HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“What?! Are you out of your mind?!” The witch said as she glared at Archie with disbelief. “You will die if you even get close to that island! What are you thinking?!” she continued as she floated in front of Archie.

“I need to know what’s on that island, and you said that the guy went there, right? That means she’s also in there or at least I could see where she went if she’s not there,” Archie answered as he stretched his body.

“Then what? If you find her what are you going to do? She’s out of your league!” The witch said with her eyes wide opened and glared at Archie.

“I will be fine, I don’t think she will kill me immediately. If you want to go, then go, I can do this on my own and I never asked you to join me in the first place,” Archie said and then he jumped off of the cliff and dove into the ocean. The witch stared at Archie and immediately dispersed and became one with the wind then followed Archie.

Archie swam toward the island and every time he stroked the water, he could feel something following him from the depth of the sea. He had so many opportunities to look down, but he decided not to because his guts were telling him that it was a bad idea.

Archie reached the shore and the king was quite far from where he was but it didn’t mean the king wouldn’t notice him. He looked up and saw the two heads waving up in the air, the body was like a dinosaur but it didn’t have legs nor arms. It had four limbs but it was all flippers like a seal, and the skin looked a bit rough like an elephant. Its body crawled like a snack and he could see the long and thick tail with four gigantic fins like a folding fan that could fold and expand at will.

Archie snuck behind the hills and cliffs so the parasite couldn’t see him. He made sure that he went further away from the parasite, but as he snuck behind a hill, he saw the tail was raising and he looked up in awe. The tail slowly fell onto the hill close to him and he had to move as fast as he could before the tail hit the ground. When the tail hit the hill, it made a huge earthquake and the fins touched the sea and made a massive tidal wave like a small tsunami toward the other island.

“Did it see me?” Archie talked to himself.

“It could feel your presence but it didn’t care much about your existence so he’s just messing with you,” The witch whispered into his ear and it startled him because he didn’t think that the witch was going to follow him.

“Why are you here? I thought you hate the idea of going here,” Archie asked quietly.

“I hate the idea because you’re putting yourself in danger, not because of me since I can be in this form and I will be fine no matter what happens,” The witch whispered.

Archie just looked to his left and then decided to go on top of the hill to take a picture of the parasite from up close.

When he reached the top of the cliff, he couldn’t resist opening his mouth wide because he saw a massive hole in the middle of the island or more like a cave by the shape of the hole that didn’t go straight down. The hold that he saw at the Landing Site couldn’t be compared to this one because it looked so tiny. That huge hole might fit the king and that might be the reason why the hole was that big so that it could come out to the surface.

Archie immediately grabbed the camera and took a picture of the hole and the parasite. “This should be enough to warn everyone that fighting back is useless,” he said while he clicked the camera.

“Are you thinking of entering the hole?” The witch whispered.

“After seeing that I can come out from it, I guess I should go and check it out,” Archie said as he put the camera in his bag. “Can you be my eyes? I might fall into the hole and can’t get back up,” he asked.

“Don’t walk too fast and just follow my lead,” The witch whispered and the wind blew from Archie’s nape.

Archie slid down the hill while the parasite didn’t pay any attention to him because it had been staring at the island with its two giants head. He looked around and saw debris that used to be houses and the roads were destroyed completely but he didn’t sense any parasites or living beings from there and believed that it was just that big parasite that lived on the island.

While Archie walked toward the hole stealthily and looked around, his heart suddenly started pounding really fast. He looked up and saw one of the heads was staring down at him from the sky and that made Archie freeze and couldn’t move a muscle. He gulped as he stared back at the parasite and suddenly the other head started to growl into the sky with some kind of liquid coming out of its mouth.

The liquid sprayed the sky and in less than a minute dark clouds formed and covered the other head of the parasite. Archie couldn’t believe that a parasite could control the weather like that, and suddenly the heavy rains fell down and hit the ground really hard. The droplet wasn’t made just water but it had something in it as well and it felt so cold that it burnt Archie’s shirt and skin.

Archie hid under the remains of a building as he checked his bag and hope that the camera was fine. He looked at his swords and the scabbards were damaged by the rains, he was so pissed but there was nothing he could do, and just accepted it. He looked up and could tell the ceiling won’t last with the heavy rain and he decided to run into the hole with his arms and body protecting the bag from the rain.

Archie ran as fast as he could but stumbled by a rock on the ground, he was rolled over into the hole and slid down to the hole deep enough that he started to fall into the abyss because of how slippery the surface was because of the rain. The steep surface made him unable to reach the walls and when he tried to expand his arms and hands, it was already too late because he already reached the bottom of the hole.

“Ugh…” Archie groaned as he tried to stand up. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings where he was surrounded by walls. “This isn’t good…”

“Where am I?” Archie said as he kept looking around. “This place…” he mumbled and seemed to be familiar with the place he was at and realized that the place was similar to when the parasite took over his body for years.

Archie looked up and saw the hole, he could climb back up but it would take him a while to reach the surface. He decided to look around first before he leaves since he wanted to see if he would find Eve.

“Where are you going? You’re not supposed to be in here,” The witch whispered.

“I know, I slipped and it wasn’t my intention to be down here,” Archie replied. “But since I’m here, I should take a look around first before coming back up,” he continued as he started walking.

Archie walked toward the danger based on the sense he felt in that dark and spacious tunnel. The further he went the more intense the feeling he had, and he started to hear growls and roars coming from in front of him.

The long tunnel had finally come to an end and Archie walked to the edge of the cliff. He never thought that deep inside the earth, there would be an ecosystem like how it was on the surface. He saw mountains, hills, rivers, and a lake, but what terrified him was that there were hundreds of the same parasite that he fought in the north.

“Is this real?” Archie asked.

The moment he said that he felt a strong wind hit his face and it was so loud as if the air was being torn apart. “Archie, run!” The witch whispered into his ear and he then realized that the right side of his body was gone including his right arm.

Archie looked at his blood dripping down to the ground and then he looked at the wall behind him. He saw a scale that was stuck on the wall with a few pieces of his flesh splattered onto the wall. He just got attacked that he didn’t realize it took half of his body because of it, and he had no idea where it came from.

Without thinking twice, Archie turned around and went back inside the tunnel and ran as fast as he could. While he was running, he heard growls coming from behind, and he was being chased by something and it was huge. Knowing that he couldn’t outrun the parasite, he transformed himself and started to run faster that the parasite couldn’t catch up with him anymore.

As he ran for his life, he heard a loud cracking sound from behind but he couldn’t care less and kept running. He didn’t know that the parasite that was chasing him was killed by someone and it was Eve who killed that parasite.

“Don’t you dare take my prey, you maggot!” Eve said as she tore the parasite in half with her bare hands.

Eve saw Archie running for his life and she couldn’t hold her excitement that she rubbed the blood of the parasite onto her cheeks and neck while she giggled mischievously. “I will see you again, my Adam,” Eve said with her sinister gaze that looked like reptile eyes.