Ahhh I'm a day late. I apologize. Anyways here is chapter four for you all. Also shoutouts to everyone who followed!
LunaPikazard12, MightyShipper, RoddyPrime, Tex1412, TheNinjaOfArt, Wyvern42, snowdragon27
Thank you all so much it means the world that you guys like my work. Anyways, onto the chapter. ; )
Cole was screaming. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that it was extremely unimpressive, but at the moment it wasn't his biggest concern. Viciously attempting to circle him, was a creature he'd never seen before in his life.
Cole was mostly just sprinting around avoiding the creatures head. It's shrieking had filled his head, making his ears ring.
"Okay I get it!" Cole screamed stumbling as he ran. "You wanna eat me!" He finished. The crowd cheered loudly at this. Cole stopped for a splint second to glance over his shoulder and the creature's powerful tail caught him across the middle and Cole went flying across the arena. By some stroke of luck he wasn't impaled one of the sharp rib cages that were lying around. Cole skidded across the ground upon impact.
Dust and rocks sprayed his face. Cole coughed, then groaned in pain. The creature was hunched close to the ground and crawling towards him. Its tail lashed back and forth like a cats.
Oh shit. Cole managed. This is it. His brain told him.
No no no. My father. Jay. Cole told himself, and that was the extent of his argument. He was in too much pain to think.
"Hey!" A voice spoke suddenly from behind him. He rolled his back and glance backwards.
"Helloo?" He asked drearily.
"The gills." The voice said. Cole blinked confusedly. It took him a minute to realize there was another archway. A figure was standing there looking down at him. Cole couldn't really make out the details as the figure was standing just behind the light from the arena.
"Gills?" Cole repeated.
"They're raw from lack of water. Weak point." The figure told him, as if Cole was supposed to understand something from that. Cole stared for a minute.
"What?" He asked.
The figure sighed in exasperation.
"Take out the gills." The figure repeated.
"What gills?" Cole asked. Too late, the creature on top of him. Cole waveringly held up his little knife.
"Ahhhh!" Cole tried yelling at the creature. The creature shrieked in response, lifting its enormous head into the air. It was at this moment that Cole saw the gills running down the creature's neck. He hadn't noticed them before, being too focused on the head and tail.
"Oh gills!" Cole said. Maybe he had the slightest of chances. Cole got to his feet, grabbing onto the bars of the person's archway t support himself. He gripped the knife a little tighter.
Who're you kidding, you'll never take that thing down. Cole's head said. You're a dancer from the nowhere town of Kingston. You're gonna die.
"Wait for it to strike." The figure said suddenly from behind him. Cole's brain was interrupted by the person behind him again.
"When it does, jump as high as you can. You will land on its head where you can slit its gills." The figure explained.
"You-you want me to jump on top of this thing?" Cole said in disbelief.
"It's the only place it can't reach you." The guy explained. The creature began to move.
"What the Hell!" Cole screamed, and as the creature reached him, jaws stretched wide, Cole bent down and pushed off the ground with all his strength, years of dance working with him. Cole slammed his eyes shut, then suddenly he was landing on hard scales. His eyes shot open and he screamed again.
He screamed as he held out his knife. He screamed as the creature bucked back and forth. He screamed as he plunged the knife into the side of the creature's neck, and he screamed as the creature reared up into the air, and he screamed until the creature stopped trashing, and finally lay still.
Panting, mostly from the screaming, he slid off the creatures back. He swallowed and looked nervously up at the foreign crowd.
Silence met him.
Cole looked down, and yanked his knife out of the creature's neck, just in case he would need it again. The creature's blood oozed black coating his knife and hands.
"Your weapon. Raise it." The guy at the archway said. Cole didn't hesitate to listen to him this time. After all the stranger had just saved his life. He raised the knife high.
The crowd erupted into cheering. As they cheered, the archway behind Cole began to open. The bars creaked from rust as they slid upwards. Cole blinked.
"Come on, get out of here." The stranger said, as the bars opened. Cole scurried over to the opening bars.
"Where do I go?" Cole asked, approaching slower.
"Just walk, you'll get there eventually." The figure said, and began stepping forward into the light. Cole glanced at him as they passed each other, Cole into the safety of the archway, the stranger into the full light of the arena. As the guy passed him, Cole managed to make out more details.
He wore bright red garments that looked as though they were made from silk along with gold lining. His hair stuck up violently on his head and was a warm brown. His amber eyes glinted dangerously as they hit the light, and a long scar ran across one eye. Strapped to his back was a golden sword with a handle that was designed to look like fire. It was thin and sharp and the handle was wrapped in beaten in leather. He wore similarly worn boot on his feet, and his palms were wrapped in strips of leather as well. Over his silken clothing he wore a chest piece, also made from leather.
He looked like a fighter.
Cole took it all in as he himself stepped back into the shadow. He was glad there weren't cave men in this archway. Cole watched as the bars slid shut, trapped the warrior in the arena. Cole stopped to watch the strange person.
"Camosos!" The stranger yelled loudly.
