Login with:

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Google

Yahoo

Aol.

Mibba

Your info will not be visible on the site. After logging in for the first time you'll be able to choose your display name.

It isn't safe

Rustling in the Bushes

Hi there! I see you've stumbled on It Isn't Safe! It's my honour having you here! I hope we can benefit from each other as this story progresses. Please, never be shy to leave me a comment, for it definitely will make me happy!

Rustling in the Bushes


A typical, light evening breeze blew the fallen leaves off of a distinct roof. This particular roof, his mentor’s usual spot of choosing victims, barely served for its original purpose of sheltering humans. The abandoned building stood in a composed way; almost as if it chose solitude over inhabitants. He blinked. His mentor stood in position, straight, like a pillar. His guru was probably the only breathing being, besides the rats and spiders, who even made use of the place. He sighed; the student had a hunch this would turn into a tiring chase.

His teacher hadn’t noticed him; yet. Sooner or later he would. As always. However, for the time being the student was in the clear. Usually, he exposed himself during the climax of the chase. He would miss an exit, or his foot would slip, or he would get lost in thoughts and breathe too loudly. It was safe to say he had a lot to learn still.

The student flinched; there was movement.

The guru scoffed as he lowered his body. He bent his knees and shifted his weight onto the heels of his feet. His dilated pupils followed one isolated slave. The next victim; who had the audacity to slack off while he hid in a small corner of an alley. The slave picked his nose. He lazily stared at his finger as he eyed the green prize that stuck to it.

The student suppressed a snort as his mentor narrowed his eyes in disgust. The former wasn’t surprised seeing the slave busy himself with such trivial matters. It was after all a prisoner from the lower class. In fact, all inhabitant from this city were part of the lower class. Masters and slaves; there wasn’t a real difference between them. Well, besides the obvious chains the latter group wore.

In all these years on earth the student hadn’t come across a human from this district whom he could call an intellectual. They were empty vessels. There were times he had doubted whether these humans even possessed free will.

He despised them. All they seemed to do was work, eat, and sleep. He had spied on them for several years; eying their movements, listening to their conversations, measuring their physical strengths. What that resulted in wasn’t much… These humans only seemed to have a care about which woman they would steal, which food they would consume, and how many hours they would sleep. Taking after his guru the student had grown hostile towards the useless maggots. And, thus, he had taken it upon himself to follow his mentor’s mission.
He would wipe them all out.

The night would soon be upon them and the masters would hide in their pathetic excuses for houses. The slaves, on the other hand, were not as fortunate. Day or night; it didn’t matter. They were obligated to fulfill their errands. For the hunters it was the perfect opportunity to torture the mentally weak. Show them who possessed the true power and make them understand how insignificant they were.

As expected, not long after that the sun left the town, and took the feeling of safeness with it. Now, it was their time to shine. The guru stood up and jumped from one roof to the other. He didn’t shed a single bead of sweat as his light body effortlessly moved in the dark; navigating with his strong sense of smell. The student, on the other hand, struggled- yet was close behind him.

Finally, both of them spotted the chosen victim. The tall, well-built slave carried a total of three pots. One of them on his neck and the two others on each shoulder. The student figured the pots were filled with water. He eyed the chosen one as the latter muttered to himself and struggled to keep his balance.

Something suddenly shifted in the air and the guru stopped jumping. He looked behind him and showed his student a determined smirk. The later sighed and dropped his shoulders. This time the mentor discovered him before the action had even taken place.

“Do you smell his fear?”

The student came to a halt next to the teacher and firmly took his place on the rooftop. He flexed his arm and took a closer look at the slave; the latter was frightened. And indeed he could smell it. He grimaced. “Honestly, it smells horrible.”

“It’s an acquired taste- similar to eating bheeves.”

The student pulled a face, bheeves… the fruit his mother made him eat all the time when he was younger.

“Well, let’s start then.”

