Chapter 3: Welcome To My Home

"It hurts…" The young boy groaned.

Pain at this level was something he had never felt before.

That liquid substance pierced deep into his shoulder, ruthlessly crushing his bone while leaving enough holes to cause him serious bleeding.

He was clutching hard onto his shoulder now to stop himself from bleeding out and dying.

His breathing, although heavy, was starting to grow fainter by the second, and his vision was starting to get blurrier.

"Is this what it feels like to die?" He muttered.

Watching him, the man who caused him that much pain couldn't help but smirk.

"I was aiming for your heart but I guess it'd be boring if you died straight away." He uttered. "Use whatever's left of your consciousness, make sure to watch carefully as I slice her up."

With that said, he began to make his way to the unconscious girl, the grin on his face growing wider the closer he got to her, like a predator about to feast on easy prey.

"Hey!" The boy called just before he could pick her up.

"What now?"

He sounded quite irritated as he turned around to find the boy standing on both feet; the fire in his eyes seemed to have been reignited.

His legs were shaking from exhaustion but he was using everything he had to keep them planted on the ground.

"I'm not done with you yet." He said, his heavy breathing making his voice sound bolder.

"You're a difficult one to put down, huh? Are you sure you didn't come from a lineage of cockroach ability users?"

After saying that, he shook his head before proceeding to crack his fingers.

"For someone your age, a lot of other people might admire your resilience, but not me; it's really annoying when people refuse to die, so I'll make sure you're dead this time."

Pointing his finger at him once again, the black liquid slowly began to build up on its tip once again.

All the boy could deduce from that was that he was in for another world of pain, and no one would willingly accept that kind of pain.

His left shoulder was still in serious pain, but while he was still holding down the bleeding with his right hand, he slowly raised his left hand toward the man with his palms wide open.

"What are you trying to do now?" The man chuckled. "Oh well, it's not like it matters."

He fired the mysterious liquid toward the boy at that moment, but just as it left his hand, the boy quickly closed his hands.

"Formless space."

What the man felt at that moment was something he couldn't explain, it was like everything suddenly froze.

Then he found himself in a dark void space.

It didn't take long before everything reverted to normal again.

However, something was different; he remembered firing the liquid at the boy, but what he fired forward, for some reason, quickly pierced his throat from behind.

He was left in utter shock as his blood sprayed upward from his throat.

"No, this is impossible." He muttered in a hoarse voice as he crashed to the ground, both hands clutching onto his throat.

He struggled for a little while but there was ultimately nothing he could do about a throat wound that deep.

With the main obstacle standing in his path now gone, the boy crashed down on the ground.

However, he did not relax, picking up the dagger beside him, he cut off a part of his left sleeve and used it to tie up his wound.

It was a bit difficult but he was able to get it done, temporarily putting his life out of danger.

Now that he was done with that, he realized that it was starting to get dark, and looking up, the sun seemed to have started setting.

"We have to get out of here, it's not safe here at night." He said as he dragged himself toward the girl who was still unconscious.

It didn't take him long to get to her and as soon as he did, he proceeded to pick her up.

In the process of doing that, her hood suddenly fell off, properly revealing her face.

Long brown hair, silky white skin and beautiful long eyelashes, most of it was covered in dust now though.

The boy caught himself staring for a few seconds.

"She's pretty." He muttered before quickly shaking his head.

__________ _________

A few minutes later, the girl who was on the back of the moving boy at the moment had regained her consciousness.

She could hear the sound of his steps hitting the ground, his body trembling with each step as his breathing grew heavier.

She had passed out before they could deal with the assassin so waking up on the back of the boy who had already been heavily battered before she passed out was far from what she was expecting when she opened her eyes.

They seemed to be out of the forest, and he was currently heading toward a house a few meters away from them now; the house up ahead happened to be the only one in the area.

'Why is his body shaking so much?' She pondered.

That was when her gaze fell on his left. The sight of bloody white clothing wrapped around his shoulder had her massively shocked, and before she knew it, a mildly loud gasp had escaped from her mouth.

"Oh, you're awake." The boy said in response to that.

"Can you put me down for a second?" She muttered.

Her mouth was closer to his ears so he heard that clearly.

With no reason to refuse, he slowly let her down, a sigh of relief escaping from his lips in the process.

She looked up for a moment to say that the sky was almost at its peak darkness as the sun was almost gone, and then she turned to the boy.

His face was mostly covered in dust, his hair was an absolute mess, and then there were his clothes.

