Chapter 42

SOMA:

The ride into the Dark Moon territory with Leonard was super awkward. Probably the most awkward I’ve ever been involved in. Since he hopped into my car, we haven’t exchanged any words with each other. And in as much as I would like to keep it that way for the sake of arriving at our destination fast — which I have no idea of — I can’t flag off the things eating me up.

I’ve got questions. A lot of them. I need a better understanding of what happened in this pack that has me rushing down here without having a clue. Just an eerie instinct.

To be honest, never would I have imagined the possibility of an internal penetration in the Dark Moon pack. With everything I’ve heard about their forces, I would be expecting much better from them. That’s if what the guard out there told me is true.

I finally figure out that it truly is when I see a group of warriors coming out from a place while carrying a supposedly wrapped body due to the features that came with it.

“What the hell happened here, Leonard?” I blurt the words out of my mouth without attempting to take my eyes off the party of corpse carriers.

“Just drive the car,” Leonard says on return and I quickly shift my focus back to the road ahead, almost swerving into the direction of a pole by the sidewalk.

Apparently, I wouldn’t be getting answers from Leonard yet even if I was to ask him anything. His tone, his body reaction, everything says he doesn’t want to discuss anything with me at the moment. I could tell that from when he made me get into the territory with the stern look on his face.

He probably is still pissed with me after what happened the last time we met. On that day I had attacked him without warning which almost led to a showdown between the two of us until I managed to subdue him. If that is the reason he is avoiding a conversation with him, then he is justified.

“Turn left,”

I hear him but I didn’t quite get the memo due to having a lot on my mind. Bad for someone that is scaling through the road.

“Sorry?” I say.

“I said, turn left,”

“Oh,” and immediately I comply with what he asked of me.

I change the direction of the car so I could ditch the straight path of the road and then get into another completely different road. Thankfully I heard Leonard speak in time or I would have gotten into a mini-crash. I still have to go over my lessons again. Skipping most of the classes then resulted in me being this bad of a driver.

The silence between Leonard and me continues still. At this point, I am already infuriated at the lack of speech between us that I am already tempted to say something to him. I don’t think I can help it anymore because I am not used to situations like this.

“At least tell me where we are going to, Leonard,” I grit my teeth and say while trying to hold the sour feeling in me.

“We are here,”

And without warning, I put the car to a halt. I don’t know about him but I almost hit my head on the front window. Aw man, I never knew I was this bad.

After pulling off the seatbelt from me, I handle the door and get off the car, banging it too hard when I shut it close.

I take a look around to see nothing but woods from far beyond. The first thing I ask myself is what I am doing here with the creep of a man. The dude didn’t mention anything to me all the way down here and when we finally arrive at the destination, it turns out to be... this — a whole area full of woods.

“I’m not going in there with you,” I say when I see him start to approach the woods ahead. Yes, I could see the opening into the place but it still doesn’t give me the conviction that says I will be in there.

“Don’t you still want to know what happened here?” he asks while still in motion. It totally brings me on edge now due to how much I need to know about this whole situation.

So I make a pact with Rainia, ‘Cover the land area for me,’ I tell her, and then finally decide to go into the woods ahead with Leonard, hoping that everything would come out smooth.

I move through the path with Leonard, looking around with my senses on a hyper because I want to catch even the slightest movement around here. Nothing was going to beat me to it. Nothing at all because I am going to be on alert. Probably even end up fighting off the situation if the need be.

I do not get why they had to leave this area of woods as thick as this. I can’t count the number of times I’ve jumped high just so I can avoid twigs that could blister the sole of my feet even with the covering.

And suddenly, the eerie feeling that brought me to this territory in the first place is back. Almost starts to make my head spin and I cannot place my hands on why it’s been occurring.

“Leonard, I don’t feel comfortable,” I say, stopping my motion immediately as I lean on a tree.

“Neither do I,” Leonard immediately says that which has me widening my eyes in shock at the crazy thing I just heard from him.

“Then why did you bring me in here?” I ask him, shock laced in my tone. I can’t believe Leonard would be this ridiculous to bring me into a place that doesn’t seem right with him as well.

He suddenly stops walking and then turns around. And with that, he walks over to where I am leaning against a tree, his expression an unexplainable course.

“When you told me Luis was being stalked,” he starts to say, emotions drawling from his tone, “why didn’t you tell me that it was right inside this territory?”

I swallow a gulp in my throat upon realizing that I made a silly error without even knowing it at that time. I left out a detail that I shouldn’t have neglected. “Thought you were going to figure it out yourself,” I say, and for the first time I feel so less superior in front of a man.

“You thought I was going to figure that out? How would I even get that kicking? For goodness sake, I cannot know the ins and outs of everything around here.”

And he says nothing else before walking away from there. I can only watch for a while because I cannot seem to understand why he would lash out at me like that. Yeah, I did screw up by not giving him the full details of Luis’ situation, but could it have resulted in something bigger?

“I’m sorry, Leonard, for not telling you everything. I didn’t think it was going to be useful,” I say the words out loud so he could hear me because the distance between us was a little much now. But I do not stop there, “And how is it such a bid deal? What does it have to do with the situation on ground?”

I was expecting not to get a response already so I quickly gather myself and start to move so I would catch up with him.

I eventually do, but choose not to bug him yet so I could see first where he was taking us to. I’m a little confused, more than I first was when I arrived here. With every little detail being set in my direction, I cannot help but wonder what in the world is going on.

Until we arrive at a spot that has a man bending to examine what I do not have an idea of. The first thing I notice is blood around here, making my heart tighten at the sight of it.

“The detail you didn’t think was important. The same one you thought I would figure out myself... this is the result,” Leonard brings that to my attention.

My head is spinning. My emotions are in disarray. I can’t even have a grip of myself at the moment because I’m trying to make sense of what Leonard said.

“Wh– What is this?” I ask, the stuttering in my speech made clear. I’ve never been this nervous in my life. “Whose blood is this?”

“It belongs to one of my men. His name was Ryk. Died from a headshot,” says the man that is squatting to examine the scene. It isn’t until he stands up to look at us did I realize that it is Zane, the head warrior.

“A headshot? Who did that to him?”

“Who knows? The only thing I know is that he is not the only one who died today. A few of my men were killed, while some were injured.”

Leonard then chips in, “When we asked those who only suffered a few scratches, they told us they were attacked by masked men in black with some skillful prowess that hardly made them get touched,” He pauses, and then, “Just about the same description you gave to me,”

I feel his gaze bore into me as he makes the last statement. I know he has a lot more to say as well by actually giving me that look. If everything went down with this whole explanation I’m hearing from them, then where the hell is Luis?

I look at Leonard intending to ask him about the odd of Luis not being among those killed or injured, but he beats me to speak.

“Want to know who the warrior killed here was with before he died? Luis.”

I can’t believe that I would one day have so many messed-up emotions within minutes. Or let’s say an hour.

“And where is he now?”

“We do not know?” Zane says. “But he is among those still missing from the pack,”

I close my eyes to take a deep breath. I can already feel Rainia going through a turmoil in my head. And when I open my eyes, I sight something.

I quickly walk over to the place to pick what it is, turning out to be a piece of clothing. I do not know when I kneel to take in the scent of the clothing, but what I do know is that for a while, my eyes are closed with my nostrils still sniffing on the piece.

“He’s still alive...” is what I say when I stand up to look at the two perplexed men standing behind me.