Looking back at it now, Alec should have stayed dead.

  No idea of what had woke him up

  Whether the screams of agony, the taste of blood, or the threat of a nightmare he couldn't remember.

  At the end of the day, it didn't matter.

  He had opened his eyes for the first time since what had felt like forever, and he immediately wished he hadn't.

  Nearly blind, ear ringing violently, his body felt weak as if he hadn't moved in years, and a throbbing pain followed each breath.

  The air felt stuffed and rotten, but despite his overall tiredness, he just knew he had to get the fuck out of there.

  Gradually, the pain turned into a dull ache as he started to distinguish his surroundings.

  The sky was dark, and he could only see what seemed to be a campfire nearby.

  He tried to move but felt stuck, tried to crawl, but his hand brushed against something cold. He turned to see a dead body laying next to him.

  eyes staring blankly into the void.

  His stomach churned, and he nearly threw up.

  There was only that around him: bodies.

  There had to be a dozen of them.

  Dead people spread everywhere on the now turned red snow.

  He tried to scream, but thanks to the gods, the only sound he could manage was a muffled murmur.

  As soon as he did, voices emerged nearby, paralyzing him.

  Were they friendly, or were they culprit of this massacre?

  He tried to figure out and escape route, but he couldn't remember how he had gotten here. Actually, he couldn't remember anything except his name. Each time he tried to think, he felt like his head was going to explode.

  But the sound snow crushing under boots and far voices assured him that his memory wasn't his biggest concern.

  The men whose voices he heard finally entered his sight. And his heart skipped a heartbeat. He tought this was the end of him, dying as soon as he waked up had to be hilarious.

  Yet they totally ignored the pile of bodies and went straight near the campfire. They were at least 8 from what he could see. They were talking in a language that he couldn't understand.

  But he didn't have to understand them to know that they were dangerous.

  To be honest, the assortment of armor and weapons plus the blood that was staining their clothes and faces didn't really scream "Welcome home."

  Alec took a deep breath and slowly started moving. Trying to crawl his way out of the pile without getting caught.

  The smell of the bodies was horrifying, and touching them to create his way nearly made him throw up, but he was going to get out of there alive.

  But not even halfway, one poorly timed move caused some bodies to fall off their piles.

  One man said something behind him, and they all stood up from the campfire and walked toward the bodies.

  Had they seen it? Were they coming to look for him? He wasn't sure, and honestly, he didn't want to find out.

  They had smiles on their faces, so maybe they hadn't seen him in the end.

  FUCK, Alec thought as one of the men stopped right next to him. One wrong movement and he was gone.

  He had to stay perfectly still.

  They started to check the bodies next to him. Kicking them and stabbing them with their swords to make sure they were dead.

  He couldn't move, the men were surrounding the pile. Eventually, they would get to him.

  From where he was, he could see what seemed to like the entrance of a forest nearby. It was far, and he didn't know how safe the woods would be, but that was his only option.

  He had to find a way to make a diversion; it felt like he could, like he knew how to do it, like he just had to reach for it and he would find a solution.

  The situation seemed to scream for a heroic epiphany, but he had no miraculous idea, and no superhero instincts kicked in to save the day.

  No idea what do; he just knew that he had to do it fast.

  So, he took a deep breath, and just stood up as quickly as possible.

  Desperate times called for desperate measures.

  The closest man to him didn't waste a second, winding up his sword; he tried to crack Alec's skull open.

  Alec tried to lean back, dodging the worst, but the blade grazed his left cheek, opening it.

  Alec had to strike back. He ran and bumped into the man. But was still quite surprised when the man was sent flying back. Was he always that strong? That was nice to know.

  The man got back up and all his friends charging at him, his survival instincts finally kicked in, screaming, "Run, boy, run!"

  Summoning all his remaining strength, he started running towards the woods as the other men screamed things at his back.

  They were inside a quite large clearing in the middle of a forest. If he could get behind the trees, he could hide.

  And if he could hide, his chances of making it out would greatly improve.

  For how hurt his body was, he was way faster than expected. He had already covered half of the way in a heartbeat, leaving the men behind.

  they were no way the men behind could stop him.

  Alec thought as a cold sensation took over his shoulder.

  He fell down, rolling in the snow. Immediately tried to pop back up, by his shoulder was feeling heavier and strangely warm.

