CHAPTER 3: THE BEGINING OF THE END

JETT'S POV

I was walking past the shopping mall when I saw a large crowd gathered around the fire escape at the side of the mall building. There were also sirens blaring loudly. I didn’t want to check it out but something fault amidst. So I decide to check it out. As I drew closer I heard the murmurs of the crowd grow louder and louder.

‘How could she?’

‘This was so selfish of her…’

As I fought my way through the crowd I started seeing trails of blood on the floor.Then I saw the medics gathering the limbs of the corpse that had scattered on the floor and the head was smashed. Clothes bathed in blood but despite all those I still could recognise that person. I could never take that freckled face for anyone else. It was Tess. The adults started narrating that she had been acting strange since last night and the a few minutes ago she came to the mall with her parents and as they went in to shop she climb the fire escape to the roof and jumped off. I really couldn’t blame her, after experiencing all that someone will likely suffer from PTSD.

A grin. As I continued to listen a wide grin spread on my face. A loose end was cut loose. Disgusted. I was disgusted but elated at the same time. It was a confusing moment. As I wiped off the grin from my face I noticed that icy stare again.

Turning to my left, there he was; the Ice King. Ravi. He knew exactly what I was thinking and grinning about and was utterly disgusted. I wasn’t too bothered because I had taken on a role and I won’t mind loosing my humanity to achieve my goals.

I turned around and rushed home to read more about the book as the medics put the disfigured corpse in the ambulance.

In the book past the pages with the weird code on it, there were a few pages dedicated to describing some details about the creatures we had encountered in the forest. They called them different names, some demons, devils and others enigma. I liked my own version so I’ll stick with that. The others probably wrote down their discoveries in this book in case they didn’t make it so that they’ll be information for the next. But I wasn’t going to indulge in that. I was going to make it out and save everyone else.

As I already noticed they; the Neo Enigma, they couldn’t come out under the sun. One of the pages also said that they could be killed by either stabbing them straight into their hearts which was for some reason located in the navel area or cutting off two of their horns. I thought that was insane. So there was someone else who was crazy enough to have attempted to fight these creatures.

They also wrote that the phantoms could had like ranks because they were different in size. Apparently they one we saw was the lower rank and could only use its physical mutations offensively but the higher ranked ones had abilities. They could make shadows have a physical form and use them as weapons and they had sky blue eyes that glowed and one horn was usually bigger than the other.

All of these sounded like a myth. Stories of old. It reminded me of one of them my brother told me when I was way younger. It was about a world where humans and demons were constantly at war with each other and coincidentally a demon and a human female fell in love. They hid their relationship for a while but they couldn’t hide it anymore when the woman got pregnant for the demon. As time passed by, drawing closer to her date of delivery, she kept getting weaker and dying. The demons were engaged by this atrocious act and killed the woman. The demon husband in rage sacrificed his soul and that of his wife to save the life of their unborn child. The child was born prematurely and…. I forgot the rest of the story but all I know is that this all sounds fictional.

Unfortunately the rest of the pages were torn out, so all that was left to do was to try the different strategies I saw in the book and try and decipher that coded language. By the time I was done it was already dusk so I slept in.

Later that day, I went to the junk yard. It was at the outskirts of the town, right after it was the forest. I didn’t come there to find another way into the forest; I came to make myself a weapon. A sword or something of the sort. When we were younger, I and my brother would visit the junk yard regularly and use the scraps of metal to build some stuff. Often times he goes there on his own to do whatever he was up to at the time.

I found some old sheets of metal from old and rotten vehicles and also some zinc sheets.

 After hours of collecting and pounding. I had a finally had a weapon. It wasn’t a bona fide sword but at least it could cut and shred stuff. I had used blocks of wood to make the handle. Really it looked like a total bluff but it was either I go in with that to the forest and give myself hope or go in empty handed and die hopeless.

I started working out and training in anticipation for the next sunny day. I’d wake up by 3:00am and start jogging round the town, building my stamina and cardiovascular strength and when I was back I’d do some strength training; push ups, pull ups and the like.

On certain occasions as I was taking my morning jogs I’d run bye Ravi and he’d give me this stare of disapproval. At first I’d hide from him to avoid his stare but after the first week, I got used to it. If he’d stare at me then I’d stare right back at him. I also took practice swings with the sword.

And finally after three weeks of training, preparing and missing the funeral service held for Tess, the day reached. It was finally a sunny day. The whole town was coloured golden by the sun’s warm embrace and elegance. The air smelt like hope and the sky was bright and clear. This view made my blood boil out of excitement and enthusiasm. I packed my supplies in my bag. A torch, sandwich, bottle of water, first aid supplies and a pocket knife. I also cleaned up my room because I wasn’t planning on returning, then I departed.