Chapter 7: A Night I will Try To Forget

CHAPTER 7:

 

As the humanoid wolf inched closer at every gallop of my horse, a whimper escaped my lips as my eyes widened with fear.

“S**t. Oh my god.” I thought, feeling my lips quiver as I urged my horse to run faster and head back out of the forest. Even with the creature roaring at us and sending real chills up my spine, I still couldn’t believe this is happening.

Outside this forest there are hundreds of people just walking around, enjoying the night and spending time with friends or family. But right now, me and Christian are running from a werewolf?!

“This is insane.” I muttered under my breath, feeling the mist kiss my face.

“CYREEN!” Christian yelled in panic, pointing his finger out ahead of me.

At first I didn’t see anything but the darkness of the trees. But when I squinted my eyes, I saw it. Standing under the blackness of the giant trees shadow was a humanoid wolf with glowing red eyes. My eyes widened with shock.

Two of them?! I turned my head and stiffened to see the creature chasing us was gone.

“No, it ran ahead of us?! How?!” I shouted, and shuddered as my ultimate fear set in. If it’s that fast, even if we use the horse to try and outrun it….it won’t do a thing to change our situation.  The werewolf stared at us, rearing on its hind legs and looking like a giant.

Gasping, I pulled the reigns, making my horse rear as he whinnied, kicking the air with his front legs. I gripped the reigns hard while Christian grasped my waist, trying his best not to fall off.

But right when our horse was going to run, I felt my heart stop as my body went cold when I saw the werewolf standing inches from us and the horse.

Seeing it closer, I wished I couldn’t see anything. Now the details of its body were all too detailed and I cursed my good eyes.

The werewolf was probably a foot taller than my dad (who was a six footer) and as you can imagine a werewolf, it seemed like a wolf that was too muscular and could stand on two legs.

But the most horrible part of it was its face which showed off super sharp teeth inside a foamy muzzle. And its eyes. Staring at those big red orbs just made me feel helpless. As if I was a bird with broken wings under its shadow.

It growled at us and pulled its sharp claws up, making me tense and gasp.

This is impossible, but I think I’m gonna die.

“GRAAAAA!” it roared before slashing my horse into half and almost killing me in the process.

With a scream, I fell to the ground along with Christian and we rolled in the dirt.

 

As I blinked off the dirt in my eyes, I looked up to see the werewolf already devouring my once alive horse. As I stared at the scene, I couldn’t help but feel my eyes get wet and it wasn’t because of the dirt.

It was like watching Animal Planet, only it was much more gruesome to see the horse ripped in half as it lay in its own blood. The werewolf gripped the horse’s corpse in place as it continued its meal, gobbling up disgusting things as its muzzle got dyed in red.

 

Right then, the werewolf froze then slowly, it pulled its head up. Once I saw its blood covered face, my jaw fell and the urge to vomit started to grow strong as I felt my face lose its own blood.

The werewolf stared at me then slowly, bared its dripping fangs, carefully growling at me with painful slowness like it was making sure I absorbed every bit of fear it was giving me.

 

“Hurry! Run!” Christian suddenly yelled as he grabbed my wrist, pulling me up my feet and waking me from my momentary nightmare.

“Cyreen!” he shouted, making me look up. Once I saw him, I felt my chest sting. “What is happening?” he whimpered.

I stared at him, feeling shaky too. But suddenly, I felt my heart beat again, this time adrenaline pumped in my veins, urging me to stop crying and at least try to get as far away from the creature as possible.

I turned, seeing the werewolf was about to finish its meal and quickened my feet.

“I-I don’t know.” I confessed, making him flinch as he quickened his own pace. He turned away from me and tightened his grip on my wrist.

“But! We can try to get away!” I shouted, catching up to his speed and running next to him. Christian stared at me, fear, exhaustion and anxiety in his face.

“It’s still distracted. We can find a hiding spot since it’s…” I trailed off, feeling scared as I remembered those gory video games me and Skye used to play and recalled the times when we got stuck in a forest level like this. I then realized we didn’t have any hope of getting out of here alive.

Christian looked up at me, waiting for my plan. So I continued, hanging down my head.

“Hiding…is our best chance of living right now.” I said and I heard Christian stumble over his long legs.

At first, Christian stayed silent. Honestly, I’m not gonna be surprised if he runs away from me, yelling; “You’re insane! I’m gonna get out of here alive!”

 

That’s what usually people do in this all too ridiculous situation-run like hell was chasing after you and end up getting killed even faster. But Christian surprisingly kept his cool, clearing his throat and regaining his running speed.

“A-alright.” He said weakly then turned to me, his eyes worried. “I trust you know what you’re doing. Where do we go?”

