CHAPTER 27: 27-THE MONSTER IS IN LOVE WITH ME

Clementine:

I watched Troy walk onto the road and toward me. He leaned down, offering me his hand. I gave it a thought, then gave him my hand. He pulled me up, and I started to shrug my pants off any dust that they gathered.

"My man was not flirting with your girl," the girl said, stepping forward, her arms folded over her tiny waist.

"Actually, we saved your girl," Joshua said, also getting up, hands on his waist.

"I’m not his girl," I retorted, stepping away from Troy.

That was when all the white squad members started to show up. The total of five seemed to be sticking together and doing a great job trying to find ways to defeat the Faun, while my squad members were nowhere to be found. It was just Troy and me. I had no clue where Ian was, no idea where Yorick went. And Haiden? He must be somewhere around his baby mama.

"Then why is he getting so aggressive about it?" the girl narrowed her eyes as she almost yelled. Neither Troy, nor I focused on answering her.

"Anyway, how did you guys find out that Fauns get scared of fireballs?" I asked Joshua, while his girlfriend frowned.

"I didn’t. My baby did. Meet Suki Young. She’s one of the finest warriors of her pack." Joshua wrapped his arm around her tiny waist and pulled her closer. Too close for anyone’s comfort. But she fit perfectly in his arms.

"And what do you guys want from us now? A thank you dance?" Troy taunted, trying to hold his muscular arms over his chest, but they ended up looking extremely buff, so he let go of the idea.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Clementine, but make sure you surround yourself with people who are less sassy and more helpful," Joshua continued, making Troy narrow his eyes at him.

"Yeah, you don’t need to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. We are doing fine without you. So go ahead, take all your babies, put them in your bag like those demonic ass Labubus, and walk away, Joshua," Troy said as he stepped forward, almost like keeping me behind his back.

I stepped to the side and then came out. I was not gonna hide behind his back. And what was I going to be hiding from? The guy who saved me?

Joshua gave Troy a very bizarre look before he started laughing. Then he looked at me and uttered, "Oh, by the way, um, I’m pretty sure someone has fallen in love with you. So good luck, guys, because he will be coming back soon to fetch his lover."

That taunt came like a bullet to me. Both Troy and I shared a glance before looking back at him.

"What do you mean?" Troy asked.

Now it was time for the white squad to share smiles. They looked like they had achieved something by getting our attention.

"Well, you did not want our help, so why should we?" Joshua said, stepping backward while staring at us with smiles on their faces.

And then, after all of them had turned around, Joshua did a few seconds later, and they started to walk away.

"What the heck did he mean by that?" Both Troy and I turned to look at Yorick, who had arrived and heard Joshua’s last statement. Hence, the question came.

Now both of them were watching my face.

"I don’t know," I shrugged, annoyed.

First, Yorick was off somewhere, and then he was appearing out of nowhere, acting like I was having an affair with the Faun.

"I know as much as you two do. I don’t know what their statement meant," I groaned, watching them look at me like I was hiding something from them.

But then, after staring at me for a little too long, they probably realized they were being unreasonable. So their posture started to soften a bit.

"Now what?" Yorick asked Troy.

"I don’t know, man. That thing was on top of me when I woke up," Troy complained, and I watched Yorick stare at him.

"What? He was having—-" Before Yorick could say something nonsensical, I had to intervene.

"No! You freak. He was just standing on top of him, watching him," I interrupted. The two then looked at me again.

"And then you saved my life by calling him after you," Troy said, nodding his head as he realized that was exactly what happened.

"A simple thanks would have sufficed." I shrugged, watching them both roll their eyes.

"But what did that jerk mean by the Faun being in love with Clementine?" Yorick then brought it up again.

"I don’t know. I guess we’ll need Ian for it?" Troy asked, since he was the one who had the most knowledge on the Faun.

But it seemed like after the arrival of the Crusaders in the woods, the others had started to learn a lot about the Faun while we were just wasting our time.

And I knew it wasn’t a competition, but I had a very bad feeling that it would turn into one. The teams, the squads, would do their best to slay the monster before the other squad. And that meant they might be willing to harm each other for it.

"But where are we going to find Ian from?" Yorick asked.

Honestly, I had the same question in my mind too. None of us has heard from him again. We don’t even know when he slipped away from us. That was when we heard a voice. A familiar jerk’s voice.

"Just by looking up."

We looked up at the owner of the voice and saw Ian sitting on top of a tree. Ian was sitting on a thick branch, his back resting against the trunk of the tree, arms folded behind his head, one leg crossed over the other, looking completely at ease.

"What are you doing up there?" Yorick asked. And I think he was probably thinking the same thing I was thinking, maybe Ian was hiding from the Faun.

"I was waiting for you guys to finish this mission so that we could go back to homeland," he said, making me realize, nope! he was just being lazy.

And then I remembered, he was in the cage with me, which meant he never wanted to be here. And unlike me, who had slowly adjusted to the idea and was actually doing as much as I could to be a Crusader, it was different for him. He still didn’t seem to accept the role.

"Well, turns out, we have two useless people taking over our dorm room," Troy said to Yorick, giving him a look as he referred to both Ian and me being undesirable dorm mates.

"You know what, Ian, we’ll leave you behind if you don’t help us out," Yorick said, lifting his head again and watching Ian slowly open his eyes and tilt his head to look at all of us.

"Fine," he groaned, removing his hands from behind his head and placing them on the branch as he jumped down. He landed and stood straight up.

"So, like Joshua said, the Faun has found fascination with our Clementine." He walked between the two and reached me, giving a head nod when mentioning me, while looking straight at me.

"That is crazy." I uncomfortably stepped back from him, and now the three of them were watching me.

"Why?" Troy asked, almost like it was such a far-fetched thing for someone to like me.

"Probably because he doesn’t truly know her. He’s just looking at the outside, I bet," Yorick added, making me clench my fists while watching them one by one. Even in a situation like this, they were able to bully me with their words.

"You know what we can do?" Ian started again, and I hated his voice every time he spoke. It was so deep, so gruff, but it was because he always spoke negatively of me that I didn’t like listening to him.

"Make her the lure. Once he’s close enough, we eliminate him."

Ian’s plan made the two stare at each other, then at me, and now the three were watching me like pricks. So they wanted to use me to kill him.