  He turned to discover with horror that an arrow had lodged itself in his shoulder.

  Suddenly it felt like all his shoulder was on fire.

  The thought of giving up dominated his mind for a second.

  He couldn't remember anything worth living for, so why was he doing all that?

  Yet, he scrambled to get right back up and keep going.

  Slower than before but he kept on running.

  He got to the woods but kept on running.

  Stopping now could mean the end of his life, and he couldn't die now.

  He eventually did stop to catch his breath when his legs nearly gave from under him.

  Limping, each step firing up his throbbing shoulder, Alec ducked behind the nearest tree, pressed his back against it, breathing so hard that he felt like his heart would leave his chest.

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  He expected the men to burst through at any moment, but no one came for him.

  He felt to the ground with a smile on his face.

  Even if this was only the first step, he had made it out.

  Now that he was in it, the forest didn't feel like such a great place after all. They were no noises, no wind, no animals, it felt like being cut out from the world.

  The forest was suffocatingly silent, as if nature itself had fled.

  Alec could hear his heart pounding in his ears. For a moment he let himself believe that he was actually out of danger.

  Then, leaves cracked behind him.

  Surely nothing but his heart jumped.

  He tried to push away from the tree into another sprint; his legs didn't follow- Allowing him to dodge an arrow that sliced the air right where his head was to end stuck in the trunk.

  He turned around to see how far the enemies were, but ended up right at the end of an archer's bow.

  A woman. Long dark hair, blood on her face and clothes, bags under her dark eyes, she looked tired and not to be mess with.

  She said something to him in the same language as the men before, She was with them.

  Alec was done for. No matter how he thought about it, anything led straight to death. And from what he could recall, he clearly wasn't faster than an arrow.

  He tried to wave his working arm to explain that he was surrendering, but she didn't drop her bow.

  Worst, the woman was staring at him with the most spine chilling cold face as her drawn bow was raised to his face.

  He couldn't understand what she was saying, so communication was impossible. And she wasn't letting her guard down either.

  Was this how it was going to end? Dead as soon as he wakes up?

  He couldn't let it end like that. He had to find a way out.

  His eyes were scanning the surrounding area, trying to find a way out.

  But before he could find anything, she said something else, still in the same sharp and cold tone, but the words, the words sounded different, familiar in a sense, it wasn't the same language as before.

  "Coward."

  He understood that one, then it quickly downed on him, it meant she could understand him.

  "Thank God," he quickly said. " I don't know what's happening here, but I'm innocent, I swear. I haven't done anything wrong. Please, just let me..."

  "Shut up." He shut up quickly.

  Her face dropped for an instant, but she regained composure quickly, lowering her bow, not enough for him to be safe but enough to allow him to breathe.

  Her eyes were wide opened and she was looking up and down at Alec, like she had seen a ghost.

  "You understand me? You can speak the old tongue?"

  "The...what now?" Alec responded, lost as ever.

  But in that moment, he realized the tables might be turning. He had a chance to negotiate, to plead for his life or, at the very least, distract the woman long enough to plan an escape. Desperation was his best friend as he clung to the hope that she wouldn't turn on him.

  Before he could make his next move, just then, a new player entered the game.

  He was tall, with blond hair, blue eyes and blood on his armor too. She reached his hand out to the girl.

  "He is in awful shape," he said in a stern voice. " This ain't the place for questions."

  She hesitated and took a step back. Lowering properly her bow at last

  The boy then turned to Alec.

  "We're not going to hurt you, but right now, you need to stand up. Can you manage that?"

  It seemed that trust was in short supply in this bizarre realm, but Alec had little choice but to go along with the plan

  "I can try."

  They helped Alec get up, and the boy landed his shoulders for support, so Alec started walking with them, hoping that he wasn't setting himself up with this one. As they limped away.

  As they ventured deeper into the woods, the girl and the boy whispered to each other in a language that remained as enigmatic as it was incomprehensible to Alec.

  To him, it was like watching a foreign film without subtitles; you had no idea what was happening, but it was still mesmerizing enough to make him forget about the actual arrow in his shoulder.

  The boy looked like he was from an epic. He looked like an older teen with light blue eyes and braided blonde hair.

