Chapter 19 19: I Told You So

"Well he tried to kill me and that person over there decided to stick with that person when I was already bringing her to safety. So…I guess what I'm trying to say is, I just don't care anymore."

He replied nonchalantly, the threat of them dying didn't affect him at all. If anything, he was still a little peeved that he would be missing out on getting experience for killing Derrick himself.

——

"Belle…just leave me…ther-there's no point anymore…there never was."

"Wha-what? What are you saying? Com-come ugh on! We can, we can get through this. Sobs* look! That person is just over there! If-if we can get him to help then I'm sure we'll be fine."

As of now, the bird was attending to Noah while Isabelle attempted to retrieve Derrick. But no matter how hard she struggled or what she said, Derrick didn't appear to gain any will to fight anymore. She didn't know what to say to get him out of his slump so she tried to give him hope of being saved as she mentioned Noah who seemed to be safe sitting under the tree. Yet as she mentioned him, she was met with an even deadlier silence.

But that silence ended when they heard the bird from before coming towards them. Maybe it was the fear or maybe it was the irritation of not being able to get the meal it wanted. The cry of the bird at this time sounded extremely loud and petrifying to the two. And Derrick, who was completely silent from before, lifted his head and gaze emptily towards the bird who signaled his death.

"You know…you're too good for me." The sudden tone caught Isabelle off guard. She only ever was submissive when interacting with him and Derrick has never been as vulnerable as he is now. So hearing him say that he was unworthy, considering his pride, truly caught her unprepared.

"All this time, I felt that I deserved everything, the attention, the beautiful girl, money…I deserved it all. And yet here I am, weak…and about to die yet you are brave enough to stand by me…I'm pathetic…you don't deserve to die with a guy like me…just get out of here…" To anyone listening in, it would appear as if he was conveying his true feelings to his loved one before he passed. If Noah would've heard him, he would assume that the guy just regretted dying, otherwise he would've never admitted this to her.

Either way, it touched Isabelle deeply. Instead of leaving like he wanted her to, she became so absorbed in her emotions that she continued to struggle to lift him even more, that was until the bird landed on the ground in front of them.

The budding feelings she held a moment ago quickly disappeared. Seeing the creature up close was entirely different from just seeing the silhouette. At first, her voice got stuck in her throat and her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. It was at this moment that the bird took a step and spread its wings in intimidation that her mind stirred and she panicked uncontrollably. Her first thought wasn't to ask her boyfriend who she depended on all this time, but for the person who didn't show any signs of remorse for leaving them out to die.

"Ahhh! Get away! Stay back! Pl-please save us! I-I-Ill do anything!"

She continued to scream at Noah, she watched him as he turned towards his spider and back to her. At first she thought that he was about to send the spider over and that's why he turned to command it to head over, but when he faced her direction again and noticed the spider still hasn't moved…She realized too late that he wouldn't come, maybe it was the fear of death but now she could clearly remember what he said before he tossed her. "I'm not desperate enough to die for you just to receive your healing." She wanted to just break down and cry. She didn't want to die like this, but she didn't want to leave Derrick to die alone either, not after what he just told her.

Plop!*

The sound of an object falling to the ground next to her brought her out of her daze. She didn't turn to the source of the noise first since the first thing that obviously caught her attention was the vulture-like creature standing before her. It was when she lifted her head more because she saw something falling from its beak that made her freeze. She didn't want to believe it, but the more she gazed, the more the substance appeared to be blood. Her mind went back to the object hitting the ground. Slowly she turned her head to look towards the source. Her mind was telling her not to, but her body continued, she felt that she wouldn't accept it if she didn't see it herself. And then she screamed.

—-

"HahaHA! In the end she still abandoned him! You see that! That's why you shouldn't depend on people." Noah began projecting out his thoughts unknowingly, he didn't want to believe that there were kind and loyal people in this world, not after all he had to suffer through. He ignored the fact that she didn't decide to leave Derrick's side until the end. But his spider didn't know that, it was being led on by Noah's words and took a mental note of human selfishness.

Noah watched on while Isabelle continued to scream his way. At first the scene was comical, but her deranged face was full of tears and snot, not to mention the stain developing through her pants. He began to feel an uncomfortableness in his heart. He's seen people die before, sometimes it was quick and other times it was bloody gory and he could easily watch on. But not now, he felt she didn't deserve to die, at least not this way.

