Riyad felt a piercing pain in his left arm before he jerked to his side. The hooded man was back. This time, however, there was a knife sticking out of the shawl.
Riyad veered his eyes from the knife to the piercing purple eyes. If the glowing eyes were intimidating from a distance, they were frightening up close. The glow was intense enough to make purple smoke rise from his eyes. He had to look away before his own eyes could get fried. He didn't want to take a single chance with that man. The man had murder in his eyes.
Without another thought, Riyad broke into a run. It wasn't long before he slowed to a jog. The one glass of water was not enough for him for his legs to move fast enough, plus the tiny rocks on the ground were not going easy on his barefoot, either.
He did not want to look back but he had no choice. The man was still following him, but unlike Riyad, he was striding to catch up. His shawl collected dirt as it dragged on the ground. He was cautious enough to not bump into any person or any animals hanging about, which struck Riyad as odd.
He is definitely not from around here...maybe not even from this era, thought Riyad with a gulp. He was nowhere near as cautious as the man as he continued to bump into stalls and people, who were spewing cuss words he didn't even know existed. The path seemed to have gained a lot of traffic since he entered the store and now, the further he went, the tighter the crowd became.
Goddammit! I should've gone into the store instead of running out like an idiot! Riyad looked over his shoulder. His jog was slowed down enough by the crowd for the man to get closer to him.
Riyad had to make a choice: either get stuck in the crowd while gaining attention from everyone around him until the man could inevitably catch up to him or...
He glanced above him. The houses stood low from the ground and they were closely packed together. He could somehow climb up and run on the tip of the roof, but that would draw too much attention as well. Squeezing around here is gaining attention enough, but I don't have the slightest balls to run on these houses! Riyad looked back once more. The man was only about a couple of meters away from him. He realized that even if the man could run, he wouldn't. He was hiding something under the shawl.
I can't run on roofs in real life, but I can...if I'm in a dream. He despised himself for going against his own theory, but it was the only way to overcome his fears. It was also a good way to find a safe path out of this crammed place. Running around the little alleys would just circle him back to the hooded man.
He reached a random house and was relieved to notice a gap on the side, separating it from the house next to it. Riyad dragged a broken stall close by him and thumped it against the wall. He let out a breath and looked around him for the sight of the man.
The man was right next to him. The knife reached out once more and Riyad stared at him with horror. It was too late. He was caught.
The man gestured with his head to come and follow him.
Is this it? Is this how I'm going to die? Riyad let go of the stall and looked to where the man wanted him to go; it was back the way they came from. In theory, he could go back with him and jump through Y.E. 's door when they get close, but now that he thought about it, he didn't want to make them a part of this. He didn't want to dig a deeper hole for himself and lose his only allies, either.
Think, think! Riyad veered his eyes back to the man. There's a reason why this dude is walking carefully. It dawned on him that the man's identity was more important to him than catching Riyad.
He ignored the man's order and hastily stepped onto the stall and grabbed onto the ledge of the roof. There was a piercing pain on his foot, which he forced himself to ignore as he heaved himself on top of the roof. Once he was able to balance himself into standing, he looked down behind him and saw the man glaring at him from the bottom. His whole body was still hidden in the shawl with his eyes locked onto Riyad. Smoke continued to rise out of them. Riyad tore his eyes away from him.
Some hay crunched beneath his foot when he began jogging for his life. The thumps of his feet were loud. They were even louder when he prayed to god as he jumped onto the next roof.
"Aye, get that dumb kid off the roof!" someone yelled from the bottom.
"Kids these days!" a granny shook her fist at him.
In a matter of minutes, Riyad was past the crowd on the ground. The gaps between the roofs were significantly increasing and with every jump, his breathing grew heavy and heavier. He looked in the distance and noticed the houses getting less dense until only a couple of them were sparsely spread out on a grassy field that went past the horizon.
Riyad thought he could faint as he glanced at the roof across him. He slowed down to a lame excuse of strides until he reached the ledge. His back heel dug into the hay as he awkwardly leaned forward to charge for the jump. After this rooftop, he could just run and hide somewhere on the field, he supposed.
Riyad's vision became blurry and the voice of the crowd slipped into obscurity. C'mon, hang in there. The hay flew into the air as he pushed his foot back for the jump.
"Ack!" He couldn't even get an inch into the air before he slipped and rolled down the tilted roof. His face burned with stripped skin. His body bounced like a piece of meat until he finally slipped off the ledge, into the air.
Riyad couldn't tell whether he heard a bleat or a squeal right below him, but whatever that made the noise seemed to have eased his fall. He gazed at the sky above him as a set of hooves galloping past him.
"Serves him right!"
"Who is this kid?"