  The girl looked more like a witch than a teenager, but Alec couldn't really distinguish her facial traits with the streaks of blood and also the fact that he was a bit scared to look at her, but she looked really exhausted.

  They seemed close, but they were clearly arguing about something. And from what Alec gathered, the girl wasn't exactly thrilled about him tagging along.

  But it didn't matter, because Alec was now wondering what he looked like; no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find an image of himself.

  Was he a teenager too? Of course he was, or else he would have made one hell of a pitiful adult.

  But forgetting the pain didn't mean that the wound had disappeared.

  Alec didn’t pass out, but staying upright felt like a negotiation he was losing. The forest smeared at the edges, every step sending a hot pulse through his shoulder.

  His legs buckled once, then twice, and each time Erik hauled him back before he hit the ground.

  When the blur thinned and the scene finally settled into place.

  He was laying at what looked like a campfire.

  He was awake. Dizzy, half-floating, barely functional—but awake. And from where he was, he could the boy and girl from earlier sitting and talking with a new boy with long dark hair.

  "So, what's the plan?" The new boy said. "I thought we didn't take anymore survivors." He said, surely talking about Alec.

  The blonde young man, who Alec couldn't help but think of as the "golden boy," responded with admiration.

  "You should've seen him, Aksel. This kid is fast." The unexpected compliment caught Alec off guard - they had witnessed the gruesome spectacle of his escape and had chosen not to intervene.

  The girl with an icy demeanor interjected, "He's hurt and scared. They'll eat him up." Her words hung heavy in the air, and Alec couldn't help but nod in reluctant agreement.

  "I tried my best to tend his wound, if he's as good as Erik said, then that should be enough." Said Aksel.

  "We can't count on if," she stopped him. "And what will he even do? You saw it, He's as sneaky as a bear in a house." She protested, hitting the hammer right on the nail again.

  "He could fight them while we steal the flag, Ulf" said Erik as if it was the brightest idea ever

  There was one problem with his plan tho, Alec wasn't fighting anybody.

  "Erik, do you hear yourself?" Said Ulf protested. "Can the kid even fight?" She protested.

  "I can't answer for him," said Erik as he pointed to Alec."Tell me, young brother, can you fight?" He asked to Alec.

  Well, he had to talk now, so he sat up and took a deep breath.

  "First, I'm not a kid. My name is Alec Chase." That was the only thing he knew about himself, so of course he had to claim it.

  The witch sucked her teeth. " And I need more information. What the hell is going on here?"

  The group stayed silent for a few seconds before Erik started speaking again.

  "Listen. It’s simple. Two teams, two flags. Each team has one. Grab theirs and get it back to your side. No mercy. You fight, you run, you survive ”

  Alec swallowed hard. “And… people actually kill each other?”

  Saying, "listen, it's simple" and then explain the most nonsensical, mind-blowing things was the blueprint of teenagers.

  "If we go with the fact that you are saying the truth, i saw a dozen if dead bodies earlier." Alec said while still trying to make sense of all . "If they failed, what makes you think that the four of us will be enough to gain that flag?" That was clearly suicide.

  "We have a plan." Said Ulf as she stood up.

  "We scouted the surroundings; they cover the whole woods." She said as she drew in the snow with a wooden stick what seemed to be a map of the forest.

  "This is their camp," she said as she placed a cross near the middle of the forest. "And those are the soldiers we saw." She designed with dots.

  "There aren't that much soldiers at their camp." Erik claimed confidently.

  Alec stared at the map in disbelief as they had to be at least twenty dots representing soldiers all around the camp. Yet she didn't even look his way as she kept ongoing.

  "You and Aksel will distract the soldiers while Erik and I grab the flag." The witch continued.

  "By distract... you mean fight?" Alec wasn't doing that.

  “Not exactly,” Aksel answered. " Stay sneaky, annoy them and survive long enough to give the others a chance.”

  Alec’s stomach twisted. “And if I get caught?”

  Silence was his answer

  "Just keep them busy, it will be alright." Said the witch.

  "Why don't you fight and I grab the flag?" Alec asked sarcastically.

  "Because you cannot sneak around." She said without even looking at him.

  She wasn't wrong, but still it Lowkey hurt.

