Until The Last Day

Chapter 25

"And that lead you to my front door, bringing them in," he replied.

"Well, nobody is perfect."

"No, shit." He takes out a large pair of boots from his bag and hands them to me. "Here, they'll make it easier for you to walk and not end up with your feet amputated."

I take them. "I'll take them, but I'm highly offended by your comments." I stand up, walking away from him and put the boots on. I hear him chuckle behind me.

After we make sure to hide any evidence that we were here, Martin gives me my smaller bag to carry and he takes the larger one, and we begin our walk.

"Actually, I don't think we've introduced ourselves," he says as we begin to walk. "I'm Martin Antlers."

"Isabella Swan," I say, looking ahead on our path. "How long do you think this is going to take?"

He shrugs. "About a week, maybe a week in a half. It mostly depends on how long we take." He takes out a compass from his pocket to check if we're going in the right direction. "Now, humor me, please?"

"What?"

"What was it about you that captivated Mr. Black? He surely wouldn't go to that extreme for just any girl," he said.

I laugh, or more like snort. "I honestly have no idea. I never wanted to marry him, but my father needed his help but it seemed to set him off when I refused his marriage proposal in the ball he organized for me."

He laughed. "Well, Mr. Black does like a good ball."

"Do you fallow him?" He looks at me with an arced eyebrow. "I mean, do you have respect for him?"

"No one has respect for him, Isabella. That was lost many years ago when he took over," he replied but the tone of his voice turned darker.

"Why?" I ask.

"I believe you've seen the town, Isabella. He destroyed the land, poisoned it, many people have died because of his neglected attitude." The tone of his voice turned hateful as if he had resentment toward Jacob.

"Do you have family?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Not anymore."

"Why not?"

"You ask too many questions," he points out.

"I'm a very curios girl," I point out in nu defense. This moment was almost like a déjà vu moment.

"Curiosity killed the cat, ever heard about that?" He said, ducking beneath a tree that leans against another one.

"No wonder my cat is not around," I joke. To my surprise, he does laugh. It wasn't like I was actually trying to amuse him. "Well?" I ask.

"How about we keep it out of the personal questions?"

"You know about me, how come I can't about you?" I asked.

He sighed. "I'm a widower. My wife died from a terminal sickness."

Oh. "My mom died from a terminal sickness, too," I said. "I was fifteen when she died."

He laughed. "Do you really have that tragic of a life?"

"Not really. There are moments where I was really happy, but life happens. I just want this to be over and I can finally carry on."

"With the father of your kid?" He asked.

"Hopefully." If he's still alive.

Suddenly, there's voices around us and we stop. Martin grabs my arm and drags me fast through the forest until we find another dune. He pushed me inside and gets in right behind me. The space here is very small that it forces us squish together, my back against his chest.

"I saw them go this way, Mr. Black," a voice above us says.

I gasp but Martin covers my voice before I make any other loud noises. He shushes me quietly, his hand against my mouth.

"Well, find her! I don't want to know where you saw them go, I want you to find her!" Jacob snapped. "How far into the forest could they be!"

He moved and a whole pile of dirt fell on top of me. I clinch my eyes shut, hoping the dune won't fall on top of us and kill us, or worse, expose us to Jacob. We stay silent until they continue walking west, the direction we're suppose to go.

Jacob has a whole search party after me. They have carriages, men and horses after me. I watch them march through the forest with Jacob and the man leading them ahead. We wait until they're far from our view, hopefully far enough for us to get out.

"Wait here," Martin whispered before letting me go.

He gets up, pushing the large pile of dirt away from us. I stay where I am as he looks over the dune and back at me. He offers me his hand and pulls me out of the dirt.

"It's not safe going west," he says. He takes out a compass and studies it. "We'll have to go south."

"That'll take us further away from where we need to go," I said.

"Would you rather follow them until we bump into them again or lose them and go ahead with another route?" He said harshly before shaking off the dirt off him. "Let's get moving."

I follow him but I stay a few feet back. His sudden change of mood kinda scared me. How could he go from mellow to harsh in such short amount of minutes just like that?

We continued to walk south a few miles until we reached a river. The water didn't look as if it was going fast but it also looked dangerous. It did not seem to matter to Martin as he kept walking toward the river, I as always, followed behind.

We reach the river and stop. He turns to look at me and says, "You better not kick me."

"Wha-ah!" I scream when he picks me up and tosses me over his shoulders. "What are you doing?" I demand, punching his back. "Put me down!"

"Quiet!" He snapped.

Oh, no, no. He better not cross with me like this, he could drop me! The water may look calm but I'm sure the strength it has is greater than him. We begins to cross, stepping on rocks to keep up at a higher level than the water while we're still at the edge but he losses his balance and we both fall on the water.

The water is not really deep, but deep enough for me to submerge entirely. The current of the water drags me down as I tried my best to hold my breath and get to the surface. When I do, I look around, fighting against the water.

"Martin!" I yell, some of the water getting in my mouth. I cough. He's nowhere to be seen, where did he go? "Martin!"

I swim to the edge when out of nowhere, a two pair of hands pull me out of the water. I scream as they dragged me away of the water. I fight against their grip but it's stronger than me.

A white haired man stands in my view while the other one holds me down. "Look what we have here," he laughed.

"Isabella!" I turn to look at Martin who is dragged by other two men who laugh, just like the ones holding me down. Behind them comes an older man with a stick that helps him walk. I notice he doesn't have his left leg.

"Look who we have here!" The white haired man cheered. "Isn't this convenient. Martin, long time no see!"

Martin spits on the floor. "Let the girl go, Gus, can't you see you're freaking her out?"

"Oh, right. J, let the girl go." The man, J, let's go of them and steps away.

The other two let go of Martin and they shake his hand. They know him, how? After they're done saluting each other, Martin walks up to me and offers me his hand.

"I think I know how to solve our little problem," he said, but it was not directed to me. He picks me up and whispers in my ear, "If you don't want them to kill us, go along with the game."

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~Joan0324