So once again I have scrapped my story Broken World. Just like Demons before it. Because, once again, I've decided to rewrite it from scratch, but better. I'd realised that the plan I'd had for my story limited me in the story I wanted to tell, so I had to redo it, bigger and better than before, and in greater numbers.
The Transfer
Edwin
had transferred schools once again. His father was always moving where they
lived, even though most of the time he wasn’t at home anyway. Always away on
business. Edwin didn’t particularly mind. He always seemed to get into trouble
at school, so he hadn’t made many friends anyway. Plus, he didn’t like the
previous town they’d lived in. There had been mysterious deaths, and that
unnerved him. Perhaps that was the reason his father had decided to move. They
had moved, now, to the harbour-side town of Crowlford, and Edwin was to start
the new school year in Kristoff College. Seemingly it used to be just a high
school, but in the recent years had started offering college services as well. He himself would be in his final year of school.
There
Edwin was, in his new class, being introduced by his teacher, a middle-aged
lady with glasses called Mrs Clark.
“Everyone,
I’d like you to meet our new transfer student, Edwin… Attar, is it? Is that
Persian by any chance?”
“Yeah”
Edwin answered, surprised. No teacher had ever known that before. Perhaps she
was more intelligent than Edwin had first thought, or perhaps she had looked it
up to help make him feel welcome. He surveyed the class. No one was really
paying attention. There were a couple of boys at the back laughing about
something. Edwin was sure he heard something sounding suspiciously like ‘stupid
name’. He sighed. The rest of the class looked ordinary enough except for two
people. One girl with red hair reading a book, and one boy with hair that
looked like it had been bleached blonde. That was where the only empty chair in
the class was, so Edwin made his way over. The boy looked at him with a
friendly smile.
“My
name is Arthur, nice to meet you Edwin” he said, extending a hand. Edwin took
the handshake and sat down.
Seems friendly enough.
Class
started, with Mrs Clark teaching them about maths. Before long they were given
a few problems to be solved in pairs.
“So,
have you heard the rumours about Crowlford?” Arthur asked, ignoring the maths
questions laid out before them.
Intrigued,
Edwin took the bait. “What rumours?”
“Well,
I just thought I’d tell you before someone else does, trying to scare you.
Everyone says there are demons in
Crowlford. It’s nonsense, of course, but quite a popular rumour. They say that
they are invisible to normal people, and prowl the night searching for people
to eat… They say that the only people who can see them are people lucky enough
to have survived an encounter. Or unlucky enough… they say once you can see
them, they’ll keep coming after you until they’ve eaten you…” Arthur was
smiling while telling the story, an excitement in his eyes. Obviously he wanted to scare Edwin, and the story
did send a chill down Edwin’s spine…
“Just
rumours though, right? Have you ever
seen a demon?” Edwin asked.
Arthur
laughed quietly. “Of course not. Just rumours, of course! Although some people
believe them….”
“Like
who?” Edwin asked, dubious. Arthur motioned over to the red haired girl. Edwin
looked over to her. Unlike the rest of the class, she was working alone. She
also still had the book open that she’d had at the beginning of class, although
she seemed to be completing the work given at the same time.
“Really?”
Edwin asked, still dubious.
“Yep.
She’s a quiet one, but I hear she’s into all sorts of occult stuff. Witchery.
Demons. All sorts”
Edwin
sighed. “If you say so.” He felt like he was starting to see what sort of
person Arthur was; the type who liked to spread rumours. “Anyway, shall we get
started on this?” he motioned to the work they’d be given.
Arthur
chuckled. “This? Child’s play, seriously.” He then proceeded to fill out all
the answers, finishing the fifteen minutes’ worth of work in one minute. Edwin
was genuinely surprised and impressed. The rest of the lesson was spent with
Arthur explaining the working out to him, and making short work out of the rest
of the material they had to work through.
*
Edwin
came to his first problem during the first break-time of the day. He’d planned
on joining Arthur to have a friendly face to show him around, however Arthur
had seemingly disappeared, so Edwin left alone.
However,
after he’d left the classroom, it was when he’d gone up the corridor and exited
the door to the playground that it happened. Someone, definitely intentionally,
stuck their foot out at the last second and he tripped through the door to the
ground outside.
Some
people that were around laughed, although not as many as Edwin had expected.
