--THE “BLUE-EYED DISASTER”--
(Kellin)


I was beginning to slowly calm down. Sure, there had to be a reasonable explanation for all this. Obviously my mind had started doing its job – to forget, to rearrange my memories in such way that I could take all the information in without, for example, exploding. My fear was fading away as my brain kept convincing me that everything will be alright.

My anger stayed, though, and the less I feared this mysterious man, who kept claiming to have “saved our asses”, as he said, himself, the more annoyed by his cocky attitude I became. Now I quickened my pace to catch up with him.

“We’re walking in the wrong direction.”, I pointed out once I was right behind him.

He cast me a look, surprised to see me there, perhaps even a little startled. I couldn’t help but feel a bit content with myself for scaring Mr. Fearless Asshole.

“What?”, his startled look turned into a glare.

“Directions. We’re walking in the wrong one.”, I repeated.

“Oh, no shit, smartass. Since when are you such an expert at directions?”, he let out a short, but full of irony, laughter.

“I don’t need to be an expert to see that we’re being guided by an idiot.”, I spat, irritated by the way he talked to me. However, I didn’t mean to be that rude and I immediately regretted it, but it was too late. Damn, I have to think first and then talk.

Vic stopped and gazed at me darkly, his look threatening, almost scary now.

“Watch your mouth, kid. Y’know… Figuratively said, if a lion lets you pull its tail, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to stick your head in its mouth. I might be ignoring your insults and the fact that you’re acting like a total prick, but I won’t stand this for long. Just… watch it. Because I bite.”

For a second I stared at him. His eyes were so serious, so cold, and yet it felt like they burned me from the inside. He wasn’t kidding. Those were the eyes of a killer, of someone, who’s gone through a lot of pain and suffering to become the person he was. Cold-blooded, dangerous.

You can't trust a cold blooded man…
Boy, don't believe in his lies…

“Am I clear?”, he said dryly.

“…Absolutely.”, I looked away, a bit intimidated by his look. I had to admit his domination. He was stronger, and he could easily hurt me, only if he wanted.

“Good.”, Vic nodded approvingly and then started walking again. I followed him in silence. Behind us, at some distance, the others were quietly talking, but I couldn’t quite hear what their words clearly. I didn’t care what they were saying either.

I thought of Gabe. Deep inside, I knew that our cold blooded leader here was right about him. He was probably already… gone. I shuddered at this thought and chased it away. I didn’t want to believe it. No. No. No. He was okay, he had to be okay… Even if he was, though, now I realized my idea to go back for him was stupid. If there really were more Colonels, we’d simply get into a trap and get ourselves killed. It was reckless, it was pointless, it was absolutely dumb. I promised myself not to let my emotions guide me from now on.

I almost tripped in a rock. Annoyed, I kicked it away, cursing quietly.

“…Your friend really is dead, by the way.”, Vic spoke up, as if he had read my mind. “I found him, but it was too late, a Colonel had gotten to him before me.”

I looked up at him. He wasn’t watching me anymore, he was just staring at his feet.

“If you had found him, then why didn’t you tell us? Why did you lie?”, I asked sharply.

“I didn’t want you to panic. I need you to be calm, because once you panic, you’re dead. Trust me. I’ve been here for quite awhile. I’ve seen others like you get killed. I know it might seem impossible to you, but I’m really trying to help you, darling.”

I didn’t know what to think of what he had just said. He seemed honest, and the bitterness in his voice showed he really felt bad for the people who died in front of him, whoever they were… On the other hand, though, he kept calling me ‘darling’, which was still extremely annoying. However, his words made a lot of questions form in my head. I picked one.

“…Then why are you telling me this now?”, I tilted head.

“Because I can see you’re a damn stubborn kid and otherwise you’d keep insisting to go back and look for the other boy.”, he shrugged.

“Hah! Yeah, you have a point.”, I admitted. “Not that I feel better now, when I know he’s… you know… that he’s dead for real.”

Vic finally looked up at me.

“You’re taking this surprisingly well.”, he noticed.

“I… I guess. I don’t know.”, I shook head. “I… I suppose I just haven’t fully realized it yet. I feel bad, yeah, really bad, but it’s not like I’m gonna burst into tears now or somethin’. I just need some time to take in the new… information. Yup. I don’t guarantee you that I won’t have a breakdown later. I might. Not yet, at least, for sure.”

I moved my look to him to see he was observing me curiously, as if I was a peculiar creature from a species he had never encountered before.

“…What?”, I raised an eyebrow.

“You react differently.”, he only said.

“Differently? From who?”, my eyebrow went back down and joined the other one in a frown.

