I look at the text for a while, wondering if she was tricking me. But Jinny doesn't seem like the type to do that. My heart starts to beat faster and faster as I, unexpectedly, start to feel concern. I think back to our strange connection, how I feel when I'm around her. I realize I dont want to lose that and I spin, dashing out of my room. I run down the stairs in a frenzy, almost falling. "Hey old fart!", I scream out while running, "I'm off!"
He walks out of the living room, a bewildered expression on his face. "Where are y-." I don't know the rest of what he was saying, seeing as I was already outside, the door slamming after me. I run as fast as I can to Jinny's house and ring her doorbell. After 30 seconds of continuous ringing, her dad finally steps out.
"What in blazes?" He asks, a strange expression on his face. "Where's the fire?"
Annoyed by his lack of concern, I ask in a sharp tone. "Here's a better question, where's your daughter?"
"Wh-What?" He blubbers out. Totally exasperated, I shove him out of the way and run upstairs screaming out Jinny's name. I run into her room and see she's not there. I look out her open window and notice a strange glow on the horizon. I jump out the window, tucking and rolling upon landing. I start to sprint in the direction I saw the red glow coming from. I hear her father's shouts after me but, not caring, I continue to sprint.
My senses start to tingle as I feel immense danger settling on me. I have never doubted my instincts and I'm not about to start now. I dash out from the corner of the house, seeing trees and forestry in my path. I barge straight through, my inhuman night vision keeping my ankles safe as I jump over rocks and roots. I see a clearing coming up and a faint redish hue outlining the trees around it. I slow my run and duck behind some thick bushes and, noticing a large tree to my right, quickly but quietly scramble up. I lean on a thick branch and peer over the side and what I see shocks me.
In front of me is, I think, a human. He's cloaked entirely in black with a long hood covering up his face. He is holding onto an unconscious Jinny, pulling her through the field. I stand up quietly, snapping a thick twig off the tree. I run to the edge of the tree and leap of the branch, taking a handful of leaves with me as I do so. Hearing the commotion, the cloaked man looks up at me and to his delight receives a face full of leaves. I swing my branch down hard and hear a satisfying thud as it connects. I land and look to see the damage done to my prey and realize that the thud wasn't on his face, it was on his arm which was blocking the branch.
I see a rustle and barely jump back as a fast moving kick whizzes directly where my face used to be. I take two steps and send a brutal punch, only to have it connect with mid air. I barely have time to react as an uppercut with the force of a sludge hammer connects with my chin and lifts me off my feet. I'm in the air and he punches me twice in the stomach, and leaps up to finish it with a flying kick to my face. I land on my knees and double over, clutching my stomach. He pulls me up by my hair and punches me again. I start to see double and lose focus, blood trickling down my nose and my busted lip. "The Fourth Ark", he mutters in a voice that cuts into me. Just his very tone implies a most certain and painful death so I do the most logical thing; I spit in his face.
He jerks his head away and slowly looks back. I swear his red eyes flash as he starts writing in the air with his finger, a red light emanating from his finger tips. He lets me go and I hang there, restrained in mid air. That's the last thing on my mind however as I realize something. That's the same light that was coming from my mom's fingertips... right before she was murdered.
