It was the worst time be on high alert.I was unsure whether Idil could her me or not. She was too absorbed into her own world right now, and the stimulants from the environment might had no effect.
"Come on, look at me!" I whispered, but she didn"t even react to it. I was talking to myself. "Please hear me... Snap out of it, we need to go!"
Her head slowly turned to the side. It was true, she was unable to interact with her surroundings. In that case, I had to take care of everything myself.
I wanted to leave her laying there and take a look at the other end of the hallway, but I couldn"t do that. There was no guarantee we could come together again once we were separated.
I looked around to find a place nearby that I could use to hide. There were a few cla.s.srooms near where we were, but that was it. I had very little time to think, and not much to choose from. I decided to get into the nearest cla.s.sroom, but I couldn"t simply leave Idil there, in the middle of the hallway.
I held her and tried to lift her up. She wasn"t heavy, but unfortunately, I wasn"t powerful enough to lift her. I stopped trying to lift her up, and grabbed her by the sides of her chest and only lifted her torso off of the floor. I started to slawly drag her towards the nearby cla.s.sroom.
"We won"t accomplish anything by sacrificing someone every single time when we face the dangers!"
Suddenly, I remembered her words. Her voice echoed in my mind. Perhaps there was a balance... It was true, the power of our enemies were overwhelming; but we didn"t have the luxury of sacrificing something, someone, every time to got ourselves out of danger. Besides, there was nothing much left to sacrifice at this point; I couldn"t risk losing her, my sole companion.
This time, my heart had more effect on my desicions. I finally decided to stop running and directly face the threat. I slowly laid her down again on the floor.
I looked ahead into the hallway, waiting for someone to appear.
Even though I"ve made my desicion, I couldn"t help feeling nervous in the face of the danger I was preparing to face. I had no idea what I was against, and that was the most problematic part for me. I was fearing the unkown... I wasn"t powerful, and I probably wouldn"t be able to defend myself; but at least I could finish it all without regretting my desicions in the end.
Someone appeared in front of me. He was running. I couldn"t make out his face at first.
I raised my arms in front of my face as he approached. He suddenly slowed down.
"Stop right there!" I yelled.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" he replied and stopped.
I was shocked as I was unprepared for the reaction. I had been a.s.suming the worst like always, and I had already convinced myself that I was facing an enemy. When he actually listened to my command and stopped in the middle of the hallway, I felt weird. I just stared into the darkness of the hallway for a couple of seconds as I tried to get out of my initial shock.
"It"s you! Mr. Kenan!" I said, with joy.
"Step back." he said in a serious tone.
His reply got me even more confused than before, as I had completely lowered my defenses for a moment when I saw Mr. Kenan. Yet, he didn"t look very happy to see us. I immediately got back into my defensive mindset again.
"Don"t approach." I said to Mr. Kenan as I stepped back about a meter or so.
"Get away from her." Mr. Kenan said.
I understood why Mr. Kenan was being so cautious against me. If I had seen Idil"s situation, I would react similarly. But unfortunately, despite Mr. Kenan"s command, I couldn"t leave her by herself. Also, there was still a risk of Mr. Kenan being manipulated as well, so I was not going to take any unnecesary risks.
"No." I said. "I can"t leave her."
"What did you do to her!?" he yelled at me, and started approaching again.
"I didn"t do anything! Get away, or I will have to protect us!" I shouted.
He hesitated to continue approaching for a second, and slowly kept walking towards us afterwards.
"You can"t fool me twice!" he yelled and started running towards me.
I noticed the knife in his hand. Even though I was going to stand there and face the threat, I had to retreat for the time being. Being brave and suicidal wasn"t the same thing.
I ran back to the close end of the hallway to gain some time. Fortunately, he completely ignored Idil laying there in the hallway and chased me. I turned around as Mr. Kenan prepared to attack me.
He almost had me cornered at the end of the hallway. He ran and swung his knife towards me. I ducked to dodge the knife at the last moment, and he missed me with milimeters. I used this short opportunity to kick him from his stomach. Even though I was unharmed for the moment, I was cornered by him.
My kick wasn"t good enough to push him away. Before he could attack me again, I jumped towards the nearby stairwell in panic. I haven"t thought about the landing, so I could only cover my head with my arms as I fell down the stairs. Even though I tried to protect myself, I had hit my head and chest multiple times. I rolled down a few more steps and finally came to a stop near the lower floor. I had escaped Mr. Kenan for a short time, but I was unable to stand up again. I was badly injured and completely exhausted. I looked upstairs as I tried to move my arms to help myself stand up again.
He was coming downstairs.
My weak arms failed to get me back up on my feet.