He’d managed to put his hands out to prevent falling on his face, and as he
looked around he noticed behind him that it was the two boys who’d been
laughing in class. Most likely one of them had tripped him up…
One of
them walked towards him, motioning for him to move out of the way.
“You’re
taking up the doorway, idiot.” He said. Edwin realised he actually was, with
several other students looking annoyed as they tried to squeeze past him. He
backed out of the doorway, with the two boys following him. The one was very
obviously taking the lead, with the other following him. “You’ve got that
stupid name right? Agtar or something? Stupid name for a stupid person I guess”
he and his friend laughed. It looked like he was happy with making Edwin look
stupid, as he and his friend seemed like they were simply going to walk past,
however Edwin had to share a class with them, and he knew how this would work
out. And he wasn’t going to be anybody’s punching bag, even just a verbal one.
He’d experienced it, both ways, too many times in the past. Luckily the
experiences he’d gone through had made him realise something: he was smarter
than most of those people, and, now, stronger as well. He mentally prepared
himself and took a breath as they walked away.
“Stupid
name?” Edwin asked, loudly. The one turned around, a fire alight in his eyes,
as if he’d found new prey. He was hoping that Edwin was about to give him
enough of a reason to, in his own eyes, justify beating him up.
“You
must be talking about my last name… Attar it was, not whatever you just tried
to say. It’s interesting that you’d call me stupid for having a foreign name,
yet you can’t even remember my name. It’s not hard. Only five letters. Or maybe
you can’t count either?” Edwin continued. He didn’t speak too loud now, as the
boy had gotten closer. He only wanted him to hear him. He’d been blamed in
previous schools for provoking people into violence. Ridiculous. Isn’t it people’s own fault if they decide to use violence
instead of words? Sure enough, the boy was tutting and shaking his head, as
if Edwin had done something wrong. Edwin knew the look in his eyes. He was
about to attack. The other one, however, looked unsure, as if unwilling to get
into trouble. Edwin just stayed still, his breathing calm, his feet ready to
move at a moment’s notice.
“You
deserve this” said the boy. Edwin was surprised as the boy moved into what was
clearly a boxing stance and sent a fast straight punch his way. However, Edwin
had fought with people who knew how to fight before. He managed to jump back
out of his range, then brought his hands up in time as the boy closed the
distance, and the next few punches that came he managed to deflect to the
sides. Then, because he knew a boxer wouldn’t expect it, he kicked out into the
boy’s knee. It wasn’t meant to bend in that direction, and his whole leg went
out behind him, forcing him to his knee. However, he was fast to recover,
springing up and rushing at Edwin, sending a slightly wilder swing. Edwin
managed to guide it just short of hitting him in the face, as he stepped in,
grabbed the boy by the head and the back and kneed him in the stomach to wind
him. He then threw him to the ground, and they’d swapped places. He looked the
other boy dead in the eyes, a threatening glare, to which the other boy backed
away, clearly not as prone to fighting as his friend. Edwin widened the
distance between him and the one on the ground, hoping to gain people’s
attention. It had worked. People were noticing now and had started to close in
to see what was going on. And, because whatever garnered the interest of a lot
of students tended to be trouble, a teacher had noticed from afar and made his
way towards them. The winded boy took a while to get up, anger in his eyes, but
he noticed that there was way too much attention on them now.
“This
isn’t over!” he said, glaring daggers at Edwin, and he motioned for his friend
to follow as he went back inside the school to avoid any trouble with the
teacher.
Luckily
the spectators and the teacher gave Edwin the benefit of the doubt, as he told
them that the boy in his class had wanted to fight him. Edwin explained that he
didn’t want to cause any trouble so he’d just tried to move out of the way and
that the other boy had tripped over himself in the process, then left when he’d
noticed the teacher. When he’d told the teacher what class he was in, Year 11
Class 6G, some of the students had said that that was the same class as ‘Tom’,
and that it sounded like him, picking fights.
Tom, huh? I suppose I better be careful with
him, but I’m not going to be bullied, not at this school or any other. He
knew that some bullies, when their pride was wounded, really were willing to
take things way too far, but he’d deal with that when he came to it. He’d dealt
with it before.
