"Amnesiac, you're going now?"
"Mm-hmm. We can't waste any time."
Lavender eyes started calling me by an alias, Amnesiac.
'Not quite fond of it but it's better than nothing.'
I prepared myself for our plan. We needed the cooperation of every child for our plan to work. For that, I need to convince them to do something reckless.
I took a deep breath and remembered the contents of the book.
< A place where good people would have zero percent of survival and evil will always unfairly succeed. >
I'm going to do something cruel.
I was about to walk to the shivering children but lavender eyes grabbed the back of my sorry excuse of a clothing. I looked behind me only to see his expressionless face quietly searching for a trace of humanity in my eyes.
He's wasting his time.
I don't have something fancy like that.
"What is it, lavander eyes?"
"What if you regret this?"
I shook my head.
"If that happens, my list of regrets will only get longer."
He sighed then let go of his hold. I just smiled as an apology.
"I'm sorry. I really don't want to die."
"Go."
I walked to the center of the kids and called them over. They all followed, curious about what I had to say. Even though they were wary, they were still children.
"Hey."
Like a demon, I gave them their sweetest temptation.
"Do you want to escape?"
The children around me listened attentively. Everyone was desperate. I had to take advantage of that.
"I have a plan and if it goes well, we'll all have a chance of escaping."
"What do you mean?!"
"Tell us!"
"Hurry!"
I placed my index finger on my lips and hushed them. The way their eyes lit up with hope made my heart feel like someone was stabbing it continuously but I endured it. It's too late for these feelings to tie me down.
"Listen, the people outside really need us. We're very important to them. So, we have to make it seem like they're going to lose us."
They looked at me in confusion until someone spoke up.
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone, raise your voice and threaten them with your own lives."
"What?!"
They screamed, clearly voicing out their opposition. However, I maintained my composure and reassured them.
"Calm down, all you have to do is scream that you'll kill yourself. Do it for ten seconds. They will come here to check us and we'll take care of the rest."
The children looked at each other, doubt and desperation mixed in their expressions. I pointed behind me toward the direction of lavender eyes.
"We have a really strong vampire. He can take them head on if we catch them off guard."
Hearing that, they started to nod in agreement.
"Start when I give the signal, okay?"
"Okay!"
When we finished our agreement, I walked back to lavender eyes. He nodded at me as well.
I took a deep breath and shouted.
"NOW!"
The kids shouted their parts in unison.
"I want to go back home!"
"It's better to die here!"
"Let us go!"
"I'm going to kill myself!"
Lavender eyes, with his eyelids down, spoke with his usually calm voice. Vampires had heightened senses. He can vaguely listen outside and report the situation.
"What's their reaction?"
I asked and listened carefully to his answer, but half of me already expected what it would be.
"They're laughing. They think we're messing around."
I knew it.
Of course, bluffs don't work this easily.
They didn't even pretend to check us here, those bona fide shits. They're definitely not the type you'd want as bodyguards.
"What now?"
The children looked at me, waiting for their next instruction. I stared at them with a face devoid of any emotion.
"Lavender eyes."
"Shall we start?"
He responded, already knowing what to do next.
Lavender eyes waited for my response and I nodded. He took it as the sign and walked towards the injured girl, the one that tried to escape earlier.
"Move."
His cold voice echoed as his body morphed, showing vampire-like characteristics. The crowd parted in horror, seemingly afraid to go near him as his canines became fangs and his nails grew instantly long.
"Huh?! We did what you said!"
"No one's coming!"
"What's next?!"
Lavender eyes disappeared from everyone's sight and then... my 'real' plan started.
SWOOSH!
PLOP!
It happened in a split second. Everyone looked at the body of the injured girl who was now dead. Lavender eyes, who's hands were now drenched in a sticky red liquid, decapitated her by my orders.
SHLICK!
I walked through the pool of blood that formed around her headless corpse and picked up the head. Fresh blood gushed out of it and I wiped it at the wagon's bonnet while Lavender eyes created more victims.