I blinked at him, surprised he just said he was trusting me with his life. I took a breath, calming myself then turned my head to see the werewolf was already gone.

Seeing only the horse’s corpse with the werewolf nowhere in sight, I flinched, feeling panic set in once again.

S**t. It’s fast. As you already know, I’ve seen tons of horror movies and know tons about animals and their behavior. And knowing dogs and this thing could be better than a bloodhound, it surely has our scent.

 

Quickly, I looked around, trying to look for something like mud or berries or something to cover our scent. But, oh my god!

“Damn it!” I hissed when I saw the forest path was all too dry. Damn this place for being hot!

Then, my second plan went into action when I saw a familiar path- a widening road with average sized trees, and a hill with an old, abandoned cottage just rotting at the side.

My eyes went wide and I gasped, pointing at the house.

“There!”

Christian followed my gaze and at the sight of the house, his eyes widened and I could practically see the relief in his eyes as he quickened his pace, almost forgetting I existed next to him.

Hurriedly, I looked around, trying to make sure the werewolf wasn’t close by and thankfully, it wasn’t around. It might be somewhere nearby or somewhere far, but my heart wasn’t beating crazily and warning me so I guess we’re safe for now.

Christian then pulled open the door, gritting his teeth as he forcefully opened the old, mossy door. Once there was a slit wide enough for us to go through, Christian pushed me in, following closely behind me as he slammed the door shut.

 

Inside, the air was thick with the smell of moss and plants, and very dark too. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I let loose a breath, careful not to be too loud.

I then crouched, gripping the sides of my head as the dizziness set in. I felt Christian crouch next to me, keeping himself close to me.

After a few seconds of silence, Christian sighed.

“Have we….gone crazy?” he laughed weakly. I blinked and shook my head, even though he couldn’t see me.

“No way. If this wasn’t real….I think I’ll kill myself.” I said jokingly and Christian fell silent.

“I know you saw its eyes. And the way it stared at us.” I said, recalling the fresh memory of the werewolf in my head.

“You should believe it Christian. This is real.” I said. And even with my words sounding superbly insane, I was finally believing everything that’s happening. But the problem was, how can this happen to me?

At first I just thought I would only have nightmares and hallucinations and I’d only end up thinking this is all just because of the horror movies. But after today…no way. What happened in school must be real too. And us trying to hide from the werewolf….is in fact happening.

“But.” Christian started before sighing heavily. “This is…impossible. Werewolves don’t exist.”

“Well, now to us they do.” I replied.

Since Christian went silent, I decided to prepare him.

And yes, I believe all this. It’s a high chance we can get killed tonight and be found lying on the grass, all mauled and bloodied. But since I do have experience with scary stuff and do read things about the supernatural, we might have a small chance of getting out of this nightmare.

“Christian.” I called.

“I don’t care if you’re thinking me insane after I say this but, you better believe the facts that one-this is all real. Two-if you don’t believe me, you probably won’t try your best to live and end up dead. And three…be prepared to run when it finds us.”

A silence then a rustle in the grass beside me. “Run? And when it finds us? when?” he asked. “You’re sure it will find us here?”

I blinked, thinking.

“Maybe. There’s a big chance it could catch our scent. It’s a big dog.” I replied.

Wolves do have a good nose….but then again, this cottage is so old and filled with molds and other strong-smelling plants, it could go past us without it knowing we were ever here.

“What if it leaves the forest?” Christian asked. I blinked and shuddered, feeling my heart pull down. If that does happen….then we’ll be seeing a massacre in the news. And some of the victims will probably be me and Christian’s families.

I gritted my teeth and suddenly, my panic and fear disappeared and was replaced by worry and impatience. Now I was hoping so much for some kind of weapon to fight with. An axe, a gun, sword, spear, anything that could help me fight this thing!

Then a sudden question rose in my head.

“Why is a werewolf here?” I asked loudly. Christian tensed beside me but I ignored his motion. “Also, how….”

 

Right then, there was a loud, continuous cracking and crunching sound and I realized the cottage became lighter. Once I blinked and looked up, my eyes widened to see the cottage had been sliced in half and me and Christian were lucky to be crouching.

As I further looked up, I saw furry, clawed legs that of a dog and practically whimpered to see, standing right in front of us…was the werewolf.

 

It growled at us, baring its bloodied fangs as its eyes seemed to grow wider and more bloodshot. Forget the red-eyed dog I saw back in school. This guy takes the cake.

I gasped, feeling my blood go cold as my brain racked to find an escape route. It turns out I failed to list down that this cottage was a hard place to get away from, especially since our chaser was a super speedy werewolf.

The cottage was surrounded by big boulders and burly trees. Apart from that, there could be poisonous bugs around us right now. It’ll slow us down. And speed is the thing we need most here.

