CHAPTER 10 THE INHABITANTS

Scene 1:

I came up to the starseer. She was half laid, sitting against the rock wall.

“You awake now?” I asked as I raised my hand. Index and middle fingers stuck like a wand, sparkle popped up.

“If you dare play with fire, while in this case it’s water, I swear I will shock you with a blast of my two fingers!” I warned as I smirked, though it might sound a bit nasty.

Her face was on the side, half covered by her long silver hair. So in my view, I could barely see her face.

She gave me a glance through silver strands of hair, and said with a calm stable voice: “So you possess the power of thunder. You’re a skywalker.”

She got a really sweet voice that I could not deny. But I didn’t like people call me skywalker, which sounded a bit ironic and racist.

“And you’re a starseer.” I said.

“What’s your name? Why you attacked my shop? and wasted every single drop of collection I had.” I asked as my anger rose. The sparkle on my fingertips made a crack noise.

But she would not be frightened easily. Instead, she gave me a disbelief look, and said:

“It is said that you guys live high above in the heaven palace, following the Order of Thunder, guard of the immortal world. So my question is, why such an elite high standing creature, would have lived a pathetic life like mortals? What bothered you so much that even made you wanna be a fallen?”

I appeared calm. But deep down in my heart, I had a feeling of fear, because what the girl just said, was all true.

The next moment, she turned her head, facing me with her crystal alluring eyes.

I was stunned all in a sudden, like being spelled. Then I realized it was all because of the eyes.

Her eyes looked different than before. They were not as blue and peaceful as a lake in starry night. Instead, the crystal glim of her eyes was like a mirror of souls, which caught my attention right in the moment when we had an eye contact.

It was like me in wonderland. My mind was instantly involved in the crystal mirror, loss of control. I just couldn’t help looking straight into it.

In the mirror, I saw a reflection of my past, which appeared on many different faces of the crystal. They were like the shards of my memory, replaying as if it were a movie.

My heart was pounding like a bomb as the images in mirror became more and more disturbing. I had no idea what was going on. But I did realize something: the rewind of my memory was getting close to the darkest secret that I had always withheld.

“Stop…stop…STOP!” I yelled as I closed my eyes and bended over, almost knelt.

Pinks and Aezo immediately ran to me and tried to get me up by holding my arms. I heard they calling my name, over and over again.

“Doctor! Doctor! Are you ok? Wha…what’s going on? Doctor…”

It actually worked. I was trapped in my memory when I heard they called me “Doctor”, which reminded me who I was, instead of what I used to be.

Then I realized this was all about nothing but spell cast by the starseer. While I was zoned out, she could do anything she wanted.

Instantly, I raised my hand, firing a flow of lightning chain from each of my fingertips. Pinks and Aezo were freaked out and jumped back, while the starseer barely moved before the chains lashed her and pushed her on the walls.

I took a breath, and stood up again. The flows of lightning chain connected me and her. Her neck, both wrists and ankles were all strapped by chains, and I tried my best to avoid eye contact in case she spelled me one more time.

“Don’t look at her eyes!” I warned the two kids.

But Pinks and Aezo seemed too scared to take eyes off. I had to shouted: “Turn around! Now!”

Then they started to turn their back on the witch, while I clenched my fingers a bit more to fasten the chains on her.

“Don’t you dare play tricks with me.” I said in a cold voice.

But she replied: “Then kill me, because I have just spotted your little secret.”

I guessed this was her trick to piss me off so that I would be mad at her, yelling, shouting, or anything involved with eye contact.

I smiled as I lowered my head. For a second I truly wanted to hurt her in a bad way. But I took self-control and just stayed calm. Then I said:

“You know where we are? This is Underworld, Rouland. I guess some chick like you from far east is absolutely ravishing to the folks here. But they’re not as kind and nice as people in your state, so we’re gonna move. If you wanna live, you better be nice with us. Because we’re the only humans here.”

Then I disconnected the chains and let her go.

“Now we move. We need to get up to the ground. This cave is not intended for human.” I said as I led the way forward.