“…Don’t talk to the others about this.”, Vic changed the subject, avoiding my question. “I don’t know about you, but they’d definitely panic. You will, too, eventually.”

“You don’t know that!”, I objected.

“Yes, I do.”, he calmly replied. “Everyone does sooner or later, kiddo.”

Hah! Kiddo. This little guy called me kiddo. Exactly when I had started to think that maybe he’s not as bad as I thought he was.

I pouted. “Don’t call me that. You can’t be much older than me, yourself. How old are you?”

“Old enough.”, he gave me a ‘you don’t need to know that’ look.

“How. Old.”, I didn’t give up.

“Way too old for you, darling.”, he grinned and winked at me, shamelessly teasing me. I rolled eyes at his unnecessary joke. There was something in his wink, though… He had this kind of… disagreeable charm of a person, who perfectly knows he’s attractive, but doesn’t even care about it. That wasn’t disagreeable in general, it would seem almost cute if someone else acted this way. However, Vic was able to make absolutely everything irritating. He smirked, amused by my kind of cautious and a bit put off expression. “Just kidding. Chill. How about you? How old are you?”

I hesitated. If he doesn’t want to answer me, then I won’t answer him too!

“Not your business.”, I quickly said.

“Oh? Really now?”, that just seemed to amuse him even more.

“Yeah, really. It’s not your business at all that I’m twenty-four.”, I allowed myself a small smirk.

“Twenty-seven here. So I’m not too old for you after all…”, he wiggled his eyebrows, his grin widening.

“Stop this.”, I glared at him.

“Stop what?”, Vic blinked innocently, then shook head, chuckling a bit. “…God, it’s so fun.”

“What is…?”

“Teasing you. “

“Well, it’s not to me!”, I growled.

“I know, that’s exactly what makes it fun for me.”, he giggled a little again, this time his laughter sounding genuine. “Sorry, kiddo, don’t take it personally, I’m just messing with you. I don’t mean to upset you or something.”

“You’re not making me upset.”, I declared.

“Not even a little? Oh well, I should try harder.”, he couldn’t help but tease me again. I rolled eyes.

“Shut up.”

Surprisingly, he just shrugged and did what I told him to. I raised eyebrows, unable to believe he gave up, but I didn’t say anything either. My thoughts drifted back to Gabe. So, Vic said he found him… There was something off with this story. I was either too doubtful and suspicious, or he was making this up. What if he really did kill Gabe? What if he was intending to kill us too, once we fall asleep? But then, if that was true, what about the Colonels…? I had the chance to talk to Jesse and Justin and they told me what they had seen. One thing was for sure – Vic wasn’t lying about these creatures. Justin told me that one almost killed him, so he could take a close look at it, and it was definitely not human. I just wasn’t sure what to think anymore… If Vic wanted us dead, he’d simply let the monsters kill us… right?

…There’s one thing you must understand…
You can’t trust a cold blooded man…

After another minute of silent walking, I remembered how this conversation started and spoke up again:

“And we’re still walking in the wrong direction.”

“Nope, we’re not.”, Vic insisted, throwing me a glance. “Told you. I know where I’m leading you.”

“But we’re heading to where we came from!”, I pointed out.

“Yeah, exactly.”, he nodded.

That got me totally confused.

“But… why?”, I tilted head.

Vic let out a deep sigh, as if he had to explain something obvious to a child, who can’t, and actually isn’t even trying to understand him.

“Have you read Alice in Wonderland?”, he suddenly asked.

His question got me unprepared and I just blinked against him, unsure how to reply.

“Sure, yeah, but what does it have to do with-”

“How about Through the Looking Glass?”, he interrupted me.

“No, I’ve watched the movie, but…”

“Too bad. Read it.”, he shook head. “Lewis Carroll, man. This guy wrote the real shit.”

“What do you mean?”, I asked, now intrigued.

“The reason you got lost here is that you always walked in the right direction. When you wanted to go back to the van, you headed towards it.”, he explained patiently.

“Yeah. So?”, I gave him a questioning look, waiting for him to continue.

“I should advise you to walk the other way.”

This made no sense at all, at least to me. Was he messing with me again? What was he talking about? Alice in Wonderland, the other way, directions…? What was his point? Gosh, I couldn’t possibly describe how confusing this guy was. The whole time he was watching me as if he was expecting me to figure out what he was trying to tell me by myself, but honestly, I had no idea.

“…Huh?”, I finally said. Yeah, I know, I know. Not very clever, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

Another deep, bored sigh.

