"What? How do you plan on doing that?" I hurriedly followed him.
We turned left. "I don't know. I'll figure something out."
We were almost at the dock. "And what if you die? What am I going to do then? What about Ashley?"
He stopped at the dock and turned to me. "Do you think you could having a little faith in me? I won't die, I promise."
"Don't make a promise you can't keep…" I said quietly, looking at the ground. My eyes were getting watery, and I tried my best not to cry.
He sighed. "Look, Em, I-"
"No!" I interrupted. "You don't understand! Both of my parents are dead! They were killed by th-those things! Right in front of me! You're the only thing I have right now… I can't lose you too…" The demanding salt water finally won, and tears began pouring from my eyes. I weakly wiped at my cheek and looked back up at him. "But i-if you want to go and get yourself killed, that's your decision. I obviously don't mean anything to you. I'm just a stray dog that followed you home."
"No. It's not like that…" He said quietly.
"Then what is it like, huh?" I awaited an answer, but he never gave me one.
"I'll be back soon." Then he turned around and got in the boat.
I sat there on the wooden dock and watched as my savior, if you could call him that, drove across the lake. I wiped my tears away. I hated this, hated crying. I wanted to be tough, needed to be tough if I wanted to make it out of here alive. Leon would eventually get tired of me if all I did was whine.
I stood up and looked out onto the lake. There was Leon in the little boat, and… something else. I squinted and looked closer to see the giant, green fish swimming just beneath his boat.
"Leon! Look out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, praying he could hear me.
He looked back at me, and then glanced all around him fully alert. Then, all of the sudden, Del Lago jumped up out of the water right in front of him, making the boat rock back and forth until the water grew more still. Suddenly, the boat sped forward as if it had a mind of its own. That was when I realized that the hook that was attached to the boat by a rope had caught onto Del Lagos back, and was now towing Leon around in the water.
My heart raced as I watched Leon fight the lake monster, stabbing it with the harpoons that were conveniently placed in the boat. Sometimes, he would fall into the water and I would watch in fear as he desperately swam back. Other times, Del Lago would disappear from sight, and I had to tell Leon where he was before he popped back out and knocked him out of the boat again.
Then, one last time, I shouted, "Behind you!"
The blonde man quickly turned around and chucked a harpoon straight into its open mouth. The monster cried out in pain and sunk deep into the water. Then, as if we hadn't had enough already, the rope from the hook wrapped around Leon's leg and he was forced to cut himself loose, or be pulled down into the depths of the murky loch.
Once that was over, he slowly drove back over to me. After he stepped out of the boat and onto the dock, I greeted him with a massive hug.
"I'm so glad you're alright…" I whispered once I let go.
" I told you so." He grinned at me and my face turned red. Again.
"So where do we go next?" I asked, looking out at the lake.
"I saw another dock on the other side, so I guess we can go there." I nodded and we climbed into the boat. When we got to the other dock, we both stepped out and began walking towards a house that was there. All of the sudden, Leon made a loud grunting sound, and doubled over in pain, clutching his chest.
"A-are you okay?" I asked, my voice heavy with concern.
"Yeah… I-I'm fine. I just- Ahh!" He screamed our and fell to his knees.
"Leon!"
I helped him back up to his feet and we stumbled into the vacant house. As soon as we were in, Leon began coughing. A lot. He pulled back and looked at his hand: there was blood. About two seconds later, he fell to the floor.
"Leon!" I screamed again.
I ran up to him and felt his pulse: he was still alive. I sighed in relief, but I didn't know what else to do; he would have to wake up sometime, right?
I looked around the room: There was a table, some shelves, and a bed.
A bed…
It hadn't occurred to me just how tired I was until then. I walked over to Leon, and looked at his face. Despite the way he passed out, he looked… peaceful. I looked back over to the bed and thought that maybe sleep wasn't such a bad idea. Leon would have to wake up eventually, and when he did we could continue the mission. I took off the sheet and turned it inside out, so it wouldn't be as dirty, and then walked back over to the unconscious blonde man on the floor and gently put the pillow under his head.
Once I was sure he wouldn't awaken for hours, I took off my blue over-shirt and used it as a pillow. I then laid down on the bed, and before I knew it, drifted off to sleep.
