Fight

Ahanlem rushed towards Chaoba and saw that he was covered in dirt and blood. Alarmed, she looked closer and found there were scratch marks all over his body but thankfully they weren't deep.

"Chaoba! How did this happen? Don't worry Naoba is coming with help now. Hang on." Ahanlem said as she helped him.

The injured boy had his eyes tightly shut but he nodded. His hand raised slightly and he seemed to be trying to tell something.

"Hm? What is it? Where's Tomba? Did he run away somewhere?"

Ahanlem furrowed her brows in confusion and look to where the hand was directed. It was towards the hut. She saw that the tattered door was flung wide open and she could even make out a pair of legs lying inside the room from the lights of the torches.

She immediately understood. Tomba was inside. And so was the assailant.

What should she do now? Should she wait for Naoba and the others to rescue them? Or should she go in and save Tomba herself?

She decided to wait. Because what else could she do? Chaoba was injured, Tomba seemed to be lying unconscious inside and she has no physical strength to confront a mad woman after all.

But then, all of a sudden, a small shadow came rushing out right towards them and came crashing on her. On instinct, Ahanlem almost stood up and ran but she realised it was the child and relaxed instantly. The boy was bawling his little eyes out and had snot all over his puffy red face. When he saw that it was a normal person he ran into and not someone crazy, he hug the person and cried even harder. And loudly too.

Ahanlem was alarmed. And sure enough, the mad woman came out to look for the child, her facial expression looking crazy as ever.

When she saw the child was hugging a person, she looked furious and rushed madly towards them. Ahanlem immediately picked up the child, stood and ran like her life depends on it, which was true at the moment.

Ahanlem was chased for quite a while round the wide clearing, miraculously still uncaught! If there was one thing Ahanlem was physically fit for, it was running. Still, it was tiring. She wanted to run towards the woods where help was coming but she didn't want to risk running in the dark with a child. So, this farce continued for a while until Ahanlem had an idea. She picked up her speed, ran right inside the house and just as the mad woman was coming she slammed the door shut and lock it! She pressed her body on it until she realised that the door was hard enough and unable to be easily knocked down for a while. She finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ahanlem put the child down, gestured with her index finger on her lips telling the little boy to be quiet and then turned towards the person who lay on the cold floor. Sure enough it was Tomba who was unconscious. She went to check on him, he was breathing evenly but she noticed there was blood on his left arm caused by scratches. It seems he fainted out of fear and shock.

Meanwhile, the crazed woman was screaming and banging on the door like some creature. Ahanlem became anxious and afraid. She got up and looked around the room, in a dark eerie corner of the house, she saw a long walking wooden cane. She walked towards it and grabbed it. It had trails of dark blood lines all over but it was thick enough to be used as a weapon. With the cane in hand, she returned to Tomba's side and nudged him gently, saying,

"Tomba, wake up. We are in danger. Get up. We have to get out of here."

"…Ugh." Tomba whimpered in pain, squinting his eyes but he was finally waking up.

"Ahanlem..? What's happening?" He slowly got up. Rubbing his eyes, he saw Ahanlem beside him with a wooden cane and a kid crouching quietly in the corner. He looked around and said,

"Where's Chaoba? Naoba? The mad woman, is it gone?"

"Naoba is yet to come with the others. Chaoba is hurt outside. And the woman is locked outside. But the door won't hold for long. We have to do something and get out." Ahanlem answered looking grim.

Tomba gulped when he heard that the crazy woman or rather creature, was screaming like a monkey, banging the door violently.

"Where did you get the stick? Is there more?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, this is the only one but don't worry I have a plan." Ahanlem said then pointed at a wall opposite them where there was a hole, large enough for a small person to go through. She added, "I will take the walking stick with me and crawled out first, then I will go around and chase that creature out of the door. Right after, you take the boy and run out as fast as you can into the woods. Do you understand?"

"What about Chaoba? And you..?"

"I'll think of something. The kid is the one it's after. That's why the sooner we get him to safety the better."

"A-Alright let's do it."

They put the plan right into action. Ahanlem crawled out and slowly went around the hut. She stood near the end of the wall peeking out and sure enough, just a few steps from her, the creature was still screaming and banging.

She calm her nerves and beating heart, exhaled a long breath and immediately rushed out. Bang! Bang! She hit the creature hard twice with all her strength and then immediately made a ran for it.

As expected, the creature turned and followed her, almost growling furiously. "NOW!" Ahanlem shouted at the top of her lungs. Right after, the door slammed open and Tomba carrying the boy, ran straight for the woods.

The mad creature stopped chasing suddenly. Feeling tricked, she screamed, then changed her direction towards the woods. But Ahanlem understood her motive and rushed to block her way. She swung the wooden cane to hit again but it failed. On the contrary, the long stick was firmly caught in the creature's grimy hands; Ahanlem barely could move an inch. She was helpless.

Oh shit. What to do now?

The creature was actually a human woman but she seemed to have the strength of an ox. And she was manically glaring at Ahanlem like she owned her money. Ahanlem's heart sank and before she could think to escape, her body was violently pressed down and she felt a heavy pressured on her neck. The creature was strangling her!

She choked as she kept trying to breathe. The only vision she saw was the crazed furious expression of the woman. Ahanlem's eyes were getting blurry, she was losing air and consciousness.

Was she really going to die here and now in this strange place?

Suddenly, from her blurred sight she observed that the woman had turned her head to something and the pressure on her throat loosened completely. She grabbed the chance to kick the assailant with her feet and rolled out immediately. She coughed and gasped for air greedily. When her vision finally cleared, she was surprised to see Tomba was clumsily swinging the wooden stick at the crazy woman. However, the cursed creature was agile like a wild monkey dodging all the attacks. Then, Tomba's hand was abruptly grabbed and viciously lunged straight towards the burning torches! But by some miracle, he landed a little away from the scorching fires.

Still the wooden stick which was formerly in his hand had already caught fire and was burning. But that's when they both hurt a loud painful screech. Both turned towards the sound of the cry and saw the mad woman grasping her chest like she was in horrible pain.

Faint smoke trails were coming out from the chest. Like it had been burned.

Tomba, "Huh...?"

Ahanlem managed to understand something, somehow. Swiftly, she ran, snatched the stick from Tomba and threw it whole in the blazing fire. The result that followed was another blood curling shriek from the creature.

The night was dry and hot so the fire had kept burning ceaselessly. The mad creature let out a series of agonizing screams as the wooden stick was being charred black by the roaring fire.

Right at this very moment, voices were heard and a moment later, a crowd appeared carrying torches, sickles and spades. Naoba was right in front of them, next to him was the boy being tightly embraced by the father at long last.

Ahanlem sighed in relief. This will be all over soon.

But she thought too soon.

Out of the blue, a man cried out as he pointed, "G-Ghost!!"

Everyone turn to look and there it was.

The mad woman had lost unconsciousness and right beside her stood a black shadow of a person.

This was not what they expected.