Chapter 12 Kona

It looked as if the boy had was melt with cold killer. He wore nothing but tattered rob, his skin was whiter than the snow, almost transparent. Rope-like veins ran along his body, pulsing and red, almost jumped out of his skin. His hollow, empty eye-holes fell upon me as if he could see me as clear as he could.

What was him?

The crouched, ready to spring for another attack. At some point his long nails like couples of knives had made an appearance, tensed in his both hands. I was filled with a queasy fear, disbelief that this was happening at all.

“Kona!”

I looked toward the voice, surprised to see Kingo standing at the edge of the corridor, a mere phantom in the fading light. Relief flooded my body—she held a long vine whip, pointed straight at him.

“Kona,” Kingo repeated. “Back off, she’s the guest of your highness, or you ain’t gonna see tomorrow.”

I looked back Kona, who stared hollowly at her, his tongue darting between his lips to wet them. Was he a Vousi? I thought.

“Am I?” he shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth, far enough to hit me in the face. “No, all of us!” he snapped his gaze back to me. “She’s the one dragging all of us to the netherworld!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kona” Kingo said, her voice calm as she continued to wave her whip. “She’s just got here—and how did you know her? You should have never left your palace.”

“She’s not one of us!” Kona shouted. “I saw she...killed...we have to kill her!”

I took an involuntary step backward, horrified by what he said. How did he know where I came from? He saw me kill what? Grandma-Sea? Was he at her side?

Kingo’s whip blocked his way. “Who gave you the privilege to do such a brazen murder? Are you mad?”

“She’ll break SILENCE!” Kona hissed. “She’ll wanna take all of us back, back to the hell.”

“Kingo，he is —” I began.

“SHUT UP!” Kona screamed, “SHUT UP, UP, UP—”

“Snail,” Kingo said carefully, her voice filled with warning. “Back off as I count to three.”

“She’s evil, evil, evil...” Kona whispered now, almost chanting. He swayed back and forth, switching the claws, eyes glued on me.

“THREE!” 

My mind had been not run through the sound. Did I miss something? Where was 1 and 2? Then Kingo shifted, too fast, as I just caught a blurred spiraling of movement. Sharp crunches and crackings reverberated off the wall whenever someone slipped in their formation, but they were moving faster and faster for me to barely to see who was making the mistake...

“Go, I will stall him off. Find the Dandelion-bird, he will bring you to the East Door.”

Kingo’s snarl echoed off the wind.

Simultaneously, a flicker of green darted into my forehead, and something was unfolding in my head, as if someone tugged a map in my mind. The whole route about Cube was pictured in front of me. More amazing, there was a tip on the place of courtyard where must be what-bird’s nest.

It was the first time that I felt I like this...girl a bit.

Kona was distracted by her words, his eyes anxious for my place. Kingo struck, whipping another green vine toward him. He bellowed and launched a massive backhanded blow that caught Kingo’s neck full in his claw. Her tiny body soared ten feet and crashed into the wooden wall over my head with a force that seemed to shake the whole peak. I heard the breath whoosh from his lungs, and I ducked out of the way as she rebounded off the wood, and collapsed on the ground a few feet in front of me.

A low whimper escaped through her teeth.

“Kingo—” I yelled.

“Go—” her body was blurred and fight exploded overhead again.

A second kick of adrenaline hit like an electric shock. Fight was too close. Kingo was about to lose her. Hesitation froze my pace because her final end was looming in the horizon—not the one I’d expected to see. She needed help.

A jagged spike of metal rolled down my right arm and I caught I reflexively. My cell-phone. My fingers clenched around the square shape as a survival instincts kicked in;

Adrenaline jolted through my veins. I raked the button of the photo, kicking madly to be alive. C’m on, please don’t be dead. What I could do now was just a distraction. That afternoon, the clicking flash had been enough to catch cold killer’s attention, to blind their eyes for an instant. I prayed it would work that way again.

“Hey—Little Snail!” 

Kona was distracted by the sound of my gasp. His eyes, holding still for one tiny portion of a second, met mine. Fury and curiosity mingled strangely in his expression.

“Watch it!”

A blinding flash froze his movement. “NOW—ATTACK HIS EYES!” I shouted.

Just half portion of second of hesitation, thousands of vines had flown out of the blurred formation and each one aimed at his eyes.

“RIGHT EYE!”

The vines seemed to be understand my words, avoided his left side and poking hardly into his right eye-hollow. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t move; I was too mesmerized, too scared so that I could not examined too closely the sharp claws wrapped in tendrils of shivering, fiery hair.

Kingo was in motion again. Swift and coolly businesslike, she caught me with a grab of my collar. “Greenish-move~”

Then I felt I was drawn into a green flash lightening. Each part of my muscle seemed to tuck in a tiny long pipe. Then everything were flying rapidly pass us. I right close to Kingo as we flew right and left without seeming to think about it, jumping all the while. Though the sun had a few hours later hitting the horizon, there was plenty of light to see by. I clenched the vine deadly as best I could.

We finally made it to a rectangular cut in a long corridor to the west that looked like a doorway without a door. Kingo jumped straight through it without stopping. “This leads from the central Section—the middle left square—to court yard. Like I said, this passage is always in the same spot, but the route here might be a little different because of Cube rearranging themselves.”

I followed her, breath almost being choked by the waves of cold air. Soon, the hard press squeezed the last gulp of breath. Soon the blackness blocked my sight.