They say it can only take a single instance to turn everything upside down. One swift and sudden moment to ruin it all, and everything you've ever known or seen comes crashing down before your eyes.
For Val, it took one night.
One long one.
"What...?"
Val stared at the visage of the beautiful young girl genuflecting and bending the knee as if in servitude towards him with wide eyes full of confusion. His expression which was previously like a cold and motionless blank canvas rippled, breaking his resigned mask and letting his thoughts spill out like a dam.
The dark night was cold and deep, and full of terrors -- the weight of it all pressing down against Val's shoulders.
The full moon hung above all indifferently, almost ethereal -- seemingly untouched and unconcerned by the sentiments of the world below it.
The mysterious girl who had appeared out of nowhere suddenly at some point moved. Her snow white fluttering like a small cascade of pale ivory was stunning under the moonlight, her bright violet eyes glinted with a piercing light.
"The night is dark and full of delight."
The edges of her slender red lips were pulled into a slight curl, giving her previously motionless and cold face a dashing radiance of charm and beauty, despite the remnant traces of tears and flushed pink on her cheeks.
Val felt his breath stolen from him for an entirely different reason. The sudden changes in expression the mysterious girl had made standing on the same spot in the last couple of minutes stirred his heart strangely, each of them almost representing exploding stars.
Fortunately, or not, the short, white haired girl didn't seem to notice as she raised her head and snapped it around. All of a sudden, her bearing changed entirely again, reverting, this time to the previous, aloof, cold and somber demeanor she presented herself with at the beginning.
This time, though, there was a flash of alert tinting those otherworldly violet eyes, dying the deep amethyst colour with also a tinge of ill-hidden bloodlust.
"They're coming. We need to move."
Her words managed to snap Val ruthlessly out of his reverie and his bloodied expression deepened. His incomparably deep blue eyes nestled on the girls figure as his somber expression returned.
"Who is?"
After managing to gain back control of his self from his initial confusion and shock, Val's bearing returned to the state of before, and his voice eas equally just as deep and placid, devoid of ripples, and seemingly will.
This was because despite him asking, he already knew the answer. But wether the mysterious girl, who called herself by the name Raven, knew or not, he was still going to receive it more clearly.
"The Executioners."
Even for his bearing and demeanor, Val's brows couldn't restrain itself from creasing at such an unexpected ominous sounding name.
The girl met his gaze as she rose back to her two feet, the dark cloak she wore fluttered along her movements and partly revealed the appearance of a black and white garment underneath reminiscent of a maid's outfit.
Misinterpreting Val's vague reaction through his expression, she added with weight.
"The ones trying to kill you."
"I got that." Val calmly responded, his words and apparent reaction contrasting deeply against each other under the current situation.
In fact, against his words, he truly didn't 'get' anything! His mind was still racing and reeling from the girl called Raven's announcement and... everything.
In fact, Val had already made peace with... whatever It was that was happening. He had given in to the inevitability of his fate and the situation. There was supposedly nothing he could do, those after him clearly weren't human.
And even if he had no idea what they were, they seemed very well more than dead set on killing him for some reason.
Call him a coward as perhaps many would for resigning helplessly as easily as he did, but Val was realistic. He was broken and wounded, light headed and shivering from the amount of blood he lost; what could he possibly do against those who were far more stronger, faster, powerful and far more mysterious than he was?
The fact that he knew absolutely nothing about these 'Executioners', what they truly were, and why they would suddenly want him dead while they seemed to know him well — well enough to really want to kill him, at least — was already considered a loss by Val.
Not to mention how he couldn't even escape from 'here' even if he wanted to. Raven had already admitted to it, too, as well.
But suddenly, there was this mysterious girl, and a whole lot more of things seemed to click, while considerable more didn't even make sense.
Despite his calm and apathetic appearance of resignation, Val's mind was spinning gears rapidly as his reality only continued to seem as something that never truly was.
The last words of Raven caused his mind to race.
'Could it be...?'
A few moments earlier, Val had already resigned to the notion of accepting the inconceivable and unbelievable. As someone who was nearing his final moments of clarity and end, shouldn't he be at least entitled to believe whatever it is he wanted at his final moments?
Val was realistic, but he didn't consider himself a realist. Neither was he even remotely a fatalist, however, it was more of a matter of perspective, and accepting to he honest and truthful about the circumstances around him under whatever conditions, even if it was hard to describe or properly explain — or at least trying to make the most likely and practical sense.
But as a dead man, Val gave himself into the luxuries of the unrealistic, and extreme possibilities.
"What are you still doing? We should get moving before they find us again."
Raven's voice whipped him out of his thoughts and he slowly raised his head to stare at her tensed and sincere expression with an arm outstretched for him. His deep blue eyes cast an inexplicable gaze over her.
Val had so many questions, but out of everything all that had happened to him throughout the entire night up until that moment, he was strangely very certain about one thing at that moment:
The look in Raven's eyes when she gazed at him — he wasn't sure who she was, but he was sure she didn't want him dead.