That was one big mistake that just cost me my life.

Right when I was about to yell: “Run!” Christian did something I never expected him or anyone to do.

 

He jumped high up then before me or the creature knew, Christian’s fist had collided with the werewolf’s muzzle. The force was so strong and impressive, I heard an audible crack of bones as the werewolf staggered back, falling to the ground with a loud THUD!

I stared, wide eyed and frozen as Christian panted beside me, the knuckles on his left hand scarred and bloodied.

“You forgot to say…” he started, making me look up at him. He turned to me, his eyes filled with determination now.

“We could still fight.”

I stared at him then glanced at the werewolf which was trying its best to stand up but failed again and again, dizzy thanks to Christian’s left hook.

Christian pulled me up by the hand and I stared at him in wonder, feeling my fears and worry disappear.

I knew I liked this guy for a reason. He can kick werewolf butt!

 

As I stared at him, Christian’s eyes gleamed with new excitement and determination as if he wasn’t worried of dying at all now. And for some reason, I had the same feeling, only I might’ve been more excited than him.

“I’m thinking we should stay inside this cottage. See the broken pieces of wood surrounding us?” he asked, pointing all over the place as he turned back to the still wobbly-legged werewolf.

I looked around, seeing the sharp ends of the broken cottage. He has a good point.

“This could be our defense even though it’s not much. Also,” Christian then pointed to the big rocks surrounding the cottage.

“Those rocks could be of use too. If it charges us, we can hide behind it. And again, defense.”

I stared at Christian, absolutely impressed at his analyzing skills and found myself smirking.

“I know a few good moves.” I said getting ready to fight as Christian raised his brow at me while is stood up. “Yeah?”

“Yup.” I replied then made a poking gesture with my fingers. “Poke the eyes out.” I said, feeling confident that I watched those self defense shows on Nat Geo.

Christian gave me a smile then turned back to the werewolf which was now finally getting on its four legs and shaking its muzzle back and forth, seemingly trying to make sure its jaw was still able to function.

 

Christian flashed me a smile then pulled his arms up in a boxing fashion.

“This…this is weird.” He said, failing at hiding his excited chuckle.

“Since this night started, it’s always been weird.” I replied and got ready myself, feeling the adrenaline pumping in my veins.

Funny that, after Christian pointed out that we could fight, I felt that even this werewolf was nothing. And that it was possible we could even make it fall unconscious.

 

But then, the werewolf whipped its head up in such a scary way, I instantly grew intimidated and flinched. As it snarled louder at us, I could feel the anger and annoyance in it as the werewolf stood on its hind legs, pulling up its claws.

I gulped, trying not to lose face. But once I glanced at Christian, I froze.

He was frozen too. His eyes wide with fear again. And at that, the same fright pierced me once more and I lost focus.

The werewolf screeched and lunged at us.

 

But before it could bite either of us in half, it froze in mid-lunge, its eyes wide as its jaws fell open. After a second, it fell limp and impaled itself on the sharp wood in front of us.

I stared at the air and quickly, I fell to the grass and Christian followed not long after. We both gasped for breaths, relief filling me as I saw the werewolf stop breathing.

“What…what just happened?” Christian asked breathlessly as we both quivered.

I gulped and right when I was about to say something, the werewolf started dissolving like sand and in a while, there was nothing but a pile of black dust in front of the clean piece of wood that impaled the creature just a second ago.

 

“Well, that’s pretty impressive.” A low, boyish voice said, his voice echoing through the forest. “But, you forgot not to show any fear.”

At the sound, both me and Christian jumped to our feet but I wobbled a bit, still trying to get my bearings while doing my best to calm my heart. A sudden chuckle.

“For rookies, you’re pretty good. And crazy. What a mean left hook.” Another man’s voice said, this one seeming to have an Australian accent.

“Who’s there?” I called, looking around the dark canopies but seeing nothing anyway.

Right then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a rock fly right towards my face. Before it could hit me between the eyes, both Christian and I swapped it away. I blinked then looked up at Christian who gave me small smile.

I blushed and thankfully nodded once at him. after the thank you, I glared up at the direction the rock flew from.

“Ooh. Good reflexes too.” The Australian man said.

“Thank you for the greeting. Whoever or whatever you are.” I said sourly as I ignored his comment.

“Well, now that the shape shifter’s been done in, we’ll say hello to the new rookies.” The Aussie said.

 Suddenly, from the branches of the tree in front of us, a tall man jumped to the forest floor, landing perfectly on his feet without any trace of pain since he jumped from a 15 meter tall branch.

