Chapter 87: Held Hostage
"Where do you think you are going?"
April tried escaping Monsoon before it was too late, but it was indeed much too late for her to do that now. Both September and Junk were nowhere to be found, unfortunately. The campfire never looked so depressing and chaotic for the entire night. April wanted to leave. So bad.
"What are you doing here, Monsoon?" she directly asked.
"What are you doing, following and marching with September? What would you still be doing whatever she tells you to do after all this time?" the barbaric-looking swine of death demanded.
"Answering my question with another question… How nice of you to be ignoring my question, but what should I be expecting out of a brute such as you? Huh?" April tried buying some time here.
"Tell me… Why are you still with the renegade witch?"
"Because she's my friend! That's why. Pretty obvious to me."
"A witch without a coven isn't a friend you should trust. Where is she now? Did she abandon you in the middle of the night? Is that something that happens often? Tell me, does she always abandon you in the middle of the night like this?" he interrogated her, beginning to frighten her even more as he raised his voice. The pig monster was towering over her as he continued slowly walking toward her. April was always forced to slowly and carefully step back from him. Eventually, she moved far enough from the campfire that her back accidentally hit a tree. She felt trapped. She couldn't go anywhere now. She had to stop and think of a plan to escape Monsoon and the dark and electric clouds in the stormy sky.
"I-I don't know, I'm typically sleeping at night without ever waking up…" she stuttered quite a bit. "But for some reason, I did tonight… Something woke me up… What was it?" she asked herself.
"Could it have been the weather?" Monsoon demanded her.
"The electricity! I heard electricity buzzing," she paused and looked up at the sky and saw the dark clouds enveloped with this energy. These sparks of orange lightning. "They are still making the same noise. I've never seen clouds with that color of electricity."
"It's because I've been waiting for you, April," he told her.
"Waiting for me? How? Why? What do you mean? Did you come here to murder me in my sleep, but then, you couldn't control your powers, and you accidentally made the clouds buzzing with your electricity a little too much or what?" she questioned him as she tried stepping back from him again, moving away from that one tree.
"No. There is nothing accidental about any of this. I can guarantee you that. But I've been waiting a few days for you. Which means that my clouds are just as amped up and stock filled as I am. I observe you and your team, attempting to run away from so many enemies, including the coven of witches from the village and the legion of knights… You keep barely making it in one piece. Day after day. Time after time. Then, I observed you attempting to collect the souls of as many monsters as you can… Pathetic. Pathetic and useless. Do you know that you are not a criminal, April? I mean, not officially. Yes, your face is also on all these 'wanted' posters, but you still haven't been registered as a criminal just yet. Only September and that Minotaur have been. It's not too late for you. Give it up," he said.
"What do you want me to do, exactly, Monsoon? Abandon Sep and Junk and go back to the witch village to be backstabbed and thrown into a jail? No. No, thank you. I'm not that interested."
"You would never be thrown into a prison and forgotten. I would never let anything like that happen. Sometimes, I feel like you are ignoring who you truly are. Sometimes, I feel like you are forgetting that you are the current representative of your tribe. You are the one from the Spring. You deserve much better to be a follower and servant of that Halloween witch," Monsoon explained to her.
"Okay… What do I deserve to be, then?" She grew confused.
"You deserve to become my new, private source of energy," the lord pig revealed his true colors to her, even though it didn't come as a shock to her at all. Monsoon always meant bad news, However, the towering monster never said that I wanted her to become his new private source of mana with a menacing tone. He didn't threaten her. He was simply explaining and indicating to her what was about to happen to her if she wasn't able to escape him.
"I'm sorry. I am not interested in becoming anything that belongs to you. There is already another monster who I want to be owned by…" she tried explaining to him before being interrupted…
"Who? The Minotaur? Don't make me laugh. You are not going to get too far with that creature," he said to her right before moving closer to her.
The pig lord was more than interested in having her working for him.
She shut her eyes.
Tried focusing, so she could find a solution to get out of here.
"What do you really want with me?"
"It's simple. I want you to be mine. You don't have to run away anymore. I caught you," he said.
"Forget about it," she shut him down.
She tried running away.
However, right before she could do so, Monsoon suddenly transported her from one side of the campfire site to the foot of the mountain to another. Instantly bringing her back within the circle where everyone originally slept together earlier that night. He brought her as close as possible to the bonfire.
"Why did you bring us back here?" she asked him.
"You are not leaving this mountain until you tell me if you wish to come to my side or not."
April now had to make her choice.