“It seems I’ll have to go with the long version.”, he rolled eyes. “Alright. So. Colonels. I’ll let Jaime, a friend of mine, explain what exactly they are, once we find him. He’s a better storyteller than me, so I’ll keep that bit for later. Anyway. Back to the subject… Colonels. A few important facts you need to know about them: they enjoy killing people, as you’ve probably already figured out; they can control light, that’s why once you get into this forest it’s always night…”

“What?”, I furrowed eyebrows. “Dude, that’s physically impossible, I mean, the sun-”

He continued, not listening to me:

“…They also control space and time, so once you get here, you might stay for years, thinking it was only a few hours or something. That’s why we keep these.”, he pulled something out of his pocket – a sandglass. “Since everything that works with batteries fucks up sooner or later.”

“Okay, let’s say that’s possible.”, I presumed. “I still don’t get the directions thing.”

“Connect the dots, Alice. They can control space and time, and they enjoy killing people. Conclusion? They use their abilities against their victims to confuse them and trap them. Easy-peasy.”

“That’s impossible.”, I repeated, even though everything was proving otherwise. I thought back of my stopped wristwatch, or of when Jesse and I get lost; when the others found us, they said we had been gone for much longer than we thought we had. I thought of the burning creature back there and how easily its body faded and turned into dust. I thought of how the more we walked towards the road, the deeper we got into the forest. It all made sense. But at the same time… it didn’t. Because things like that don’t happen in real life. They simply don’t.

Seeing my thoughtful, confused expression made Vic grin.

“…Welcome to Wonderland, Alice, darling.”, he patted my shoulder. “Have a nice stay.”

“Alright, if what you say is true,” I ignored him, “then many things don’t make sense. For example, why do the Colonels kill people? How did they get here in first place? What are they, really? And, also, what are you doing here and what do you have to do with all this?”

“Umm.”, he bit his lower lip. “Well. I’m afraid I can answer only your last question, because I don’t really know how to reply to the rest.”

“One answer is enough, for now.”, I approved. “So…?”

He paused, picking his words.

“I’m here to do my job.”, he finally said.

“Which is…?”

“To make the world a better place. I’m a hunter, baby, that’s what I do. I kill the fuckers, who murder people, and by doing this, I save lives, ‘cause I’m that awesome.”, he grinned.

“Your job is to kill Colonels?”, I translated.

“Yeah, and not only. I “hunt” all kinds of monsters like them, and get rid of them.”

All kinds of monsters? What the hell? I frowned. Yeah. He was definitely messing with me.

“You’re saying that all these creatures from the fairytales are real, like, werewolves, vampires and stuff…?”, I grinned a little, amused by his stupid statement.“Seriously? Awesome, then tell me, Vic, do they sparkle? Have you ever “hunted” fairies?”

Vic stopped again and glared at me. “This ain’t a joke, kid. Don’t you joke with that, you hear me?” Suddenly he grabbed me by the collar. “You saw that Colonel back there, didn’t you, the dead one? Lemme tell ya, the only reason he was sparkling was because I set him on fire and let him burn. This isn’t a dumb horror movie. The blood here isn’t all paint and ketchup. It’s real, and considering how much you went through for the last couple of hours, I don’t get how you still don’t believe in what you’re seeing. You must be either really damn stupid, or… No, that must be it, you’re really damn stupid. You’re a fucking idiot, aren’t you. Rule number one in these woods: grow up.”

I squeezed my mouth shut, unsure what I should say. I thought it’s maybe time to tell him to shut the fuck up and leave me alone, and then take the others and run, but at the same time, I knew this would be the possibly dumbest thing to do. So far, even crazy and aggressive, Vic had been helping us. Without him we’d be dead for minutes. However, I didn’t like the way he treated me, even though I knew it was my fault too. I had to stop provoking him, but I simply couldn’t help it. I mean, killing monsters for a living? Really? Like in that TV show? I could barely believe in what was happening at the moment, and the thought that all the other creatures from the fantasy movies and shit are real too seemed… well, like nonsense.

“…I’m sorry. Now let me go.”, I only said, my voice low.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”, suddenly Jesse’s hands roughly pushed Vic away from me. “Hey, what the fuck do you think you’re doing, asshole? Don’t fucking touch him!”

Vic stepped away and bit his lip, knitting eyebrows, but decided to keep his big mouth shut this time for some reason.

“Didn’t we talk about this already?”, my friend continued. “If we notice you’re hostile in some way, we’re gonna kick your ass. Who do you think you are, hm? You goddamn-”

“Jesse.”, I stopped him. “It’s okay. Leave him alone. I’m fine, we just had something like a… small fight, that’s it. He hasn’t done anything.”

“Well, it looked otherwise…”, Jesse murmured through teeth.