It was quite the very opposite actually; Raven wanted Val to live.
Her sincerity burned like a flaming boisterous hearth.
And she would do anything to make sure he survived, even laying down her whole life if she had to.
As for why she didn't want Val dead, the young man didn't seem to know. He wasn't even sure why he felt like he knew Raven wouldn't hurt him. Something inside of him just seemed to move towards her uncontrollably.
He also wasn't aware of really just how far Raven would go for him... And perhaps if he knew, who knew what Val would think?
Someone he had never met before...
But Val wasn't stupid. If only it were that easy to take the hand and accept the favour of a mysterious stranger he had never met before all while a group of other strangers he had also never met before came after his life, all in one same night.
He was light headed and low on blood, but not a fool.
But perhaps, maybe it really was because he wasn't thinking straight that he took the girl's hand reached out for him.
'Or maybe i really am stupid.'
But he also didn't want to die.
He had resigned to his apparent fate didn't mean he desired death and finality, at least not yet. If there was still a chance of life and escaping, then that was greatly welcomed.
And a possible chance stood right before him. Val had seen what those after his life were capable of, that was why he was quick to his resignation. And so there really was the chance that Raven, as someone Val judged also wasn't 'human', could actually help him to survive, or escape at the very least. She could have similar abilities with his attackers that could make it all very likely, that was the point Val hung on to while making this decision.
And even if that was possible in the end, then what about after that? Val decided he would first of all had to live past this long night first to decide.
The world was cruel and hard and wicked, and his life hadn't been all roses and bed either, but just like many other humans or life form, Val still had a strong instinctive attachment to the living, perhaps even more so than most others.
He wanted to live, and continue to do so if for nothing else other than just his brother.
Raven's violet eyes flashed and twinkled with a small smile as as Val took her hand and a sigh of relief left her lips.
Meanwhile, Val was also begining to consider other matters. He was currently badly wounded and could barely walk on his own two feet alone, less talk about even running.
He's current state was nothing short or less than a burden to anyone who had thoughts of surviving with him. How was Raven going to cope with this?
Once again, when Val began to contemplate his death again, he was suddenly pulled up to his feet seamlessly and gently, but it was at such a powerful force he couldn't do anything against even if he so desired.
Val's half open cold, deep blue eyes widened as the petite figure of the white haired Raven raised him from the ground to his feet with a single arm and movement, as if lifting a piece of paper as lightly, and tossed his arm over her small slender shoulders hidden under the cloak for support.
It all happened so fast, so gently, and so easily that Val couldn't react in time in any manner even if he wanted to as he was suddenly held up by the girl as thought he didn't weigh anything.
Val could barely stand on his own, so he couldn't control most of his weight, if not all of it, as he leaned against Raven, yet she held him up without a single crease in her expression or effort, slugging his arm over her shoulders, and wrapping her left arm around his torse gently but firmly.
Val still hadn't recovered his shock, he could feel how small Raven's shoulders were and how petite and lithe her body really was from being this close and physical contact, while he easily weighed over 75 kilogrammes standing at 6'3, when all of a sudden, Raven lowered her body and center of gravity into a lounging position.
"...Hold tight."
"Huh——?!"
The next moment, Raven leaped off the ground and into the air with a powerful force that could be described as 'inhumane' and physically impossible.
A powerful BOOM resounded as the ground underneath her feet shattered and exploded into a myriad of cracks from her power as she sharply leaped out of the alley and through the air, landing lithely at the edge of the rooftop closest to them.
The full dark allure of the cloudless midnight sky without obstruction was brought over their heads immediately as the full moon hoovered eerily in place.
Val felt like something inside of him would jerk out of his body, or his eyes would roll out of their sockets due to how wide he was forced to open them. It had happened so fast but he could still recall how the winds had sharply raced past his face as Raven leaped a couple of meters into the air swiftly like it was normal.
Val's body tensed from shock during that moment causing him to hold Raven even more tightly with his arm around her. Their bodies became even more pressed together that Val could feel the extent of just how much small and petite, and soft Raven was, even underneath the big cloak she wore, but failed to properly register or appreciate the moment due to his shock.
Raven's beautiful expression faltered with dash of bashful pink as she felt Val involuntarily pull her even closer towards him enough so she could even more clearly hear his racing heartbeat pumping hysterically with blood under his wide chest.
Her mind seemed to heat up and her step at the edge of the rooftop faltered shakily as her mind churned. She hadn't fully regained her balance when Val latched on tightly as she landed on the rooftop edge and now was teetering on slipping off.
'Ah...'
Raven banished the foul thoughts in her heart and mind as she forcefully regained balance and lunged forward again for another take off instantly.
This wasn't the time, nor place for this, she reprimanded herself as, unfortunately for the poor and pitiful Val, Raven instantly took off in another even more powerful leap, and without warning this time around.
Val could only latch on even more tightly, his heart pounding and threatening to burst from his chest.
The Night was still long and full of terrors.