*
Back in
class Tom glanced at Edwin as he came in, but there was no laughter, no insults
thrown, he just turned back to his friend and carried on talking, quietly this
time. Arthur seemed beside himself, asking Edwin about the fight. Edwin was
amazed Arthur had already heard about it. He hadn’t seen him anywhere during
the break. Arthur reaffirmed that the boy was actually called Tom, and that he
was part of the boxing club at this school. It seemed there were quite a few
after-school clubs at this school, including the boxing club, as well as a
sword-fighting club that included all sorts of sword styles. There was also an
engineering club, although apparently that mostly included people who were
attending the college classes and were pursuing a future in engineering. There
were a few different martial arts clubs, and even more. Apparently the head of
the boxing club was ‘super tough’, as Arthur put it.
“What
about what you were saying about demons and the red-haired girl over there?”
Edwin asked, motioning to the girl in their class. “Is there some sort of demon
or occult club or something?”
Arthur
laughed. “Not as far as I know” he answered. “Although if there was I bet
they’d be keeping it secret. You know, like some secret group that deals with
the occult… As far as I know Melisandre isn’t part of any after-school group
though. From what I’ve heard she goes straight home after school” Arthur really
did know a lot, Edwin realised. He was very perceptive, and seemed just
friendly enough to get all sorts of information from various people.
*
The
rest of the school day passed without incident. At lunch, once again Arthur had
disappeared. Since Edwin didn’t know anyone else except him he decided to stay
in the class to eat his lunch, and read through the work they’d done so far to
become more familiar with it. The red haired girl also stayed in the classroom,
Edwin realised, although she paid him no attention and was silent throughout,
reading some mysterious books.
The
next incident was actually after school. As Edwin headed towards the exit of
the school grounds to go home, a familiar voice called out to him. He turned
around and, to his dismay, recognised the owner of the voice as Tom. Tom walked
over to him, alone this time, and he didn’t seem like he was about to punch
him, but he did have a serious look on his face.
“Hey, I
told you this isn’t over. Maybe you’re not some weakling after all, transfer
kid, but you embarrassed me earlier, so we’re gonna finish this.” Tom said to
him.
Edwin
looked around. Students of all years were leaving the school grounds, none
paying attention to them. And this ‘Tom’ was alone. Perhaps if he beat him in a
one-on-one fight this would be over with.
“Alright
then. How do you want to do this? We can’t just fight here in the middle of
everyone” Edwin answered, readying himself.
“
‘course not. But there is one place, where we can have a fair one on one fight.
I’m in the boxing club, so you come with me to our club gym, we’ve got a boxing
ring, me and you can get in there and fight. Under boxing rules, of course.
Only way it’s fair.”
Fair? A non-boxer fighting a boxer in a
boxing ring under boxing rules? Jeez
Edwin sighed. However, this might be a good opportunity.
Judging by Tom’s footwork and punches from earlier, Edwin should be able to
beat him, even being limited to only his fists. Then again, perhaps he should
put up a good fight and then lose? It’d allow Tom to feel superior whilst also
making sure he knows that he won’t get away with bullying Edwin without getting
hurt in the process…..
“Alright,
I’ll agree to that. Let’s go.” Edwin said. Tom smirked a cocky smirk, confident
in his in-ring abilities. Tom actually thought that Edwin only won because he
used some fighting style that Tom wasn’t used to, and that if they boxed he’d
undoubtedly win.
Tom led
him through the school grounds, no one seeming suspicious. There were a few
other people who weren’t going home either, possibly going to after-school
clubs. Eventually they went through a set of double doors and into a surprising
big and well-kept gym, with its own boxing ring. There were a few people
already there, doing warm-up exercises. Tom led him to the ring, inside of
which stood a girl; Dark hair and tanned skin, as if she spent a lot of time
outside. She was watching the rest of the people, as if waiting for something.
As they
got closer to the ring her eyes went to Tom, then to Edwin. She examined him
for a while.
“Found
a new recruit, Tom?” she asked.
“Something
like that. I thought We’d get in the ring and I’d show him what boxing is all
about if that’s alright” Tom replied happily and politely.
The
girl laughed. “I don’t think yer ready to teach just yet, Tom. Get him in the
ring and I’ll give him an introduction.”
Edwin
looked to Tom. A flash of annoyance crossed his face but he seemed like he’d
come up with an idea.
“Well,
actually, it seems he’s done some boxing before. He’s a transfer student in my
class, so, to be honest, I just wanted to have a little spar with him to see
who’s better.” He said confidently.
