CHAPTER ELEVEN

Rescued

 Jaehwa had barely caught a glimpse of Sehun’s black cape when she felt a hand clamp over and another wrap itself around her waist. She tried to scream but no sounds came and as she inhaled deeply out of panic, all she could feel was slime suffocating her. The creature smelt entirely like glue or rubber and against her face, it felt warm in the most uncomfortable kind of way. Whatever it was, it was fast and she could feel the blades of grass scratch at her skin, leaving behind red marks on her hands.

In the distance, fading away, she could hear Sehun calling out her name in panic and she tried to peel the hand off but her fingers raked right through. She looked down at the hand by her waist to see the creature was a translucent green with its bones and veins visible. She would have been afraid if she hadn’t trained as a healer – in her time, she had seen plenty of gruesome cases.

Not long after she began to feel light headed and just before she was becoming faint, they burst through the field of tall grass to a small muddy land. The trees stood in hauntingly crooked postures with its bare branches reaching out wickedly. Jaehwa felt a shiver run down her spine as she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. As air flooded into her lungs, her sense of smell came back to life and the sour stench of rotting flesh hit her so hard, she felt her stomach tighten uncomfortably.

It was then that she noticed the buzzing of small flies and she swatted them away as she tried to stand up again. The mud squelched under her movements and she looked down at the brown mass that covered her new clothes, grimacing as she watched clumps off it slide off her.

Suddenly, she felt rough hands pull her arms behind her back and she struggled but the creature was fast and bound her hands behind her tightly with thick rope. In an instant, she was kicked back down into the mud and as she fell, a bone from another dead creature jutted out and stabbed her in the thigh. She moaned in pain and the air that she just breathed in, seemed to escape from her all too quickly as pain invaded her system.

“Me thinks you should stay quiet or you’ll get the same treatments as your friendsies over here.”

She spun around to face her captors and saw a group of scavengers sitting around a small campfire with a circumference of crocodile heads. Among them, Soojung sat tied up into a small bundle, squirming. had been stuffed with some sort of intestine and tears streamed down her face – the poor girl didn’t know whether she should be more frightened or disgusted.

“Look what’s we got here.” One of the scavengers hissed, his tongue zapping out of his mouth to slap Jaehwa on the cheek. She stumbled back at the force and felt her cheek flare up.

“What do you want?” She glared feeling his tongue leave a sticky residue on her cheek.

They burst out into deep laughter at her question, leaving Jaehwa dumbfounded. Never in her life had she encountered scavengers and she made nothing of them until now – they truly were the scumbags of the supernatural world.

“She asks us what’s we wants!!” The transparent, bug looking one croaked and they hopped around awkwardly, circling Soojung, taunting her. “Tell her what’s we wants beauty.” He leaned into Soojung’s ears and Jaehwa watched as his slimy hands removed the intestines from , leaving bloody residue around her trembling lips.

“HELP!!” Soojung screamed when she had the chance and out of irritation, the bug-looking one threw the bundle of intestines at her head. She shrieked as her head lolled to the side.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Another creature with burnt and flaky looking flesh picked up the intestines from the mud and forced it back into .

“Don’t touch her.” Jaehwa warned.

“Me thinks you should look after yourself before you care for your little misses over there.” Jaehwa jumped at how close the voice sounded. She hadn’t realised a creature had been there and when she turned to face it, she saw a human covered in masses and masses of fur. It took her a long moment of examination to realise that he was facing her and that it wasn’t the back of his head.

“What do you want?” She asked again, enunciating each word properly.

“Money. Money. Money.” The chanted behind her, “Gold or cash or expensive jewels. We wants all your money, money, money.”

“We don’t have money.” Jaehwa reasoned and the hairy creature grabbed her by the throat, picking her up with one arm easily. She groaned as he pulled the sharp bone from her thigh and felt warm blood ooze through her jeans. His hands felt prickling and painful against her soft skin, tightening as he threw her in front of his group of friends.

“If you don’ts have money then we want pleasuressss from pretty girlies.” They howled with laughter and amidst it, they released strange gurgling sounds.

Mud splattered everywhere but she was thankful that it was a rather soft landing. Except she had to consciously bite back a shriek when she looked up to meet the empty gaze of a crocodile head. She swallowed, feeling the heat of the fire grow uncomfortable against her face.

“It’s ok.” She whispered at Soojung who looked distressed, “They’ll come for us.”

Soojung shook her head hopelessly as if to say that if the Princes had wanted to find them, they would have found them by now.

“Trust me.” Jaehwa’s tone was so reassuring that Soojung felt more tears rush to her eyes – she had never encountered supernatural creatures without the Princes by her side, “They’ll come. They can smell my blood.”

 As time passed, the Prince’s anxiety and panic shot through the roof. They searched and searched through the field of tall grass but each time they thought they found one of the girls, it was always a false alarm – one Prince had bumped into another. Sehun trembled slightly trying to keep a clear head as he attempted to strategically look for them, listening for sounds but their movements were too frantic and all he could hear was the rustle of grass.

Yet he never gave up, he pushed on even when the blades of grass began to irritate his skin and as though Jaehwa had understood his intentions, he smelt it.

Do you smell that? Lay called and Sehun immediately followed his sense of smell before he could receive any more affirmation.

If you’re talking about Jaehwa’s blood, then, yes I can ing smell it. Tao replied and they all set off after Sehun. It took less than a minute at their speed to cut through the field to exactly where Jaehwa and Soojung both were.

 Meanwhile, a scaled, legless creature was molesting Soojung. He flapped his tail excitedly in the mud as he peeled back Soojung’s cape and with his flexible body, dipped his head under her shirt, sliding up her skin. Soojung cried and kicked and trembled.

“Me thinks you need to be taught a lesson, girlie.” He mumbl