She could remember his clothes being especially clean when he held her for the first time to escape from the assassins with a particularly refreshing scent of coconut mixed with honey. But now, his white tunic was covered in dust and blood stains and he reeked of blood.

Those were enough to draw anyone's attention but her gaze was mostly fixated on his left shoulder.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

"Nothing, just a normal cut." He shook his head before covering the shoulder with his hand.

'You wouldn't wrap a normal cut like that.'

"What about the assassin, what happened?"

"Uhhh…..after you passed out, the beast living there suddenly burst out and started chasing him, which allowed me to escape with you." He replied, rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

"So, is he dead?"

"I guess, it didn't look like he would be able to outrun that beast." He shrugged. "Either way, he won't be disturbing you any longer."

"Oh…."

She believed what he had just told her but a part of her felt that something was amiss.

"Come on, that's my house over there." He said pointing at the house up ahead. "You must be thirsty right? Come have some water."

"Okay." She uttered.

"Mmm." He nodded with a smile before proceeding to take a step forward.

At that moment, he felt a sharp sensation of pain run through his entire body, and his vision gave him the illusion of the whole world suddenly turning upside down.

He almost found himself crashing to the ground there, but with his feet firmly planted on the ground, he was able to keep his balance.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He nodded before turning to her with a smile.

It didn't take the two long to get to the house, and looking at it up close, it was a decent-looking house.

It wasn't exactly anything special, as it was just a standard wooden house, but it looked sturdy enough.

"This is where you live?" She asked, her gaze fixated on the house.

"Yeah, come inside." He said, opening the door for her.

Stepping into the house, it was nothing but darkness, but quickly pulling out a matchbox from his pocket, the boy was able to light up the candles on every corner, instantly illuminating the room.

"Welcome to my home." He smiled.

The interior of the house looked even better than the exterior, the sturdily made chimney was the first thing anyone would see on entering the house.

Then, to the right was a dining table with four chairs and a door behind the table.

In between the chimney and the dining area was a hallway but she couldn't make out anything about it as it was dark at the moment.

Finally, to the left of the chimney was a small red couch which looked pretty comfortable to sit on from a distance.

"Umm…you can…"

His gaze kept shifting between the dining area and the couch before finally stopping in the dining area.

"You can sit here." He said after pulling out a chair for her.

"Okay." She responded, slowly sitting down on the chair while still looking around curiously.

The moment she sat down, the boy quickly disappeared into the room close to the dining area and returned shortly after with a cup and a jug of water.

Dropping those on the table, he poured her a cup of water and handed it to her.

"Thank you." She said as she brought it close to her lips.

It had been a while since he had interacted with someone around his age so he was particularly elated.

The bright smile on his face was quite evident as he watched her finish the cup of water.

After that, he proceeded to light up the chimney, immediately warming up the room.

The night was always chilly in Estero village so almost everyone had a chimney in their home.

"I'll be back." He said to her before disappearing into the dark hallway.

He reemerged a few minutes later, now wearing a clean set of clothes; his top was now a black-sleeved shirt that perfectly hid the wound on his shoulder.

"One more thing." He said with a snap before dashing into the room close to the dining area.

A few minutes later, he came out with a plate of sandwich and a knife in his hand.

"I'm guessing you must be hungry." He remarked as he dropped the sandwich in front of her.

"It's for me?" She muttered, a bit surprised.

"Mmm." He nodded.

"What about you, are you not hungry?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Not really." She shook her head. "Go on, have a bite."

Her gaze was now back on the sandwich but she looked a bit reluctant to eat it, a soft sigh escaping from her lips.

"What? You don't like the crust?" He asked.

"Mmm." She nodded slowly.

"Then let's take it away."

Swiftly but cleanly he cut off the crusts and transferred them to another plate.

"There you go, no more crusts." He smiled. "Go on, have a bite."

She was still a bit reluctant, but this time, she was able to pick up the sandwich, and slowly bringing it up to her mouth, she took a bite.

The expression on her face suddenly turned to a bright one as she proceeded to take another bite.

"It's good right?" He asked, pointing the knife in his hand at her.

"Mmm." She nodded, her mouth full.

It was like the two had finally found some peace after everything that happened that day.

Well, that was until someone suddenly burst in through the door, grabbing the boy by his throat and smashing him against the wall.

A sharp cry of pain escaped from his lips as the girl whose mouth was still full turned to him, her eyes widening in shock.