Prologue: The Hidden Map

Louis Winskey

I went home at sundown when I was done working, and felt it was best to take a long rest till dawn. Soon, something struck my mind. I was suddenly reminded of my treasure and the people after it.

Though weakened physically, I still managed to gather up the strength in me and sauntered off to my store room where I had preserved my map. I took it into my hands, and with the thought of relocating it, I moved.

The thought of such had originated from the terrible feeling I had concerning my map. I thought that some men would come after me and take my treasure map, then assassinate me; the keeper.

Now no need for a misunderstanding there, I most certainly did not willingly wish to think of those things, rather, it had come to me in a vision. The thought included men killing me only to collect my map and then find the treasure. Whenever I had such a feeling, it'd always come to pass.

I then searched for an old paper in my abode, picked up a quill pen, and began drawing a fake treasure map at once.

"Aha!" cried I as an idea popped into my head. "I know where I can hide it."

So that night, I came out from my home and walked to where I had planned on hiding it. I paced down the streets with the consciousness of unusual activities. The fear of losing my treasure map gripped me tightly as I walked, and as I did, it turned out that I was actually experiencing something unusual behind me. Two men seemed to be following me.

Though I wasn't very sure it was true, so I stopped to see if they would too—and it turned out they did. I had a thought,

'Maybe a coincidence?'

I resumed walking, and surprisingly they did too. Now, this was when I knew they were following me for sure. Anxiety grew in me as I increased my walking speed.

I presumed the men took notice of my sudden increase in speed and started to chase me. I had no other option than to run for my dear life!

I raced quickly with the little strength left in me and held tightly the map in a squeezed palm. I glanced back over my shoulder, still maintaining my fast pace, and discovered the men had increased in number. They became six!

"What?!" cried I. "I thought they were two."

I had become tired and hopeless, seeing I couldn't outrun six unwavering strong men. I also saw that I was just wasting time and energy. So, I decided to create a decoy, to distract the men from chasing me to buy me some time to hide my map.

I knew it was my treasurer's location they were after. How they knew about the map, I don't know, but what I knew was that if they got their hands on my map, the treasure would be theirs.

Listen closely to what I did: I pretended to fall the map by accident and continued running away. As the men saw the map on the ground, they thought it was the real one so they ceased chasing me and gathered around the fake map at once!

Now that bought me a lot of time to run to the nearest house, scale over the fence, and I brought out the original map from my coat.

"Ruf! Ruf! Ruf!" a dog barked at me suddenly from inside the house I had scaled.

"Hey, shhhh…" I hushed, but the german shepherd just kept on barking. I snapped its neck, scratching it with an item, thus leaving it with serious cuts after a series of struggles.

It died at once on the spot, making everywhere peaceful and quiet. I dug into the ground with my bare hands and buried the paper inside. I covered the ground carefully— no one could ever tell I had buried something there.

My plan was to come back and collect it later. When I was done, I jumped over the fence again and ambled heading home.

On my way home, I suddenly encountered one of the chasers I had seen before. The man quickly pulled out a knife and was about to drive it into me.

As sudden as it was, it made my heart skip and I couldn't help but gawk with mouth agape in shock. I thought it was it; I was going to die and no one would know—or so I thought.

The staring and thinking all occurred in split seconds because I defended myself first preventing myself from getting killed. We engaged in hand wrestling jamming each other's backs on hard walls and the ground.

I struggled so much with this thief-assassin, trying to obtain his weapon.

After the endless struggle, finally, one emerged as the winner of the futile battle.

I took in air and exhaled raggedly in a continuous manner, standing by the dead man who had now fallen on his knees with blood pouring out his mouth and a stab wound in his stomach.

He croaked before finally giving up.

I realized what I had done.

It now dawned on me that I had taken a man's life! My heavy breaths slowed down, while I remained gazing upon the so-called killer's lifeless body.

Who was I kidding…? I was the killer. It was I who had killed here.

I flinched in fear and felt a chill run down me. My chest rose up and down, rhythmically, and my mouth was ajar.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I felt a current of guilt surge through me for I had not killed before. All this was because of a man who I didn't know.

I quickly snapped out of my unending gaze and searched around for eyes; for witnesses around the place.

The thought of running away was the only thing that had come to mind. Maybe there were others too heading this way.

Because of what I did ( killing a man) I ran from town. After fleeing town, I was never heard from again— I knew because I found out later.

I never wanted to return to this town again, but the one thing that would bring me back was my hidden map.

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