Scene 2:

A few minutes later, Aezo, Pinks, the starseer and I, were hiking in the cave. I totally had no idea where the exit was. But I guessed we would not miss it if we kept going in an ascending way.

The starseer remained in silence. I didn’t care if she would backstab me again. After all this place totally sucked, she would die here without my help. I let the two kids go ahead of me, in case the bitch behind really got crazy.

“Do you hear it?” Pinks broke the silence.

“What?” Aezo looked at her without any clue.

“It just…makes me concerned. I think I’ve heard something that…is very annoying.” Pinks sounded confusing herself. Then she looked back, asking for my help.

I looked around. This dark cave reminded me of a film called “The Descent”, in which six bitches hang out for shit and found themselves end up in a dark underground place. But they were not the only thing alive deep down in the cave. Something else was lurking in the shadow.

I guessed our situation was somehow like that.

“Listen!” Pinks suddenly stopped. So did the rest of us.

“What’s that?” Aezo asked as he tried his best to listen.

“Someone is stalking us, ever since the beginning.” The starseer whispered behind me.

Pinks heard her. So she quickly turned around, using the torchlight on her cell to light up our background.

But I was dazzled for a second. Then I heard the creepy sound too. Something like a serpent crawling over the ground, but moving faster, from what left behind to where on our front, only in a flash of time.

“Show up, you motherf#ker.” I said as I passed the two kids, standing at the very front, facing it.

Pinks and Aezo got nervous and stepped back, on guard.

Then I heard a crack of smile just 6 feet ahead. Something appeared, a pair of jade-like snake eyes, flickering in the darkness.

“Wha…what is it?” Aezo sounded scared.

But Pinks was brave enough to raise her phone. A stream of light was projected just right on the figure, a man.

The man was dazzled instantly, and raised his arm to block the light. But soon he got used to it, not afraid at all, smirking while said in a creepy voice:

“Well, well, well…I can smell your flesh a mile away. What brings you fresh human down underground in our dark place?”

The man looked like a Drow, dark skin, horrible look, with a long dark hair and a pair of pointed ear.

“Is he a barbarian or something?” Aezo whispered.

“No, it’s not him, not even human. What it appears like is just an avatar.” I explained.

“Sounds like we’re on some private territory huh?” I said to the avatar.

He seemed annoyed, a flash of evil thought uncovered in his wicked green eyes.

“You’re not as fresh as the others. I think you probably have no idea what this place is.” He said.

I shrugged: “I don’t even care. I’m here to look for Jia Gu, if you happen to know this guy and I think you should, because he really gets some shit in underworld.”

But the avatar grinned, and his big mouth cracked just like those reptiles. I could even see the flicking tongue in and out, which was really disgusting.

“Never heard of it.” He simply said.

“Really?” I was kind of pissed off and ready for a fight. But just when I was about to raise my hand and shoot his big f#kin mouth with a lightning strike, the starseer behind suddenly warned:

“There’re more of them. We’re in the trap.”

Because of her warning, Aezo and Pinks got instant panic and turned their phones aside to light up the unknown, which in fact gave the avatar a perfect chance to rush.

The moment when the light was taken off from the avatar, I already saw it coming.

“Damn it!” I told myself as I raised my hand immediately, firing a few lightning chains right at the direction. Even though the thing moved, it would be caught by at least one of my chains.

Then I heard a noise of crack with a sparkle showed up once the lightning hit it. Both Aezo and Pinks were freaked out and then realized what a big mistake they just made. Fortunately I got the avatar and locked its position with all chains.

Once again, the avatar became visible in light and chains, and its reptile tail twisted like a crazy whiplash, pounding on the ground.

“Wha…what is it!” Aezo sounded terrified as he raised his voice without attention.

But before I could answer his question, the avatar itself sounded even more panic than Aezo, raising its voice: “Re…red flash…no…no you gotta be kidding…that’s impossible!”

Pinks frowned, and questioned: “Wait…do you know him?”

She was actually asking me. So I gave her a smirk, and explained: “Looks like we get a lot memory to refresh. So tell me, who is the chief of your clan now? He must remember the day when I first came down and slaughtered a lot of his kin.”

(To be continued…)