running ☽
月に吠える | tsuki ni hoeru ☽ ㅡ discontinued
❝You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself❞
ㅡ Marilyn Monroe.
"Wake up! You have to leave," a voice yelled, halting Jiu from her sleep.
She looked at the old woman before her and nodded, sending her a smile a voicing a faint thank you.
Ever since that day, the day she went back home, everything had changed; she had arrived to see the elders gathered in a circle, with their dark blue cloaks swinging in the morning's air, they were surrounding something, or rather someone. Jiu didn't realize until it was too late. When she saw the bloodstained man in the middle of the circle screaming in pain, she turned around instantly, her eyes wide.
"Run!" She had shouted to Sehun, who was tensely looking at the scene in front of them. Aggravated, Jiu shouted again. "What are you doing? Run!"
She pushed him, ushered him to go away and he did, probably thinking that she was running behind him. But she wasn't. Instead, she turned around and looked at the elders, some were watching her carefully while others, unfazed, continued to torture the poor man who was by the time, almost dead on the ground, blood all around him.
One of the elders walked towards Jiu, with a grin that would have made her scoff if she wasn't frightened out of her mind.
"Now, now, if it isn't our little Jiu..." He said in a mockingly sweet tone. "What are you doing here? You couldn't have been in the woods, right?"
Jiu felt her heart beating fast, a knot in and a lump in her stomach. But not feeling would ever compare (not even what she felt when that was chasing her through the forest) to the fear she felt when the elder swayed a dagger in front of her face. If she hadn't jumped back, she wouldn't be alive to tell it.
When the elder was about to lunge forward, she got up and started running. Her ankle still hurt a tad, her clothes were not made for running and her head was spinning, yet she kept going, and she didn't stop until she entered her house, desperately locking the door as soon as she shut it close.
She looked around the house, neither her parents nor her little sister were there. Unbridled, she ran towards her parents bedroom, it was empty, not only weren't her parents there, all their belongings were gone. She opened the closets door to find that all their clothes were gone too.
Hot tears ran down her face. Where on earth could her family be? How could they leave without her?
Jiu heard a loud thud and then the door banging against the wall.
"Jiu!" She heard the voice of the elder, followed by a sick, evil laugh. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Jiu heard steps nearing the room she was in and hurriedly went into the closet, not before grabbing one of the bed tables, of course. She carefully closed the door and waited in silence.
"So this is how you want to play?" She heard him laugh. "Fine then. Let's play Sheep and Wolf then, you'll be the Sheep, and I'll be the Wolf..."
Jiu could hear him walking into the room.
"Ready or not..." He said in a deep, Machiavellian voice "Here I come."
The elder opened the closet's door, and Jiu wasted no time in smashing the bed table against his head, thus making him stumble down and giving her the chance to run.
And that's what she did. She ran as fast as she could, as far as she could go, until her legs gave out.
And now there she was, it had been months since then and she had spent every single day running and hiding, relying on the kindness of strangers that let her spend the night on their houses, telling them her story and running away at any sign of the elders, who had been haunting her ever since that day.
Jiu got up from the bed and got dressed as quickly as she could. Thanking the old woman once more, she sprinted out the door and headed towards the next town. She knew she was an easy target, even more when she was staying in sparsely populated towns. But she had nowhere else to go, she didn't have any other relatives besides her parents and sister, and only God knew where they were now, or why they had even left.
Jiu tried not to think to much about that, about her family, if they could even be called that. No, they weren't her family; family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. And they had done both those things. They were strangers to her now, to the point where she wouldn't acknowledge them if they met again.
Jiu was now walking, tiredness getting to her. She looked at the forest a few miles on her right. She didn't remember it being so wide, yet every town she had stayed in, she could still see the forest, even if was far away in the distance, she could always see it. It was sort of comforting in an odd way.
Soon enough, she arrived at the town Centre, and checked her pockets, making sure she still had some money left. She wasn't certain if it was enough for a meal, but it was worth the try. Therefore, she walked into what appeared to be a pub, in hopes that they sold food at cheap price.
She sat at the counter and asked the barman about the menu. He handed it to her and her eyes instantly went to the prices, letting out a sigh of relief when she found out she could afford a meal and even a drink, hence she ordered it.