The student flinched as his mentor swiftly jumped off the roof. Just like that. He didn’t hear a single sound when the latter’s feet landed on the soil beneath them. The mentor made sure to remain unnoticed- moving with calculated steps. He trailed the slave until they both reached a darker part of the street. The part where the moonlight couldn’t reach.

The student remained in his place. It could happen any moment and from experience he knew it would become ugly… I don’t want to wash my clothes tonight, he thought to himself as he took a handful of his salvar in his hands.

In the meantime, the slave became suspicious. He could tell something had changed in the air as well. He trembled as he looked in every direction; hastily searching for anything out of place. The hunter smirked. His eyes took in his surroundings. The doors and windows of the houses on the street were tightly closed. There were no lights burning in the small homes. A visible shiver ran up the slave’s spine. The guru knew the slave had become aware of his presence now. That single shiver turned into rapid shaking of the entire body. The guru smiled wickedly as he thought of all the possible ways of painting his new canvas.
The prey accidentally let one pot fall. The sound of the dried clay smashing onto the hard soil caused him to scream his lungs out. His high pitched voice echoed in the street before it slowly died out.

The student sighed; that was pathetic. For such a well-built slave he screamed higher than a woman.

The slave slowly bent down to safely put the other pots on the hard soil. Then he tried to pick up the broken pieces with shaking hands. The student lifted an eyebrow; why would a terrified slave bother picking up pieces of broken clay? Did the fear of punishment weigh heavier than the fear of losing one’s life? The student squinted his eyes. He noticed a single bead of sweat roll down the slave’s bare back. It left a big, wet trail.

The student leaned his head back with a smirk. He saw it all happen- how the slave followed the path of the spilled water, to how he noticed the huge shadow standing behind him, to how he dropped everything in his hands.

The guru stood with confidence in front of the slave. His tall, intimidating figure emitted a suffocating smoke. His pointy nails stretched and nearly touched the slaves nose. He grinned, however it went unnoticed by both the student and the slave. The guru had taken advantage of the darkness by hiding his face in it.

‘’Please, Please don’t. I have a family…please...’’

The student rolled his eyes; begging was futile. His mentor would never listen to the pleas of the prey.

The guru moved forward; closer to the scared slave who had yet to move an inch. The student studied the paralyzed body of the human. He had already come to learn that the humans were unable to flee when they reached a certain degree of fear. And, usually they would start crying as well.

Ah… there it is. The thick, hot tears started to appear on the face of the slave. His knees shook so much that his legs were covered in soil.

‘’I-I don’t want to die!”

A disgusting sound pierced both the hunters’ ears when the prey inhaled his dripping mucus. The student rolled his eyes and sat on the ledge.

The shadow stepped forward in a sudden. His large hand engulfed the slave’s face and ripped it off. The latter screamed in terror. At this point the student wasn’t able to see his guru because he moved fast. The only thing the student’s eyes could keep up with were the parts of flesh that were flying around, the blood that gushed out of the exposed veins, and the twitching of whatever was left of the body.

It only took around a minute for the guru to completely shred the human to pieces. The student erupted into spontaneous laughter. “Amazing!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. His eyes popped out of his skull as he leaned in to get a closer look. The guru wiped his face and looked up to his student.

“I hope you took notes.”

The younger student jumped off the ledge. He kicked a hand to the other end of the street and stepped on the severed torso. He closely studied the piece of flesh as the blood was still gushing out. The fresh human blood smelled like rotten bheeves. It slowly flowed to the middle of the street. It gathered there and as it mixed with the water of the pots it turned into a puddle. The student took quick steps. He leaned in and looked at the reflection of the moon from above. He sighed. One day he would paint like his teacher.

- Two-hundred lunar years later -

‘’Just five more minutes…’’

Sora sighed. It was her last class for the day and time couldn’t pass slower. The brunette bit her lip and took a glance around the room. As she had expected; her classmates seemed to be equally bored as her. Some of them were hiding their faces to sleep, whilst others had their eyes trained on their laps to play with their electronics. Only a couple were genuinely scribbling down notes. Sora was not among the last group.

