Droplets of blood followed Nathan's figure as he made a run for the bridge. He had no time to waste as the rest of the seven-eyed beasts would be catching up soon. Measuring the damage he had sustained with a quick glance, Nathan was sad to find out it was as awful as he originally thought it would be.

His new shirt was in tatters, shredded to pieces and drenched in blood, his blood... Its original whiteness was long lost to a darker shade of red. As for the lacerations on his body? Thankfully, the dog’s claws didn’t penetrate too far inside, making the cuts shallow enough for his organs to be left untouched.

*Grrrr!*

The beasts’ howling echoed closer, urging him to make haste. Pumping adrenaline instead of blood, Nathan was able to ignore his newfound wounds and escape the maze-like alleys, his instincts wildly urging him to escape the fastest he could. Rushing out to the open street, the sound of water flowing quietly downstream was the first thing he heard, quickly followed by a lightly damp or even moldy scent assaulting his nostrils.

It wasn’t awful, but it couldn’t be defined as comfortable either. However, the smell was the least of Nathan’s worries as he inspected the surroundings. Acting as a natural divider, the river, in all the sense of the word, separated the city in two. Different from the actual streets, it existed in a lower elevation level, probably meant to prevent flooding, but viewing it from above only made the river look even more captivating than it already was. Stone walls surrounded the water, allowing it to flow uninhibited below the bridge, which stood at street level.

It seemed quite well-designed, and even the messily constructed houses facing the river were built in a straight line, showing a slight resemblance to the well-planned Victorian-era houses on the main street.

‘Now that’s surprising,’ marveling at the sight for less than a fraction of a second, Nathan edged closer to the bridge. Different from the buildings that were constructed using a combination of wood, stone, and a binding agent of unknown origins, the bridge was made entirely out of stone paving, much like the side roads on the main street.

All of these little details might look irrelevant at first sight, but if one were to look at the greater picture, they would realize one thing. Whoever designed the city must have taken into account not only the main roads but even the subsidiary paths as well. As for how the messy buildings came to be? That was still a mystery.

Staring at the wide and empty bridge for a moment, Nathan wondered whether Ayla was playing a trick on him or not. ‘Should I just cross it normally?’ He mused inwardly before shaking the dangerous thoughts out of his mind.

A stairway going down all the way to water level was situated by the bridges’ side, and Nathan didn’t hesitate to sprint down the stairs. If there was a way to cross over from down below, then it had to be there. Looking at the river stretching in the distance, Nathan couldn’t help feeling tiny like an ant. It was deep and murky, like a bottomless abyss ready to swallow him whole.

Swallowing the lump forming in his throat, Nathan’s gaze fell on the other side of the river. It wasn’t far, but it couldn’t be called near either. ‘About fifteen meters?’ He guessed and searched for a way to get to the other side.

It didn’t take long for Nathan to find one though. ‘You have to be kidding me,’ with more than a few drops of sweat running down his spine, Nathan stared in disbelief underneath the bridge. “Siiigh…” Pinching his forehead, Nathan made sure his eyes weren’t playing a trick on him and let out a tired sigh.

Intentionally or not, someone had nailed curved iron bars under the bridge, forming what resembled a climbing frame, starting from one side and ending to the other. ‘There is not even a safety guardrail around it…’ Shuddering at the thought of his arms going numb halfway across the bridge, Nathan gulped one more time and made it to the starting point. He didn’t have a choice, so he might as well do it now that adrenaline was still on his side.

Rubbing his sweaty hands on his jeans, Nathan spit on them and gripped the first iron bar he could reach. He wasn’t going to try the impossible and go super-human on the bars… Instead, using his legs as support, he carefully moved along the path, one bar at the time, praying the dogs wouldn’t be able to follow him to the other side.

*Woof!*

Having barely crossed one third of the bridge, the dogs chasing after him seemed to have finally caught up. Going down the stairway on all four, they howled madly at the slow-moving Nathan, urging him to turn back. Needless to say, all Nathan heard was the dogs barking and decided to ignore them. He was about to enter the toughest part of the whole ordeal and would rather remain focused on it.

“Ugh…” Even though the cuts on his torso weren’t deep, they were cuts all the same, and, the hunched position Nathan found himself in as he got further down the bridge allowed for the wounds to rub against each other. Like a sponge being squeezed dry, drops of blood flowed out of his body, falling inside the murky waters as he moved on.

Ignoring the pain, Nathan hardened his resolve and kept moving; there wasn’t much he could do other than that. For, even if he turned back now, only death awaited him. Sweating buckets, Nathan decided to take a break around the halfway point. Making sure his legs were tightly clutched between two iron bars, he slowly lowered his upper body, releasing one hand at a time as he rested in an upside-down position.

Closing his eyes, Nathan lamented over the past. The last time he remembered doing something like this was when he was still in junior school. A time when he had nothing to worry about and was free to do as he pleased… Well, mostly free but whatever. Opening his eyes slowly, Nathan saw droplets of his blood fall inside the waving currents, reminding him of all the blood he had lost. ‘I wonder what would happen if I just fell? Would I be free of this madness?’

