My Long Lost Mate

The man suddenly ran towards us, his shovel raised high in the air. Luke quickly pushed me behind him, confronting the man. 

"LEAVE!!!" the man shouted, his voice boomed in the quiet night. I watched the man in terror, seeing how his eyes rolled back to his head, leaving only the white visible. Apart from his scrawny and lifeless appearance, there was nothing wrong with him when I first saw him. I thought he might be sick, but perhaps there was a lot more to it. 

The man lunged towards Luke with his shovel, intending to land a hit on him, but was quickly caught. Despite his boldness—or madness—the man was quite frail, and that's why Luke was able to stop him without much difficulty. 

"What is wrong with him?" Luke questioned as he held the shovel, stopping the man. The man initially struggled to reclaim his shovel but eventually gave up and started to attack Luke with his bȧrė hands. 

"LEAVE!!!" The man let out another shout, his hands choking Luke's neck. Luke stumbled backward as a result of his attack, caught off guard by the sudden change. Luke quickly returned his attack by kneeing him in the stomach, doing it a few times before finally breaking free from the man's strangle.

"He's trying to kill me," Luke coughed, at the same time removing his cape so he could move more freely. The man had undoubtedly gone mad, like all he had in mind was for us to leave—perhaps by killing us. But what was it to him? Why was he doing this? 

Despite Luke's attacks and being bloodied by him, the man didn't stop. He kept on lunging himself at Luke, no matter the huge differences in their strength. The man looked like he was not in the right state of mind, as if he was being controlled by something. 

Every time Luke threw him aside, the man instantly rose to his feet and ran back towards Luke. It went on and on, leaving Luke confused as to what he should do. He knew something was wrong with the man, so he didn't want to hurt him too badly as he was only a villager. Furthermore, the man's frail appearance made it hard for him to hurt him—though not impossible. To a passerby, it would definitely appear as though Luke was bullying the man. 

Also, we were on our way to leave, but we couldn't because he started attacking us. Should he stopped doing his madness, perhaps we would have reached our carriage by now. 

Luke then concluded that the only way to get the man to stop was to knock him out. And so he did. When the man lurched back towards him, Luke grabbed him by the collar and land a powerful blow to his jaw, knocking him out almost instantly.

The man dropped to the ground as soon as Luke released his hold on him, finally no longer attacking us. Wiping his hands, Luke glanced back at me, "Let's go."

Luke acted as if nothing happened, wanting to leave the man just like that. I was taken aback, so I held his hand, glancing at the man on the ground. 

"Are we just going to leave him like this?"

Despite the fact that the man had attacked us, it didn't seem right to leave him in a place where people rarely passed through. But seriously, was there something wrong with the man? 

"I didn't hit him too hard, so there shouldn't be any problem with him. He'll probably faint for a few hours and that'll be it. Come on, let's leave," he took his cape on the ground, draping it over his body, "Who knows what will he do when he wakes up." 

As usual, Luke would always walk with my hand in his, not wanting me to fall behind. I gave the man one last look before doing as I was told, walking away from him. 

"Are you okay?" I asked. 

"I am," he smiled, reassuring me. "He's no match for me, but there's definitely something wrong with him. It was as if he was possessed," his smile then turned to a frown as he recalled what happened, "Do you think it's the church?" 

"What about the church?"

"He was telling us to leave the church, right? Don't you think it's because there's something that he wanted to hide about the church? Else, why would he attack us?"

"But there's nothing in the church," I replied, though I couldn't help but wonder the same. It was impossible that the man attacked us out of nowhere; something must have prompted him to do so.

"Perhaps there is something, but we failed to find it."

Hearing his remark made me frown, as it didn't seem like we hadn't searched thoroughly enough. We had scoured the entire church, spending so much time inside to the point that I was on the verge of puking.

"We should—" Luke's sentences were cut short when we spotted a group of people, coming from the direction in front of us. There were about eight to nine people, all in a similar state as the previous man. Again, they were muttering the same word. 

"Leave... Leave..." 

My heart felt as if it jumped out of my ċhėst, seeing a group of people with white eyes coming towards us. They soon spotted us, and then the same thing happened all over again. They ran towards us in full tilt, screaming, "LEAVE!!!" 

"Shit," Luke cursed, pulling me to run in another direction. We turned to our left, going deeper into the village where none could be seen. Despite the fact that Luke could easily beat them, we were very outnumbered, making it difficult for him to engage them all at once. Furthermore, having me with him could be a burden as he also needed to protect me.

For now, our best choice was to escape them. 

Despite my best efforts, I was struggling to keep up with Luke's pace and stumbled a few times, causing us to slow down a little and for the people to catch up to us. Luke, seeing how I couldn't keep up with him, stopped and lowered his back.

"Quick, hop on to my back." 

Not wanting to waste any more time, I did what I was told to and jumped to his back, accidentally letting go of the lantern in my hand while doing so. I looked back, glancing at the people who were chasing after us. 

What was the matter with them? We were trying to leave, but they were the ones preventing us from doing so. They wanted us to go, so why wouldn't they let us leave without attacking us? We didn't even do anything!

...did we?

I tightened my hold on Luke's shoulders, holding my breath from the tension. All of a sudden, the shoulders I was holding onto turned larger and larger, feeling Luke's body turning into something not human. Bones cracking here and there, soft black fur appeared from beneath me. A growl came, and I knew right away that it was from the wolf I had been longing for. 

"Oh my gosh!" I shouted, surprised by the transformation happening. Luke suddenly shifted in the middle of his run, catching me off guard. That... that felt weird. I've never expected that I would witness his transformation in such proximity.

After turning into a wolf, we definitely ran at a faster pace, quickly losing the people behind us. Though we had successfully lost them, we ended up in an unfamiliar place far from where our carriage was located. We were still in the village, but perhaps the most inner part of the village. Here, everything was much worse than what was in front. 

Something must have happened here, for the houses were mostly destroyed, and there were no souls to be found. It definitely didn't look like a village, but more like a ruin. Everything was dark, with only the moonlight to illuminate the whole place. 

What happened here? The more we learned about this village, the stranger it seemed. There was clearly something wrong with this village. Be it the place or the people.

Wolfie ran past the buildings, heading in an unknown direction. It didn't seem that we would go back to our carriage, as I knew that Luke wouldn't be able to shift back to his human form without him baring himself. 

"Wolfie, do you know our way back home?"

He gave me a nod, letting out a soft growl. I could finally rest ȧssured, knowing that we were no longer being pursued and that we knew how to get back home. It had been so long since I last met Wolfie, so long that I had almost forgotten how soft his fur was. It was as though I was laying on top of a soft, warm bed.

"I missed you, Wolfie," I said, before giving in to my drowsiness.