Irritated and terrified at the same time, Ren was panting, sweating profusely while counting his own steps. He couldn't figure out the change but the temperature had dropped and the light filtering through the canopy had dimmed quite a lot. The dense canopy grew darker, the sun swallowed by an ominous cloud.

He had been walking for a while now and there was no sign of Joe. Then that meant he should probably retreat right?

He thought hurriedly to make a quick decision to retreat. He had a hunch that Joe might be dead, but he couldn't say that to his colleagues back in the car. Even if Joe hadn't returned after sometime, they would have gone out to look for him anyway. They wouldn't have left him here based on an uncertainty.

Backing down felt like weakness, but the primal fear gnawing at his chest was undeniable. He had to choose: self preservation or duty.

But that didn't mean he couldn't fear. He wouldn't be able to look out for him any longer. At least one of them should survive right?

He turned immediately with a flash of excitement on his face and took decisive steps towards the way car was parked.

Splash

The sound of water rang inside his ears. His speed slowed down and finally paused.

The sound was loud and clear, not very far from where he was.

Joe?

He turned, suppressing the greed he had found to walk sneakily towards the source of sound.

Continuous shrieks of a vulture sounded above his head. He looked up to find an extraordinarily raven vulture aggressively yet hesitantly circle in the air.

------------

The tramp had to bathe once again. Not bathe, but precisely clean the blood off of him in the lake.

A sharp, disturbing stench lingered at the edge of lake. Two bodies, one of an animal and one of a human laid bloody and lifeless, emitting an unpleasant stench.

The disturbing sight didn't bother him as he continued to step into the lake once again. He was calm, his gentle movements could mislead one into believing he was just an innocent bystander.

And the blame of death of the human was not entirely his fault. Or rather he was the reason Joe died.

Joe must have been the dauntless one, he must have been the one every action movie portrays most lionhearted. But the sacrifice of Joe to save a young boy from the animal went obviously in vain.

The animal wouldn't attack the boy but anyone other than him. Only if Joe knew about that, he would have been alive.

But someone living or dying was not something he would bother himself with. The nature was quite unlike the voices in his head. It had been more than a month he had last touched water. Everything about that place and time was great until unwelcome beings appeared.

Now the poor bird had been praying to devil that he gets the food right in front of him. Terrified by the wrath of this boy earlier, when he wiped out the animal that irked him in a single strike, this bird dared not think of the it as 'food'.

And now as the boy was composed, it had been waiting for a chance or even a permission to pierce his talons into the meat he wanted to devour.

Ren looked from a distance at the unsightly scene.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

There was blood spread out on a large area of the ground. At places, there was even a small pond formed purely of crimson blood. One such pond drained into the river at one side.

However, another stream of bloody water current seemed to join into the larger one, that came from a young slender body.

Ren had noticed him first but his mind rather chose to overlook the strange being. A shrouded small body and a large furry body laid in the ground somewhere while the bird too had landed on the ground at some point, watching in the direction of the boy at a distance.

But they weren't the only one who looked blanched as if they had witnessed a forbidden thing. Every element of the nature, every part of the forest and biosystem seemed to pause and look at the boy with chills.

As if the trees forgot to breath, the forest was strangely getting suffocated. Ren struggled with his breath but his eyes did not waver from the boy.

A slender naked body, slumped into the river water with a bit of calmness yet apathy in his movements. His head shape was clearly outlined as his wet hair sticked to his head and skin, his face was still curtained by his hair.

He soon stood up and paused to turn his head.

A gesture suggestive of an abyssal gaze behind the damp hair caught them by fear.

The vulture flinched while Ren could guess from it's anxiety that it's pupil had dilated.

It's wings slowly spread out to prepare for an emergency flight, in case he had triggered the predator somehow. He waited for a type of signal but the wait seemed too long.

The boy after seconds of sending a chill through the bird's body turned his head away, gently and carelessly.

The bird paused and stepped forward slowly so as not to make any sound. It didn't even get to show his excitement which was nothing but a pity by the boy on the poor bird.

------------

Ren gulped rather loudly. He could hear himself make a sound and invite his death himself. Even a bird knew how to act in front of him, how could he not know?

Joe was being devoured, his sacrifice turned into a feast for the bird. Not even an animal was spared. And this odd little boy was to blame. Just who was he?

A bead of cold sweat rolled down his pale face. This boy might be the murderer they have been looking for. He might be the one murdering people around for fun. Even a sight as disturbing as this was nothing to a boy of that age.

But wasn't he invincible?

There was a strong feeling yelling that he was.

Ren's eyes looked anxiously flooded with the amount of information he had witnessed. His spine shuddered with fear as he felt a sense of being watched.

Next he saw the bird pause out of it's own fear.

He saw the boy stopping his movements in the mid of putting a shirt on.

But his head hadn't turned.

Right, he hadn't seen Ren yet. So there was still time to retreat. He should have done that earlier.

He turned with stiff movements, to make least sound and change.

His chest was tight, a bout of air was inhaled and breathing paused. All within half a minute, he rose his feet off the ground.

The temperature dropped abnormally which was impossible to believe but feel. Ren couldn't move further.

His flexed leg froze in the air and only his face, with quite difficulty could turn sideways to look from the periphery of his eyes at the suspect behind this eerie change.

And the head had turned. It had turned at some point to look at the spying man.

The boy took off his shirt once again and vanished out in thin air.

The darkness was getting stronger making it difficult to see. Even the raven vulture merged with the black, totally invisible.

But he could still see the preying eyes looking at him. That food in front of the vulture was no longer a delicacy to it, as if that food had gotten spoiled or invaluable. The vulture was rather keen on gazing at him which made him anxious to the point he felt extremely nauseated all of a sudden.

He could feel the contents of his stomach surge upwards. The feeling was little due to the freezing cold. And at some point he could no longer feel his limbs either.

He was frozen in the same place as before. Only his eyeballs could move at liberty. His eyes could only locate the thirsty gaze of the bird at him.

As if now, it wanted to devour him.

But how did that black bird become so fearless? It was anxious not long ago.

Maybe the cause of it's anxiety, that boy had gone.

Maybe that's why it was acting all high --

Ren gasped in the middle of the comprehension.

A bloody pipe was thrown in front of him on the ground but he couldn't see any better in the dark.

Even his eyes got veiled as if the darkness wanted him blind. He cried while staggering on his one foot as he finally fell on the ground.

His bloody tears, out of jerk, stained the cold, expressionless boy Ren had been staring at from afar.

The nauseated feeling had gone. Along with his food pipe and wind pipe which was drawn out of him.

The shock was overwhelming. As he lay paralysed on the cold forest floor, faint taste of iron on his tongue, Joe's face flickered in his mind.

[ If I had come sooner.....If I hadn't been a coward.. Joe might have had a chance... ]

His mind screamed against the silence of the forest.

Joe did not deserve to die like this..

I don't deserve to die like this...

The regrets, raw and bitter were swallowed by his ultimate death.

*****