 

The guy standing in front of me was very tall and had a slim but slightly muscular body. He was wearing black pants, formal dress shoes and a long sleeved black and red striped shirt that had its upper buttons opened up and the sleeves pulled up a bit to show the many accessories on both his wrists, and a closed red vest.

This guy was the very definition of not normal since he had black painted nails and tons of silver rings. He also had short, messy blood-red hair that covered his pierced right ear by a bit but wasn’t too long to cover the (I think) tattoo of some kind of spiky choker around his thin but graceful neck. Apart from that, his pupils were red too and instead of the white background in his eyes, they were pitch black.

And looking at them just made me remember the red-eyed dog.

Christian suddenly pulled his arm up, pushing me away from the stranger.

“Who’re you?” Christian asked cautiously.

The red haired man scoffed at him, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Lukas Greene, for your information rookie.” He scoffed, his accent too thick for me to have an easy time understanding. Hey, despite watching tons of English movies, it’s still hard to understand foreigners!

“Well, you do need to know my name from now on.” Lukas said thoughtfully.

“What?” Christian asked, confused. What, indeed. I don’t get a word this red freak’s saying.

Lukas ignored Christian though and looked around the canopies.

“Oi, Chaos, get down ‘ere! Say hello to the rookies!” he shouted, his gravelly voice echoing through the trees.

“Whoa! Wait. Rookies? Of what?” I asked, knitting my brows together. “Who are you?” I asked, and highlighting that neither Christian nor I knew who this guy is or where he’s from that he keeps calling us rookies.

The red man sighed loudly, turning on his heel towards us. “I just told ya! Lukas! Greene!” he said, holding his arms up in a ta-da gesture.

Christian and I stared at him while I inwardly face palmed.

“Lukas Greene of the Devil Org.!” he added. At the words devil org. I tensed. Is that supposed to be good or bad?

 

“Alright old man, stop.” The younger, boyish voice said from somewhere before another person jumped from the high branches and landing next to Lukas.

Once I saw the other guy, I froze as my eyes widened with shock.

 

He was tall and unlike Lukas, he had a lithe form that of a cat and pale skin hidden under his white trench coat paired with a red shirt inside. He also had short, messy midnight black hair that had slightly long bangs and swept over his eyes. Once he turned to me, I gasped to see his face.

Those light red eyes and annoyingly arrogant gaze on his face! I know this guy!

And it’s not that, yeah he was the guy that came out from the (impressive) Hummer, SUV, whatever! Only now, his hair was short…what, extensions?

The black haired guy rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“Can you change your eye color. It’s freakin’ creepy.” He told the red haired guy, but Lukas just stuck his tongue out like a lizard, revealing something written on his tongue. It looked like a tattoo but I couldn’t make it out since I was too busy being shocked by the new comer.

 

“Michael.” I stuttered with utter shock and disbelief as I pointed my finger wildly at him, feeling my face pale at the sight of this old…acquaintance.

Well, he wasn’t an acquaintance actually. He was my classmate during 6^th grade at the school I was in before I transferred to Vernal Academy. And I never thought he’d be here either. And on a Hummer!

His name was Michael….ummm…Lucks?…I forgot his last name but who cares!

I hated this guy!

Back then, he used to annoy the heck out of me by calling me mean names like ‘Siren’ [which is still used anyway] and he would always pull on my hair during class which made it harder to focus on math problems, and even tripped me in the hallway.

For me, he was absolute hell on earth. Despite him having the name of an arch angel.

“This b*****d.” I thought. “Why’s he here?!” 

The edge of Michael’s mouth twitched with annoyance and I realized I talked out loud again.

“You’re still rude, aren’t you…Siren.” He hissed, making me flinch. “And my name is Chaos.” He hissed once more, his deadly gaze serious and a bit intimidating.

I blinked, startled. Back then he wasn’t scary at all. He was just plain annoying. I gritted my teeth and glared at him, waving off his intimidation and about ready to rip his head off.

 

“Alright, alright settle down you two.” Lukas cooed as he patted both me and Michael’s shoulders. “We’re not here to fight. We came to gave you two a little heads up.” he said, obviously referring to me and Christian.

I blinked and exchanged glances with Christian, feeling worried again.

“What heads up?” Christian asked, looking back at Lukas who shrugged his shoulders as he sighed.

“Well, thinking about it, it’s no use to tell you right now. You might not believe us. And besides, kidnapping you…nah, not the right time for that.” Lukas replied.

My eyes widened and I backed off from the two weirdos on instinct, holding my palms up in defense.

“Woah. Kidnap?” I asked then glanced at Michael who looked all too amused. I growled at him then pointed my finger accusingly.

