Faeries of Delusia

Chapter Fourteen

“Tomo?” I whispered to the creature I sat upon. It looked up at me with its big, green eyes, but didn’t make a sound.

I realized we were about to land and I quickly jumped off once we did, staggering a little. I watched as Tomo took form in front of me. My eyes got big and I instinctively looked around for Fumio. Did he know his brother wasn’t dead?

“Tomo!” I shouted as I grasped him into a firm hug. “We all thought you were dead so we went to kill that ferocious beast! Where did you come from? What happened to you?” A lot of questions raced through my mind but I settled down to let Tomo do some explaining. He hadn’t spoken a word yet.

I waited and waited but he simply stared at me.

I looked at him with a strange expression. “Aren’t you gonna talk?” I asked suspiciously.

He stood and stared some more. “TOMO!” I shouted and began to shake him by the shoulders. “To-mo.” I recited his name slowly. “FREAKING ANSWER ME!”

“Stop shaking me.” he finally snapped and slapped my hands away. I looked at him in confusion.

“What’s your problem?” I asked, offended.

“You are my problem.” he sneered and walked past me, nudging into me as he did. He continued to walk forward but I just stood in my place and watched. Where was he going?

He halted and turned suddenly, facing me in anger. “Well? Are you coming or what?”

I looked behind me and there was no sign of Fumio, Hikaru, Mitsoki, or Raiden. Where had they gone?

“Don’t you wanna tell everyone you’re alive?” I wondered aloud.

“They will find out in time.” he told me, turning back and walking again. I didn’t want to lose him again so I followed quickly after. He surely needed an attitude adjustment, though.

“So . . . where are we going?” I asked, trying to decipher where he could be headed and why.

“The village.” he stated.

“Why?” I asked.

“Just shut up, okay? I need to go there.” he snapped again.

“But why?” I repeated, not caring if he got mad.

He didn’t answer. Of course.

“Brat.” I muttered under my breath.

“Don’t get snippy with me. I saved you.” he reminded me.

“Yeah but, what has gotten into you?” I asked worriedly.

“Things change, Jamie, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” he simply replied.

“You mean people change.” I corrected him with a bit of mockery.

He only shot an evil glance back at me as we continued to walk through the vast valley. I wondered how long it would take to get to this village, and if Tomo was ever going to tell me why we needed to go there.

We past many villages and many creatures simply stared at us in confusion. I tried not to look directly at anyone so no more attention would be on me. Tomo just kept looking straight ahead, never looking back or even to make sure I was still with him. I didn’t make much noise. He just focused ahead, destined for his destination.

Finally I decided to speak up after we passed the fourth village.

“Where is this village at that you need to go to?” I asked demandingly, and almost angrily.

He didn’t look at me. He simply said, “Up ahead.”

I focused my attention up ahead but didn’t see a thing. Then it came into view. The village I was at before. I recognized it. The other times, or actually time, I went there, I didn’t remember everything else Tomo and I recently past.

We headed into the village and I noticed, in a dark alley, three small figures. I looked closely and saw their bright eyes look up at me. I knew these guys, they were the spider things that took my Razzlenuff before. I smiled at them, but they just looked at me funny as if to ask, “Where are you going?”

I shrugged, I had no idea, honestly. They watched me until I was out of sight.

The weird thing was, we never stopped walking. We went right on through the village without Tomo looking at anything or talking to anyone. He kept walking like a zombie. Was he one? I became nervous.

I decided to put an end to this silence. “Okay, tell me what happened. Why are you all of the sudden soooo quiet?” I asked. He just kept walking.

Stomping my feet on the dirt ground I ran in front of him, causing him to abruptly halt.

“You’re in my way.” he said.

“Answer my question first.”

“You’re in my way.” he repeated through clenched teeth.

“ANSWER MY QUESTION!” I demanded slowly, making sure he heard me and understood what I wanted.

Suddenly his angry face adjusted to an evil grin. I examined his face. It looked odd, like it was, shifting shape? He is a Shape Shifter though, so it wouldn’t surprise me.

“You will be quite pleased to where I am bringing you.” he told me softly.

I raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, why can’t you just tell me?”

Tomo laughed. “It’s more fun with anticipation!”

I disagreed tremendously, but kept my mouth shut. Tomo seemed to suddenly be in an okay mood and I wanted to keep it that way.

“It is right up here anyway, I can see it now.”

I squinted my eyes to see up ahead, but only saw a dark forest. “I don’t see anything.” I mumbled, straining my vision.

“Oh, it’s there.” Tomo said, almost too wickedly.

“Why are we going into another forest? Is this land just made of forests?” I asked that with no sarcasm included. It seemed I was always stumbling upon another forest . . . And most of the forests I’ve been in haven’t failed to frighten me.

“What is the name of this one?” I asked.

“Oh, you will recognize it when we get there.” he told me, and honestly, his tone scared me for a minute.

“No more games, just tell me.” When I asked that, we were already approaching the forest, like it was suddenly closer than it had been before. I staggered outside of it for a few moments. “This doesn’t look good . . .” I mentally thought of ways to get out of this.

“Just come in.” Tomo ordered rudely.

“I can’t believe I followed you all this way just to go into another forest and put up with your stubbornness. You won’t tell me anything!” I pointed out.

Tomo shrugged. “You won’t be disappointed.

I sighed and reluctantly followed him in, keeping close.

“How much farther?” I whispered.

“Right . . . here!” We came to a path and stopped, I ran into him from behind.

“Here?” I was utterly lost.

I looked up and down the path and saw something blocking it up ahead. It looked like a person.

“What is that?” I asked looking at it, trying to decipher what it was. “Is that . . .?” I began to walk towards it cautiously, taking eager yet hesitant steps. When I thought I recognized who it was I began to jog towards it. My eyes became wide and I dropped to my knees when I saw her face.

“Demitra!” I screamed, examining her pale body. Her eyes were open but she held a wooden stake grasped in her hands that penetrated right through her heart.

“I’m sure you don’t want to leave now.” Tomo told me.

I looked up at him. “You knew about this? What happened?” I glared at him, ready to kill.

“Suicide.” he shrugged. With that simple word, tears ran down my cheeks.

“Did I do this?” I asked in a whisper.

He shrugged again. “Probably.”

I thought for a moment. “But, how? It doesn’t make sense. What did I do?” I don’t even know why I thought it could be my fault.

Tomo suddenly lost the evil glare he had been giving me and I thought I actually saw a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

“No it’s not your fault.” he told me and suddenly someone flew down from the trees and landed straight on Tomo, knocking him to the ground. I looked at him and even though he resembled Raiden, he sure was not Raiden. Quite the opposite. It was Toru.

I looked back at the body of Demitra and it was no longer there, just Fumio sitting where she used to be. Fumio had taken the shape of her? But it was so real!

“Sorry, Jamie. Toru threatened to kill us.” Fumio apologized in his little voice.

I turned to Toru once more as he stood there with a look of victory smacked on his face. I wanted to smack it right off.

“Monster!” I screamed and lunged for him, but he was too quick.

“That was too easy.” he said from behind me. I turned to look at him. “Using your little friends. They are the perfect actors!”

“If you hurt them I will KILL you once and for all!” I shouted in rage, holding back the tears that felt glassy on my eyes.

“You can’t kill me, don’t you already know that?” He pulled a bow and arrow out from behind him. “Besides, I’m the one with the arrows.” He aimed at me, just like he did before. The same fear and terror rushed through my body as I mentally tried to make an escape plan. I failed.

I quickly glanced at Fumio and Tomo and they both wanted to attack Toru but didn’t want to get hurt or killed like I was about to.

Almost giving up, I staggered backwards a little, not knowing where to run.

This time I wasn’t as lucky as to get away. He let go over the arrow and it shot right at me, and it didn’t miss either. It shoved itself right into my right shoulder and I wailed out in pain, curling up into a ball on the dirt ground. Tomo and Fumio gave up their guard and came to my side.

I saw the thick blood gushing out my wound rapidly and I figured I would die soon.

Without Toru hearing, I whispered to the twins, “Get—Raiden.” But that’s all I managed to say before I passed out.