The crowd joined in and began to chant what he'd said. An archway opposite from the 'Camosos'warrior began to open. Cole watched in awe, wondering if he was about to see another strange new creature. He was also trying to avoid looking at the one whose neck he slit open.
Much to Cole's surprise, another creature did not come out of the gate. In fact, another cave looking person walk out, and yelled aggressively at the Camosos guy. The Camosos guys made no noise, quite unlike Cole.
The cave person stalked towards the warrior. He raised his sword as he did so. The warrior silently drew his sword as well.
The cave person struck. Cole looked away for a second. Then more cheering sounded and Cole looked back to the arena. The warrior was kicking the cave person in the face. The cave person stumbled back, face screwed up in pain.
Cole fist pumped silently to himself. He wanted the boy who saved his life to win. The warrior now walked towards the cave person and grabbed him by his arm. In one swift movement he grabbed his arm and flung him across the arena. The cave person got a face full of dirt. As the cave person was struggling to push himself up, the warrior walked over and stepped on the guys neck, pushing him back into the ground.
The warrior looked up into the stands. Cole followed his gaze. A man, dressed in similar silks, this time a poisonous purple color, was grinning and giving the warrior a thumbs down. Cole looked back to the warrior, who was giving the man a curt nod, and in one more swift movement, plunged his gold sword into the man's back.
The man cried out in agony, then his head fell back to the ground a moment later. Cole swallowed, his breathing heavy. The warrior raised his sword. The crowd erupted once more. Cole's breathing remained heavy and panicked. He began backing away from the archway.
Creature's that were trying to eat you was one thing. But that man had just been stabbed to death. Cole's breathing continued to elevate. Glancing one last time at the man, Cole turned and began sprinting.
He ignored the exhaustion in his limbs, and his brain simply shut off from not being able to handle it. Cole ran and ran, the only thing echoing in his thoughts was what the boy had said earlier. Just walk, you'll get there eventually. But not walk. Run. Run until you are as far away from that arena as possible. Cole thought erratically.
This particular hallway did not seem to end, but Cole barely noticed in his fear.
This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening. Cole's mind began to repeat. Falling down that stupid hole just seemed surreal, the creature seemed surreal, and that young boy killing that man surely was surreal. Cole was dreaming. No, Cole was having a nightmare. He needed to wake up.
"Please!" Cole screamed, finally stopping. He knelt to the ground and put his heads to his head. He began whispering instead.
"Please. Please wake up."
Cole sat back against the wall, pulling his legs to his chest. His eyes burned with tears. He gasped for air after running for so long. Warm streaks began spilling down his face. Cole failed to control his hitched breathing. He couldn't remember the last time he cried so badly. Probably never. Jay was the crier. Cole tried to remember all the times he had to calm his friend down.
"Slow your breathing." He muttered to himself, the words sounding familiar. Cole inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly. It was much much harder than he thought the stop the sobs and hitched breathing. It took a great deal of control. Each breath would shake unsteadily as he exhaled, threatening for him to lose it all over again.
It took many long minutes, but finally Cole managed to steady his breathing. Tears were stilling welling up each time he dried them, but he could breathe now. Cole looked around the dark hallway. His eyes were finally beginning to adjust to all the darkness.
Cole blinked slow, and finally realized how exhausted he was. He wished he knew the time, because in the last few hours he'd climbed down a hole, fell to the bottom, been capture, been forced to fight and kill an enormous monster, then proceeded to run down an endless corridor for who knows how long. Everything ached, he had more scrapes and bruises than he could count. His hand was still broken, or sprained or something. His wrist was bleeding again from where the rope cut him, and his feet never wanted to take another step for his whole life.
Cole didn't know what to do. He still didn't know if he was dreaming or not.
"Okay Cole." He muttered to himself, "How do you turn a good dream into a bad dream?" He asked himself.
Music, Cole realized. Whenever Cole had trouble sleeping as a kid, his father would play music in his room and Cole would go right to sleep.
"Alright, you can sing. Come on buddy, you can sing." Cole told himself. He took one more steadying breathe, and began to quietly sing lyrics to himself.
Now the night is coming to an end
The sun will rise and we will try again
Stay alive, stay alive for me
You will die, but now your life is free
Take pride in what is sure to die
I will fear the night again
I hope I'm not my only friend
Stay alive, stay alive for me
You will die, but now your life is free
Take pride in what is sure to die.
By the time Cole finished his song he felt a lot better. He sat in the silence, just ignoring the pain and the fear and the panic that was trying to set in. He just sat there in a dark corridor feeling numb.
Before he knew it, Cole had drifted off to sleep.
The horrors of this world would have to wait.
Okay, well there's chapter four for y'all. And can you guess who the warrior is? It's pretty obvious lmao. And in case anyone was wondering, the song is Truce by 21 pilots. It's actually an amazing song, makes me feel better 10/10 times. Well anyways hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'll keep trying to get these up fast, please review your feedback is so so so helpful! Thanks to you all.
Keep Writing Keep Reading, Nova out ; )
