The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

"Where am I am...?"

Erik woke up at an unfamiliar place, his neck was throbbing and his vision had yet to come back completely. Everything was still in a blur and he needed to blink a few times so that he could regain his vision. He was laying on his back and his arms and legs were bounded. He looked over and saw Lilian right next to him and she was still unconscious.

He pushed himself up and took a quick look at his surroundings.

No one seemed to be around and the whole place was filled with large containers. He then scooted over to Lilian and tried to wake her up.

"Hey, Lilian! Can you hear me? Wake up." He whispered loudly.

However, she did not wake up.

Suddenly, he heard some footsteps. He quickly pretended as if he was still unconscious.

It was the burly man who came to look for him at the bar. He walked up to Erik and gave him a slap across the face, "Hey! Wake up!"

Although that was a hard slap, he did not flinch or even budge.

The man did it once more, but again, Erik did not move. He then kicked Erik's body over and lifted his leg above his ċhėst before launching his foot directly to it, "Wake up!"

"Oh, is he really still passed out?" The man wondered as he turned to the girl next to him. He squatted down and slapped her on her cheek, "Wake up."

She did not respond.

Erik opened one of his eyes to see what the man was doing and when he saw that he had just slapped Lilian, he could not pretend anymore.

"Get away from her!" He yelled as he glared at him menacingly.

The man laughed as he grabbed Erik's face, "...Or else what?"

He then slammed Erik's face into a nearby container. His face was slammed so hard that it left a dent on the rectangular surface. When the impact hit his face, black dots started to blind his vision, but he shook his head a couple of times so that he could remain conscious. He could not bear to blackout, leaving that ȧsshole with Lilian.

"Heh, what strong endurance you have there." The man said with a sickeningly smirk. "Well, but I guess you already know that endurance of yours isn't useful here. With your arms and legs bounded, the only thing you can do is watch."

He went to Lilian and pulled down the straps of her dress.

When he saw that, his eyes lit up with rage and his heart was beating louder and louder with every second that passed. He gritted his teeth in anger before yelling, "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER, YOU SICK FREAK!"

"I don't want to." The man said as he unzipped her dress slowly.

Suddenly, Lilian's eyes twitched a little before she opened them. When she saw that pervert unzipping her dress, she screamed. She struggled with all her might, but there was no way she could win against a man, with her arms and legs bounded.

Hearing her scream just made his blood boiled. With the anger that he was feeling, he tore the rope, that held his arms together, apart with pure but brutal strength. Next, he ripped the ropes that were bounding his legs and without thinking, he tackled the man with full force, away from Lilian.

"What? How did you--" Before the man could finish, Erik's fist shut him up. Blinded by anger, he punched the man repeatedly as blood stained the surrounding, his clothes and his fists. He knew that if this continued, the man would die, but he could not stop himself.

Lilian called out to him, asking him to stop. However, not a single word reached him.

Out of the blue, the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the warehouse. Lilian screamed and she curled up into a ball.

Even though words could not get through him, Lilian's scream did.

He stopped whatever he was doing, and turned his head in the direction of the gunshot.

There were the silhouettes of a group of armed men standing at the entrance.

"E-Erik..." Lilian called out in her quivering voice.

The leader of the group who held a revolver scorned, "What? Are you planning to get in a fight with us? I will rather not, it will be a suicide."

"Ha, don't make me laugh. I've already taken one of you out. So, taking a couple more out would be so hard." Erik said with confidence. He was faking, of course. He wanted them to focus on him, so that he could, somehow, create an opening for Lilian.

The leader's eyes widened as he said, "You what?"

"Which part are you talking about? Me about to defeat you guys or me taking one of your buddies out?" He asked with a smirk.

"You know what our boss is talking about!" An underling yelled as he raised his spear into the air.

"I'm sorry, I really don't." Just as he said that he closed the distance between him and the group.

In an instant, he took down the underling with the spear. He grabbed the spear and threw it near Lilian. It landed perfectly upright, next to her.

Another underling ran towards him with a dagger, he dodged swiftly and landed a blunt blow on his back, knocking him out.

