71

Chapter 96

Well. We all know that sticking to the plan just isn't the way I roll. I don't like waiting, or letting other people go check things out to make it safe for me. I mean, that's awful dang sweet of him and all, but I can very well take care of myself.
I'll show him, is all I can think and I angrily surge forwards, trampling brush and small branches as I go. I guess I'm oblivious to the massive amount of noise I'm making- But maybe any listening Beast's would mistake my angry, stomping footsteps for those of some enormous, bloodthirsty monster that would eat them for breakfast.
I follow the clinking, clanking sound, certain it's the Servants, and hoping secretly that I'll have to rescue Coal again. Then I reprimand myself immediately, recalling that the Servants would rather slice and dice first, ask questions later.
The clinking is closer. Suddenly my courage leaves me when I jump over a log, like it all just fell out, and I'm left with uncertainty and shaking legs that I can only hope will support me the rest of the way.
I'm walking right into a trap. I'm positive about it. Every sense in my body tells me to turn back. I couldn't feel more certain that I'm strolling right into danger if there was a flashing neon sign in the trees reading 'DANGER! TURN BACK NOW!'
But sometimes I can be paranoid. Like, always, okay? So I keep going, one silent, tentative step forward at a time. I keep waiting for the ground to give out from under me, or for the Servants to suddenly fall out of the sky and tackle me to the ground, for the quiet snip of a bullet in my flesh. Nothing happens, except that I begin to wonder if the stress will just cause me to implode.
"Coal!?" I finally draw up the courage to whisper, my voice sounding strained and thin in the emptiness. Clink, clink, clank. Clang gong, bang! I hear the noises coming from right around a thick grove of vine-strangled trees, feet away. "Coal!"
I jump, and barely manage to stifle a scream. There are footsteps coming from my right, directly around that tree trunk. Slow, steady footsteps, accompanied by the clanking and the clinking of the Servant's armor.
I press my hand over my mouth to silent my frenzied breaths, and I know the Servant can hear my heart beating, and there are hundreds more of them everywhere, woven like little spiders all about me in the forest, and they've been following me the entire time, and they've seen everything I've done, and Coal-
Where's Coal? I back slowly away from the tree, wincing every time my foot falls on a dry twig, and the leaves rustle, or a quick gasp escapes my lips. Did they already capture him? Or was he the one who gave me away!? I thought he was acting a little strange today!
The more I think of it, I'm certain. Coal betrayed me to the Servants, the dirty little lying scoundrel filth-blooded back-stabbing Prince of the freaking Royals that he is! He ran off to join his good old Servant buddies and laugh with them when they captured me and tortured me and killed me and sold my body to the Predators to be used as Beast-bait, and I'm shaking with rage and fear, because my life is about to end and there is absolutely nothing and I can do about it, and any second now I'll feel the cold jab of a blade in between my shoulder blades and the cold laughter of a brainwashed servant as he takes my life in the most bloody and brutal way possible-
"BOO!" Freaking right behind me.
"WHAT. IS. YOUR. PROBLEM!" I scream, turning and hitting Coal repeatedly on the shoulders.
He's laughing so hard I highly doubt he notices at all, and he sinks to the ground, gasping and chocking and barely able to form words at all.
"Y-You- a-are s-so gullible!" He shakes with laughter at his own joke, and I sigh, crossing my arms and glaring coldly down at him. Yet again, I have let my overactive imagination and paranoia get the better of me. But I won't admit that to him.
"Besides," He gasps at last, taking deep breaths. "Now we're even."
Right.....
"Uhuh," I roll my eyes at him, and, still grinning, mind you, he gets up, stretching and rolling his shoulders. I wonder that he isn't cold, with only the bandages to cover his upper body. Not that I mind. "Yeah, well, while you were having fun giving me a heart-attack, I was thinking that you had been captured by Servants."
Notice I leave out the part about him betraying me. He shrugs casually, and the wind whistles through the grove. Clink clank, bong!
"Stop that!" I snap, glaring at him.
"What?" He raises his hands innocently.
"The clanking! I know it's you!"
"I swear, it's not!" His ears perk up suddenly, and his head snaps around. "I don't know what it is!"
He's actually being honest, so now I'm confused. I had thought that everything had been his plan, including his alertness at the strange clanking sound, which gave him and excuse to run off, and to scare the crap out of me.
"Well," The corner of my mouth twitches up in a mischievous smile. "Let's go find out."