“No, really. It’s nothing. Relax.”

Hell, why did I keep defending Vic? He had just threatened me and would hurt me if I kept teasing him. I didn’t like this. But for some reason I felt the need to be on his side for once. He looked at me, kind of surprised, obviously he didn’t expect me to say this either.

“…Okay.”, Jesse cast him a glare. “Kell, did this guy tell you where we’re going, after all? I see you two have gotten quite close…”

I opened my mouth to say something, when suddenly the other man spoke up:

“I’m leading you to a safe place. My friends… colleagues…”, he gave me a meaningful look, “…they’re waiting for me there. Once we get there, we’ll discuss what we should do next.”

“Oh, so there are others too?”, Jesse tilted head suspiciously. “Colleagues, huh. And what do you and your colleagues do for a living?”

Vic looked at him seriously and hesitated. “…We hunt the ones, who killed your friend.”

“You mean those… Colonels?”, Jack got himself in the conversation as well, but he didn’t seem as angry and skeptical as Jesse at all. He always had this kind of… silly friendliness in his voice, making the others feel comfortable around him. He looked trustworthy, and he really was, in fact. Maybe a little naïve, too.

“Yeah.”, Victor only nodded, without getting into further explanations. I totally got why he did it – he didn’t want the others to react like me, and I knew they would if he tried to tell them the same things he said to me. I wasn’t sure if I should recklessly believe him and automatically trust him about everything else too. For now I decided to remain doubtful, but not to confront him either – first of all, I had to consider the fact that he saved our lives, or at least it looked like it.

He looked at me and for a moment he looked so tired, like a man, who’s had a lot of crap lately and the last thing he needs is more stupid questions. I guess I kind of understood him, so I threw Jesse a meaningful look, soundlessly warning him to shut up.

“Unbelievable.”, he snorted out and shook head. “Okay, whatever. But you,” he pointed at Vic, “watch it. If you touch Kellin again, I’m gonna kill ya.”

Vic just raised his hands in the air, as if he was giving up, and then, without saying anything, he turned around and kept making his way between the bushes and tall trees. I turned to my friend.

“Thanks for the help.”, I said evenly. “But I’d appreciate it if you don’t do this again. I can take care of myself.”

“Obviously you can’t. What was that about, Kellin? It looked like he’s about to punch you.”, Justin spoke up. I had almost forgotten that he was there too.

“He wasn’t going to.”, I scratched my head. “Besides, it was my fault, I deserved it.”

“What did he tell you anyway?”, Jack asked, tilting head slightly.

I hesitated. It wouldn’t be a good idea to mention Gabe, that would just make things worse. I preferred to stick to the new information I got: “He pretty much explained what those Colonel things do, stuff like that. I kinda mocked him, though, and accidentally pissed him off. That’s all. Now let’s go, shall we?”

“I’m starting to think that it would be better if we try to find our way by ourselves.”, Jesse bit his lip in a frown.

I imagined him trying to find the way back to the road, and remembered what Vic told me. I didn’t really get it, but as far as I understood, those creatures could fuck with our minds and make us think we’re walking in one certain direction, while we’re actually going in the opposite one. I also bet it wasn’t always night here, as the “hunter” had said, probably the Colonels just had found a way to control our minds and convince us that what we’re seeing is true. It was surely much more complicated than it seemed, or I was just too stupid to understand it properly. Anyway, Jesse’s idea sucked.

“No, no, no, that’s, heh, not a good plan, Jesse.”, the corner of my mouth twisted up nervously. “We’ll just get lost, even more than we already are.”

“What do you mean?”, he knitted eyebrows.

“Um…”

Alright. How do I explain this? I decided to go with Vic’s example.

“…Have you read Alice in Wonderland?”

END OF CHAPTER 4.

Notes

Finally an update! Sorry for the long delay, I had been writing other stuff so I didn't have time for this one. Anyway, here it is. Pretty much a filler, gives some new information and gets deeper in the conflict between Kells and Vic (which will grow into a real fight sooner or later...) It's told only from Kellin's POV, but there will be much more Vic in the next chapter, I promise.

Inspired by the song Cold Blooded by TPR [link]

If you're wondering what that Alice in Wonderland thingy was for, Vic was referring to this particular chapter of Through The Looking Glass: [link] That's where Alice is trying to get to the hill, but she keeps accidentally going back to the house, so she has to try to walk the opposite way to get to the place she wants.

Oh, and about why Gabe died first, check this interview out: [link] IT'S KELLIN'S FAULT. XD

The guys from PTV are gonna show up in the next chapter, yay! :3

So yeah. Enjoy, I hope you like it so far!