Sora crossed her arms. Mr. Siddiq was one of those air-headed types of teacher. He wore small, silver glasses which matched the grey hairs in his neat goatee. His hair was a total mess, almost as if he stuck his finger in the power outlet every morning before leaving his house.
His appearance matched his behavior. Mr. Siddiq was the type of teacher who wouldn’t notice the chaos in the room. Sora often wondered whether he had a special device in his ears that shut off the loud noise the students sometimes made. She could not recall a single event where he told the class off for not paying attention. Or perhaps, he just wasn’t bothered with it. Come to think of it, if he had been focused on keeping the attention of the students he would have changed his monotone way of speaking.

Sora narrowed her eyes. It was a hassle for her to stay alert in his lessons. She barely could keep her eyes open when Mr. Siddiq would start to talk. And, she surely wasn’t the only student struggling with that.

‘’This will be in the quiz of next week so be sure to note it down.’’

Mr. Siddiq moved his body as he turned to the board. Sora took this chance to close her eyes for a second. Her body relaxed as she could, at last, rest her heavy eyelids. Sora didn’t even feel bad about not copying the notes into her empty notebook.

I’ll remember this. It’s easy.

A small part of her peers disagreed. Sora heard their eager pens slide over the papers as they wrote down the information her teacher provided. Sora wondered how they still had the energy to focus.

The human’s eyes shot open when someone dropped a book on the ground. The brunette glared at the responsible classmate before she stared out of the window.

Fall, her favorite season, had arrived. The leaves on the tree slowly dropped from the high branches. Sora watched the wind play with them, making them dance in small circles over the ground.
Suddenly, Sora felt a shiver run up her spine. She frowned as goosebumps appeared on her skin.

That’s weird…

‘’Sora, do you want to study with me in the library this afternoon?’’

The brunette flinched and turned her head to the source of the outspoken question. Zahra, one of her classmates, had daringly turned her torso backwards to face Sora. The former wore a questioning expression.

Her black hair was tied into a high ponytail and her bangs were neatly combed. Her eyelashes curled up- towards her plucked eyebrows, and her lip-glossed lips reflected the light that shone from above. Zahra put a lot of effort in her appearance, and oddly enough, she found enough time to be a good student, as well.

Sora couldn't find time for either of that.

Sora relaxed her back and shook her head. She didn’t feel like studying today. Sora had already planned to walk with her dog through the old ruins in the belly of the city. She frequently did so and the last time the brunette had a chance to leave the house had already been more than a week ago.

‘’I’m sorry, Zahra. I have important things to do.’’

Zahra gasped, ‘’Isn’t this important, too? We have a quiz next week!’’ Zahra pouted.

‘’Besides, I’ll help you with math.’’ she added with a wink.

Sora pulled her nose up. The brunette couldn’t deny the offer sounded attractive. Her grades for math had been dropping lately, and her mother was not happy with that. Sora was the lazy kind of student, so, she hardly put any work into the subject. Zahra, on the other hand, being the smarty pants (who actually did her homework) easily scored A’s on her math tests.

‘’…fine!’’ Sora growled in defeat as she hung her head. She knew it was inevitable, sooner or later the brunette would ask Zahra to help her anyway.

Better get it over with.
-
Sora hugged her arms closer to her body. Her summer jacket was too thin to protect her from the mildly, cold breeze that terrorized the streets. Sora absentmindedly pouted her lips as she passed by one of the oldest houses in the city. It was huge. Perhaps, one could call it more of a mansion. It had brick walls covering most of the garden. She could only look inside through the vertical openings of the iron gates. The brunette had passed this house countless times, but never did she have a chance to see the inside of it.

It had been empty for almost seven decades. Sora hadn’t even been aware of it until she overheard her mom mentioning it to the neighbor last week. Ever since that moment Sora’s interest in the house had peaked.