  "If you can call a holm gang, they will be forced to fight you one on one." Said Aksel to reassure Alec

  That wasn't reassuring at all, Alec wasn't fighting no trained killer.

  "Look, young brother." Erik started. "We don't have time to waste, every second where we don't move is a second closer to getting caught, we need to act fast. Are you with us?" he asked as he reached out his hand to Alec.

  They were right. If they had an opportunity to get out of there, they had to take it. And their plan wasn't impossible to make work either.

  Yet.

  "No," Alec said.

  The group was clearly taken aback.

  Alec didn't know them, hell, he didn't even know himself.

  They had seen him nearly get killed and decided to help him only when they understood that he could be useful.

  They weren't heroes, and he wasn't one either, to be honest.

  He had to live. And he felt like their plan and the nonchalance they had explained it, would lead him straight to his death.

  At the end of the day, thhey weren't friends, and he wasn't jumping in the fire for no stranger.

  "No?" the witch said, shocked. For the first time, she looked directly into Alec's eyes, and her cold brown eyes send chills down his spine.

  He stood up, grimacing.

  "Look, guys. I'm grateful for your help me and all. This world is ruthless, and you could have left me to bleed out, for that, I am grateful. But I didn't even know your names seconds ago, and I bet you'll forget mine as soon as our paths part. Y'all are expecting me to put my life on the line for people I don't know, that I can't do. You'll have to manage without me. "

  "Aren't you supposed to be a hero?" laughed the witch.

  Alec wasn't there to be a hero, he was determined to survive, and he was going to make it clear.

  "Said who? I am a proud side character." Alec claimed.

  Erik didn't say a word. Alec wasn't sure how he was feeling. In his eyes, he could see what seemed like a mix of deception and compation.

  "I understand," he finally said, as he took back his hand."You don't want to fight, and I can't make you." He went back to Ulf and touched her shoulder as she stood up too. "This world is ruthless, more than you think. Just stay safe and don't die. They are few of us left."

  Aksel stood up, but Erik stopped him.

  "What?" Aksel asked, shocked.

  "He has not totally recovered; he won't survive alone; please just heal him."Erik answered

  Aksel didn't say a word. But Alec could tell he was disappointed.

  Ulf turned to Alec, freezing him in place with the pressure of her eyes. It was the first time that he could actually see her face; she was actually pretty, not in the cute way but in a way a spear is beautiful.

  "Fucking useless." She said before going deep into the woods with Erick.

  Alec couldn't shake the feeling that he had made an error. Their plan, though fraught with danger, offered the possibility of escape for all of them. Alec had refused it, and now his own fate was uncertain.

  Aksel sat down in front of Alec.

  "Get closer I need to see your shoulder." He said.

  Alec did as told. And as Aksel started to study his shoulders, Alec just remarqued that they had extracted the arrow and made him a bandage to stop him from losing more blood.

  Maybe he had judged them too fast. Maybe they weren't that bad. Should he had stick with them?

  "Well, now I feel like an asshole." He timidly smiled. They had saved him from a clear death, and he had spit on their plan.

  "Don't worry," said Aksel." You don't have to do something you don't want to do. And to be honest, fighting is scary."

  Alec smiled "Then why did you want to go so bad?"

  "Cause it was my only way to try to stop the slaughter. I'm actually a healer." And as he said those words, a faint green light started emanating from his hand.

  Alec's world chattered as he realized. "Is that... magic?" He asked.

  "What else could it be?" Aksel laughed.

  Was magic real? And why did it feel like he always knew?

  "You can do actual magic?"

  "You can't?" Asked Aksel.

  Alec's world shattered once again. He was supposed to be able to use magic?

  Everything he had assumed felt totally dumb now.

  Who was he? What was he?

  Was it how he had sent that man flying when he bumped him, or why he was able to keep on running even after getting shot? Magic?

  Before he could understand it, he couldn't feel any pain in his shoulder anymore.

  "Here you go," said Aksel as he stood up. "Don't do too much; you might reopen the wound."

  But the wound wasn't Alec's biggest thoughts right now.

  "What are you?" He let out. "I-I mean, what are we?"

  The question took aback Aksel; as if he wondered what kind of dumbass would ask that.

  He sighed. "We are..."

  However, before he could finish his sentences, an axe sliced through the air and ended his words by leaving a gruesome mark in the kid's throat.