Beast Soul

"Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!" Alphonso screamed loudly as the two boys suddenly lost their footing, and all of a sudden, he felt afraid. He felt more afraid than ever. He didn't wish to die, but right now, he felt like he was about to, and that scared him.

Luckily, Gerald used his hands, which stretched like rubber, to grab onto the two boys' hands right before they fell down, and Noah helped him pull the two boys to safety. "Now, are you two alright?" Gerald asked as he took a deep breath while staring right at the two boys, glancing at Alphonso, who nodded his head as he panted, "Yeah… yeah, I guess I am.."

"Take deep breaths… slowly breathe in and out…" Gerald said as he motioned with his hands, and the two exhausted boys nodded their heads in response. 

"I don't know about that slow breathing technique, guys…" Noah said with a hint of cautiousness and he tapped the shoulder of Harold, who turned around to look at him, raising his eyebrows with a confused expression on his face.

"I think we might have company…" He pointed to a spot in the neighborhood a few meters away from them as soon as he finished speaking, and Harold and Gerald turned to look at the direction that he was pointing at.

Far away, a small group of people were running in their direction while yelling out incoherent words, and everyone's eyes widened with shock and surprise for a split second before Gerald whispered softly, "Run."

Whoosh!

The whole group leapt up from their resting position and ran like crazy.

"Ah, you have got to be sh*tting me!" Alphonso clicked his tongue, frustrated at his misfortune of exerting more energy to do more work right after completing an already exhausting work. 

But he could only voice his frustration as he had no choice but to continue running if he wanted to get away from the mob of seemingly normal humans who are after them.

"F*ck this!" Max too seemed incredibly angry about the situation that they were in. He seemed a bit too angry and frustrated, possibly because he was simply too exhausted from utilizing most of his energy. 

"Are you sure that all of them are human?" Max turned to look at Noah and asked him. 

"Yup." Noah nodded his head in response without even turning his head, his gaze still in front as he dashed with incredible speed. "I'm pretty sure that every single one of them is a human being. No monsters in that group."

"F*ck!" Max clicked his tongue once again. "If those were monsters, then we could just beat them up and kill them, and it'd be all over." He said with an annoyed tone in his voice. "This is much more of a hassle."

"I don't know about that, my guy…" Harold said with a short chuckle as he glanced back at the mob that were chasing him for a second, and then turned back to face the front. "I'd say that running away from a human mob is a much easier task than fighting even a single monster."

"Well, not right now, I suppose…" Max shrugged his shoulders as he responded to Harold's words. "But it could get us into a big pile of trouble if someone even got a glimpse of any of our faces. Think of all the trouble that we'd be in. Charges, felonies… And the worst part? We won't be able to fight our way out of this situation."

"We can think about all that later," Noah said and he pointed his finger at the woods that were in front of them before continuing, "For now, we must make our escape as quickly as possible."

Whoosh!

The group of inhuman boys moved through the dense forest with great speed, and soon, they lost sight of the mob that were chasing them, which gave them a sense of relief.

"Whew!" Gerald said as he wiped the sweat off his face, and he slowed down his pace before continuing, "I think we lost them. They won't catch us now, not in this place."

The group slowed down as they realized that they were far ahead of the angry mob, and the four boys decided to rest underneath a really large tree.

"Well, that was tiring…" Gerald said as he let out a long and heavy sigh, and Alphonso rolled his eyes in response. "You're telling me!" 

"Why the f*ck did they all come in a group, though?" Harold asked as he sat down next to Gerald and turned to look at Noah, who was scratching his chin and thinking about something. "Didn't you say that they were all human?" He asked Noah. "Why on earth would they all come as a crowd to Mr. Carrick's house?"

"Maybe they might've seen one of us entering the building and decided to tell the others. After all, numbers are a great advantage in a potentially dangerous situation." Gerald tried to find a sensible explanation to his question, but Harold didn't seem impressed with his answer.

"If you see a break in, you call the cops. At least that's what I would do first." Harold responded with a serious expression. "And it definitely didn't seem like a small group. I'm pretty sure that was the entire neighborhood."

"Why on earth would the entire Moonside Neighborhood be after us?" Alphonso spat out his saliva as he finished speaking. 

"I don't know that now, do I?" Harold shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like they know us or anything..."

"Aren't the Moonside neighborhood of Malkalian descent?" Noah, who was in the middle of thinking all this time and didn't really partake in the discussion, spoke softly as he turned to look at the others, who all turned their gazes at the same time towards him.

"Wait, are they really?" Harold scratched his head as he looked at the faces of others, who all seemed uncertain. "I thought that was just the rumor. Don't tell me that's actually true.."

"Didn't most of the Malkalian dynasty die out during the war?" Gerald asked with a confused expression. "I thought the Malkalian dynasty was completely wiped out during the Great War. Is it not true?"

"Only the Western Empire. There had been colonies created in the Eastern continents during the eighteenth century." Noah explained, and everyone's attention turned to him once again. "I heard that they were the descendants of those colonists who migrated over here."

"Oh sh*t!" Alphonso screamed all of a sudden and he pointed at Max, who raised his eyebrows. Everyone shifted their gazes over to him as soon as they heard his scream, confused as to why he was shouting. "The skulls! The f*cking skulls!" He said loudly as he waved his finger at Max, who widened his eyes with shock and surprise before pointing his finger back at Alphonso and yelling, "Oh sh*t! The skulls! Holy sh*t, you're right!"

"What the f*ck are you guys so excited about?!" Gerald asked with an annoyed and confused expression on his face, and the two boys turned to look at him and spoke in unison. "We found human skulls inside the cavern!"

"What the hell? You did?" Harold's voice rose as he spoke with a shocked expression on his face. It wasn't just him, but everyone seemed surprised by the words that came out of the two boys' mouths. "Why the f*ck didn't you say anything about it earlier?" Harold screamed loudly.

"Oh, I don't know.. maybe because we were TOO BUSY FIGHTING A F*CKING MONSTER THAT HAD THE APPEARANCE OF OUR PHYSICS TEACHER?!" Alphonso didn't want to be outdone by Harold's yelling and he screamed even louder. "You think I had time to think about skulls and other dumb shit when we were too buys trying to fight a monster, or stop the roof from collapsing, or trying to escape from an angry mob right after we almost got killed from falling down?"

"He's got you there, Harold." Gerald said with a soft snicker, and Harold glared at him, which made him shrug his shoulders in response.

"Anyways, if what you guys said is really true, then that means…" Noah placed his hand under his chin and began to think once again.

"That means that the Malkalians haven't discontinued their rituals.." Max decided to finish off his sentence for him, and everyone gulped down their saliva. 

"So, our physics teacher is actually a Malkalian who sacrifices people to their gods?" Alphonso made a disgusted expression as he spoke. "That feels kind of weird. Although it does make me not feel guilty about seeing him die in front of my eyes.."

"Shouldn't we do something about it?" Gerald asked. "I mean, who knows how many people they've sacrificed within the cavern. We should at least inform the police to investigate this place.."

"I don't think we have to.." Max pointed at his ears, and everyone focused on their hearing abilities.

It was a few meters away, but they could hear the sound of police cars zooming through the busy street, finally reaching the front gates of the Moonside neighborhood.