章 2: Allura
"Hurry!" a guy she met just ten minutes ago drags her forcibly.
She has no idea who this man is but for some reason he knows awfully a lot of things about her, who her parents are, her birthdate, her blood type, and their home address. It would be the most mundane thing for her to report to the police officers for abduction but before she could even grab her phone it was immediately cut into two. The cut was clean, as if a fine sword had done it. She looks back at the man who had just sheathed a sword that was hidden in his cloak.
"Who are you? And what's happening?!" she asks between breathes as they run into an alley. She looks behind her to see if the things are still following them. So far, the rear seemed quiet, as it always had been.
"Don't talk, just run" the boy puts his other hand on her lips.
Two shadows appear behind her again, the man drags her harder this time and throws her behind him. He takes his sword out and cuts the two figures in half like what he did to her phone. A normal person would expect for blood to come from the bodies but something is different. Instead of bleeding to death the figures bodies began to produce smoke, evaporating into thin air.
"Okay, we've stopped running. Now, who are you and what was that?" Allura asks again standing up from the ground.
She looks at the spot where the things should have been lying, but they were gone. Her night had gone from normal to crazy. A man wearing a cosplay attire is swinging his sword here and there as if he were a warrior. Then things, she didn't know what they were or what they want, have been chasing them the moment she went out of a late-night shift at work.
The man looks back at her with eyes full of bloodlust and as he blinks, those eyes were gone. His eyes were back to normal. Allura looked close and hard at the man's eyes to see if she was only imagining it. After what must have been a minute, another wave of creatures came creeping from the shadows.
"We need to hide" he says as he grabs her arm again, dragging her away from the alley.
"I need to know what is going on!" she yells at him as she tries to pull away from his grip.
"No, we need to hide you first before we talk" the man looks at her this time, still not letting go of her arm but his eyes were full of concern as if she was important to him.
"Okay," she says with a pout as she follows him onto the busy streets of the night.
"Where do you even intend to hide me?" she asks as she looks around, looking for strange figures just like the ones pursuing them earlier.
"I know a place" he says he starts walking faster.
They've been walking for almost an hour, the busy part of the streets is far behind them now. They are already in the abandoned part of town, most of the buildings are in ruins. Walls full of graffiti, garbage cans full of trash, the smell was enough to make Allura puke but she's been stopping herself from doing so.
"Are we there yet?" she says as she covers her nose. The man has put on a scarf covering his nose and mouth earlier and had told her to do the same
"Yes," the man answers. Allura scowls.
"That's what you said ten minutes ago!" she flings her arm hoping to be free from the man's grip.
"And who are you anyway?!" she asks another question. The man still ignores her as they continue walking in the abandoned area.
"If you don't stop talking, I'll leave you here to rot and to die. So shut up and just follow me." The man faces her for a moment and turns away again the next.
As much as Allura hates to be dragged by the man, the idea of being left in the middle of nowhere is obviously far more terrifying than being dragged by this man.
As they continue walking in silence, Allura decides to study the man's features. He seems to be a man in his mid-twenties. He had short black hair, his cloak was covering the rest of his body but the moment they entered the abandoned area, he had removed it and Allura could see that he had a strong build. He was wearing something red, she wasn't sure what it was. It didn't look like an armor like those knights she had watched on the television before. It seemed thick even though it only covered the vital parts of his body as well as his arms and legs. Allura thought that it would definitely be hard to break it.
A long sword was also strapped on his back, it was the sword that had cut her phone and those creatures earlier. He was obviously tall, way taller than her. Allura, was considered tall in her school but now that she's standing behind the man, she seems much smaller. His face gives nothing away, it doesn't give away his thoughts, his intentions, or whatever else.
"We're here," he stops in front of a building. Not much different from all the other buildings in the area. The building only had two floors, it was the only two floor building in the street they were in. Another thing that's obviously different is that there's light was coming from inside. Allura wasn't sure if it was from electricity or fire, but given that the area is dark, it would most probably from fire.
"Are you going to kill me now? Just like what you did to those things?" she asks. She wasn't sure why he dragged her all the way here if not to kill her. She's so confused. Who is he? What does he want? What are those creatures? Why are they here?
"Just follow me," he says with such finality.
"Tell me what you want first! Who are you?! What do you want from me?!" she flings her arms again. His grip on her was definitely tight, she can't seem to shake him off no matter what she does.
"Fine! I'm Shkan, and I'm not from here-"
"Obviously," Allura intercepts which was rewarded with a fierce stare.
"I mean, I am not from your world." He finishes. Shkan looks at Allura in the face, her face screams both confusion and fear, but mostly confusion.
"You are obviously joking" she says with disbelief in her voice. His grip on her tightened.
"And this is why I refuse to tell you anything about myself until we arrive here," he sighs loudly.
"Obviously, I can accept the fact if you're not from this city but not from our world?!" She emphasizes.
"You're here to kill me as well!" she screams. She still couldn't get away from his grip.
"If that's so I would have done it the moment we entered this area," he says with such a calm tone. Allura flinches, she remembers the things that Shkan had killed earlier with such gracefulness, such flawlessness, as if he had killed all his life.
"That's enough Shkan," says a voice from inside the building. Allura has no idea what she needed to do. She couldn't run because Shkan's tight grip is still on her arm, all she could do is cover her eyes and wait for the end to come.
"Elder," with this, Allura looks up. Shkan was still looking at her but he knew who was the man who just spoke. A man emerged from the building. He had long gray hair and had gray beard, he was wearing a robe and in his hand was a staff. He's the type of man you would see in a video game or even in anime.
"Let her go," the man Shkan called 'elder' said in a calm yet authoritative voice. Shkan immediately does so, Allura holds her arm which was already red from Shkan's firm grip.
"Who are you?" she looks at him. Then she looks back to Shkan then back to the building.
"Answer me," she whispers. She wasn't sure what to do anymore. She can't run away, the abandoned part of the city is as terrifying as the rumors spreading throughout the city itself. This is where numbers of people have been murdered, attacked, tortured and whatever terrifying things a human can ever manage to do.
"You must be tired Amaltheia, please come inside. Before they find us, again," the elder says as he goes back into the building.
"What?" Allura says obviously surprised.
"I said you must be tired Amaltheia, please come inside. Before they find us again," he repeats as he looks back at her again.
"What 'Amaltheia'? If you're referring to my name then you must be mistaken. My name is Allura" she tries to correct but the face of the man in front of her did not change from calm into something that acknowledged his mistake. His face stayed the same.
"Amaltheia, it is your name" the man says.
"No, no, no, you're mistaken. My name is Allura, it's the name the orphanage gave me. You must have the wrong person. My name is not Amaltheia," she convinces him but his face still doesn't acknowledge his mistake.
"No, we are certain that you're the one. We've been watching over you after all this time. Amaltheia"
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