“Don’t you dare even try. I’ll kick you, I can do it.” I threatened but Michael only scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Let’s go Luke. You already told them so let’s move it. There’s still the Shifters to worry about.” Michael said, already turning his back on Lukas as long knives suddenly flashed from his sleeves. Both Christian and I jumped back, turning alert.

Looking at the big and sharp knives in Michael’s hands, I realized the nail on his index finger was painted black like Lukas’ but unlike his companion’s, only his two index fingers were painted.

Lukas chuckled suddenly, making me look up at him again. He had an impressed look on his face.

“Jumping at the sight of dangerous things…hmm, alert. And threatening Chaos of the Devil Org…..very confident indeed.” Lukas smiled. “As expected of his daughter.” he said, raising his brow at me and looking at me as if I were a very good breed of show dog.

I glared at Lukas, feeling annoyed at the thought. At my look, both he and Michael chuckled.

“Hey.” Christian called, making Lukas who was currently fearlessly fiddling with Michael’s knives look up.

“What was as werewolf doing here? And what happened to it?” he asked and I felt the air grow heavy again.

Lukas clicked his tongue and suddenly snapped his fingers, the clicking sound echoing in the air. Once he did that, my anxiety disappeared just like that.

“Don’t be nervous or anxious.” Lukas clicked with annoyance. “Miasma is popping up all over you two.”

When we were about to ask, Lukas stopped us with his hand. Right then, Michael looked up at the now once again light sky, his eyes bright and alert. Lukas had the same look too, only more relaxed. But he then turned to us, a bored look on his face.

 

“First, the werewolf is something we can’t explain. We don’t have time. Second, let’s just say it’s dead and there are no more creepy or bad things roaming these woods. As for miasma, that can wait too.” He explained.

So all we got was that we can safely get out of this place. Very helpful.

 

I wanted to ask more about this Devil Org. and if they’re friends or nice but Lukas shocked me by kissing my forehead, making me freeze up as Christian gasped beside me while Michael’s eyes went wide like mine.

Before I could hit or slap him, Lukas pulled back and started walking along with Michael who still had a look of absolute disbelief on his face.

“Enough chit chat then.” Lukas hummed then suddenly pulled out a gun from his pocket. My eyes widened at the sight of the weapon and Lukas grinned at me.

“We need to go hunting. You kids better run back out of here. We’ll explain everything next time. See ya!” Lukas said with a gleeful smile before both he and Michael disappeared in a blur.

Once they were gone, Christian and I just stood there, baffled. Instead of getting answers and relief, I just got even more anxious and stressed thinking that my summer is not going as planned at all.

 

“Did all that just happen?” Christian asked as we carefully trekked up the hill leading back up to the open area and escaping the forest (which now gave me the creeps again.) I stared at the ground, seeing it move as we slowly walked, trying to replenish our lost energy.

“I-I have no clue.” I replied, making Christian give back a very weak laugh.

“What do we say about our horses?” he asked, making me cringe at the thought of my horse actually being ripped into half.

And now, I tried to think of a good excuse instead of saying; “Oh, I’m so sorry, one horse has been eaten and the other ran away in fear of getting eaten himself.”

What would be good to say? Our horses hated us? Got spooked by snakes? Or had a flying squirrel jump in their faces?

I sighed, not being able to think of something good. If you think about it, there only good excuse is that they were spooked by snakes. So that’s what I told Christian.

He blinked at me and pouted his lips, looking like a little puppy.

“They’ll buy that?” he asked and it occurred to me this guy probably doesn’t care about horses and what scares them.

“Well, horses really are afraid of snakes. It’s a good excuse.” I said. After a few more minutes, we finally passed some hills that kept other horses in wide fences. Once I saw that, I sigh of relief escaped my lips.

That fence means that we’re almost out of here.

A small smile grew on my lips and I turned to Christian. But once I saw him, I froze.

Even though we were seeing the fence and the path leading out of the forest, Christian stared at the horses in the fence, disbelief in his brown eyes.

“Why…” he trailed off, making me knit my brows in confusion.

“What?”

He stared at me. “It’s like nothing happened here.” he finally said as he pointed at the horses that were leisurely picking at the grass or sleeping with their heads over the wooden fences. Now that he mentioned it…the horses do look way too happy despite having a werewolf right inside the forest and two weirdos along with that.

“And look!” he exclaimed, pointing up at the sky which was now only darkening. “I think it’s only almost 7.” Christian said.

I blinked and instead of going blank and shocked, I just sighed.

“A lot of weird things happened.” I said as we kept walking. “Maybe the werewolf had some kind of powers. The sky did get lighter when it disappeared.”

Christian gave me a shocked look then hung his head, looking absolutely worn out now.

“This is too much for me.” he muttered darkly as he leaned his head on a nearby tree, looking ready to vomit. Poor guy. I smiled weakly at him, thinking the same thing.

