"AAAaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!"

"Kyahahahaha! Run! Run!"

"..."

"Weeeee!!!"

I pondered on the reason for the ongoing scenario.

 A tall, scary-looking guy was running on my left. Laughing like a little girl on a field trip.

On my right, a guy was chuckling gently and was running with a giggling little girl settled on his shoulders.  Looking like a guy on a leisurely stroll with his sister.

A scene that would probably depict a casual game of tag of some sort, between friends.

Except, our ‘running’ was more specifically, sprinting

And a loud thundering noise came from the tree that was chasing us…

‘… … …’

'I wanna go hoooommmeee!'  

53 minutes and 11 seconds earlier.

"Eomma! Where are you? Waah!!!!"

I was walking home from my last part-time job of the day through a shortcut in the forest, when I heard a little girl crying on top of a tree.

'What?! How did she get there?! What is she, a cat?!' I thought, bewildered by the scene before me.

My eyes popped out when I realized that the tree was about 3 stories high.

'What a large tree.'

I craned my neck and cupped around my mouth as I yelled to the girl.

"Wait a minute little girl! I'll climb up and save you okay?!"

"N-ne!" The little girl sobbed.

*After about a minute*

"Hi. Quickly grab onto my shoulders and I will piggyback you down.”

"Ne!" The little girl looked a bit surprised for some reason, but she quickly wiped her tears and quickly did as she was told.

"Good girl. How did you climb up there anyway?" I smiled as I asked her the question that was bothering me since earlier. I was making my way down with a slow and careful pace.

"Mr. Tree picked me up... but he suddenly went still and I got scared because he wouldn’t put me down..." She pouted as I inwardly laughed at her story.

‘How cute… But seriously, how? ‘I wondered.

"Bad Mr. Tree!" The girl suddenly slapped the tree while we were climbing down.

I felt a shudder. Leaves started shedding as the tree started moving.

"WHO DARES?!" A booming voice said as the tree shook violently.

"Little girl hold on tight!" The sudden movement and deafening shout stunned me for a moment but my reflexes kicked in.  I grabbed onto a branch tightly. The tree didn't cease its movement but instead it turned side to side at a quick pace. I tried to get a foothold but it was no use and again, my hand was slipping.

'I'll need to jump.' I thought.

I was hesitant because of the little girl that was hanging for dear life on my shoulders. Plus, we were still quite high up...

But, I had no choice. We would be fired like a rock from a catapult at this rate.

"Hang on!" I yelled as I quickly spun around to hug the girl's head with my free arm.

Then I let go...

*crack*

*thud*

"Waaah!! Mister! Mister!!! Wake up!! Waaah!!"

'Whoops I blanked out for a sec. I must be tired.'

I woke up because of the cries and slaps of the little girl.

'Is she okay? That was higher than I thought.' 

I tried to open my eyes so that I could look at her, "Haha. I'm okay. I'm okay..."

'Rather... please stop slapping me.'

My cheeks were stinging a little and most of my body was throbbing with numbness.  I felt something wet dripping down my forehead. Actually, not just my forehead…

Now that I noticed it, the whole floor seemed to be wet. There's that sickening smell of rust too...

'Hmm? Was it raining?' I thought groggily.

"I'm okay... I'm okay..." I kept saying to the little girl to make her stop crying. But my voice oddly came out as a whisper.

'I'm just feeling sleepy... my body feels heavy... Night. Night.' My eyes drooped.

I kept hearing the little girl crying but it strangely sounded distant.

…

‘Don’t cry… I’m just… sleepy…’

 …

…

"Ohhkay. Here we go."

A calming voice was the last thing I heard before I drifted off into unconsciousness.

Author note:

Ehehe.

Uhhh, some confusions may arise from this chapter. But please wait patiently for the next chapters okay? Hopefully they can clear the confusions up. ^^ Or... you can also ask about it in the comment box.(*wink* *wink*) I will answer it if they are meant to be answered. (-w-)

Oh and, I welcome any corrections in the grammar or if there are any typos. Thank you very much!

Ps: Please be reminded that this is not tagged as BL alright? ^^;