Chapter Eight

        Along the steep trails through the misty forest, a mile away from the graveyard, three silhouettes traipsed. Daylight created irregular patterns of shadows and sharp glows from the leaves that waved to and fro, hanging from the towering trees above them.

        The cool caress of the fresh breeze beneath the forest gave them chills instead. If not because of the hair-raising, lingering mist that had been there for they don't even know how long, they would have appreciated the relaxing ambience that nature provided.

      "Man, why would Lady Shiah want some crappies for the ceremony?! I'm sure no one's alive after being disposed in that damned place!" the youngest one taunted, diverting the fear that had slowy engulfed his mind.

   

        They never wanted to step on that rotten place. None of them. Considering that they're not assigned as 'dispatchers' were not a lucky strike for them. Assigned or not, it's still the same. They would have to straighten back their curled tails if they need to.

       "Yeah, right! She can just pick from her merchandise if she want! Dozens of them came today and they seemed to be in good conditions!" agreed the other one who was of the same age.

      "That's the point, brother. She wouldn't want to waste opportunities. You know how much each of them cost when they're sold to some rich asses out there," the youngest one added with a mocking voice.

     

      A sarcastic laugh slipped out of his mouth but his eyes said it all—sharp and more watchful than he ever could. No one's aware how his soul wanted to run away from his body, out of this mysterious place.

      "Hey, you two! Watch your mouth. You wouldn't want to be banished right? And you know what that means," the eldest one, scolded the noisy two from his back.

         Right. They'd better pay few visits to this place than dying helplessly in there. The two went quiet.

          Realizing what the lecturer had said, sent them unearthly nips. The chirping and clicking noises of nocturnal insects easily crept, invading the stillness of silence. Unusual. At this time of the day where the blistering radiance above the mighty heights of the giant redwood trees, dominating unceasingly.

       "What's the number again? Five right?" asked the youngest one, breaking the silence within a couple of minutes.

       "Uhuh. There's four already. Back at the arena. We only need one. Lady Shiah said we had to find the newly disposed one. A girl at our age," answered the other younger one.

       Surely the younger ones were the most to talk.

       "Alil, Ferpon! Can you two just zip?!" as usual, the one who always supervised them, interrupted, "We're almost there. We don't want to disturb them, do we?"

        For the second time, they had their lips pursed, taking swift but silent footsteps.

        "I should've went here alone," he added. "We better hurry."

        He looked up with narrowed eyes and then took long strides as he realized what time it is. The silly two clung to each other's arms, trying to keep up with his pace.

       It would be his fault if these two freaked their asses out and ran away when the sun sets and lost themselves in this forest. And of course, he'd be glad to pull their tongues out if they come back late for the ceremony.

       If only this two newbies weren't with him, perhaps, he'd gone back to the town.  

        As they were drawing closer to the steep trails, a pale figure lying in the ash-colored ground greeted the eldest one–an indication that they're almost near at the graveyard.

        He quickly dropped his pace, taking back his other foot as he was about to take a step when he saw something–making the two from behind him knock their faces on his broad back. Lucky that he was able to balance himself, if not, the two of them would've piled up above him.

           "Ouch! I told you to be careful, Ferp!" Alil grunted.

          "Hush!" Ferpon shushed him instead, without looking at him; he's looking at something else.

          Alil's eyes traced Ferpon's gaze. But all he could see is elder brother's back. So he peeked to the opposite side.

         His eyes grew wide. "What is it, Brother Kalen?"

         Alil couldn't do anything but cover his tensed breath with a trembling hand.

        "Are...are those Bronx and...and Echag?" Alil's mouth left hanged open in the air.

         "Bronx! Echag!" terrified upheavals rowed Méah's dead mind back into the shore of consciousness, making it clearer and clearer as she was slowly accomodating the sound that her hearing caught from a distant far.

         There were tickles in her dead tired eyes after staring blankly into the nothingness of fading luminescence of the setting massive sphere of different merigold shades. Hot drops of water began forming on both corners of her eyes which were left open for she didn't know how long. It added more cloudy layer to her vision making her partly blind.

      As of now, she could only tell which is dark and light and faint shadows of unknown things. But even then, she had no strength to move a muscle and was left with no choice but to let the tears drown her view.

        Careful and subtle footsteps draw nearer. Méah could definitely tell it the way how the small twigs and the pile of dried leaves on the trail crunched underneath their feet.

       Though her mind was still blank, her heart pounded hard inside her chest as if it was more aware of what's to come than her. She maybe lethargically thoughtless at this moment but her instincts awakened her a bit, though not enough to make her move an inch away from where she was.

       "Holy shit!" a whisper of curse plunged in.

       Méah's aware but her body was clueless of how it would act thus, leaving her in a fragile position.