 

“Let’s just go. Our parents must be worried.” I said, remembering my dad and Christian’s parents. For all we know they could be calling the police thinking we’ve been kidnapped. (Well we almost did anyway.)

 

Soon, I finally saw the small fir tree at the side of the road and at the end, standing at the road with superbly worried looks on their faces were our parents.

And surprisingly, Skye was there too but he was closer to the path than our parents, looking ready to run into the forest.

“Where have you both been?!” Aunt Lily gasped as they all rushed to us. Aunt Lily quickly put her hands around her son, worried and looking as if she were gonna faint at any second.

Dad then placed his hands on my shoulders and started to inspect me for bruises and cuts. Yeah, whenever I’m late from going somewhere, he always thinks I got hurt.

“Are you alright?” he exclaimed, really thinking I got hurt. And something in me shuddered, thinking he had an idea of what really happened in the forest.

Suddenly, dad stared down at me, his eyes practically gleaming like one of those anime characters as he gripped my shoulders. As he stared, I shuddered, feeling my blood go cold.

“Did that boy touch you?” he asked in a low voice.

At that question, I felt my face pale as the cold sweat dripped down my forehead.

Oh my god. That’s what he thought and he asked so forwardly? I face palmed, shaking my head back and forth. With a light headed smile, I placed my hand on dad’s cheek, patting it.

“No dad. He didn’t.”

And besides, he’d never had the chance to thanks to the crazy monster running after our skins.

Dad blinked at me, skeptically staring at me before sighing.

“You two have been gone a long time.” Skye said, the worry still visible in his eyes as he walked closer to me and Christian.

“Actually,” Christian started as he glanced at me. At that simple look, I remembered our excuse. If you’re gonna say-“Just tell them about the werewolf!”

….hearing it like that, are you gonna believe us?

 It’s better to give an excuse rather than be mistaken for insane.

“Our horses ran off.” I finished. Once I said that, Aunt Lily gasped at me while Uncle Fred and dad stared at me, wide-eyed.

“Did you get hurt?” Uncle Fred asked glancing between me and Christian.

I shrugged my shoulders coolly. “We’re fine. They both got scared by a snake.” I explained, my voice not wavering even a bit, I started believing my own lie. “It was good we got off in time.” I smiled.

At that, they all sighed with relief with Uncle Fred chuckling and dad smiling proudly at me as if saying; “that’s my girl.”

“Well, thank goodness you’re both fine.” aunt Lily said. “But what about the horses? Will they be fine?” she asked. At that, I pulled my head up, pursing my lips as my eyes widened a bit.

 

As the adults turned their backs to us to head to the guides, I glanced at Christian, both of our eyes practically popping out of their sockets. If the guides found out, we’ll be in a jam. Just imagine: your horse torn into half while its blood is in a puddle. Oh, that’s just nice.

 

In a flash, Christian and I were standing in front of our parents, blocking them from the groups of guides just sitting on the benches.

“They’re fine.” Christian said with an assuring smile.

“Yeah.” I agreed. “We actually saw some other guides in the forest. And we already told them the horses had run off.”

“Oh. I see.” Aunt Lily said and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m sure they have this in control.” Uncle Fred smiled, placing his hand on aunt Lily’s shoulders before turning to the direction of the parking lot.

“Well, it’s getting late.” he said, checking his watch. “Should we go now?”

Dad hummed and nodded. “That’s a good idea. You kids must be tired now.”

Christian and I laughed, our voices sounding too weak. Even though that was easy, hell it was no fun.

“Yeah. The horses gave us quite the worry.” Christian said. Well, at least he knows how to lie. He must be thinking about the werewolf.

“The snakes were a bit scary too.”  I agreed, thinking about the two snakes named Lukas and Michael.

 

 

 

Once we got home and our parents had left us to go to the clubhouse nearby to have drinks with other friends, Christian unexpectedly came by our house, seemingly unable to stay by himself in the house.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked with surprise as I held the door open.

“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Skye asked from behind me as he lay on the bed under the stairs, playing with his DS again. I rolled my eyes at Skye. For the whole ride home, he regained his annoyance on Christian even when they seemed to be finally getting along.

Christian laughed weakly and rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish look on his face. I realized he’d changed his clothes. Now he was wearing loose pajama pants and a simple light blue, long sleeved sweater that was showing off his collar bones in a nice way.

“Um, you wanna hang out a bit?” he asked. I blinked at him. At first I wanted to decline and just get to sleep and drain out today’s nightmare but the look in Christian’s eyes just told me I had to hang out with him.

I’m not the only one who’s scared.

“Sure.” I agreed and left the house and Skye alone.

