My chest felt a lot lighter as we took the rock-strewn path downstream. George’s reasoning had definitely worked wonders with my disposition I even thought of apologizing to Vincent. Again. Although, if he asked me why I was acting all weird, I would just probably clam up because I didn’t know why myself.

Soon, I could see the group of fishermen hauling the nets.

George waved eagerly. “We’re done!”

Levi’s emerged from the water, his long black hair dripping after him. “You two go ahead then,” he ordered. “I take it you do remember the way, Elemental?”

Laughing, George cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted “Aye, Sir. My name’s George, by the way!”

“Hi, George! You’ve finally remembered!” Grigori waved back, receiving glares from the rest of the fishers as he let go of his end of the net. He said his apologies, scratching the back of his bushy head.

We were starting to the manmade tunnel through the redwood fence when a rhythmic tremor shook the ground. We lurched sideways.

Automatically, George crouched on all fours, a low guttural sound coming from his throat. Every member of the drift was suddenly on the alert, abandoning their nets, their traps and getting out of the water as soon as they could.

“Be prepared,” Levi barked in an undertone, his pale blue eyes scanning the riverside.

“Is it him again?” Grigori asked Levi, his voice edgy.

Levi calmly shook his head. “Naberius won’t dare come to these parts. There is too much water for his liking.”

A drop of sweat trickled down Grigori’s forehead. “Oh, dear…”

With his left hand, Levi gestured the drift to regroup. As if it was merely a drill, the fishermen adeptly formed a circle, their backs on each other. All seven pairs of watchful eyes on the lookout.

“Little Miss,” Grigori hissed, beckoning us.

The birds stopped twittering and the rodents that often scampered to and fro seemed to have retreated in their burrows. The tremors ceased, leaving the whole forest in a soundless terror. For a long, expectant minute, all I could hear was my ragged breath. My head pounded so hard I felt extremely lightheaded.

Still, nothing happened.

From under the tangle of damp red hair, George’s yellow eyes blazed, his upper lip curling back in a snarl. “Do as he says, Aramis,” growled he.

Before I could take the first step towards Grigori, a blur of black whizzed before me. My feet were off the ground in a fraction of a second. The scream that tore through my throat got lost in the wind as the whole forest trailed off before my eyes in a smudge of green and gray.

“Aramis!” George’s voice echoed distantly.

The ravaging current from behind me whipped my hair against my face as I moved up and down in perfect timing with the rhythmic thudding against the ground. I saw something huge with silky black fur.

Several yards beneath me, four gigantic paws loped with ease, weaving through the redwood-strewn terrain.

Only then did I become aware of the pain in my left shoulder. Blood trickled relentlessly from where a yard-long canine tooth was impaled. My left arm was luckily wedged between two smaller canines and my palm landed on something wet and spongy; the tongue maybe.

The smell of raw meat and blood and drool brought bile at the base of my throat.

With a desperate cry, I squirmed. But no matter how much I flail my limbs, the fangs didn’t loosen from my shoulder. The creature didn’t stop running. It only made the pain in my shoulder ten times worse. Soon, I could feel my consciousness fading.

As my head lolled upwards, I saw a glowing violet eye a feet away from my face. A magnificent amethyst orb looking back at me.

Why me? I thought, a single teardrop making its way from the corner of my eye.

The violet eye blinked once.

I must be losing it.

No matter how much I tried to hate it, I couldn’t bring myself to. It leaked innocence and was full of life. How could this marvelous creature be anywhere near terrifying? It was…

“Beautiful,” I murmured deliriously.

Through the haze in my vision, I saw a tall white structure perched on top of a hill, its domed elevated roof jutting out of the trees.

Luci’s lab!

Upon arriving at a clearing halfway up the hill, the creature slowed down.

All of a sudden, I was falling.

I hit the ground in a crumple. The blinding pain shot all over me like hot branding irons being hammered into my bones. I lay there on my stomach whimpering, waiting for the pain to go away. To my dismay it wasn’t going anywhere.

