บท 10: Gamble

Kael did not know what to do for a brief moment. There was a creature approaching the hall, he was sure of that. But he couldn't jump straight into the hall in front of him!

He looked towards the hall, then back again. He stopped for a while, turned in front of him. He looked back again and then in front again.

'What should I do... What should I do?'

The footsteps were not so close, they had only recently begun to echo. And because the corridor was curved, he had some time. But not much.

'Damn it...!'

He took a deep breath. Fear and nervousness had enveloped his whole body. But, even then, he made up his mind. He wanted to live, after all.

He took another look at the hall in front of him. The fourth creature he had expected to leave the hall had already entered the corridor, but he could still see its body. It was close enough to turn back if there was a commotion in the hall.

He tore his eyes away from it and took a quick look at the positions and movements of the other creatures. The creature at the foot of the entrance door had its back completely turned. The other one was completely detached from the world dealing with the corpse, it didn't seem to care about its surroundings. And the last one... he would have to be really fast if he wanted to avoid being seen by it.

The sound of the next footstep behind him was the trigger. Kael quickly took off his shoes and put them aside, then looked at the pillar closest to him. He took one last look at the creatures and moved as quietly as he could, without turning towards them again, to the back of the first pillar.

Two meters, that was how far he had to go without being seen. But if even a single one of the creatures turned towards the stairs, they would see him. He was standing in plain sight.

In the same room with three of the creatures.

He found it difficult to control his heartbeat. But, even then, he finished the first meter quickly, meanwhile closing his eyes to avoid looking at the creatures.

Soon, a shadow appeared in front of his closed eyes, the shadow of the pillar.

Kael quickly crouched down, holding his breath. The hall was silent, there was no change around him.

He had successfully passed behind the first pillar unnoticed.

He only looked at the creatures for a second and then hid back.

They were still in the same place, he had to move now! This was his chance! So, he prepared to move towards the second pillar, held his breath, and... suddenly froze in place.

The sound of the footsteps that forced him to move echoed through the hall, even though it was quite low in volume. The hall was already silent, but with the sound of that step... an even more abnormal silence enveloped Kael's body.

He heard a footstep from inside the hall. Then another. Then... another.

The creatures he had tried to avoid were on the move!

Kael didn't dare look behind the pillar. Before, he could, because the creatures moved quite slowly unless they saw a target, and their faces were not turned towards him. But now... they should all be facing towards the corridor he had just come from. On top of that, the creature at the entrance to the hall must have been facing directly towards the pillar where Kael was hiding now!

'Fuck... fuck! I should have been faster!'

Now, there were two possibilities. Either one of the creatures would discover his hiding place as it made its way down the corridor, or it would cross the corridor before the creature coming down the hall, giving Kael the perfect opportunity to actually escape.

Kael would have really liked the second possibility to happen. But he didn't trust his luck that much. So, he had to think of something.

He looked at his knife, which he had never put down until now. Then, he thought about the medicines, or rather poisons, in his bag.

'Can I do it?'

With the amount and intensity of the poison in his knife, even if he simply scratched a person, he could paralyze them within five seconds at most. He had a really powerful poison. But... three creatures? Or even four with the one coming into the hall?

'No, I have no death wish.'

Although... if he didn't hurry, he wouldn't have to wish for his death to die. His time was limited.

So... as difficult as it was, Kael finally made a decision rather fast.

He couldn't move. If he moved an inch, one of the creatures would notice him.

He could not fight either. The outcome of the fight was death.

So... he decided to wait, to take a gamble. He had no other choice, anyway.

He waited.

Their footsteps grew closer together.

He waited.

One of the creatures paused where it was, then the others did likewise.

He continued to wait.

The seconds were filled with silence, an intense silence in which no one moved a muscle. The creatures had met each other.

Kael, meanwhile... still waited.

After a short time, the sound of footsteps echoed once more in the entrance hall.

Kael focused, trying to discern from the sound of the creatures' footsteps where they were heading.

Two of them... were actually moving away. And even better, in the opposite direction of the hall, towards the corridor he had come from!

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But he decided to do neither, as he wasn't trying to die, and continued to listen.

After a while, his expression fell.

Yes, two of the creatures were indeed moving away from the hall. However... the other two seemed to have no intention of leaving. On the contrary, they started moving around the hall again.

'The ones walking away must have been the ones who heard the sound of footsteps at the beginning and headed towards it. Then, the ones who wandered into the hall... are probably the ones who came here from the corridor and ate the corpse.'

He was afraid to turn around and look at their position. Only then did he realize that one of the creatures actually had its back to him. The footsteps were moving away from him, and the creature couldn't walk backwards.

At least... not if the world was mocking him. With what he had been through so far, he wasn't sure if it was trying to be helpful or if it was really mocking him.

Although... if the world was trying to help him, he shouldn't have gone through this in the first place, right?

Kael pushed his thoughts aside and reassessed the situation.

He was now sure that he wasn't in the line of sight of one of the creatures. The only problem was... the other one. Because it was no longer moving, so there were no footsteps. Kael had no idea where it was facing.

'Well... I think I can handle the two creatures somehow. If I can poison the other one before it reaches me, we'll be one on one.'

Of course, this was a backup plan. His main plan was never to fight the creatures directly. He would take his chances first.

So, he held his breath again, turning around as slowly as he could. As the rest of the hall slowly unfolded before his eyes, he saw the first of the creatures. It was the creature that was moving away from him. And just as he had predicted, it was the creature that had eaten the corpse.

Kael kept looking towards the back of the pillar. Finally... he managed to see the other creature.

It wasn't looking in his direction, so his luck was good. But... it didn't have its back turned completely. It was looking towards the corridor where the other two creatures had gone, in the direction Kael had come from. If he pushed a little harder, he could see the glint in his red eyes.

In short, Kael was now probably only a few inches out of the creature's line of sight.

'Great!'

Kael quickly turned around. He would be even further out of the creature's line of sight as he moved towards the second pillar. So luck was really on his side!

He didn't want to waste time. He quickly turned back towards the second pillar and started walking towards it again as quickly but slowly as possible. He took each step with care. He didn't care about stepping in the blood on the floor or the body parts that sometimes touched him. His only goal was to survive and he was going to do it.

When he came between the two pillars, he began to get excited. The creature looking towards the corridor was in a position to see him if it turned its head slightly to the side, but he could not turn around and check it. He was scared, he was worried, but he was also confident.

So... he finally managed to get behind the second pillar. But he didn't even stop to rest, he headed straight for the stairs! After all, he would never get a chance like this again. He was not going to make the same mistake he had made at the first pillar.

A few seconds later, he stepped onto the first flight of stairs. The stairs were really huge. And as huge as they were, they were also exposed. So he had to be even faster than before. And so he did.

He climbed the stairs so quickly but so quietly that he couldn't help wondering how he could do it. Adrenaline and fear could really make people do strange things. Nevertheless, he kept going.

When he finally made it to the second floor, he quickly ducked behind the railing and waited. His ears were wide open.

He could still hear the creature walking towards the entrance door. The other one was still standing where it was, not making a sound.

Kael couldn't help smiling involuntarily as he looked at the wall in front of him.

'I... made it.'

He would have laughed if he could. But he didn't. Instead, he just stayed where he was. He simply tried to calm himself down, and he succeeded nonetheless.

Now... all he had to do was keep moving forward.