 

As we walked down the empty street next to our building, we both kicked on little stones, not knowing what to say to each other after what happened. I looked up at Christian and started to feel troubled about the guy pacing in front of me.

Before this night, he had this bright glow in him, and he was cheery. But now he looked spent and with every little rustle in the bushes or if the wind picked up, he would turn jumpy and anxious. Even in his eyes you could see he was still nervous till now.

On the other hand, I’m perfectly fine now. I mean, I’ve been having nightmares for a long time now and monsters and ghosts worse than that werewolf have popped into my head scaring the soul out of me. And I’ve grown to just shake off the things that creep me out.

After a few minutes of silence, we got to a fork in the road. One road was going straight and led to nice, modern houses and bright streetlights that were near the playground at the end.

And the other road was a steep slope downwards that led to older, scarier houses. Some even abandoned before my family bought the condo. There were few streetlights too and one part of the slope turned and led to the oldest building in the village. The one that was known to house a lady ghost.

Christian and I stood before the two roads, keeping ourselves under the shelter of the bright streetlight.

I took a look at Christian, seeing him staring down at the dark, scary road.

“Are you alright?” I finally asked, breaking the silence.

 

Christian scoffed at me, the mist coming out of his lips as he turned on his heel then turned back to me, his hands entwined over the nape of his neck. He bit his lower lip, troubled as he stared down at the pavement.

“Why are you?” he suddenly asked with a very puzzled and frustrated tone as he pulled his head up at me. I stared at his frustrated eyes and sighed.

Well, he might as well know. So I told him about my continuous nightmares. The things I’ve seen in school, and that Skye saw one of the scary things I’ve seen. After telling him, he blinked, obviously shocked about my life during the night.

When he didn’t say anything, I sighed, leaning on the cold post.

“Yeah, so I’m used to this stuff. But Lukas and Michael…” I trailed off, shaking my head in frustration. “I still can’t believe we saw them.”

“Wait, you know them?” he asked, slight disbelief in his voice. I blinked at him then felt the grimace pull up on my face.

“That dumbass Michael used to be…well, someone from my old school.” I replied sourly, recalling the stupid jerk’s face. In Christian’s eyes, I was probably seething with angry wisps of smoke over my head since he looked pretty intimidated.

With a quiet nod, the air went silent again.

“So,” Christian started. “The time in the music room…” he trailed off, recalling the time I jumped on him. (It wasn’t in the bad, perverted way okay!)

I nodded at him. He blinked at me, finally understanding my weird reaction at that time. With the silence, the road suddenly felt gloomy and dark.

“What about Skye?” he suddenly asked. “Is he having nightmares too?”

I blinked at his question and for some reason, one part of me kept me from telling him. I wanted to tell him the truth that, Skye and I had the same nightmare a day ago and that, maybe, just maybe. We’re going to start experiencing the same things. But, I just couldn’t tell him. It was as if my lips were being glued together.

 

As I opened my mouth, I suddenly shook my head without me wanting to, answering Christian’s question. He stared at me then nodded once, not saying anything.

I blinked at myself, pulling down my head and staring at the ground. Why didn’t I tell him?

Christian sighed. “Is this going to keep happening?” he asked in a low tone. I took a breath and weakly shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know.” I simply said, speaking my mind.

Lukas did give us a hint that we were seeing each other again, one way or another and thinking about that just made me worried again.

That just means that my summer is gonna go down the drain. Christian on the other hand must’ve forgotten about it. Or maybe he’s pressing the thought down. But I’m sure we’re both hoping we’ll never see another werewolf again.

Christian stared down the bright lit road, maybe hoping his summer would be like that-nice and comfy.

“Well, don’t think I’m getting any sleep tonight.” He laughed quietly as he turned to me. I smiled back at him, feeling a little tired. I then stood up, stretching my arms.

“Should we go back up now?” I asked, lightly shuddering at the cold breeze whipping past us. Christian nodded at me and we both headed back to our bright building, not saying another word to each other.

 

As we reached our house, we both stopped in front of Christian’s door.

Christian gave me a tired sigh then smiled at me, waving good bye as he opened the screen.

“Good night.” He said.

I smiled back at him and waved my hand “Night.” 

With a final smile, he went into his house, locking the screen door and heading up to their second floor, probably where his room was.

I blinked then saw Christian’s smiling face in my mind again saying; “Good night.”

For some reason, he seemed to say it sweeter. I found myself smiling and giggling like a little girl. Again, I don’t have a crush on him.

I’ll say I admire him but…well that’s how far it goes. People say that when you like someone you’ll feel this stabbing in your chest when they talk to some pretty girl. But when Christian talks to other girls I feel kinda happy for him. Like I was his mother seeing her child find his true love. Well, I guess being his friend is how I like it best.