The days when he wished for someone to save him from his loneliness, he saw the savior in her and yet why did he never meet anyone like her to save him then? That's probably why just her actions and presence alone ate at him, but unknowingly it still was able to reach his estranged heart.

"Sigh….this isn't fun anymore! Can you go and get her already?" Originally he spoke with a tone as if he was throwing a tantrum but gradually it turned dark and empty.

"?" Through the bond, the spider could tell its master talking to it, but that confused it even more. 'Weren't they going to let the human girl die?' It felt that it just couldn't understand him sometimes, just like the monster hiding in its master's stomach. Nevertheless it still complied. The jump would be farther than it jumped before but it wouldn't be a problem for it.

A jumping spider can easily jump 10x its size and can even jump up to 50x that in extreme cases. The spider was close to about 4ft all around which meant that it 'should' be able to jump 200 feet or in better estimates, 66 yards. The distance was just enough if not more to be able to reach the woman who was struggling to gain more distance from her predator.

The spider made its way a little ahead of Noah before it put itself into a leaping position. Unlike before where it only had to jump a shorter distance, its legs appeared to bulge as it applied blood pressure to its back legs. From Noah's view, the scene was more interesting than the one from earlier but just before the spider jumped, he happened to spot a thread shoot through the spider's rear and attached to the ground. The thread was almost as thick as his wrist. He wasn't sure what the spider planned, but he was eager to see.

Whoosh!

The take off was unnaturally fast. Before Noah's eye could register, the spider disappeared, he was left only to feel the air, generated by the spider's launch brush against his eyes.

A small trace of fear crept into his heart. He wasn't afraid of his spider by any means, in fact he was in complete awe of it. But! 'I'm sure other spiders should be able to do this too…I don't want to imagine an army of large spiders jumping through the air at once.' To Noah, it appeared that no matter how much other worldly powers humans may obtain, nature will always be frightening, even more so when these same creatures could gain intelligence. A fear he hoped wouldn't come to pass anytime soon.

This thought gave him a new outlook on this new life that he wasn't taking seriously enough.

'It appears that I shouldn't only strive for strength to retain my freedom…but also to survive.'

Fwooosh!*

His time to mull over the unforeseeable future ended when he heard the sound of the mutated vulture taking to the air again. Most likely in pursuit of Isabelle that was running for her life. Well you could say it was running, it felt more like a Jason movie, the sad girl stumbled over herself at least three times by now. Luckily for her, the reason she was even still alive was because the vulture was finishing off its recent meal, that meal being her loved one.

Even so, his dead body couldn't buy her a lot of time. The bird was larger than the body itself, with a beak that seemingly could easily tear through concrete yet alone bones. It hungerly scoffed down chunks of its body yet it wasn't appeased. Vultures were none to mainly eat dead bodies and after treating itself to live fresh meat, it wanted more.

Because of its impatience, instead of taking to the sky, it used its wings to 'jump' a noticeable distance to reach its target. It licked its bloody beak while in mid air, fantasizing about the delicacy of its recent meal and its soon to be treat. But it's excitement was for naught, Isabelle fell again. This time she didn't get up, her body was mentally exhausted and each time she fell, the fall took away more of her will to go against that exhaustion.

She couldn't scream, her voice was too dry from the constant yelling since the chaos began. Through all the extensive crying she's gone through, she was an utter wreck. With her blurry eyes, filled with tears, she felt the sky cloud over her. Fearfully she assumed the worst and that it was also her time to join Derrick, but she was still unwilling! Yet her body wouldn't move, a hoarse whimper could be heard from her that sounded grating to the ears but depression to the heart.

'Nonononononono…' She closed her eyes when she felt the shadow embrace her. She was so afraid that she didn't realize the hairy sensation that rubbed against her skin nor the many 'limbs' that held her in place.

Just when she felt that she was grabbed, she was then jolted through the air. The sudden movement almost gave her whiplash since whatever grabbed her took no care of securing her neck.

She had the urge to scream but the speed they were going prevented her from doing so. She attempted to open her eyes, yet the wind and the prickly hairs won over her.

Boom!*

She felt the sudden impact of landing, before her horrified mind could create any unstable speculations, she heard a voice that she would never guess she would be relieved to hear.

"I told you not to go back, didn't I?"