The
girl sighed, shaking her head. “So that’s what this is about. A transfer
student eh? Tell ya what, throw him in the ring and I’LL test him out, then
I’ll TELL you who’s better”
Tom
looked panicked. “But-“
“No
room for discussion. Jus’ do it, and get me my gloves” she cut him off. He
looked dejected but went off to find her gloves.
Could she be the captain of the boxing club?
This might be better. Clubs like this… If one member beats someone, because
they’re a club everyone feels a sense of victory. If I put up a good fight but
lose to the captain, that Tom is scared of, it should be good enough for him. And
if I last long enough, people should think of me as someone not to mess with.
This is a good opportunity.
He climbed up into the ring
and came face to face with the girl. She was a little shorter than him, but her
arms showed some very lean muscles. And she seemed very confident.
“What’s
yer name? I’m Beatrix, captain of the boxing club. Hope ya don’t mind, but I do
like to assess everyone so I know just how good, or bad, they are” she said.
She turned around to address Tom. “Get this guy some gloves too!” she called.
“Nice
to meet you.” Edwin said, bowing slightly, feeling a bit awkward. “I’m Edwin.”
Tom was
in the ring then, handing Beatrix her gloves, with a polite smile on his face.
Then he turned to Edwin to hand him gloves, not bothering to conceal his
dislike.
“Well,
whatever” Tom said quietly so only Edwin would hear him. “She’ll kick your ass
anyway.” Then he left the ring. Edwin put the gloves on.
Beatrix
was bouncing side to side, moving her shoulders in a warm up. She closed in on
Edwin and held her gloved hand out.
“We’ll
just do the one round” she said through her gum shield. I don’t have a gum shield. Edwin realised. Well… should be alright. “Ready?” she asked.
Edwin
nodded, tapping her glove with his own. He’d done a bit of boxing in the past,
so it wasn’t all new to him.
They
both backed away and circled the ring, slowly getting closer to each other.
Edwin had the reach advantage. He waited until she was just within his range,
which would be outside of her own range, when he moved to attack.
-What!?
He’d been hit in the face,
surprisingly hard as well, and he immediately jumped back. She shouldn’t have
been able to reach him, yet she had. In the time it had taken Edwin to attempt
a jab, she’d closed the distance and hit him hard without him even realising it.
She was closing in as well. Edwin had to test her range, he knew. He slowly
moved in too, but as he was about to get within range to hit her, he moved back
out of instinct. Her guard hadn’t changed, but Edwin could feel it…. It was as
if a fist was in front of him, as if going forward anymore would simply be
jumping into an outstretched fist, even though it shouldn’t be within her
range.
It was
strange. Even though he was the taller one, he was now seemingly at the
disadvantage. He was the one who needed
to close the distance to stand a chance at getting a hit in. He had to somehow get through her
punches. He started moving his head side to side, up and down, and moved in,
eyes wide open, towards that imaginary fist, hoping to slide around it. As soon
as he got to his own range, however, he was hit again. He stepped back, then
moved around and tried to get in close again, but once again he was punched
back. He shook his head, slightly dazed. He felt as if there was a wall of
fists between him and Beatrix.
He
didn’t mind losing in this particular scenario, but he had to show some
strength. There was only one way to get through those punches, if he wasn’t
fast enough to even see them. He positioned both of his arms in front of his
face and compacted his guard like a turtle and moved in. Punches assailed his
guard, and still hurt, but he could push in, and the wall fell back as he
pushed. As soon as he could, he sent out a punch at where Beatrix should’ve
been. However, as his fist went out, she seemingly disappeared. Shit. He’d sent his right fist forwards
in a straight, but she wasn’t there. Wasn’t anywhere in his field of vision. Quick. Think! Think! His left side was
open. It was his right that was outstretched, which meant she couldn’t have
gone to his left. He’d have seen her. The only realistic option was that she’d
used his straight right to move to his right side, effectively disappearing
from his sight. Good. Well done. Now
then….
He
brought his right back in immediately, back into that turtle-like guard, and
turned to the right. She wasn’t there…. She was fast. She was very fast. He
knew that now. She must have sped to his right side, predicted that he’d then
turn to that side, and gone completely round to his left side. But now that he knew that, he could take advantage of
that with an attack she couldn’t possibly see. Another straight right. It should work this time. Spinning on his
heels, he mustered his strength and span, punching towards where he predicted
she’d be.
