vermon startled Orb, resting quickly on one knee before him. Then, with one hand, he grabbed Orb’s trembling hand and savagely pushed the tip of the broken cane more and more into his chest.

Orb was howling like a wounded wolf, feeling remorse not for the intensity of the pain but for his stupid action, which was a source of pleasure for his tormentor.

He suddenly changed his mind and decided to resist, but the vicious Arkosian hand would not budge. Vermon squinted his eyes in a silent, frightening ferocity. “I like it when you scream!” he laughed, his eyes glowing in pleasure.

“This will not kill you. You fool! I told you before that you will not die until I permit it. What you did to yourself will be the hardest lesson you have been taught yet. Don’t forget it!”

Vermon had pushed Orb to the ground, meaning to torment a little more. Orb, still screaming in pain, was fighting Vermon’s hand in a desperate attempt to get the cane out as it pierced his chest one centimeter from his heart.

“Don’t kill him. Not yet,” Vermon’s friend suggested.

“Difficult,—unruly, and not amenable to discipline or control but very entertaining!” Vermon looked at Orb in disgust, before adding, “No, I won’t kill him, but I will watch him writhing,” he hissed, “like a filthy bug.”

“Shush him, will you? He is too noisy,” Vermon’s friend advised coldly, apparently annoyed by Orb’s screaming.

Vermon instantly pulled the cane out of Orb’s chest again with a savagery that made Orb’s whole body violently jerk. Then, Vermon tore open Orb's shirt, revealing the place of the bloody stab, and hit him with his open palm once, which instantly silenced Orb and sent him into a fainting spell that night.

* * *

The next day, Orb opened his eyes and guessed from the brightness he saw with his left eye that it was noon. His shoulder blades sticking out under his thin, torn shirt reminded him that he was lying on the bare floor of the isolation room.

Orb could not move his feverish body due to the severe pain in his chest and the untreated wounds on his bloody back. Thus, he reached his right hand beneath his torn shirt, wanting to feel the place of the stab that failed yesterday, and wondered how his heart survived it.

Then, he remembered Vermon’s forceful blow to his chest, which put him to sleep and possibly healed the wound and stopped the bleeding. It left an ugly lump like the mark of a crudely cauterized wound.

Simply touching the place of the wound or even breathing deeply hurt Orb. He found himself pondering over the same old question of how to escape captivity and the sadistic enemy who enjoyed saving him to insult and torture him repeatedly.

At that moment, Orb felt a slight movement in the place. He neither tried to move his sick body into a sitting position nor turn his head to where the sound might be located. He could not see clearly anyway but asked cautiously, “Who is there?”

The refined voice of Vermon’s friend came to him as he responded indifferently, “How did you know I was here?”

“Your metal glove brushed against a necklace—probably a pocket watch.”

Vermon’s friend smiled in amusement, still leaning against the cold wall in front of Orb. He could see that Orb possessed a special kind of intelligence as he was more aware of his surroundings.

“Ah, excellent hearing," he smiled, “and perception.”

“...”

“I should take it off then,” he contemplated before falling silent for a moment, “But if I did, how am I going to live?” he solemnly added.

“What —do you mean?” Orb felt a sudden threat.

“So many things…”

Orb heard a faint laugh, followed by the clattering of the man’s thick-heeled shoes approaching him. When he stood before Orb, the latter could discern his blue uniform, which was like that worn by Vermon, but a gold-embroidered black cloak settled on one of his shoulders.

Orb could also discern his tidy golden braids, small red mouth, and sharp chin. He’s handsome, he thought to himself.

“Who are you?” Orb, feeling more agitation, insisted.

“I am Akinos[1],” he proudly stated.

Without waiting for a reaction, Akinos went on, “If you do not want me to reveal who you are and what you have done in the Awa Temple, you must obey your master, Vermon, for what you have done is more abominable,” Akinos spoke in a low, serious tone, “you see, what you have started may fail because of your foolish attempts to rebel and kill yourself.”

Orb stopped breathing for a moment. His heart, then, began pounding louder than any other sound in the room. He turned his damaged yet anxious eyes toward Akinos, who stood over him.

“You need to live until you see what you have planned come to pass,” Akinos asserted coldly.

Akinos then leaned toward Orb, whispering, “I will not protect you from your master as I did yesterday and as I am doing now, and it’s up to you,” he paused for a moment, then added, “he intends to kill you. I am warning you.”

He smiled, revealing sharp fangs in his mouth, which he quickly hid as he closed his lips, gazing at Orb’s tired features.

“You should calm down and try to recover,” Akinos told Orb before abruptly leaving the room, disappearing into thin air as he had first appeared.

Orb continued to listen to his loud and troubled heartbeats. Worried by the appearance of another seemingly cold and dangerous villain, Orb could not help believing that Akinos knew something about his past. I couldn’t read his tone; was he threatening me?

He could not organize his thoughts, and that was when he completely collapsed from fever, body wounds, hunger, and unspeakable trepidation and exhaustion.

* * *

End of Chapter (3)