       "Keep your trap shut!" shushed another voice.

       She tried rolling her eyes to that side where she heard the commotion but her eyes were of no use anymore. Both gave her blurry silhouettes moving closer to her.

        "Guys, I think we should leave now. This place is no safe at all. I'm sure Lady Shia would understand!" The silence was broke after keeping it undisturbed.

        And there was silence again.

        A warm air brushed her face accompanied by two warm objects covered in flesh that snaked around her waist.

        Before Méah knew it, she felt herself being lifted off the ground with her hands thrown above her. And here she is now, lying on her stomach above a stranger's shoulder while watching its feet moving swiftly as her long hair played along with its motion. A strong embrace of the same warm flesh enveloped on the back of her knees keeping her balance so she won't fall.

       But...the agonizing pain was awakened by the sudden force. Now it weren't just on some certain parts of her but her entire body was sore and burning. Dizziness took over her in a split second. Helplessly, she could only get dizzier and dizzier as she's now completely in a brink of passing out.

        "Let us help, elder brother!"

        "Yeah, let us help."

         Two figures ran towards them. Méah obviously couldn't see clearly what or who are they. Her hair and her fading, hazy vision made it even worse. Without knowing, she had fallen asleep silently.

        "No need. We have to get out of here as soon as possible," the voice vibrated on the stranger's body. "Without delay."

      

      

         

       

       

      

       Méah automatically sat down from her sleep when she felt an extreme burning feeling on her left cheek. Gasping for air, she tried to clear her hazy vision. She could feel the unclean air of burnt flesh filling her nasal. Regardless of how blurry her vision was, she could still see the darkening world in a mist and the shadows that roamed back and forth.

    "Good, little crap. Wake up," someone said from her back, laughing manically.

     Her hands reacted on their own, landing on the burnt part of her cheeks' flesh that made her grit her teeth. Scratching her eyes to make her have a clear sight, she saw that it was a man holding a fuming hot iron. But she couldn't actually distinguish what was it for. Was it the one that hurt her or the one used that's used as a walking cane for old people?

      

           "To honor our brother's death and for his soul to be recognized by the heavens, I stand here to open the sacrificial ceremony!" said a masculine shadow from the opposite end of the arena. 

        The daylight was about to fade. Saffron rays of light and dark shades from the setting giant ball of fire started peeking through the thin fading clouds.

       Loud cheers of excitement roamed from the top to the bottom layer of the arena. Heart-pounding drum rolls thundered. A fire was lighted with enough distance away from the altar-like station at the opposite side.

        The left corner of the arena opened and synched screams met the existing noise. A giant tiger statue entered and hundreds of men were pushing it in. Its shadow loomed over the center of the arena covering almost half of its space.

        But Méah couldn't sense the danger coming as she was too busy savoring the tormenting feeling that lingered on her cheek. Not to mention the previous pain that had started tickling again the moment her body gained consciousness.

      Behind the steel bars of the cage, she just stared outside with her blank eyes. Her mind wasn't with her again. She felt like a living dead. Her mind went blank. She couldn't think of anything and her eyes couldn't even tell what's happening outside.

      Maybe because she'd suffered for countless times in all aspects, and that those tribulations caused her to lose her sanity. She could be called completely insane with her situation right now. But the heavy feeling in her hear was undeniable. For her it wasn't the steel cage who imprisoned her, but that feeling is.

       "Get them out!" the same voice roared in the middle of the crowd's clamours.

        The massive, iron door of the cage clunked as it was banged open. Three big fellas entered. She eyed the other one intently as he drew nearer to her. Though dead-brained, her heart was the only thing she could rely on. It was pounding wildy inside her chest. And it warned her 'danger'! Thus, awakening her instincts.

        "No! Please let us go! I'm begging you! We've done nothing wrong! Please!" a loud cry brought her attention behind her.

      It was a woman clutching a newborn baby, dragged out of the cage first. Next, a terrorized child followed with puffy eyes. And then a man with a freshly disfigured face was dragged on the neck. There were chains on their hands and neck and feet, enough to take a step and scratch their elbows, same as hers.

       "No more babblings!" the bearded one  responded with a mocking tone, giving her wounded back an aggressive thwack from his whip. The woman stumbled on her feet but before she could pull herself up, she was forcefully dragged by the chains on her feet, embracing the innocent one in her arms closely as if shielding it from any harm.

        "Mother!" the child blurted out and ran after her mother. "You bad people! Don't you dare hurt her! You've hurt, father!" she defended, pulling back her mother by her shoulder. Either way, both of them were easily dragged out. What strength would a child have?

       "Ferlah! Zenah!" the man shouted horrifically from the back.