*
Edwin
could hear a voice. A female voice. A familiar voice.
“Come
on! Warm-ups! Now! Do what Chris tells ya or you’ll be next!” she was shouting.
He
realised he was on the floor. He picked himself up and looked around. He was in
a boxing ring. Then he remembered what had happened. He had got to punch her,
Beatrix, when something had, instead, hit him in the chin when he was
mid-swing. All the force of her own punch, plus the force of his own punch, had
send him straight to the ground, and seemingly made him lose consciousness for
a moment.
He took
off the gloves and let them fall to the ground as Beatrix came over to him, her
own gloves already off.
“Sorry
about that” she said, with a genuinely sorry expression on her face. “Didn’t
mean to hit yer so hard, but I wasn’t expecting that last punch of yours, so I
immediately countered it. Still, you’re actually not so bad. You handle
yourself good in the ring, and you got a good mind on ya, coming up with
solutions to the problems in front of you instantly. What do you say? Wanna
join my club?”
“No
thanks…” Edwin replied. “I’d really rather not… Still… how did you get so
strong? And fast? That wasn’t normal… You can’t be much older than me and yet…”
Edwin had been taught a few different fighting styles, and been pushed to train
his body hard, although he wasn’t in as good a shape as he used to be. Yet with
how fast Beatrix was….
“I’m
not that great. Haven’t you ever seen a proper boxing match on TV? Them pros
are better than me. I’m just probably…. As good as someone my age could
possibly be. I just spend pretty much all time outside of school training. And
I’m not older than you. You must be
in Tom’s year, yeah? Same as me!” she said, looking proud.
Same year? And this much of a
gap in skill? Jeez
“You must be crazy to train
that much” Edwin sighed.
“Well,
I don’t spend all my time training….
Anyway is it crazy to care about something enough to put all your effort into
it?” she asked.
“Yeah”
Edwin answered. Beatrix laughed.
They
talked for a little longer. Edwin learned that Beatrix became captain of the
boxing club after trying to make a boxing club for girls, but when it didn’t
garner enough interest she joined this club, proved she was the strongest in
the club, and when the previous captain left school it was a no brainer for her
to become the next one. She also told Edwin that she wished she could spend
even more time training, but she had
a part-time job that got in the way. By then the warm-up the members of the
club were doing had finished, and Beatrix had to end the chat and take charge
of the club’s session for the day. Edwin watched them for a while. Beatrix
pushed them very hard, but was also very helpful when a member was having
difficulties. Somehow, watching them made Edwin feel guilty about not putting
enough effort into life, and he left to go home.
It was
already getting dark outside, as it was late in the year, and the daylight
hours were becoming less and less. As he left the school grounds he remembered
that he didn’t know this city very well. He didn’t know the way to get home. He
checked his phone; he’d used it to guide him to school. His phone was dead. He
sighed, putting a hand to his head in annoyance. He suddenly felt very alone
and vulnerable. He tried to recall the route he’d taken to get to school. Then
when he saw a familiar looking road he started off in that direction.
He
walked for what felt like a very long time before realising he didn’t recognise
any of the roads anymore. He didn’t know if he was near home or even further
away from it than when he started. He thought about asking somebody for
directions, but decided instead to retrace his steps back to the school to
avoid the embarrassment and start again.
After
retracing what he thought to be his exact route to where he’d ended up, the
school was nowhere to be seen. He’d gotten doubly lost. He sighed. Now he was
ready to ask a stranger for directions. He looked around. There was almost no
one around, except for what looked to be a couple walking together near the
other end of the street. He started to run after them when they disappeared
from sight. Edwin stopped, confused, and squinted. They hadn’t disappeared,
some large shadow had appeared in front of them, blocking them from view. He
couldn’t quite work out what it was in the dark. He realised the street lamps
weren’t working on this road. Was it a car?
Then
there was a scream, followed by a loud sickeningly wet crunch. Then there was
the sound of a man yelling, then he went silent. Edwin was frozen. What had he
just witnessed? Then the shadow seemed to turn toward him, and he could make
out the faint glint of a set of eyes staring at him. Then the -whatever it was-
was moving towards him. He immediately turned and ran, not caring if he was
going in the right direction or not.
He
turned onto a main road that looked familiar. He might be on the right track,
but he wasn’t paying attention at that point, he was just running. There were
cars zooming past on the road next to him, seeming like everything was
perfectly normal. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and look behind
him. Maybe he had been imagining things.
