Chapter 9:

Silver Stalker

Gentleman of the Apocalypse

It has been a few minutes since I left Ori.

I rode my motorcycle off to find Dustin.

I had forgotten where we last left him, I'm pretty bad with directions, after all.

"HEEEEEEELP!"

I heard Dustin's voice coming from a distance, following the direction of the scream.

It was just like when we last saw him.

Most of the zombies were focused on the rooftop, where Dustin was standing and calling out for help.

I went over to the back side of the house, where there were no zombies present.

"Psst! Dustin!"

Dustin looked at me and had a smile of relief.

"Ah! Perci! I thought you left me!"

"Shhh!"

"Ah. I'm sorry….."

"Hurry up and get down from there!" I said.

"I can't!"

The zombies picked up the sound of my motorcycle and quickly ran towards it.

RAAAAAAAH!

I got out of the motorcycle and climbed over the back wall.

Before the zombies could reach me, I jumped on one of their heads and leaped up towards the lower roofs of the house.

I climbed over to the very top of the house and met up with Dustin.

"W-what are we going to do now? We're both stuck!" Dustin said.

"Do you know the way to Ori's house? I've been there already, but I forgot how to get there," I said.

"I do! But we should be worrying about how to escape first!"

"I might have an idea. Do you have a phone?"

"Y-yes!"

Dustin told me the password and I unlocked the phone.

I stared at the wallpaper of the phone. It was a picture of a beautiful girl with red twin-tailed hair eating an ice cream.

"Hey. Why does this girl look like Ori?"

"T-that's because she is! It was a candid photo of her! Don't judge me!" Dustin blushed and covered his face.

"That's Ori? I didn't think she had that hairstyle before."

I'm used to seeing the present Ori, who only tied her hair up to a ponytail instead of the twintails in the picture.

"Do you have a crush on her?"

"N-not anymore. She was my ex."

Right. She did tell me she had seven boyfriends, but I didn't expect Dustin to be one of them.

"Then why do you still have her photo?"

"I-I forgot to change it!"

"Nevermind. Let's focus on the task at hand."

I'm surprised there's still internet service.

I clicked on an app and searched "Pierce the Veil - King for a Day ft. Kellin Quinn" then played the video on loop.

The sound blasted from the phone as I increased the volume to its maximum.

"Is it ok if we sacrifice your phone?"

"If it helps us escape, then fine!"

I took a loaf of bread from my bag and created a deep hole in the center, then placed the phone inside.

I threw the bread and it landed on the front yard of the house.

The zombies were baited into following the sound and left the back side open.

"Let's go."

"I-I can't go down…I'm afraid of heights!"

"How did you even climb the house then?"

"It was the adrenaline!"

"Looks like I have no choice."

"H-hey! What are you-"

I carried Dustin in my arms and jumped down the roof slowly.

"Eeeek!"

We rode on the motorcycle and took off.

RAAAAAAAAAH!

"The zombies are after us!" Dustin screamed.

"Hold on!"

I pressed harder on the gas to speed up the pace.

We were about to reach a turning point, so I had to use the brakes to control our acceleration.

I drifted the motorcycle to make a right turn and increased my speed once again.

Dustin screamed loudly and grabbed my abdomen tightly with his clawed hands.

"That hurts."

"Sorry!"

I avoided the zombies lingering on the road and even rammed into one of them, sending it flying over us.

"Woah!"

Dustin adjusted by putting his arms around my body and stuck closer to my back.

I drifted to the left and the back tire grazed the nearby wall.

"That was close!"

Dustin was very noisy, but I was dead silent and focused on trying not to crash.

"Watch out!"

There were too many zombies blocking the path, so I looked around for a way to get through.

I spotted a nearby ramp and moved the bike towards it.

"Brace yourself."

I sped up towards the ramp and lifted the motorcycle upwards at the right time.

We were flying right above the zombies like we were in a cool action movie scene.

Time didn't slow down for us though, the moment happened only in an instant.

"Waaaaaaaah!"

We landed safely on the road and moved onward.

I weaved the motorcycle from side to side to avoid the zombie attacks.

"Take a left here!"

I overextended past the intended route and forced on the brakes, then immediately turned back around and made it back to the correct route.