        "Father! Help us! Don't let them hurt mother!" the child looked back to him.

        He wanted to save them but was taken aback when a sharp sword plunged below his chin creating a small slit on the flesh of his neck from the sudden force that he exerted. Helpless as they were, he was instead dragged by the chain on his neck and remained silent with overflowing sadness and worry in his swollen eyes.

      

       Seeing this scene made Méah's chest  even more heavier. She didn't even have a clue what's with going on with them but why? Why did she felt that way?

        "You! Get moving!" a sudden yell distracted her attention.

        The same sturdy blow as the woman's struck her back. Méah grunted agonizingly. She fell to the ground as the existing pain on it was triggered once more. Fresh crimson fluid began forming into irregular shapes of circles.

        And just like with the woman, she was also dragged by the chains on her feet, ravaging her back against the stones underneath it.

    

        Once they're out, the dragging stopped. With might and main, they were hauled up the sandy ground. They were already facing the feet of the giant tiger statue. Laid above it was a shining, long metal that sparkles with the movement of the huge fire from behind them. But before it, was a huge trunk of a tree with five sunken slots for they don't know what it is for. There are also five channels connecting them to the tiger's feet.

       "Gods from the heavens! Here, we're greatly honored to present to you my brother's companions on his journey to your domain! May you accept him as much as he accepted you! May your servant be granted an eternal peace!" the  voice announced.

       The cheering became vociferous so as the rolling of the drums that if someone would shout their lungs out, no one could hear them.

        She watched the other three on chains on the left side of her that had grown panic-stricken. The man with the child clinging on his arm and the woman with the baby in her arms. Soon, a huge bearded guy—bigger and taller than the rest of the huge guys they've ever seen in this place, walked in. Half-naked, his enormous belly bounced up and down as he walked nearer. With his long legs, there was no reason for delay.

       In no time, he had held the wounded man's chain on the neck and laid it above a designated slot on the trunk. He tried resisting but one hand alone overpowered his remaining strength.

 

     Raising the glistening sword, the child beside him cried harder, kicking the huge, bearded-guy on his legs but he never seemed to feel her light strikes.

       "No! Stop it! Please don't do it! Leave my husband alone! Just kill me instead!" the woman screamed horrifically but no one seemed to pay attention to her. With all these ear-splitting noise, she can't be heard anyway.

      Without warning, her husband's head was sent rolling to the sandy ground. His body fell back beside the child. Both the woman and the child let out their raging agonies, for the man that they dearly loved had left them forever.

       Soon, the time of the woman's two remaining treasures had come, too. Same scene. Same sound of blood spilling, running down the channels into the tiger's feet. Not even a single innocent soul was exempted.

      As their blood unified inside the statue's feet, a fire lighted inside its body. It can be seen from the holes on the statue's eyes.

       "No, they can't leave me like this! They can't! This isn't real!" Out of her mind, the woman crawled towards the three of her kins, aligning their heads back to their bodies with her shivering hands. She was extremely devastated.

       While Méah's watching all of these scenes cluelessly, images started floating before her blank eyes. Her head started aching again.

       A woman... there's familiar woman, an elderly one, calling someone's familiar name. Blood. There was blood everywhere. Within her arms, she's clutching someone's head with which hair was almost taken over by the developing gray streaks. Lying in front of her was a decapitated body. She was hysterically crying trying to rejoin the brutally separated parts, as if a miracle would happen. Before long, someone had forcibly grabbed her hair and bent her head forward. As if the world had slowed down, she managed to scream, "Run, Méah!" In a snap, a headless body sat for a few seconds before bathing on the blood-coated ground.

        This made Méah's heart got heavier and heavier, although she had no idea who were they but her heart knew that they're special to her, that they were someone close to her. Her mind maybe disabled but not her heart.

       On her peripheral vision, a reflection of from a metal shone and a woman struggling to free herself from the inescapable fate...

         A shrill sound whistled inside her ears whilst only got her head more tormenting like it would split into two any second now. With this, she fell to the ground as these tortures continued to mock her 'barely-hanging-on' state. But a hand grabbed the chain on her neck in case she will do anything wrong, though, still allowing her on her knees.

      Her hand quivered hard, taking a full grasp on the ground as if pouring every bit of agony upon it. Her throat felt hot so as both of the edges of her eyes. Drops of water started to take shapes on them. And an unusual urge told her that she had to let them out.

 

     

    

  

     "Master! She's fighting back! I can't get a hold of her anymore!"

     A small feminine figure fell with back first on the black marble floor, coughing out a sticky, dark red substance.

     "Well then, try again! Unless you want me to send you where the rest of your kin lies." Master's candle-like fingers tightened their grip around the glass wine, thus, crushing it into pieces.