There
it was. Closer now. He could make out the vague shape of it. From afar it
looked like some gigantic dog, as big as a car. He could hear it growling…. Yet
cars went past on the road, on both sides, as if no one could even see it.
Maybe no one could see it. Edwin turned and carried on running.
They are invisible to normal people…
Arthur’s words came back to him. Demons… once
you can see them, they’ll keep coming after you until they’ve eaten you
Was
this a demon? Coming after him to eat him? Or perhaps he’d just gone insane.
Then he saw a welcome sight. This road had been the right road to turn onto; he
could see the school on the other side of the road up ahead. Without hesitation
he ran straight across the busy road, cars honking angrily as he narrowly
avoided them. He ran towards the nearest wall of the school and jumped as high
as he could, his hands managing to reach the top of it. He desperately managed
to pull himself up, and pushed himself headfirst straight over, landing
awkwardly onto a bush. Still fearing the ‘demon’ if that’s what it was, he
pulled himself straight out, getting some small scratches and cuts for his
trouble, and looked around. He cautiously walked away from the wall towards the
nearest school building. Then he heard the growl.
He
turned around, tense, and watched in shock and horror as the creature’s head
poked through the wall, as if it wasn’t even there. It’s eyes immediately
locked into him, and it pulled itself through the wall, not even causing any
damage, as if the wall was an illusion and it was just walking through. But it’s not an illusion Edwin found
himself thinking ludicrously. He’d just climbed over that wall a moment ago.
It had
dark skin, glinting slightly as it moved, making Edwin think of scales. Its
head was like a cross between a dog and a crocodile; a long snout with sharp
teeth peeking out. Its eyes glowed menacingly. Strangely it only had two legs,
but they looked strong, ending with monstrous claws. Its large body trailed
behind it, ending in a long tail. It slowly and purposefully approached Edwin,
who was frozen in shock at what he was seeing.
I thought situations like this invoked a
fight or flight response… But I can’t seem to move at all he found himself
thinking, almost making him laugh. Then the monster’s whole body tensed, and it
pounced towards him. He jumped backwards, but nowhere near far enough. He fell,
landing almost comedically into a sitting position. The beast opened its mouth
wide, revealing the horrible vision of Edwin’s death; rows upon rows of razor
sharp teeth, all leading towards the throat behind it that Edwin would end up
going down.
Then,
suddenly, it hit something. It jumped and hit it again. There was some sort of invisible
wall stopping it from its feast. Strange symbols glowed in the dark,
highlighting the wall protecting Edwin. Then a familiar voice rang out.
“Not a
good day for you, eh Edwin?” came the voice, and a familiar figure walked into
his view, standing in front of him protectively, her hand outstretched.
“Beatrix?”
Edwin asked, or tried to. It came out as a barely audible whisper. Sure enough,
it was definitely Beatrix, although she didn’t turn to acknowledge him. Her
attention was trained on the demon in front of them.
“First
ya get knocked out by me, then this guy sets his dinner plans on you” she
laughed. A strange sound considering the situation. She walked forwards, the
wall moving with her, pushing the demon back. Then she made a motion with her
hand and the wall seemed to disperse.
Are you insane!? Edwin couldn’t help but
think. The brief moment of safety given by the miraculous wall that had saved
his life disappeared. The demon lunged forwards; this time for Beatrix.
But
then something even more miraculous happened. She punched it. Punched it was if it were just another adversary in the
boxing ring. Edwin saw those strange symbols again, and the beast was knocked
back. Then she charged forwards at it, punching it again and again. Edwin
realised he was on his feet now, unable to take his eyes from the spectacle
unfolding in front of him. Then the demon jumped to its feet again, and its
eyes met with Edwin’s once more. It tried to come after him again, but Beatrix
intercepted it.
“Hey,
your date’s cancelled. You’re having dinner with me now” Beatrix said.
I’m still not safe here Edwin found
himself thinking. His breath was rapid. Had the adrenaline only just hit him?
He knew what his response was. Flight.
He turned and ran for the wall, climbing it again and hurling himself over.
Then he just ran, ran away from the crazy situation behind him. Ran away from
the monster that had just tried to
eat him. Ran away from Beatrix who somehow could fight the thing. He just kept
running.