 Something cold and wet nudged me and rolled me onto my back.

Groaning, I opened my eyes to see the enormous face of a dog right in front of me. It was black with a patch of blue on its chest, with strong muscular jaws and fuzzy waves of fur covering the lose folds of its strong neck. A long white scar run across its right eye, closing it shut. The one good eye watched me with curiosity.

Again, it nudged me with its enormous snout, sending jolts of pain all over me.

Wincing, I shied away from it, covering my face with my good arm.

Unexpectedly, it let out a soft whine.

With eyes wide, I watched it lower its head close enough so it could gobble me up whole. But instead of opening its mouth, it shook its head slowly. Soon, two more heads sprouted from both sides of the creature’s neck: one with erect pointed ears on either side of its broad, prominent forehead and refined pointed muzzle giving it a rather snooty appearance and the other, snub-nosed with large eyes and lion-like mane.

For a moment, I forgot about the hole in my shoulder or the possibility of me becoming dog food and just stared in awe of the three-headed dog.

As the two pairs and a half of violet eyes peered over me as if they were examining my soul, the middle head slowly lowered its muzzle towards me.

The pounding in my ears was so loud I thought I had gone deaf. I clenched my teeth to keep them from rattling. As if it had a mind of its own, my hand reached out for the creature’s muzzle.

A large part of my brain told me this move was going to be in the Stupid Hall of Fame. The instinct side of me thought it would be a good time to run. So far, no one was on my side. When my palm touched the creature’s muzzle, it whined again, closing its eyes. The silky black fur felt like satin on my palms.

All of a sudden, I heard the distant howl. I was almost sure it was George.

With the creature’s eyes snapping open, all three heads curled their snouts and bared sets of canines that could slaughter herds of beasts in one heartbeat. The middle head kept its eye on me while the other two howled to the skies in a chorus of strange yodels.

Then, they began snapping at me like possessed snakes.

The snooty one caught me by the hem of my robe. It flailed me twice like a chew toy. Finally, the fabric ripped and I was sent flying uphill. My back hit the ground and the world was a spinning patch of colors.

Shaking the daze off my head, I got up coughing. It was a struggle just to keep my eyes open. Blood gushed from the hole in my shoulder and all I could do was press a hand over it as I wobbled up the slope.

Behind me: a loping thousand-pound, three-headed monstrosity. Before me: Luci’s dilapidated laboratory that homed God-knows-what. I was hoping to reach it before the creature reached me. Although I doubted if it could hold against the creature’s attacks.

The whole forest swayed from under my lashes. Every painful step made it harder and harder to breathe. And with every breath, a stabbing pain shot through my chest. Something told me I just got my lung busted.

“There she is!” It was Grigori’s gruff voice.

I heard several pairs of sandals beating against the ground along with the constant thudding that followed me. As glad as I was to see my companions coming to my rescue, I resisted stopping and forced my burning calves to move faster.

It wasn’t long before my knees buckled and my left cheek bounced on the ground.

As I took shallow breaths through my mouth, I focused on the pain. I told myself to ignore it. As agonizing as it was, I had been through worse. This was nothing.

Vincent would probably scold me day and night about this; how I had never failed to get myself into trouble every single time. Or how annoying it was to always have to rescue me because I was so weak and stupid. That was just so him.

But he wasn’t here to save me this time. He was with sickeningly sweet Luci, perhaps having a picnic somewhere in cherry blossom wonderland. Oh, how fantastic that would be!

That was when I found out I was crying.

I hate this. I hate everything!

It was like being back to my boring, despicable, semi-abnormal life with my Dad before everything turned into the weird, recurrently frightening, totally abnormal afterlife.

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Hi! Me again! So if you liked this installment, please don't forget to vote, comment, share, do pushups, have a CrackHead. Oh, and it's Aramis' birthday on the 8th of December. As a treat for all you guys out there, I will make an extra chapter. (like a filler LOL) so yeah. NEXT PAGE!