No, I can't...die...I need to go back...home. It was after about three tries when he was finally able to sit up on his butt. Beads of sweat dropped on his eyelashes. Riyad was surprised to hear just how loud his grunt was as he wobbled into standing and began dragging his feet across the field. He could no longer distinguish his tears from his sweats.
What did I do to deserve this...
After a while of leg draggings, Riyad looked ahead of him and noticed a barn ahead, standing alone. It was one of those buildings he had noticed from the rooftop, that was far into the grassy field. Once he reached the barn, he looked over his shoulder before closing the door behind him.
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Riyad choked on the air. A mixture of dung and urine had created an unbearable environment that the animals probably savored. He put his shirt over his nose and looked around. Rectangular lights sipped through the windows above and dimly revealed the place to be empty. Either side of him were enclosures for animals that were probably outside eating grass. Riyad curled his toes on the wet floor and reached for the stack of hays on the other end. It was large enough for him to hide behind. It seemed that the man didn't end up following him, but Riyad didn't want to take any risk and decided to spend a couple of hours behind the haystack until he felt safe or until the sibling could somehow manage to find him.
It took almost an eternity for him to reach the other end. Once he dug some hay out and sat behind it, he contemplated on taking a nap while he waited. He didn't have much choice, either as his body seemed to be slowly shutting down. The exhaustion and the dirty environment made him gag and he thought maybe vomiting would make him feel better, but he didn't want to find out. His head hit the wall with a thud. The haystack blocked most of his view, which brought as much anxiety as it brought comfort. The barn was eerily silent, except for his breath, which slowly became faint. Riyad wanted to keep his ears perked for any noise and his eyes darting for any sight of danger, but his ears only managed to sag down and his eyelids became heavier each second. A fly-covered apple no longer sounded so bad.
Creeeeek! His eyelids were closing to a slit before he heard the door slowly being opened. His ears perked and his eyes began surveying the view around the haystack. He tried to hold his breath, but it escaped. Who could come in at this time?
Did the guy somehow manage to find me? His left leg began to tremble. Nah, it's probably the owner of this place...bringing the farm animals back in. But he heard no moos or bleats and no footsteps, either. He thought of peeking around the haystack but decided otherwise. The safest thing for him to do at that point was to stay put and hold his breath. He was half successful; trembling breaths continued to escape his mouth.
Creeeek! The door closed and Riyad was finally able to relax his shoulders. It no longer mattered who had opened the door. He was safe now, but something didn't feel right.
The barn was quiet before, but now it felt deafening. It was as if someone was in the room holding his breath. He tensed. It was one of those situations where he could feel the presence of someone even though he couldn't see or hear them. He glared at the haystack in front of him. I'm safe here.
The hays were completely silent and still. Riyad had never seen hay in his life before. He was surprised by the pungent smell of it as a stack of it now stood before him. His eyes narrowed on a spot right in front of him. He thought he sensed some movement for a split second.
Huh? Pushing back on the wall behind him, Riyad leaned toward the spot. A single piece of hay broke away and his eyes followed it all the way down on his lap, which felt a lot longer than a couple of seconds. As he about to lift his head back up—
A shimmering metal arm broke through it. Riyad wanted to throw himself to the side, but it was too late. The hand locked its fingers around his neck, choking him. He began pushing the arm away, but it was robotic and strong and before he knew it, the arm pulled him through the haystack. Thorny pieces of hay stung his eyes and some even went inside his screaming mouth. When he was finally able to cough them all out and rub his eyes red, he looked at who stood before him.
The person let go of his neck and stood back. Most of his body seemed to be metallic, while only his face was human. Riyad's eyes traveled from his feet to his head. His limbs and torso were painted pine green. The color wasn't pleasant and neither was the purple that filled the space in between. All sorts of purple lights were flickering on his body as well.
Riyad's eyes finally rested on the man's own. He was met with the familiar purple set. A strand fell on the man's eye from the slicked-back hair. If eyes could kill, then his' could definitely send Riyad to oblivion. The knife he was poked with earlier turned out to be a small part of a long blade that was attached to the side of his arm. Before Riyad could have a proper look at his own horrified reflection, the blade snapped back to the man's forearm. A bit of it now poked out behind his shoulder. Riyad's eyes veered to a set of sticks peeking around the man's neck that he assumed were arrows. He was overwhelmed by the number of ways the man could kill him in an instant.
The man reached over to pull out one of those arrows. Instead of putting it on a bow, however, he put his fist over his other shoulder as if he was about to shoot it himself. The tip of the arrow glared at Riyad.
Of course, the man's a robot! Why would he even need a bow? Riyad wanted to move out of the way, but his body was paralyzed with fear. The only thing he was able to do was cower and squeeze his eyes shut.
What did I do to deserve this... he thought again.
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