'The people outside won't be able to ignore this anymore.'
It was then that everyone snapped out of the trance and entered a frenzy of madness.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
Crimson liquid splashed around me, creating a paradise of gore and slaughter. Intestines and organs flew all around as people ran rampant in panic.
It was a scene taken straight from the pits of hell.
FWOOSH!
Lavender eyes stopped beside me, his body covered in a similar mess of blood and torn flesh.
"It's working. They're on their way."
True to his words, the end of the wagon opened with the fog from the frozen prison slowly evaporating into the air.
'Now!'
The realization of the momentary release of security coupled with fear allowed the rampaging children to run amok, and the brief chaos created by that opening allowed Lavender eyes and I to blend among them and run outside.
SHWAAAAA!
The subtle breeze froze my lungs as I made my way out of the cramped vehicle. Lavender eyes and I were still blending in the complete mayhem that broke out.
I roamed my eyes around in search of something.
'Found it!'
The guard near me had a line of keys hanging on his waist. I grabbed it swiftly without being noticed.
Not that they have the chance to notice me in this mess.
"Over there!"
Lavender eyes dragged me to the side as the human traffickers tried to pacify the situation. The chaos was fleeting, dying down ever so quickly.
CLANG!
CLANG!
I removed our chains using the keys. Both of us waited for a perfect time until we saw a gap in their formation.
'There! If we can pass there, we can escape!'
Lavender eyes saw it too and spoke with urgency.
"I don't have much time in this form. Let's hurry."
"Yes, we can't waste any time."
I looked closely at the kids hiding together with us underneath the wagon. They look malnourished. Perfect bait. Easy to use decoys.
I leaned down, removed their chains, and whispered temptations for a second time.
"Let's go! We have to go while they're distracted!"
The crying children with scaly skin crawled out from underneath the wagon. I had only noticed that they were both nearly blind.
'My, aren't we lucky?'
I smiled bitterly before grabbing their bone-like hands and glimpsing over Lavender eyes. His fatigued body seemed to be getting worse by the second. It was an ominous sign that we barely have any time left.
"Focus on clearing the way and I'll make sure they can't follow us into the forest."
He nodded and started running. I followed after him, dragging the two behind me as he kept the enemies at bay.
'Just a little more... we're at the opening of the forest!'
But it wasn't enough. Some of the enemies got on our trails and started chasing us.
"Over there!"
"Stop them!"
I looked at lavender eyes. He was struggling. His fangs were back to normal and his long nails were starting to shorten.
'He won't be able to hold out.'
The enemy raised their swords. They were either going to injure us to the point where we can't escape or kill us on the spot.
Both choices weren't acceptable, not after we've done this.
'I have no choice.'
Making up my mind, I released my grip on the other two survivors and helped lavender eyes.
"Don't look behind! Keep running!"
His morphed body was back to normal. The aftereffects of his transformation ate away his stamina, nearly immobilizing his whole body. Furthermore, there was a cliff in front of us.
'I can hear water. There must be a river below.'
I can only hope it's deep enough. This was the only choice I can make since there was no hope of surviving if we turned around.
"Lavender eyes, hold your breath."
I gave him a last-minute warning and jumped, dragging him down with me.
SHHH!
In my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of the chaos we caused.
So many dead bodies lay on the ground but only children shed their blood. No one from the enemies was hurt.
'I wanted to save them, I really do...'
But that would make me a good person, something the rules of this world will never favor. So if I want to gain even the slightest bit of luck to survive, I must become someone 'evil' to be worthy of it.
As our bodies fell, we basked in the orange light from the sunset.
The night would come, making it hard to trace our bodies. And the cliff was high, it would take time for them to arrive down below.
For now, at least for the next few hours, we were safe.
We escaped.
The water was getting nearer and with the current, it would be hard to navigate while assisting Lavender eyes.
Still, I strangely felt relief instead of being burdened by it.
SPLAAAAAASH!