Immediately after that, two others came running towards him with their weapons. He blocked one of the attacks and dodge the other one, he then slipped a glance towards Lilian and saw that she was trying to cut the rope with the sharp end of the spear.

He turned and saw the leader's revolver barrel smoking.

"You're being in a little rush, aren't you? You think I didn't know that you're trying to save that girl there." The leader said as he jerked his chin towards Lilian.

Erik's stomach tightened when he heard that, he quickly looked over to see if Lilian was fine.

She was not.

One of the more muscular men had his arm slung across her neck.

"How...? When did that guy slip past me? Dammit!"

"Lilian!" Erik yelled out before he glared at the leader of the gang. "Let her go!"

The man with the revolver laughed, "Sure, with one condition."

"What condition?" He questioned sourly.

"Heeey, stop with that attitude, will you?" The leader said, "Well, first, stop whatever you're doing right now."

Erik cursed under his breath and lifted his hands to surrender.

"That's a good boy." The leader said as two of his underlings, who were still fine, held one of his arms each to make sure that he would not escape. One of the underlings landed a hard punch on his abdomen while another then kicked him behind the knee so that he would kneel before their 'boss'.

The leader pointed his gun at Erik's throat, before using the barrel of his gun to lift his chin. "Your skills are marvellous. It will be a waste if I kill you here. So, my condition is that you will work for me. So, deal or no de--"

Suddenly, a low pitch shout was heard from the end of the warehouse.

The burly man staggered backwards, clutching his forearm. "You little bitch! How dare you bite me?!"

Lilian ran towards Erik while the man chased her from behind. As she came closer, she cried out, "Get away from him!"

She jumped onto the leader and tried to snatch his gun away from him.

No...

Seeing her do that, he struggled to pull his arm out of the two men's grasps. However, it did not work, Instead, more men tackled him down.

The leader swayed from side to side, trying to get Lilian off.

Nononononononono.

Despite her persistence, the leader's strength still won.

Please... Stop!

She fell and landed on her back. With her on the ground, he pointed his revolver at her ċhėst and without any hesitation, he shot.

Lilian.

At that moment, everything seemed to slow down.

He could see the bullet being launched into her body, Lilian's... body.

Her body seemed to jerk a little when the bullet made contact with her ċhėst.

Erik's vision started to blur.

He wanted to call out to her.

But, no words came out.

It felt like someone was squeezing his heart tightly.

Why?

Why her?

"Everything was just normal earlier today, how did all of this happen?"

"Oh, right. It's my fault... It's all my fuċkɨnġ fault."

"If only she didn't help me in the bar... If only she didn't look for me in the afternoon... If only she didn't walk home with me... If only I was strong enough to protect her..."

"...If only I never met her."

"Then... all this wouldn't happen."

The next thing he knew, black spikes manifested themselves out of nowhere and they penetrated every single maniac in the warehouse... Except for Lilian.

Blood splattered all over the premise. Screams echoed throughout the room. Limps flew around the place.

Yet, he seemed to be oblivious to it all.

He kneeled next to Lilian and picked her up. He sat down with her in his arms. "Hey, time to wake up. They are all gone now. We can head back to my place, you wanted to cook dinner for my cousins and me, right?"

She was his everything.

"...I hope you will cook something, other than sandwiches. I kind of want to try something new, haha."

'Was'.

Unknowingly, tears rolled down his face, "Lilian, come on now, stop teasing me. I know you're awake."

But, now, she is nothing.

"Okay, fine. You win. You can stop now."

Nothing, but a cold...

Lifeless...

Corpse.

"Please... Just wake up!" He choked out.

There was not a single response. The only response he got was from the echo he made.

She's gone.

Out of nowhere, he heard footsteps. He did nothing but held Lilian closer to his ċhėst.

"Wow, that's a pretty cool element you got there." An unfamiliar voice said, "Why don't you join us?"

Erik did not say anything.

There was a sigh before the voice continued, "I'm Jason. If you join us, we will help you revive this beautiful young lady."

That caught Erik's attention.

Jason let out a hand and said, "Join us."

Lilian was all he could think about, so he took his hand.