Out of the Ordinary

Natalie who was still moving froze in place on hearing the scream that echoed through the forest. She then sharply turned around to face in the direction of the scream.

When her eyes caught the source of the scream, she shuddered and panicked.

Jean was lying on his stomach with the other hand grabbing the hurting hand. His face was contorted, clearly drawing a reflection of the pain he was experiencing.

He forcefully tried to drag his hand away from what was piercing him. But the more he tried, the more painful it felt. The strange thing was that, he couldn't even perceive what was piercing him.

A few seconds later, blood started rushing through his vein as if pumped by something. Trying to concentrate and feel the flow of blood, Jean was shocked by what he deduced. The blood was moving toward the pierced spot of his injured hand.

Looking at the hurting spot, Jean couldn't believe his eyes. Although he could feel blood leaving his body through this part, he couldn't see even a trace of it.

'Where is the blood?'

Jean thought to himself in shock. Clearly not understanding what was happening to him at this moment.

Grinding his teeth with agony, Jean felt his hand pinned to the ground with some mysterious force. He couldn't move it even an inch.

'I had thought that this forest was a better place after visiting the orchard, but if what I am experiencing is real, then I would have been wrong with my judgement. Why didn't mom warn me about this in the first place? The pain is becoming too much for me.'

Jean now came to understand why his mom avoided the area by circling around it. Although he wasn't told by her, he already sensed something strange about the place at the moment he noticed Natalie's strange movement across the area.

He was now cursing his decision of looking at the center of the area.

'It was not my intention in the first place to do that. It was an innate force that pushed me into this.'

Jean tried recounting what happened before this excruciating experience. At that moment, he remembered that he was with Natalie before this happened. Without any further hesitation, he turned his head in the direction that he last saw Natalie. And to his surprise, Natalie was still at the same spot staring at him with a shocked face. On seeing this, he let out a frustrated groan and shifted his gaze towards the hurting hand.

Natalie who was now standing six meters away from where Jean was lying, remained motionless for a while. A few moments later, she regained her senses and lunged forward.

A few breathes later, Jean heard some footsteps approaching him. He slowly turned around to face the direction of the sound. Suddenly, Natalie passed him from the other side. Turning in her direction, he noticed her standing next to him. Her eyes were glued on Jean's aching hand.

Without further hesitation, she lowered herself and kneeled on her knees, threw a quick glance at Jean before quickly grabbing his aching hand in an iron grip. Jean looked at her with dubious eyes, not believing how strong she was.

In the next moment, she moved some of her hair that were obstructing her vision to the side. And in a split second, she pulled Jean's hand with all of her might. Jean almost felt like his hand would break, but surprisingly, it still held.

A few seconds later, after trying several times and failing on multiple occasions, Natalie withdrew her hand from Jean's hand and immediately sunk her canines in her right hand. A second later, Blood dripped off her hand and without any further delay, she quickly squeezed her injured hand under Jean's hand and tightly held it there.

A few moments later, Jean felt the rushing of blood from his body slowing down. In the next minute, the blood flow in Jean's body returned to normal and suddenly, the force that was pinning his hand on the ground disappeared like it was never there.

Noticing this, Jean quickly removed his hand and immediately got to his feet. He then massaged his hand for a few seconds as he retreated some steps away from the center of the area. To his surprise, the piercing pain had disappeared like it never existed. It even became hard for him to locate the exact spot because the object that pierced him in the hand, didn't even leave a scratch.

'How strange!'

Jean exclaimed as he stared at his hand with wide eyes. He was surprised that all the pain that he was experiencing had just disappeared the moment he withdrew his hand from where it was pinned.

At that moment, he heard a groan. Looking in the direction of the groan, he noticed Natalie putting on a contorted face with her injured hand fixed at the exact position that Jean's hand was initially. He immediately felt dreadful and tried approaching Natalie to see if he could help. But before he touched Natalie, she quickly raised her other hand and signaled him to stay away.

Jean reluctantly retreated to the outer region of the center area. This was the moment he felt some joint pains and tiredness. His strange experience had barely lasted for five minutes, but its impact was potent. This looked strange to Jean who found it hard to understand what was happening to him.

With a shrug, he continued forward with a stagger, towards the edge of the center area. When he got to the edge, he turned in Natalie's direction and leaned on one of the nearby trees with his back. He didn't want to miss on what was happening to Natalie. At the same time, he was concerned about her safety.

'What is she doing? Did she rescue me to sacrifice her own life? This can't be true. Even if it turns out to be true, I can't allow it to happen.'

Jean was busy contemplating on the reason to why Natalie saved him by subjecting herself to the suffering he was receiving. He didn't want anything to happen to his mom due to his mistake, though he knew very well that he didn't do it intentionally. It still pained him for resulting into the suffering of his mom.

 A few minutes passed by and finally, Jean saw Natalie withdrawing her hand from the spot it was pinned. A tired expression clearly written on her bleak face.

'Finally! At least she was sure with what she was doing. Although I don't know how she was able to do that. At least I still have my mom in one piece.'

On seeing that his mom was still okay, Jean couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.

She then struggled to get to her feet and straightened up, before taking a couple steps towards Jean. Feeling undecided on what was right to do between rushing to her aid or waiting for her from his spot, Jean felt sorry for his mom but still wore a smile.

On one side, he was elated by the fact that his mom managed to save herself from the ensnaring force. While on the other side, he was confused by what had happened.

This was something that he had never experienced in his entire life. He only heard stories and watched movies about magical powers. And it seems like he happened to experience one today. Albeit it wasn't as pleasing as the fiery tales about such magical powers sounded, he still managed to experience something out of the ordinary.

A minute passed by with Natalie still standing at the same spot. Jean didn't know what was running through her mind during this moment. He even felt guilty for causing his mom the suffering she was passing through.

Natalie looked spent, her hair disheveled and from a close look, somebody could spot dark circles under her eyes. This was surprising because the strange experience she went through only lasted for a half dozen minutes. What could be that that could suck energy off someone's body with such an incredible speed? That could have been the question of a witness of what just happened.

A minute later, Natalie staggered in Jean's direction. Jean vigilantly stared at her, making sure that his vision doesn't catch the center of the area once more. After struggling to avoid looking at the center of the area, Jean decided to look away for the sake of his own safety. He was not ready for the repeat of this after seeing its impact.

A few moments later, Natalie arrived at the place where Jean was waiting for her. She forced out a stifled smile and instructed Jean to lead the way.

Surprised by this action from Natalie, Jean blinked severally.

He had expected Natalie to scold him for his perilous actions, but to his surprise, Natalie turned out to be relaxed and friendly towards him. He didn't know what caused her to behave this way, considering what had just happened as a result of his actions.

They were heading in the direction of the ancient pavement. Now that Jean was familiar with the route, he didn't have any problem leading the way.

Nodding lightly, Jean turned around and disappeared in the trees as Natalie followed behind.

 ---(❤️)---