章節 3: Dead and Alive

As the gravity of the situation finally crashed down on everyone. The twins made eye contact for the first time.

No words were spoken and no signals made.

The cries and screams issued by the other youths went unnoticed as they both broke into a full sprint in the opposite direction of the body being devoured in front of them.

As Rykar had been in the middle of assaulting James before he got pulled to the ground, he was trailing slightly behind Loki but this only made it easier for them to decide on which path to take since only one had to lead. This made the escape even smoother seeing as they were too panicked to have been paying any notice to the direction they were fleeing in.

Still sprinting at full speed, Rykar stretched his head back getting a glance of the scene behind. All of the others had how exploded out with hidden strength as though they hadn't spent the last few hours walking through the woods at all. The trees were obscuring his vision so he wasn't able to make out who was who, only that there were shadows moving rapidly in the same direction as that which Chris had escaped in.

He had also managed to see that the body of James was still lay flat on the ground however it was now completely unrecognisable. He could barely be considered a person anymore. The lower half of his body was still intact however the top portion where his clothing failed to protect him from the wolfs attack was totally mutilated. Bone and organs could be seen everywhere to the point of spilling onto the dirt beneath him with gashes and tear lining them all. It hadn't even looked like the wolf killed him with the intent to feed, more like it tore him up for the fun of it, treated his body as a chew toy and then moved on after getting bored.

Wait.

It was then that he noticed what was wrong with this scene. The body was still on the ground. The others were still running. They had managed to build up a lead… But there was no wolf.

His head then whipped back round looking intently at the back of Loki while refusing to glance back again.

"The world is a cycle. The world is a cycle. The world is a cycle" He could hardly control his breathing while sprinting between the trees but the only bit of relief he could hope for was in those words that had been repeated to him so many times. 'The energy you send out will only come back around for you' just like the law of karma. Never had he wished death on someone, but now? He was praying with all his might that the wolf was right on the heels of the other three. No, he hoped that demon was anywhere as long it didn't have its eyes on him and his brother.

It was at this point, the highest moment of Rykars anxiety, which Loki finally found the courage to look back at Rykar to check on his situation. It must be known that the twins had been together without fail since they had been born. While the others in the village could only see their stony and emotionless facades, the hundreds of minor changes in their features could easily be picked up by each other as though reading an open book.

Beaten, teased, robbed, scolded, threatened or pitied, Loki was without a doubt the one who would keep a straight face, masking his interior feelings. Rykar was the one that would wind up incensed when things got taken too far however his brother could be described as calm and calculating in the most stressful of situations to date which had gotten them out of too many sorry situations to count.

As Rykar saw his brothers face gaze upon him, it brought him back to those times, a feeling of comfort welled up within him as he felt that seemingly indifferent stare wash over him as though no situation was out of their control. Everything would work itself out. However, that only lasted a split second.

As he was only a few metres ahead, Rykar was able to see every feature of Loki's face clearly. Within a moment of looking back his face had changed dramatically causing tears to immediately threaten to break loose from Rykar eyes. Loki's pupils had contracted to the extreme, his eyes left only with a pinkish hue while his lips parted and began trembling. Before Rykar could even take another glance behind himself to witness what Loki had seen, it felt like a hammer had crashed down on his shoulders, forcing him down to the ground. Due to the speed he had been moving, the inertia kept dragging him across the floor with dirt and twigs scraping across his face and unprotected skin while blinding him to.

From Loki's point of view, as he looked back, the wolf had already been in the air descending on Rykar like an omen of death. The sheer impact of what he had seen had left him unable to register what had been happening, hence his delayed reaction to it all. As Rykar had been dragged down to the ground, he couldn't control his body as fear gripped him. Shutting his eyes tightly while denying the situation at hand, he increased his pace fleeing further away from his struggling brother, tears flowing freely from both of their eyes.

The situation had all happened too fast, not letting either of them think about the rope that had been binding their legs together at all. As Loki increased the distance by another three metres, the rope grew tight while whipping him backward causing many of the bags tied to his waist and shoulders to break their bindings and spill their contents across the earth.

As the wolf bit down on what should have been Rykar's neck, its teeth punched into one of the bags which he was carrying. Who would have though that in this situation where Chris had set out to make their lives a hell, his own bag had stalled the wolf, allowing him a vital few seconds to struggle.

The momentum from Loki kicked in at this moment, dragging Rykars right leg up over his back as though he was morphing into a scorpion. This allowed him to do a reverse somersault, switching positions with the wolf while leaving the both of them disorientated.

Instincts took over on the wolfs side, the feeling of the leather left it thinking that it had buried its teeth into the vitals of its victim so it simply gave up on getting to its feet or surveying the surroundings and committed to mauling whatever was in its mouth.

