Still Alive

Mary groaned as the man pulled her close to him. She gripped onto the man's hands that were covering her mouth, trying to tear his hands away from her.

She dug her nails into his flesh. Blood dribbled down from his wound but he didn't flinch as if it wasn't painful. He glanced at Mary's hopeless struggle, smirking.

The man opened his mouth in front of Mary and closed it. Mary felt her heart pumping loudly as he pulled her even closer.

The man slowly placed his sharp teeth on Mary's neck. Mary shut her eyes tight, scared of what would happen next even though it was clear that she was about to die.

Then, she felt a gust of wind swiped through her face and heard a loud bang beside her. She felt the man's hands were gone. She slowly opened her eyes and found the man truly gone.

She immediately looked right and saw Lucius standing. He had his uninjured hand out in front of him while his injured hand was still covering his scarred eye. He was swaying left and right, trying hard not to fall.

"Lucius!" Mary cried while running to support him. "Stay there, Don't move!"

She stood in front of him.

"Sit down, Lucius!" Mary said, panicking while guiding him to sit. "Your wounds...(Mary said with a mixture of sadness and anger)How could your brother do such a thing!?"

Lucius sat down and covered his bleeding stomach and eye.

"Let me see your wounds!"

Mary pulled his hand away from his stomach. Mary could see large amount of blood escaping from his abdomen.

Then, laughter came from behind her.

They both looked in the direction, where the sound began. They saw Lucius's brother stand up on his feet again, badly wounded(but Lucius was much worse).

"You should have seen your face when I talked about our mother!" He laughed. "I can't believe you even fall for that!"

Lucius growled at him as he forced himself to get up. Mary refused to let him do so and pushed him down.

"Don't get up!" She said."See! You don't even have the strength to push me away! Stay..."

She stood up and stretched her hand out, defending Lucius.

"I won't let you hurt your brother anymore!" She yelled to the man. "If you want to kill him...then, you'll have to go through me."

The man looked at Mary, dumbfounded for short seconds, and laughed.

"What can you, a weak, pathetic puny human do?"He laughed. "Scream? Cry? Oh! I know! Why don't you try begging? If you beg, I'll give you a painless death."

Then, he continued to laugh sarcastically.

Mary felt her blood boiling, she wanted to just shut him up. She took a step forward and something warm covered half of her face from behind. It pulled her back and Mary saw it was Lucius.

Lucius glanced down at Mary with a gentle, yet painful smile. Next, he switched his gaze to his brother, standing quite far away from them.

His slit and cold eyes stared menacingly at his brother. Slowly he slithered toward his brother swaying left and right. Unexpectedly, he dashed at him.

He was still fast but a little slower than his usual speed. He raised his hand at the height of his brother's face. As he got closer, his brother moved backward and screamed. He kept yelling for his pet but it seemed like his pet had died on the ground when Lucius threw his pet at him.

Lucius's hand was a few inches away from his brother's face, his brother continued to scream and turn his face away, closing his eyes like how Mary

did when she knew she was near death.

But nothing happened...

The next thing they knew was Lucius collapsed on the ground. Mary stared at Lucius's body on the ground, her eyes widened. She was breathing heavily.

"Lucius! Wake Up!" She shouted. "Please! Lucius!"

Then, she heard a laugh. It was coming from Lucius's older brother.

"Oh... I didn't expect him to die just like that." He said while trying to contain his laughter. "He seemed so serious about killing me...but I guess his still weak as always. How lucky I am..."

His smile suddenly vanished as he walked closer to Mary. Mary slowly backed away as he took a step forward.

"Get away from me! Don't get any closer!" Mary cried.

"Oh? You're scared now?"He said in an angry and disappointed tone. "I thought you were going to shut me up...No?I guess you were only putting on a show because my brother was there, weren't you?"

He chuckled.

"How pathetic..."

Mary kept switching her gaze to Lucius. Half of her was worried he was dead, and the other half was hoping he would get up and protect her.

As her gaze was on both of them, she stepped on a pebble and lost balance. She fell backward as she yelled. She turned her body to the side before hitting the ground.

Pain shot up from her elbow as her elbow broke her fall. She screamed in pain while covering her elbow.

Then, she remembered the man. She looked up and the man was already in front of her. He smirked and choked Mary by the neck. Mary yelped as he squeezed harder around her neck.

She gripped on the man's hand, trying to rip his hands away from her. She dug her nails into his flesh, hoping his grip would loosen up but it didn't.

Her vision was starting to turn blurry. Then, she noticed his stomach was unarmed. Instinct told her to kick his stomach and she did. The man groaned and covered his stomach with both his hands, releasing Mary's neck.

Mary gasped for air and hastily pushed herself up off the ground. Her elbow was burning in pain but she didn't care. The only thought in her mind was Lucius.

She stood up and dashed to him. Calling him with a weak voice.

"Lucius!Lucius!Please don't die!"She called.

She kneeled down next to him while pushing him gently.

"Lucius!Lucius!Wake up! Please!"

Then, she noticed Lucius's chest was heaving up and down. She felt tears in her eyes as she sighed in relief.