Sora stopped when she reached the small, sand path which was next to the main street she walked on. The path lead to the head entrance of the house: the iron gates. She walked up to the gates and estimated that they stood six feet tall. The gates also had black spikes on top, and were fastened by a rusty iron chain. Sora’s curious eyeballs peeked inside as she slightly bent her neck.

The front garden matched the mansion as it stretched generously. The neglected garden contained more dead plants than alive ones. The leaves, from the trees surrounding the garden, had taken over the grass bedding. The few plants that had survived until now had grown large and left an intimidating air around.

In the middle of the garden stood a proud fountain. Even in its neglected state it was majestic. The white color had faded over the years as nature had tried to take over the artwork. Spots of dark brown and green oddly decorated the piece of architecture. A noticeable smile played on Sora’s lips as her eyes followed a small, blue bird. It landed gracefully on the edge, seemingly not minding the lack of water since the only things in it were crumbled leaves.

And then the human’s eyes landed on a statue. It wasn’t the only one in the garden, but this particular one trapped Sora’s eyes. The statue resembled a living figure. It was bigger than the fountain as it almost reached the high, brick walls. She couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be, since it wasn’t a masterpiece. However, it had a recognizable head and a disfigured torso, which resembled a prism more than a body. It looked creepy, and Sora didn’t like it at all. The statue didn’t suit the rest of the garden, as if it didn’t belong in there. It was an eyesore more than anything.

Sora suddenly gasped. She felt something against her neck, as if bugs were playing tag on her pale skin. The brunette harshly scratched the itching place with furrowed brows. However, her hand didn’t meet any culprit responsible for the uneasy feeling. Had it been her imagination?

Perhaps, her lack of sleep was taking its toll on her mind, which would also explain the weird, tingling sensation she felt throughout her body earlier during class.

Sora shrugged and leaned back. Something about this house dangerously invited the young adult. As if a distant voice called out to her, as if someone tied a rope around her arms and forcefully tried to pull her in. Sora gulped, she hadn’t experienced a feeling like this before.

As the human pondered on it- she felt an inner pressure on her chest. Then, she heard something rustle in the bushes right behind the gate. The brunette snapped her head and grabbed the iron bars. Was it an animal? Or a person? Maybe, a thief? Sora’s heart beat faster with each second that passed by. Adrenaline flew throughout her veins, and her eyes almost popped out of her skull. Why did the sound of the rustles make her this unsteady?
Sora could now actually see the bushes move. The brunette unconsciously let the cold iron go as she stepped back. Something was in it, she was sure about that.

It wasn’t a human or an animal. Sora was sure about that, as well.

‘’Is something wrong, dear?’’

Sora jumped up and yelped loudly. She turned around in a flash to meet the eyes of the old lady who lived across the street. Sora knew her; Umm Rayan. The latter would often stop by Sora’s home to bring cookies or other sweets she made.

‘’No-no-no! Everything is okay, Umm Rayan.’’ Sora chuckled as she waved her hands in front of her face.

Umm Rayan nodded, and gave Sora a sweet smile as the former leaned on her wooden stick.

‘’You scared me a bit, though.’’ Sora quietly added.

‘’Oh, I apologize, dear. I couldn’t help but notice you staring into the yard. So I thought that you saw it.’’

Sora frowned, what did Umm Rayan mean with it?

‘’Well, if it’s nothing, I’ll be leaving first, dear.’’ The old lady gave Sora an apologetic smile and turned around slowly. The woman struggled walking. Sora concluded it must be because of her old age.

‘’Oh, and dear, one last thing.’’ Umm Rayan said as she turned around. ‘’Don’t come close to that house. It’s not safe.’’ She looked at Sora with a strict expression. The old lady had probably sensed Sora’s curiosity. And thus, naturally she tried protecting her.

The young adult awkwardly laughed it off and nodded. Sora quickly said her goodbyes and continued walking home.

She glanced at the alluring house for the last time that day.

Sora had to explore it sooner or later.

Had to.

Notes

Comments

There are currently no comments