Shaking his slightly dizzy head, Nathan recalled the last words Ayla said to him before he left.

~~~

“Don’t cross the bridge from above, it could be dangerous, just go under it. Okay?” Ayla asked yet another question and Nathan nodded crookedly in return. “Good!” Looking at Nathan’s confused face, she let out a small chuckle and grabbed an empty piece of paper. “I’ll write down the directions, just in case you forget them. So, make sure you don’t lose it.” With her gaze fixed on the note, she wrote down words faster than the wind.

Nathan didn’t interrupt her, patiently waiting for her to finish writing while thinking, ‘Thank god she decided to write it down…’ His brain was already on the verge of exploding, just how complicated could the streets be? He wondered as he recalled the wide-open main street. ‘It shouldn’t be that bad, should it?’ Unwilling to believe all the horrors he had heard coming out of Ayla’s mouth, Nathan stood by the window sill, gazing at the grey sky.

“Here you go, I have most of it written down, make sure you don’t stray from the path, and nothing bad will happen to you… Probably.”

‘Probably?!’ Nathan sucked in a big gulp of air as his eyelids twitched. Walking closer to Ayla, he received the makeshift map she had drawn for him and gave it a quick look. ‘It really is complicated… Are there really that many dangers lurking in the streets?’ Nathan mused and turned around to leave, thanking her for the map as he moved closer to the door.

“One more thing before you leave,” With one eyebrow raised, Nathan turned around and his gaze involuntarily fell at Ayla’s enchanting pupils. No matter how hard he denied it, he never got enough of that gaze. Swallowing down the instinctive question ready to escape from his mouth, Nathan simply waited for her to continue.

“No matter what you do,” making a slight pause to give meaning to her words, Nathan had never seen Ayla look so serious. “Do not fall in the river.” Baffled and lost for words, he nodded and once more turned to leave, ready for a quick journey to the Cathedral. ‘Do not fall in the river she says… Why would I jump in the river anyway?’

“Oh, and Nathan,” a little irritated now, he once more turned around and waited for her to speak. “Good luck, and…” pausing one more time to give emphasis to her words, Ayla took a deep breath and added. “Be safe.”

The words echoed inside Nathan’s mind like a lullaby; this was his first time seeing Ayla making such a face. ‘Is she actually… Worried?’ He made a wild guess, slightly unwilling to leave the room’s premises.

Alas, unable to maintain eye contact for too long, Nathan nodded and uttered a muffled ‘thanks,’ before finally leaving the small study.

~~~

‘It’s time to continue…’ Having been hanging upside down for a while now, Nathan felt the blood rushing to his head and decided it was time to move on. His hands were still hurting but there was nothing he could do about that. “Hng!” Raising his body upwards like one would when doing a curl-up, he wailed in pain as his wounds rubbed against each other. ‘Fuck!’ Cursing inwardly, Nathan’s torso rolled back as he failed to latch onto the bars.

“Haaf… Huff!” Taking in deep breaths, his legs almost gave out from the pressure. ‘One step at a time, Nathan… One step at a time!’ Chanting inwardly to give himself a boost of strength, Nathan swayed back and forth to gain momentum and tried a second time. ‘That’s it!’ After the horrible first attempt, he was more than happy to have succeeded with the second one.

*AWOOOOOO!!!*

By the time Nathan reached the halfway mark, a howl far louder than the ones he had ever heard before echoed through the city. Intimidated by the sound, the dogs immediately ceased barking, and silence was once more restored inside the streets. ‘The heck was that?!’ Less than willing to take a look at the monstrosity coming his way, Nathan made haste for the other side of the river. He had just turned the other way around and was going downhill instead of climbing, making it far easier than it used to be. Before long, he would be at the other side, and hopefully freed from the dogs’ chase?

Only Nathan’s panting could be heard as he slowly crossed the bridge, and, while he did, the dogs remained quiet for the most part, only letting soft growls escape their jaws now and then. “Phew…” Exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, Nathan’s body collapsed the moment his feet reached solid ground. Exhausted beyond words, he tried to regain his bearings and...

Willingly or not, his gaze fell on the other side of the river, where a bunch of dogs crowded the otherwise empty streets. All of them were staring daggers at him, intent on tearing him apart, and yet, for now, he couldn’t care less.

Standing tall at the upper end of the stairway was a three-meter tall monstrosity. In all the sense of the word, the monster seemed to be a league above everything else around it. Be it on looks, size, or even demeanor, everything about this creature was a notch above the rest of the pack. Its fur was darker than night itself, the teeth extending out of its massive maw were sharper than blades, and finally, the aura emanating out of its body was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine, Nathan included.

The beast’s unblinking gaze was locked on Nathan’s tiny figure. From its perspective, he must have looked like nothing more than a pesky snack. No, he wasn’t just a snack, he was a pest that actually dared to kill one of its underlings.

With his back resting against the wall, Nathan shivered in fear but held the beast’s gaze regardless. There wasn’t much else he could do in this situation, immobilized, trembling, and dead tired, he just had to wait and see. Should the monstrosity decide to attack him right now, not even bones would be left behind. However,

*AWOOOOOOOOO!!!*

Instead of attacking, the monster raised its head high and howled loudly.

*Awoo! Awooo! Awo!*

One after the other, the pack of rabid dogs screamed towards the sky and started dispersing, running back inside the messy alleyways.

The pack leader was the last one to leave, its murderous gaze locked with Nathan’s for a while longer before it finally turned around and disappeared inside the hazy mist.

“Pheeeew…” With the adrenaline rush coming to an end, Nathan shivered as he felt an unprecedented coldness running through his body. Pain, exhaustion, weariness, fear he felt all of those as he quietly lay unmoving.

Staring at the grey sky above, he couldn’t help lamenting inwardly as the weird sleepiness overcame him. ‘I live to see another day…’ And with that, extreme tiredness engulfed his very being as his mind instantly shut down.

However, Nathan failed to realize one thing. He was not alone...