The sounds of tearing which followed caused the twins to break out in a cold sweat. Ryker's left side was still slightly buried under the wolf so he pushed with all his might swiftly freeing himself. He then felt a massive pulling force helping him to speed away in the opposite direction which he didn't fight against in the least. Still slightly shaken up from the tumble, this pull had given him a direction to focus on rather than escaping blindly.

Stumbling in this new direction, he quickly made it over to Loki who was still tugging frantically at the rope like his life depended on it. The initial fall had left him shaken up as well and blood could be seen dripping from his ankle where the skin was visible torn open. The torn skin was the least of his problems. What scared Rykar was the way that his foot was clearly dangling at an unnatural angle as though there was nothing supporting it. Best case scenario was that it was dislocated. In the worst, it had been completely broken.

Without the time to think deeply on the subject, Rykar dragged Loki to his feet as they both hobbled away, the thought of fleeing by himself hadn't even crossed his mind. It was one thing hoping that the wolf went after the other youths who wished them harm, but it was another to purposefully sacrifice his own brother for a slim chance at survival.

Looking ahead of them, they finally spotted a chance for them to escape their dire circumstances, A large tree at least three times the size of the others in the surroundings was standing tall like an anchor around 30 metres ahead of them. Aside from the size of the tree, another aspect that caused it to stand out from the others was that it was completely devoid of life and moisture, almost unnaturally so.

Decay had set into the tree but this had also crept along the ground allowing no plants or grass to grow within a few metres from the base of the trunk. The pace of the twins was already as hurried as they could bear, every movement from Loki would trigger pain from his ankle, causing him to wince fiercely with cold sweat drenching him completely as his vision swirled and twisted, on the verge of blacking out.

Recovering its composure, the wolf raised itself up questioningly, curious as to why sweet taste of blood that it had been expecting had not followed the leather being ripped open. Looking down at the ground, all that could be seen were pieces of bread and a water skin along with a few berries which were strewn across the ground haphazardly. Anger washed over the wolf as it saw its prey retreating.

It begun taking steady steps towards them, rapidly increasing in pace until it had broken into a full sprint. The twins were directly ahead of it, nearing a portion of the tree which was broken apart forming a hollow which they had intended on using as a shelter against the onslaught of the terror behind them.

The wolf was now so close that they could hear its footsetps clearly however not a shred of their energy was going to be wasted by looking at what was going on behind them. As they were within a metre of the tree trunk, Rykar released his grip on Loki, hoisting him off of his shoulder and barging him towards the entrance to the hollow. The gap was less than a metre wide so it would be hopeless if they both intended to scramble in at the same time. With his leg in that condition, if Loki didn't get in first then there was no way he would get a second chance.

Spinning round, Rykar faced the wolf while back peddling, hoping to plunge in backwards after his brother while being able to cover his blind side. At this moment, the wolf was only two metres away and every detail from the wet blood around its mouth, to the mottled dirt littering its fur was blindingly obvious in front of him. Its feet then left the ground, rising over a metre in the air, intent on crashing against his upper body.

As Rykar fell backwards, he completely came to a loss of words. The limits of his comprehension had been met and then destroyed over and over within a moment and that was only the first of a series of unexplainable events.

As the wolf had been barrelling towards him from the air, it quickly passed the area which the decay had been spreading around the tree. It was then that the entire wolf became monochrome, shade of grey enveloped its body as it melted into the wind becoming dust that when assaulted his eyes and nose, forcing the bewildered teen to shut his eyes while still stumbling backwards.

A feeling of weightlessness then enveloped him, as though he was falling yet also completely still at the same time. There were no forces affecting him at all. While struggling to clear his eyes from the ashes of the wolf amidst his tears, he became aware of his surroundings.

It was a circular room, with walls made out of what seemed to be wood yet he couldn't make out any joints... as though it was sculpted from a single gigantic piece. The space was well decorated with two of everything; tables, chairs, beds, shelves etc. also made from the same dark coloured wood. Just next to him in a similar manner, Loki was already propped up against the wall while scrutinising the area before them.

"W-were sorry for com- disturbing you! It chased us in the woods! Was a wolf and –" Without the chance to fully take in the surroundings, Rykar finally realised that there were two people sat in the centre of the room staring directly at them, Rykar began to stammer out sentences which barely made any sense.

"SHHHH"

Loki interrupted quickly while taking a look out of the entrance. He had entered only a few seconds before Rykar. He had no idea where they were or how they ended up in the room but he was sure of one thing from the vacant gazes of the inhabitants. Their souls were no longer present in the world.

It was at this moment the most marvellous story of the adventures of Loki and Rykar had begun. Nothing their mother could have dreamed would be able to prepare them for what was to come and it all began from a hollow within a tree with four gazes locked together. Two pairs of twins. One dead and one alive.