PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

When was the last time I had a decent piece of clothing on? I can’t remember but it was surely before I was locked up in this place, to think that something as simple as not being cold would be so alien to me.

Why? Why be so nice to us? Why show us his face? Why doesn’t he look at us the way other men look at us? Why is his smile so warm?

I don’t have the answer to any of those questions, I can only stand in a daze as I lose myself deep in his blue eyes praying that this dream never ends, that this sense of security is not an illusion; that his smile is not a lie.

But I don’t dare to believe, I don’t dare to hope... I can’t, if I let myself believe again, I’m afraid of wanting to die when everything goes wrong.

“Can you walk?” The dark-haired man whose name is unknown to us asked.

It was not easy, many of us were very injured and malnourished, but even so, we were able to get up and nod, none dared to say otherwise for fear of being abandoned when we finally managed to see a glimmer of hope in the distance.

The man only smiled bitterly about it, probably noticing our discomfort but he didn’t dare to approach, he had already spent a very uncomfortable moment when he gave us the clothes we are wearing; the girls trembled with fear as soon as a man approached them.

The man paused for a moment as he seemed to think something to himself but in the end, he shook his head before simply asking us to follow him at our own pace.

.....

As soon as we walk out of that cursed room we’ve been locked in for who knows how long, all of us feel as if a piece of our souls will be left behind forever; it was a strange sensation of pain and relief difficult to explain.

We quickly snapped out of that gloomy state as we were greeted by the sight outside the door, bloodied corpses lying strewn with expressions of shock and agony plastered on their faces.

It was a brutal scene, many of the corpses weren’t even whole, it was too dark to clearly see the details but it seemed like some corpses had gunshot marks while others were ripped apart by something.

The problem was that we knew that the only person besides us in this place was the man who took us out of that cell. Was he responsible for all this? Because of his kind smile, it was hard to accept but maybe this was his true face and that smile was a farce.

I don’t dare to think beyond that, I don’t even want to think that he is just another kind of monster different from the one we know... my mind couldn’t tolerate it.

It seemed that the girls were having similar thoughts, with their pale faces and eyes full of terror, the girls were looking at the man in front of us too scared to even make a sound.

With no other option, I had to feign bravery to encourage the girls to go ahead, I felt that it was cruel to convince them to follow that man we know nothing about, but we had no choice and I knew it.

As we advanced, the corpses continued to appear and I even managed to recognize some of them, their previously sick and cruel expressions were now an expression of pain and aggravation; Looks like they had pretty painful deaths.

Oddly enough that made me feel slightly grateful to the man who broke us out of that cell, at least he didn’t give those bastards an easy death.

“You’re dead... you’re finally dead... dead... dead” In the middle of the silence, the voice of one of the girls resounded in the corridor, attracting everyone’s attention.

Poor Sara was standing in front of a corpse, she weakly kicked it over and over while she mumbled words of insult, when I saw the corpse I recognized him, he was the man who captured Sara and brought her here; he was also the first man to rape her... that bastard took her virginity.

So I could understand, Sara was the youngest of the group, she was like a little sister to the rest of us and she was also the most fragile of us; to some extent, she was the one who was the most broken.

The sound of boots hitting the ground behind me snapped me out of my momentary daze only to realize the blue-eyed man came this way.

I instinctively panicked thinking that Sara’s behavior had upset the man and I wanted to intervene to protect Sara but I was a step slower than him.

“He’s already dead, he can’t hurt you anymore.” The man’s words were simple, he did nothing more than point out an obvious fact, but as soon as his words were finished Sara burst into tears.

Sara threw herself into the man’s embrace, something unheard of in my opinion because she was the one who usually shows the most phobia of men, but now she lay in the arms of a man crying all her grievances.

The man didn’t say anything else, he didn’t give her words of encouragement or comfort or show her more kindness than he had already shown us, he just looked at me and I understood what he wanted.

I stepped forward and grabbed Sara by her shoulders pulling the girl away from the man as if she was looking for anything she could cling to, Sara held me tight as her crying became quieter and quieter.

As soon as Sara started to calm down, I could see that the man had already walked away leading the way out of this place again, without thinking too much I led the rest of the girls behind him.

I don’t know how much time passed but when we turned a corner what we saw was a corridor that led to the outside, I could almost smell the fresh air and taste the freedom, a little more; just a little more.

We kept moving forward not daring to run outside no matter when we wanted to do it we didn’t want to disturb the man by accident.

“Wait here” The man suddenly spoke.

I wanted to ask why, but I couldn’t, I was afraid of hearing something that would break my heart, but the man didn’t stop to confirm that we obeyed and instead he calmly walked out the door.

It was maybe less than five seconds that we spent before we understood why he asked us to stay, it was because there were people outside who were dangerous.

“Wow, wow, wow, look what we have here, it seems that he is the rat that has been attacking our underworld recently; To be honest I didn’t think you would be just a man.” A voice full of arrogance even reached the corridor where the girls and I hid.

Driven by curiosity, I couldn’t resist the temptation to see what was happening outside, I wanted to know if our salvation would be destroyed before it started or if something else would happen.

Followed by the girls behind, I approached the entrance and very discreetly peeked in to see what was going on outside.

At some point, the man who was getting us out of here had put his mask back on and was now facing what looked like at least thirty people with machine guns.

I should have guessed that God didn’t take pity on us, we still hadn’t even had a second of freedom before those demons came for us; now even that man was going to die.

I didn’t want to see him die, I hadn’t known him for more than a few minutes but I didn’t want to see him die, not when he was so kind to a bunch of broken women like us, he helped us get the dirt off our bodies, he gave us clothes and helped us get out of this place; I didn’t want to see him die.

But I was weak, I didn’t even have what it took to help him in the slightest, and all I could do was stand here trembling pathetically with fear while I waited for a miracle to save us.

“You dogs should know when to stop barking, I’m in a bad mood today and someone has to pay for it... with their lives” The man exclaimed with intense sarcasm.

Then dozens of chains of water came out of the air itself binding the thirty people in front of him, it was an absurd scene and difficult to accept but in a blink of an eye, the man subjugated all the people in front of him.

“I’m not even in the mood to insult you... just feel the weight of your sins ” The man added a couple of words before the chains that bound his adversaries tightened squeezing his enemies’ cries of pain before they all thirty men were ripped to shreds at the same time creating a bloody rain with organs and split corpses falling to the ground.

I was too naive, miracles don’t exist and that man didn’t need one in the first place, what I saw a second later was something I’ll never forget... what I saw was power, what I saw was dominance, a man wielding the power of a God; what I saw caused an intense feeling of longing and adoration to be born in my heart... I Revna Von Mussel must follow that man.