"You can't save him!"
Two voices intertwined in each other. Judy recognized them. Yae and Natsuhiko.
"The ritual must continue!" This time it was Nick's voice. Releasing from the rabbit, he carried his thumbs under her eyes, wiping her tears.
"We have to find a solution and...
"There is no solution!" Sae and Nick interspersed their words.
Her ears burst out and her violet eyes opened in shock.
"Nick..." one of her paws grabbed his shirt tightly.
On the fox's lips, a sincere smile and...farewell.
"There is no salvation possible. Thank you for everything," and he got up.
"No..."
The word came out in a whisper. Her paw stayed suspended in the air after Nick began to move away. Her legs trembled and her brain seemed to not want to react. The shock. The disappointment. The sadness and... the fear! No... no... no... Judy gained strength and got up, starting to run to reach him. But when she almost made it, the darkness of the tunnel in front of her swallowed Nick. Judy didn't stop running, also entering the darkness. She saw nothing. She ran in the void. She tripped and fell. The pain in her knee made her tear, but she got up quickly and continued running. The tunnel was big and, what seemed like hours, it didn't take more than a few minutes. A false foot and she fell on her stomach. The steps were forgotten, and the fall provided some more injuries to join the others.
Damn!
Grumbling to herself, her elbows supported her high trunk. Her eyes met the fox in front of her who walked in vague steps to a... Was that a hole? She tried to overcome the pain of her exhausted body. But when she did, her legs gave way. Nick stopped with his back to her. However, on both sides, four priests appeared. The same priests that she saw on the stairs. The golden sticks on her paws began to ring on the floor, causing the bell ring at was on the top of the stick at a rhythmic sound. At that moment, Nick turned to face Judy. It was at, that moment, she saw Sae with him by his side.
"Judy!" she and he spoke of uni-sound.
The tlim tlim of the sticks began to be accompanied by the thick and husky voices of the priests. A melody began to take shape. The melody that hurt Judy's eardrums. The same melody she hears on the stairs when Yae was pulled without mercy. The damn melody that was always played at the wrong time.
"Yae was possessed because of her weak heart!" Sae and Nick spoke together. The rabbit's eyes fixed on both. She had tried again to get up, but the pain stopped her.
"I'm sorry I was so blind from the beginning not to see what was in front of my eyes!"
"Nick has nothing to do with this!" Judy screamed, hitting, in frustration, with her fist closed on the ground.
"Of all those who ventured into the village, you were the only ones we could count on!"
"But you didn't spare Alisha or Jack!"
"Yae needed fresh blood."
Gods. Even Sae was consumed! Judy's eyebrows came together.
"Although Natsuhiko's intentions were good at first, he then noticed that you would be the solution to this outcome."
"Not only your boyfriend but you too. Your intention was not to help us. Oh, how naive I was to think that you were the only sane one. But apparently, you're nothing but the same as your sister!"
"SHUT UP!"
At that moment, Judy was able to deviate from something sharp that went against the concrete wall behind her. With fast breathing, she looked at the object. The dagger Nick always had with him. Something she had even forgotten and that never needed to be used. Her eyes met the emerald green of the fox and she noticed a different smile from all the others he showed. There was a different intention there. Also, in his eyes, Judy noticed that they were not the same loving eyes to which she was accustomed. Sae had consumed Nick's broken soul. It was she who commanded him, for the same features and demonic smile were stamped on the wolf next to him. The melody began to speed up the rhythm a bit like the beating of the bats on the ground. Behind Sae and Nick, the hideous creature that Judy had come across before. With her, Yae. Her insane laughter joined in with the whispers and the melody, turning all that sound into a hell of a noise. Judy's heart began to beat fast. She felt afraid. Alone, she didn't have Nick's support. They would kill him, but they wouldn't spare her either. And, her body was relentless in wanting to get up, no matter how much adrenaline began to be produced inside her.
"I warned you!"
Now, Natsuhiko was in front of her. On both his paws, the lifeless bodies of Alisha and Jack. The blood trail shocked Judy.
"Natsu...what are you going to...do..." her voice trembled like her whole body.
"The three of them ended the ritual. There is nothing more you can do!"
And he threw the bodies of her friends. He threw them into the hole, into the infernal abyss, where voices whispered and begged. The voices of all the villagers killed by the twins.
Terror. A terror that she never thought she would feel in her whole life.
"We can't be together forever!"
Now, her attention has deviated to Nick. Tears flowed down his face. The sinister smile disappeared, giving way to a sincere and sad one. And Judy knew what would happen next.
It looked like a scene from a horror movie. The dagger, that was stuck to the wall, fell to the ground, but soon it rose. The blade was pointed towards Nick's chest. With her arm and paw stretched out, Sae smiled even more as her fingers retracted, giving orders for the dagger to advance in that direction.
Where she got her strength from, Judy didn't know. The only thing she was sure of, was that the dagger would not go towards the fox's chest, but straight to her paws, which enveloped the fist, and with all their strength, she prevented that thing from advancing. Sae made an angry expression, and again made the same gesture of her fingers. The dagger trembled at the rabbit's paw but did not come out of there.
"Damn you!"
Giving up, Sae let the dagger lose its strength and Judy let it fall to the ground.
"Say goodbye to the one you love the most!"
And placing herself behind Nick, she pulled him with her, into the abyss.
To be Continued…