"We're getting close!"

"I remember now."

I finally recognized the path from earlier and from then on, all I had to do was follow my memory.

The problem was, there were too many zombies on our trail.

"We'll have to lead them away from the house first."

Sorry, Ori. Just wait a little while longer with your mom.

………….

"Say ah!"

The silver-haired boy picked up a potato chip and brought it to my face.

I spat on his face in response.

"I don't want it, Wolfis."

"Sigh."

He wiped it off and continued to stare at me with those crazy red eyes.

"You used to love that sort of thing, what changed?"

"Why would I ever accept food from scum like you?"

"Ouch. That hurts you know. But I don't mind. I will continue loving you no matter what."

"I'll never love you back. Ever!"

"Eventually, you will. I'm the only one you have. I made absolutely sure of that."

"That's not true! I still have P-"

I stopped myself from talking.

Why did I end up thinking of that guy's name?

It's not like we're close or anything.

"You still have who? I thought everyone abandoned you."

"Nevermind," I looked away.

"You have another guy you love, don't you?" Wolfis whispered in my ear.

"I-It's not like that."

Suddenly, Wolfis kicked a bookshelf repeatedly in frustration.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! After everything I did to keep people away from you, how is that there's at least one person who still cares about you?"

"What do you mean, kept people away from me?"

"Ah, I spread bad rumors about you after we broke up. I told all of your friends lies and made it so that they would absolutely hate you. I made sure that everyone you knew would stay away from you forever. All so that there would be no one who would care about you, but me."

"What? You're the reason why everyone hates me?"

I knew all my boyfriends were responsible for tarnishing my reputation by spreading rumors about me. They were all influential figures in the school, except Dustin of course.

For example, Bryce was popular among the women and captain of the football club.

Damian was an acting prodigy in the theater club and loved to empathize with others.

Robin was the ace of the archer club. Everyone there looked up to him and thought he was the coolest guy ever.

They all probably ranted to their friends about their experiences with me.

Wolfis used to be the captain of the basketball team. Despite having a short stature, he was considered as one of the top 5 high school players of the country. What he lacked in height, he made up with his amazing speed and agility. Nobody could keep up with him. He was unguardable.

Unfortunately, he ended up with a terrible injury in the championships and was never able to play again.

But he would forever be respected by everyone.

However, I was still missing pieces of the full puzzle. Even if all of them spoke ill of me, that wouldn't be enough to make me the most unpopular person in school. I still had many friends who believed in me and stuck by my side.

But for some reason, everyone started to hate me slowly, but surely.

To think that Wolfis would go as far as to destroy any connection I have with anyone, all for the sake of being the only one for me. I could not believe it.

"How? How were you able to convince everyone? That's not something a normal person could do!" I said.

"But, I'm not a normal person. Did you know? I didn't become the best player in the school because I was the fastest. It was because of my ability to read a person's mind. I could understand my opponent's patterns, strengths, weaknesses and habits. As long as I understand how a person works, I can take advantage of them. Convincing everyone to vilify you is something I'm capable of."

He stared at me and gave off a wicked smile.

"It's just you and me. Alone together. Just accept that this is our life now. In this broken world, we can live together as soulmates."

"You're despicable. You ruined everything. You destroyed my high school life. You killed my mother. I would rather kill myself than be your soulmate."

"Someday, you will understand. I'll be patient. I'll wait as long as it takes for you to finally accept me. If we’re the last two people on this island, who's going to stop me?”

Wolfis put his face close to me and pierced his eyes onto me.

I looked to the side to escape his gaze, but soon after, I decided to look back.

“Isn’t that obvious? I’m the only one who can stop you.”

I slammed my head onto his face and he fell to the ground.

“Ouch!”

“I thought you could read minds, but you clearly didn’t see that coming!” I mocked him.

“Phew! I didn’t think you would be so violent. It doesn’t matter. I’ll love you no matter what!” Wolfis looked at me obsessively.

“You’re a psychopath.”

“Ori!” a voice called from outside.

It’s Perci’s voice…..

“Huh? Who’s that? Why did he call your name?”

Wolfis said in a monotone voice, but stared at me with his menacingly killer red eyes.