Chapter twenty-six: Three-man Ambush

With the remaining Duahe group

Once the raid was over, Pick, Caru, Oumi, and Haru were left standing over the corpses waiting for Zaru to return with Vila. After a while, however, the wait became too long concerning the survivors who were severely injured. The last patient died from poor medical treatment and the smell became unbearable, so after their lamenting, the Duahe group decided to move on out of the haunting tunnels with their tag along, Oumi.

Haru and Oumi now pass the afternoon time with a short chat in the forest as they wait for Pick and Caru to come back with the news of Mueimma. “You said something about doing what you weren’t supposed to last night.” Haru stays crouched down to Oumi’s level. “Does it have something to do with that scary man who took Vila?” The forest surrounds them with the sun poking out through the trees.

Oumi forces her big magenta eyes to look up at Haru as the tears begin to form. She slowly nods and mumbles, “His name is Vensen, he’s a very mean man.” Her nubby little hands hold her blue and red-stained dress tightly out of discomfort.

Haru gently pets Oumi’s hair. “Don’t worry, we won’t let him get you again.”

“But what about Vila?”

A warm smile overshadows Haru’s face. “Don’t you worry about her either, my brother Zaru is a tough guy.” She then puts in a side note, “I also think he’s a feminist.”

“That won’t be enough.”

Obfuscation takes over Haru.

Oumi leans in closer to her and whispers in her ear, “He’s Vindelos.”

Only a small fraction of concern is able to dig into Haru before Pick and Caru come up from the path with Muiemma.

“Guess which lucky ousada made it through the night,” Caru chirps with her oblivion to their conversation.

Mueimma rushes over to Haru before she could stand up straight and licks her to the ground with her big fat tongue.

“Gah! Muei!” Haru Shouts in joy as the giant wet tongue covers her in slobber.

Oumi backs off in a whimper.

Noticing her fear, Mueimma looks at her, lays down, and rolls over like a log to expose her belly for Oumi to rub.

“Go on, pet her.” Haru giggles to her innocence. “She loves kids.”

Carefully, Oumi comes closer to the giant man-eating monster and rubs her throat.

The big, cuddly ousada groans in pleasure from the affection.

Amazement and excitement washes over the little girl and both her hands begin to dig their way into Mueimma’s heavy fur. Giggles of joy tickle her as the two enjoy the bonding moment.

“Aw, that’s precious.”

The group jolts from the unexpected voice.

Up in one of the nearby trees is a woman crouching on a thick branch. “Hey Tonton, can we keep her?”

“Vensen specifically told us to kill the girl.” From the shadows, a man steps into the sunlight and reveals his pale, bony figure.

The woman’s long, red, and messy hair topples over her spying green eyes. A psychotic voice of anticipation rattles out of her, “Can we at least keep a piece of her? Tetei wants her eyes.”

Oumi hides behind Mueimma as the large beast gets back on all fours and warns the intruders with a low rumble in her throat.

The creepy woman licks her lips with lust as she throws daggers with her eyes towards Oumi.

Pick breaks the contact and makes his own with the woman. “If you want this girl, you have to kill me first.”

Her smile widens to show her sharp animal-like teeth as her eyes change with a beastly transformation and she crouches lower for a pounce. “Fair enough.” Like a bolt of lightning, she punts Pick to the ground and bounces off to balance herself in mid-air and lands smoothly on both feet in one slick move.

His body hits the dirt with a thud and scraps his back from the momentum.

The woman sprints her way to Oumi, but Mueimma manages to snatch the girl by her dress and pulls her out of the way just in time.

Haru quickly comes up behind the psychotic woman and puts her in an arm lock. “Muei, go!”

The woman stomps her foot onto Haru’s then uses that pain to slam the back of her head into Haru’s face.

Mueimma pulls Oumi away further from the action and uses her own body as a shield. One of her paws swings at the woman and sends her flying. Muei then picks Oumi up once again and throws her to her back.

Oumi clings to the giant’s fur for dear life as the monster sprints deeper into the woods. Her little body bounces on Mueimma’s back as the ousada jumps over rocks and dead branches. Then something suddenly impedes Mueimma and the force sends Oumi into the air over the two objects. Her back plummets to the ground and she coughs out air from the impact. She opens her eyes and turns over to see the large man who stopped Mueimma as he throws the canine to a tree and causes her to yelp. Oumi’s quick instinct is to stand up and start running in the other direction. Two steps into her bolt and she bumps into someone else with a soft thud. She screams to the pain of this person grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling on it. The tugging on her hair causes her head to turn upward and stare at the culprit.

“There you are, my little Oumi.” Vensen pulls some more on her hair as he continues with frustration in his voice, “I missed you so much. I was so worried about you.”

Mueimma explodes with rage at the sight of him and chomps onto the other man. She chucks him out of the way and darts towards Vensen.

His fist clutches onto Oumi’s actual skull and squeezes it enough for her to scream again.

Mueimma digs up the dirt beneath her paws as she comes to a screeching halt before him. Her breaths come out as heavy huffs to express her anger and readiness to show her dominance over him.

His glare keeps her at bay while his grip on Oumi slowly crushes her head like an activated mechanism.

Oumi’s crying slurs her words as she calls out the two names she can think of, “Kakashin… Yamato…”

Vensen’s glare loosens at the mentioning of the two names he expected from the beginning and starts to give Oumi some wiggle room. A faint line escapes his lips, “It’s always those two.”

Oumi struggles out of his grasp which gives Mueimma room to attack.

His hand raises for him to snap his fingers and before Mueimma can leap towards him, she freezes. He then stares at the little girl and activates the tattoo on her chest to stop her lungs from functioning.

The burning pain in her chest forces her to trip and fall to the ground. Her small body curls up in the fetal position as she strives for one more breath. No matter how hard Oumi tries, her lungs refuse to do the very thing they were created to do. Breathe. She can’t inhale any air. Her insides begin to burn and scream at her, punishing her for not taking in oxygen. Vensen comes into her eyesight by kneeling close to her as she continues with her crisis.

“You just had to run away.” Vensen gently brushes two of his fingers through her blue hair as he speaks to her calmly, “Tell me dear, how would you like to die?”

Her mouth opens for an attempt to speak, but the spell has also impeded exhaling. Not a sound can spill out of her throat.

The deadly grin returns to Vensen as he watches her suffer. “I’m sorry dear, my ears aren’t what they used to be-you have to speak up.”

Oumi tears up her dress and begins to dig her nails into the flesh of her upper body, thinking that if she can at least puncture her lungs there will be some relief. Blood and skin fill in the underside of her nails as she claws her way to her lungs. She needs air. She needs to breathe.

Vensen lifts up his hand again to break the spell with a snap of his fingers.

Air rushes into Oumi’s lungs again and she takes advantage of this. She coughs from the sudden relief and starts to replenish herself. The large wound on her chest slowly reforms itself with new skin and anything else that’s supposed to make up that area.

Vensen sweetly, yet eerily speaks to her, “I supposed I could spare you for now. I have more important things to attend: Just don’t try that again; alright?”

“My Lord,” The heavy man who had a battle with Mueimma earlier approaches Vensen with his report, “The others have been captured just as you wished. What are your next orders?”

The devious old man grabs Oumi by the hair again and pulls her up as he stands straight. He turns to face his servant and replies, “Good, now let them wander around in the house.”

“In your dwellings, My Lord?”

“No, the other one.

The man gives him a look of knowing. “Is it another vision, My Lord?”

“No, it’s more like,” Vensen strives for the words that are urging to come from his mouth, “A very good guess-from experience.”