The Monster Hidden Within

Roth and I took a long way down toward an eastern looking place nearby. While walking, Roth and I have small talks to each other to pass the time.

Joseph: "I didn't know that you trained Lara." I said, surprised when I remembered how Lara could handle himself.

Roth: "Yeah, I tried to teach Lara's Father how to shoot, but he was a bad shot." he said while having a reminiscing look on his face. "So, I instead taught Lara how to use a gun, who took it well."

After telling me his life story together with Lara, we both became quiet as we slowly walked down the mountain. Roth looked at me with an intrigued look on his face. I saw this and asked him a question.

Joseph: "what's with that look on your face." I said while looking at Roth.

Roth: "what made you decide to leave your relationship with Lara, you both mutually loved each other." when I heard this, I answered his question without thinking much.

Joseph: "I have enemies that want to use any means necessary to get to me, even using Lara as bait to drag me out." I said with a stoic look on my face. When Roth heard this, he frowned and asked me a question.

Roth: "so, you are pursuing Lara, knowing that you have enemies who are hunting you." he said with an angry look on his face. I looked at this and sweated a little. I quickly answered his question.

Joseph: "don't worry; they won't be able to touch Lara.." I said with a reassuring smile on my face, while we were talking, I felt that someone was looking at us. I looked around and saw a glint in the distance. When I saw this, I jumped towards Roth. When we were on the ground, Roth looked at me with a questioning look on his face.

Roth was about to ask me a question when I peeked my head out of cover. I then got back to the ground when I heard gunshots far away. Roth looked at me in surprise and started.

Roth: "Shit sniper," he said while crawling near a tree for cover. He looked at me with a worried look on his face. "Kid, leave me behind here I will be the distraction. You should slowly sneak from behind to catch the sniper off guard." I didn't answer him but just started crawling away from Roth.

When I heard Roth started free firing from his cover to draw the sniper's attention, I quickly crawled towards the sniper. While crawling, my heart kept pumping faster as I inched closer to the enemy, which got me confused as to why my body was excited.

I reached the sniper's nest and looked at the big tree that the sniper is sniping on when I saw that I could not reach him. I was going to grab my gun when suddenly I heard someone swinging something at me from behind me. While I was still in a prone position, I rolled away, when I knew that I was now in the distance away from the enemy I looked at what he was swinging and saw that he was using a machete.

???: "hey, guys! We have someone who has balls here to come near our sniper nest." when he said his words all of a sudden, more people were showing up from nowhere. I looked at this with a stoic look on my face. But my heart kept pumping faster as more people were showing up.

I started running towards the guy in front of me who has a machete. He tried to swing his weapon, but I grabbed his wrist and put it into an arm lock. I used him as a meat shield as I walked towards the people who were shooting at their people. While I was inching closer towards them, my heart kept pumping faster as I saw the terror in their eyes.

Solarii #1: "SHIT! SHIT! Keep shooting him; he is getting closer." he yelled while spraying down his brother, who I was using as a shield. When I am near them, I threw the dead guy I am holding towards them for distraction.

Then I ran towards them with a gun on hand and my hidden blade out from my bionic arm. I quickly ran towards an enemy who was trying to reload in front of me. He looked at me in terror as I cut his head off.

Solarii#2: "He killed our brother; we need to kill him!" I quickly pointed my suppressed gun at the guy who was stalking—killing him with one shot on the head. I looked at the people who were shaking in fear as they looked at me, which got me confused as to why they looked at me in horror. I let go of my previous thoughts as I proceed to run towards them to eliminate them.

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---Roth pov---

I have been trying to get the sniper's attention for a few minutes now, but all of a sudden, I heard gunshots in the distance. After a few minutes, it becomes silent. I tried peeking but saw that the sniper is not shooting anymore.

I slowly stood up and started slowly walking towards the sniper's nest. When I reached the nest, I saw that the sniper's head was gone. I looked at him and saw that his sniper rifle I took that away from him and started searching for Joseph.

When I was searching for Joseph, I saw more headless bodies. Some bodies have one bullet hole on their head. But one thing that got me to cringe was a body that had his head smashed to a tree repeatedly. I looked around and saw Joseph, who was in the center of an army of dead bodies.

I was going to head towards him, but I stopped midway when I saw that he had a scary smile on his face. I scanned from head to toe and saw that he wasn't hurt, but his hands and face have some blood on it. As he sensed me, Joseph turned his head and started talking to me.

Joseph: "oh... It's just you Roth I thought that they were more enemies." he said, still having that scary smile on his face. I looked at him for a minute before asking him a question.

Roth: "Joseph, do you always have that smile on your face." I said towards Joseph, who looked surprised when I told my words. Joseph brought his hands towards his face and started feeling the lower half of his face and was even more astonished that he had a smile on his face. Joseph frowned and stopped smiling, he looked at me with a stoic look on his face and started talking to me.

Joseph: "I might just need a bit more therapy than I thought." he said jokingly, trying to dodge my gaze. I saw that he wasn't trying to answer my question, so I let it go, but I know something is wrong with Joseph. I looked at the sniper rifle on my hands and threw it at Joseph.

Roth: "it seems that you could better use that than me." I said, pointing at his hands that are using crutches. Joseph just nodded and hurriedly walked away. I looked at his back and the bodies around the area.

What I saw would haunt any man who understands those bodies that died painfully. I looked back at Joseph and whispered something to myself.

Roth: "Joseph, what monster are you hiding…"