The cool air stung my face as I ran away from what was currently chasing us. As I looked back I realized that Yuu and Allen were no longer behind me but stood their ground with their weapons drawn, I was about to tell them to forget it but a huge roar echoed through out the deserted town silencing my yells. My eyes went wide when I saw the outline of a humanoid with large spider like arms and legs emerge from the shadows followed by its friends, who were equally as grotesque as him. I heard Allen curse under his breath and I turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, I had known him for a long time and he rarely cursed during battles or lost hope but I knew what he meant, we were screwed. There were only 5 of those things, and to any outsider that seemed like an easy number to take care of, especially since they were exorcists who had Innocence but for some damn reason it was having no affect on them what so ever. The strongest moves we had didn't even falter their speed or agility and instead it felt as if it was having the opposite effect, every time they attacked it appeared as if they got faster and stronger.

A small wheezing that sounded eerily like a laugh emerged from the creature that was at the very front and from the way he looked I guess he was the leader. He looked at us like we were prey and I didn't like it, but apparently I wasn't the only one who though that because Yuu cursed at the creature and lunged at him with amazing speed. His attempts were foiled when one of them showed up out of nowhere and kicked him in his spine, sending him flying and in the process destroying a row of houses. We stood there shocked at what just transpired before our eyes, I realized that we didn't have much chance at victory if we decided to stay and duke it out with these "things" so I told Allen low enough so that only he could hear, "we need to get out of here, we don't stand a chance let's just get Kanda and run before we end up worse that him." I could feel Allen hesitate because I knew what he was thinking, he probably believed that the disappearance of the town's people was because of them but even if we stayed we will just end up dying in vain. I know it sounded harsh but since I was a bookman I had seen and learned of various stories like this and I knew the consequences, which never ended up good.

Before I could say anything more I felt the air being knocked out of my lungs followed by a throbbing pain in my head, everything was out of focus yet I could hear small cries and movement around me. As I adjusted my vision I saw that Allen was no longer in sight and that I was inside one of the rundown buildings, I immediately reached for my holster but found that my weapon was not there. I cursed out and heard a loud chuckle from behind me; I stood up and took a few swift movements backwards until I was under a whole in the roof that supplied the only source of light in this dark place. My senses were under high alert and even the smallest of noises put me on the edge, it felt like I was being played with and much to my chagrin I was falling for it with no effort at all. I was pissed off with the whole situation, but especially with myself because I felt so damn helpless.

From the corner of my eye I saw the flicker of something passing by and I could have sworn that the creature was getting closer to me; I knew that once that happened I was over for. I quickly scouted the room for a blunt object and felt relieve wash over me once I spotted a broken pipe under a fairly lit window. There was just one problem: I had no accurate way of knowing when was the right time to go get it, I could guess but if I did it wrongly then I the outcome would be the same, it was a dangerous gamble. I closed my eyes to try to pin point his location on the room but I heard loud thuds against the old wood floor and realized that he was running towards me fortunately I managed to dodge before hit me full on. I slid to a stop and realized that now was the time I had to make my move before he had the opportunity to lunge at me again. I ran as fast as I could across the room and flung myself against the ground to grab a hold of the pipe, and once I sensed the cool metal against my hands I felt all of my confidence come back. I stood up and saw that the creature was recovering from the shock and turned to look at me with a grin reviling his sharp canines and blood stained teeth. I almost gagged at how repulsing it was because not once have I heard of an human or animal similar to this, at least not that I've read in the records Old Panda kept or legends for that matter.

I saw the creature hiss and charge towards me at a blinding speed, so I raised the pipe over my shoulder much like a pitcher does and prepared to swing just at the right time. It seemed like those few seconds went by excruciatingly slow before I swung and felt the cold hard metal connect with the creatures jaw followed by a loud crack that seemed to echo through out the old building. His body went slack as he hit the wall across the room causing it to collapse, I felt a warm feeling rush over me as I looked at the damage I had done, not only had I managed to get out of here alive but I also knocked out one of them. If I went and told the rest about it maybe there was a possibility at victory, of course I first had to regroup with Allen and Yuu but that was if they were together, since Yuu was all the way across town currently busy. Anyhow I had to find Allen because he was stuck with 3 of them and there was no chance he could handle all of them on his own.

I exited the building and ran towards the main square where we were before and soon enough I saw the silhouettes of several moving figures moving at high speed. I picked up my pace as I got closer and was about to yell out his name when I felt a chill go up my spine. I looked behind my back and saw one of them looking at me with deep red eyes. Before I could react in anyway I felt a deep radiating pain engulf my right shoulder but before I lost all consciousness, I could have sworn I heard my name being called.

The bed sheets clung to my body as I woke up sweating from the sudden sensation that traveled down my body. I hurriedly got out of bed causing me to loose my balance and fall down against the rough cold floor; I didn't even bother to stand up and crawled towards the window. I gripped the metal frame of the window and threw it open and as I leaned over it, it felt as if I had not been breathing for a long time considering the way I hungrily breathed in. I could not keep my body from shaking because I knew what had woken me up, it was that dreadful feeling I got when something horrible occurred. I remember having this feeling when I removed the incantation from Anita's ship, only to see the awful sight of the crew's mangled body's and the ship falling deep into the ocean with an already deceased Anita on board. But before all of that happened, I felt that their time had stopped for all of them and the worse part of it all was that the only reason they were still suffering was because of me. Their lives had been in the palm of my hands and for the first time I felt the weight of a human life upon my shoulders, something that still now, years after troubled me. I gripped at the sides of my stomach as I slid down the wall, hot and heavy tears were falling down my cheeks and I wished that my damn Innocence was wrong for once because there was a group of people that I could not vouch for. They had left on a mission only a couple of days ago but it couldn't be them the reason behind this cursed feeling right? I felt something sticky and warm near my hand and lifted it up to see a large gash across the palm of my hand, emanating from it was dark red blood. I sucked in a breath and felt my mind shut down, muffled cries came from deep inside my throat. Everything came crushing down and I felt like something inside of me had snapped, Oh god please tell me I'm wrong.

Chapter 1