Chapter Nineteen

As it turned out, we might as well have been out there to die because the second there was any hint of movement in the sand, Grimmjow had unsheathed his katana and disappeared.

I just about choked on the final bite of my burrito I had shoved into my mouth a nano second before.

Oh no. Is he actually going to kill me? Swallowing the rest of my food, I began to hyperventilate, hands creeping up to clutch the strap of my messenger bag as I attempted to asses the situation.

If he came at me, there was no chance I could run away—we were in a desert with no where to hide, and he was obviously much more fit than I was. And he may have only had just one arm, but there was no way I could fight him off; he had a weapon, and he was ripped.

Oh my god, he's actually going to kill me.

I turned around to start running, to get a head start even though I knew it was hopeless.

After one step, though, I stopped dead in my tracks and couldn't seem to make myself move any farther. It wasn't because of the sand, either.

It was because there was some kind of thing looming over me.

"Son of a bitch," I screeched, taking a step back. The thing was massive, an inky black color that nearly blended in with the sky. That was really all I saw of it, especially because it looked far over my head. It was like a building, almost,

"Don't move, Kaori," a voice whispered in my ear. I froze entirely, fully aware that the man standing behind me was not Grimmjow and did not actually exist except for in my head. "It wouldn't do well for either of us if you died at this point."

And earlier you were saying that a dead Kaori would be better. I gulped, urging my nerves to calm and my breath to slow.

"Just stay calm and hope it hasn't see—never mind. It saw you. Run."

Generally, it was common sense for me to not listen to the voice. But in this instance, there was no way I wasn't going to, especially since we were thinking the same thing.

I turned and bolted away from the creature, sneakers sinking down into the sand with every step I took. Exercise and I had never been on good terms, and at that moment it seemed no different since my lungs immediately began to seize up and make my breathing ragged.

"Keep running, keep running—do you even know how to run, you idiot? It requires moving your feet, which you need to do!"

The voice in it's solid state seemed like a good enough motivator for me, as I kept running instead of falling on my face like I wanted to. I was sucking in quick, shallow breaths at that point; my lungs felt like someone had dipped them in oil and threw a lit match down my throat.

But then I did trip, my sneaker sinking down into the sand and my body following it not too shortly after.

"You can't even follow a simple direction, Kaori! I don't understand how you've lived this long with your head shoved up your-"

There was a guttural, inhuman screech that drowned out whatever it was he was going to say next. The sound made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up, and I fought the urge to shudder. My face felt like it was burning, the sand trying to creep its way into every orifice.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I thought, heart beating rapidly. What was going on? What in the world was that thing? Why did it scream? Why did I have to fall down? Was it going to kill me?

Where the hell was Grimmjow?

The creature let out another deafening shriek, and the sounds of a fight ensued. What was going on?

I tucked my arms over my head, and lay still; the sand felt as though it were trying to make its way down my throat and into my lungs, trying to suffocate and burn me at the same time.

Behind me, the desert fell silent again; all I could hear was the sound of my labored breathing. Even the voice in my head had fallen silent, and he was such a chatter box when I was alone.

"Can you stand up, Kaori?" I jumped, jerking my head out of the sand and opening my eyes. It was disorienting at first, the sudden change from dark to a lighter dark—I saw stars and blinked quickly to get the spots out of my eyes.

"That depends on if it's safe or not!" Grimmjow was standing over me, looking down. His katana was sheathed at his side once again.

"Safe enough." he said with a shrug. "You're probably in less danger out here than you are in Las Noches, gillans aside."

"What's a gillan?" I stood slowly, dusting off my butt and the rest of my clothes as I did so. The sand seemed to be stuck to everything—it seemed to even be down my shorts, which was uncomfortable in it's own right. "And what was that thing that appeared when you so kindly disappeared and left me here alone? And why did you even disappear in the first place? I could have died!"

Instead of gracing me with a plausible answer, Grimmjow rolled his eyes and muttered something. I only picked up the last word, which seemed to be "women" if I had heard even that correctly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I demanded, placing my hands on my hips and leaning toward him. I was absolutely positive that whatever he had mumbled hadn't been kind. "I couldn't quite hear you."

Grimmjow didn't seem to know a number of things about females—especially that when a woman questions you about what you said and it's likely to set her off, you don't repeat it.

Ever.

"I said, I'm surrounded by nagging women!" He had said it with quite a bit more volume than he had the first time, and I was sure that if Usagi had been standing with us she would have kicked him in the genitals.

But instead of responding, I turned around and started to walk back to Las Noches as quickly as I could manage without falling onto my face. I knew full well that walking by myself in the desert was dangerous—I mean, hello giant creepy black thing—and my hood was still up over my head, blocking out any peripheral vision I might have had that could help me know when to "play dead."

You're a frightening creature on occasion, Kaori.

I kept walking, fighting to keep a reasonable amount of footing in the soft, ever-shifting sand. My hands were curled around the strap of my messenger bag yet again, holding tightly onto it with a death-like grip.

It's a shame those claws of yours don't come out more often; you'd probably be taken a little more seriously.

"Shut up," I muttered. "I don't need your input ever so if you could just kindly shut your pie hole, that'd be great."

"But I didn't even say anything!"

I jumped and screamed. "You aren't supposed to sneak up on people! Not in a desert, not ever, and especially when they have issues!"

"Again with the fucking nagging!" Grimmjow was keeping pace with me, which wasn't exactly hard given his long legs against my shorter ones. "Can't you just not nag?"

I harrumphed and kept walking, head down, arms crossed across my chest.

I did it? I guess. If this seems clunky and awkward (especially the last half), blame it on The Master of Disguise and my second period because Netflix.

Also, no chapters next week-mostly so I can catch up with the writing of this and focus a little more on school. Okay? Okay.

Thanks for all the reviews!