[Present]
The soft thumps that the beast's paws made against the wet ground of the reserve sent shivers through my spine. Staying absolutely still, I closed my eyes.
The way Junjun had looked at me when he had told me his wish: having the freedom to choose the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, came to my mind.
He was so young and had so much to live for; if anyone should become a meal today, better me than him. I was his bodyguard, after all. He was mine to take care of.
I caught sight of the beast's humongous paws from the corner of my eye. They were an inch from my face.
I cursed myself for losing the gun just moments before laying eyes on the thing that was probably going to eat me for dinner any second now and contemplated my chance of surviving if I went up against it right the fuck now.
'Take it from me, Zhao Laoshi, your chances of surviving are Less than zero percent. Just stay where you are and pretend to be dead.' The Bastard instructed sternly without losing a heartbeat.
'Heartbeats...how many did I have left?' I wondered woefully before reminding myself that I was here for Junjun.
Then, looking within, I called on my courage and summoned my determination.
I was the best baobiao in Ysichuan, and now was my time to shine!
Without moving too many muscles, I reached inside my pocket. Grabbing my stun gun, I took a deep breath. Convinced that if I aimed correctly, I could land a blow on the beast's jaw and take it down, I rose up like a phoenix would, from its ashes.
I hit nada. Well, not exactly. I hit the air.
I was sure it was right next to me moments ago. Where could it go in a blink of an eye!?
"Zhao ge..." A soft voice- barely over a whisper- called me from somewhere close. Very close.
"Junjun!?" I whispered back, "Where are you?"
Silence.
Avoiding moving too quickly, just in case the beast was still around, I crouched down. I waited for a few seconds to make sure that we were indeed alone before shining light on the corpses around me before I started crawling in the general direction from where I had heard Junjun's voice.
Blood and gore, I was used to, but the prospect of finding my charge with his throat ripped out and at death's door was something I was not prepared for. I swallowed the bile threatening to escape from its cage, aka my throat, and inched towards the possibly naked motionless body just ahead of me.
However, just when I was about to push it out of the way, it moved and groaned. It was a man, and he was alive. His entire body looked like it had been dragged through the mud; his face wasn't any better either.
I patted his head and then his shoulder, trying to wake him up and check him for injuries. Other than looking like crap, he seemed uninjured...at least on the outside. When he didn't respond, I turned him around. He groaned again, murmured something inaudible, and passed out for good.
Poor fucker; I hoped that getting naked and wandering around in this place was the worst of his problems because any other possibility would be terrifying.
"Hey," I tried one last time, and when he continued holding his peace, I moved him out of the way and recommenced my search for the boy.
Ten minutes and a hundred frustrated, disappointed sights and grunts later, I still hadn't found the idol.
Had I imagined him calling me?
Was Junjun never here?
I felt like crying. Scratch that; I was crying. In fact, I was ugly crying.
'What would Junjun think if he saw you like this, dumbass!? Pull yourself together!' The Bastard commanded.
He was right.
Junjun was alive. I didn't have a reason to think otherwise.
Wasn't it good that I had not found him in the pit?
I wiped my runny nose to get rid of the evidence of my momentary display of weakness before taking care of my tears. I decided to check the location of the nano-tracker on the off chance that it had moved.
What the hell!?
It had moved! However, if I was to believe what my phone was indicating, that would put it within ten meters of me, which was impossible. "The damn thing is broken." I throughout aloud, but not a moment later, a dormant switch turned on in my aashole of a brain. I scrolled down and tapped on the locate button.
The torchlight started flickering, indicating that I was close. I moved right, and the flickering reduced; I moved left, and the opposite happened.
A minute later, I was standing next to the unconscious, naked man I had lent my jacket to. I crouched down and checked his wrist.
There it was, the bracelet: my gift to Junjun.
Immediately, I pulled the youngster into my lap and scrubbed his face with the back of my shirt. Slowly, a familiar face emerged. I took in Junjun's slightly parted lips and closed mono-lids before checking his pulse.
Alive. Junjun was alive.
I felt goosebumps erupt of my arms as I let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding. My eyes stung, and a fresh bout of tears streamed down my face. Relief, anger, and anguish, I felt them all wash over me in waves. All of them. All at once.
I pulled Junjun to my chest and held him for a long while. I was aware that the beast might come back or his kidnappers might find him, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was hold him.
It's alright. I got you now. I repeated the phrases till I started believing them myself.
Then, wrapping my jacket on his waist and covering his torso with my shirt, I picked him up in my arms.
I looked at the moon that was just shy of a complete circle and sent up a silent, sincere prayer to any God who might be willing to listen and oblige.
Please, let my fear of what might have happened to him tonight be just that, fears.
Also, please let me stay alive till I get him to a safe place and get some long-overdue answers from his gege!
With my prayers said and my trusty GPS guiding me, I started walking back the way I had come.
Luckily, the trip back to my Lavida was uneventful. I laid Junjun down in the backseat, turned on the heater, and drove to the nearest mall.
As expected, the parking lot was empty. I dogged the cameras and pulled my car into a blind spot. Making sure that I wasn't being followed, I changed into the spare set of clothes I always carried in case of emergency and checked on the unconscious boy.
Junjun was covered in mud from head to toe, but there were no abrasions on his body; I found it strange, even so, I didn't have time to mull over it. Instead, I checked his head for signs of concussion and was relieved that he showed none. Concluding that Junjun was unconscious because of exhaustion, I decided it best to let him sleep. I logged into my laptop remotely and started to go over the most recent surveillance footage.
Fifteen minutes later, I knew the following:
1. Haoyu had not kept his word. Despite advising him not to send our people to check up on us, he had done just that.
2. The man he had sent was fucking Jay.
3. Jay had done a terrible job of keeping watch. He had lost us more than once and hadn't noticed that he was being followed.
4. Jay had left once we had entered the apartment, but the disturbing element who had followed him had not. He had hung around for a few minutes before creeping inside through the open window in the living room.
5. What he had done after that, I couldn't guess. However, shortly after he had left the way he had entered, the incident with the windowpane had followed.
Even after watching the whole thing multiple times, I had more questions than answers. Nonetheless, two things were clear:
1. No one could be trusted not to fuck up. my laoban was no exception.
2. I couldn't go back home.
There was only one thing I could do. I sent a message to Haoyu informing him that I had Junjun with me and would be AWOL till the 26th.
With that taken care of, I turned the ignition on and hit the road, deciding to drive across the state to the place I had once called home.
[Chapter word count: 1483;
Word count so far: 18805]