12. The Creature's Body

"How about we see first, what he will do and what will happen next? Including, if he really wants to kill me?! I mean, moving to Azalea's place isn't easy. I have a lot to do, not just going away" after hearing my words, Antonnie looked so annoyed.

"I've told you so many times, why don't you believe me?! He's" Antonie's finger pointed at the creature. "is chasing you. He definitely want something from you. The mark on the gate door, sooner or later, will be taken back. I just warn you to save you. Why is it hard to believe me?"

I looked at him flatly. "Because of everything you've done!" Honestly, I hated him, even though I knew he's a good person. "You tricked me for years, turned Zie into a tool and cooperated with my father" was a fact he couldn't deny.

"Trusting you is very difficult, unless I really know the truth. I will not only think once or twice for you, but probably many times. I want to make sure that what you say and everything that happened is the truth. I must know that this is honesty and everything is completely real, no more illusions or games that you make for me. I want to know, are you a danger to me or do you really want to help me!" I said everything in a straightforward manner, not intending to give him confidence easily.

I ignored Antonie's gaze and chose to pay attention to the creature again. He was just silent, his body standing, floating above the lake water that looked like it was boiling. From this distance too, I could see a huge hole in his face. He had a pitch-black body, and it reminded me of the Lichens at Oka's place. He had a shape resembling a human, even wearing the same clothes as humans. His arms were folded across his chest.

Once again, I watched him carefully. It turned out he didn't have legs. As Antonie said, his body was made of a dark black liquid, and it was true. Something from the lake in front of us seemed to move up into his body, as if merging with the creature.

"I really don't remember that there is a lake here" I said once again to Antonie. "There is only a small river near the cemetery that we passed earlier, it is very shallow and the water rarely fills up" I was absolutely sure this was the first time I saw this lake.

I walked towards the lake, just before Antonie said "because it isn't a lake" he pulled me back. "The liquid you call lake is the creature's body" Between shocked and confused by his words, I immediately turned to him and glared at him.

"He had a very short active period. You can say; right now, he is sleeping" he moved his chin towards the creature. "The water of this lake seeps into every layer of soil and blends in with the surrounding water, just like the water you drink. That's how he found you."

What was that supposed to mean? This lake was the creature's body?! If this water mingled with the surrounding water, it would mean, "I might as well have drunk his body?" I asked hesitantly.

"He had a very short active period. Can you say; right now, he is sleeping" he moved his chin towards the creature. "The water of this lake seeps into every layer of soil and blends in with the surrounding water, just like the water you drink. That's how he found you."

"You said that his body seeps into the ground and mixes with groundwater, if that's true, then I've drunk it?" Antonnie nodded, and instantly I swallowed my own saliva. It felt very bitter at the base.

I took a few steps back, afraid of what might happen. "Are you sure?" I wanted to make sure.

"He's harmless under certain conditions, didn't I tell you?!" What Antonie said was true, he looked so harmless and so calm, but there was something that scared me about his calmness.

'The calm water washes away,' I thought, reminiscing. The calm look in the beginning could turn out to be very deadly later. I said that because I thought this might be the strategy. You can imagine; his body had seeped and blended with our drinking water, didn't that mean he could kill us at any time using that body part? He could turn out to be very dangerous if that was the case.

I was still curious until finally I came closer. I saw the lake water which was dark and very thick. From afar, the water didn't have a smell or anything that looked suspicious, but when I got closer to it, I smelled something very strong. It smelled like new asphalt, only not hot. So close, I could even see the reflection of my face on the surface of the water.

"Don't touch it! I don't know what will happen next, remember that!" I just remembered that this guy was as chatty as his cat. I actually felt Mickey was calmer when he was with Antonie. No matter how much the fat cat hated his master, even to the point of choosing to help Zie, he turned out to still obey him.

I was still watching the lake when something caught my eye, something moved in the water. Something lived in it. I sharpened my vision and I saw small fish swimming in this thick liquid.

I turned my gaze to Antonie and said that there were fish in this lake. "Fish?" he asked in surprise. "Any fish in there?" I nodded, pointing to where the fish were. The next second, that man pulled my arm and took me away.

He showed you what you wanted to see" Mickey said grimly. "I'm starting to feel something strange here," He added, then ran ahead of us. I had never seen him run so fast like this.

We're trying to catch Mickey. "Someone's been watching us from the beginning, but they're just silent. There are so many of them, and they were in every tree behind us earlier" Again, the fat cat said as his footsteps continued to move swiftly, although occasionally he looked exhausted because of his weight.

I was still digesting his words, because I barely felt anything. Honestly, I was still very impressed with the small fish in the lake, they look very interesting. "So actually, he's harmless, right?"

Antonie was still pulling my hand to lead me away when he said "The fish are illusions, Tha, I feel like he woke up earlier. He creates illusions for you to see what you want to see. You keep thinking that the creature's body is a lake, that is why it shows itself as the lake that you imagined."

We walked as fast as we possibly could. Antonie's idea was not a good one. How could you bring prey to its predators? Fortunately, the snow was still not heavy, at least we could still see the path leading out of the forest.

"Your ideas are always bad," Mickey sneered. "From the past until now, that reckless nature has not changed!" His tone sounded very annoyed.

I continued to pace myself while listening to Mickey's grunts, until I finally sensed something familiar to me. "Wait a moment!." I stopped then turned around, I could see the lake that we had come to from the gaps in the trees. I could still see the creature there too, its position didn't even change the slightest. I felt we were so close, although I didn't know what made me feel like I knew the creature so well. I really wanted to go back to him, it felt like something keep calling me to get closer to him.

I was still guessing at the feeling, when I saw something peeking out from the tree behind us. I caught a glimpse of a black shadow moving from one tree to another. No, not just one, but there were others. Antonie seemed to realize that too, he immediately asked me to stand behind him.

Slowly, the thin layer of snow that was around us rose and formed a thin wall of ice. Antonie grabbed my arm and immediately took Mickey in his other arm, inviting us to run away from the place.

In my running, I turned my head and found that there were about ten—if not more—smoke creatures like the ones I had seen in the burning old shopping complex. They were here, looking confused by the ice wall Antonie had made. They seemed to want to see what was behind it, but couldn't seem to. Their eyes were fiery red like hellish stones carried by stone birds, with the size of a green bean.

"It's like what I've seen in shopping complexes, they really are very similar" they were like a brand new nightmare. His movements were slow and his gaze was blank, with a cold expression. "Why are they after us?" I was not afraid, I was even more curious. Was it me the one they were after? What's the reason they were after me? The ice wall started to melt every time they touched it, one of them even got past it and started walking slowly towards us.