Jiu was halfway done with her food when she realized that there was someone singing on a stage at the back of the pub; the lights were dim and the melody was reposeful, the woman singing had a soft, high voice that went smoothly with the tune. When she was completely done with her food, Jiu grabbed the glass of what she was certain was an alcoholic beverage and went nearer to the stage. She sat down at a table and watched the singer, Jiu didn't really know how, nor from where, but she was sure that she knew the woman on stage. It was only when they made eye contact that she realized, the woman singing on stage, was none other than Xun, the intimidating woman she had met all those months back at those boys' cabin. What was she doing here, where the Devil lost his poncho? Jiu was completely certain that not even God visited this town anymore, the place was almost completely inhabited besides the few inhospitable people that were living here since the beginning of times. Furthermore, some people from other towns nearby said that the place was founded by the Devil himself.
Shaking her head, Jiu tried to clear her mind. Maybe Xun lived her, it would make sense then, her horrible attitude, the glares, the way she carried herself.
Jiu realized Xun had finished her song and clapped along with the other people there. She watched as Xun got off the stage and walked towards her before standing in front of the table she was sitting in.
"Hello," said Xun before sitting across her.
"Um..., hi." Her head was spinning, though it was most likely because she had downed the whole glass in one go.
Jiu saw how Xun raised her hand and asked the bartender for another round of whatever she was drinking.
"So, what are you doing here?" Xun asked as the bartender set the two glasses on the table.
"I'm... Running." Jiu watched as Xun brought the glass to and drank a considerable amount of... "What are we drinking?"
"Whiskey," Xun laughed before taking another drink. "What are you running from now?"
Jiu hesitated, sure, Xun seemed nice now, so nice that she almost couldn't believe it was the same person she had met before, but she wasn't completely trusting of her. She grabbed the glass and took a sip. Maybe she could tell her..., after all, what's the worst that could happen?
And like that, she told Xun the whole story, starting at the beginning, when she and Sehun had arrived at Vetus, and finishing at the present, now, when she was drinking whiskey in Hell's Town, as some called it, with the last person she thought she'd be drinking and conversing with.
Xun, noticing that Jiu was a little more than just tipsy, chuckled slightly.
"You're not much of a drinker, are you?" She asked.
"No, not really." Jiu pondered. "Not whiskey at least."
Xun laughed yet once more, amused, she leaned back on her seat and questioned:
"Then, what do you usually drink?"
"Well, I used to drink wine with my parents on special occasions..." She said, a gloomy look taking over her, "and also, my friends and I used to sneak vodka into the room when we had sleepovers... But that was so long ago, it's been a while since I actually got drunk."
"Well then, let's make a toast to it." Xun said, the alcohol beginning to take over her.
They raised their glasses and clinked them before erupting in fits of laughter.
"So, do you anywhere to stay?" Xun asked suddenly.
"Not really..." Answered Jiu.
"Why don't you stay at my house, then?" Xun offered.
Jiu instantly agreed and thanked her.
"I'm sorry ladies, but we're closing." Said the bartender as her picked up the empty glasses. "You're going to have to leave."
The two headed towards Xun's house. On their way, Jiu learned that Xun wasn't that much older than her, she was only twenty, which made her two years younger than the other female; she also found out that Xun wasn't normally as hostile as she had been the day they met, she only happened to be disgruntled. In exchange, Jiu told her her own age and that she wasn't normally as talkative as she was being, she just happened to be drunk.
As they were still walking, Jiu felt her pockets, searching, when she found what she was looking for, she took out pack of cigarettes and a matchbox. She brought a cigarette to and lightened it.
"Aren't you too young to be smoking?" Questioned Xun as Jiu took the first puff.
Jiu looked at her with big eyes and an innocent smile.
"I'm old enough to drink," She said with a shrug.
"Fine, fine." Xun laughed. "But you have to invite me with one."
Hello! So, no EXO in this chapter :( but I promise they'll come back for chapter 4! Anyway, I think I'm digressing from the actual plot (as i always do in every single one of my stories ._.) but still, i hope you like it, please leave some comments saying what you think or what you'll like to happen (or who the OCs can end up with!) it'll inspire me to write more! Thanks for all your support! Love you lots, Lyu.
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