“Control, you idiot.” my consciousness growled. But seriously though, how can a guy look prettier than you?

With a sigh, I went into our house, temporarily blinded by the lights Skye kept on as he raided the cabinets, taking out some Lays chips and then a can of Root beer from the fridge.

It’s annoying but no matter how much he eats my little brother doesn’t get fat. He just gets bulkier the way I see it. I’m a little bit like him too but, I still get chubby and end up not eating for the next 2 weeks just to get rid of the chips I ate.

I rolled my eyes at him, switching off some of the bright lights and making him turn to me, jumping as he rolled his eyes.

“Jeez, sis!” he exclaimed, his voice a little louder. I grinned at him then grabbed the can of root beer (It was mine anyway.) and headed to my room.

 

“How was the forest?” Skye suddenly asked, making me flinch. But I kept walking, keeping my cool as I went into our room, taking my DS to play some Pokémon myself.

“Well, the trees were big.” I said absentmindedly, trying to push the memory of the forest out of my head.

Skye made a weird, annoyed sound from the living room, something like a growl and hiss together. “That guy really is annoying. Did he tell you anything?!” Skye shouted as I came out of the room, glaring at him.

I sighed, getting a little annoyed with his over protectiveness. “No. and if he did, what would that be?” I asked.

 

Right when Skye was about to answer, I heard a loud thump! coming from the master’s bed room. Skye and I both froze and whipped our head to the sound.

I knit my brows and when it was silent again, I turned back to Skye, thinking it must’ve been from Christian. He was right next door and even though the walls are cement, it’s still possible to hear thumping sounds from the other house.

“What was that?” I asked, craning my head to see dad’s room.

“Probably Christian.” Skye guessed as he threw a chip on his mouth. “Probably tripped and hit his head.” he said, chuckling at his own evil thoughts.

I rolled my eyes at him and decided to investigate. Right then, from next door, I heard Christian yell.

“WAAH!”

I blinked. Did he really trip and hit his head?!

“Christian?!” I called and started towards the front door. But before I could, I heard two more THUMPS! But they were louder than the first one this time. 

Both Skye and I jumped and right then, gloom filled me when I felt my heart beat hard again. Now? really?! Just when I was getting in a good mood?

 

“Wait here.” I called to Skye as I headed to the door. But Skye, being the disobedient kid he was, just followed close behind. I ignored him then once I opened the door, I froze to see another Skye sitting right on front of the door.

Not only that, he was pressed to the railings, tied up with a gag in his mouth.

Once we made eye contact, my eyes grew wide as he muffled; “Mmmmffpmf!!”

 

I then turned to the Skye standing next to me. Skye number one stared at the tied up Skye, his eyes wide. He then glanced at me with wide eyes.

I suddenly felt my heart drum crazily. Instantly, I jumped the Skye next to me, making him fall to the hard, cold floor.

“Wah!” the Skye underneath me yelped as I locked his arms in a wrestling grip dad taught me. (By demonstrating with poor Skye of course.)

“Who are you?!” I yelled and pulled on the imposters arm, making him yelp.

“OW!! CYREEN I’M THE REAL ONE!” he yelled, glaring at me as he thrashed with frustration. I then glanced at the Skye tied up outside, seeing him flail around helplessly.

I blinked, feeling my heart waver a bit. But I blinked and tightened my grip on the Skye under me, making him yelp louder and smack the floor with his feet in pain.

“CYREEN!”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?!” I shouted.

 I’ve seen this situation many times in video games. You think you’re talking with your ally but then you get knocked out. And besides, after tonight’s craziness, you think I would fall for an imposter?

But heck, why didn’t I notice?!

The fake Skye under me still refused to changed into his real form. Right then, the Skye under me yelled something I never expected.

“AT THAT RESTAURANT, YOU ACCIDENTALLY ATE THE LENGUA DISH WITHOUT KNOWING, AND YOU PUKED RIGHT AT THE TABLE!”

[Lengua is ox tongue in white mushroom sauce by the way.]

Remembering that bit of queasy information,

I felt my face pale as my lips quivered, threatening to let go of my dinner. Ugh, that was the first tongue that ever entered my mouth and it was just gross. I knew something was wrong with that slice of beef.

Yeah, this Skye is real. Only he would know that since he had the best time laughing his head off at me.

Right then, I froze. Then slowly, both Skye and I turned to the tied up Skye outside.

Doppleganger?!

 

But instead of seeing another Skye, I flinched and felt my stomach churn as the two familiar guys stood outside. Lukas was sitting comfortably atop the railings, grinning at us in amusement while Michael pursed his lips, trying not to laugh at me. He must’ve heard that Lengua bit.

At that moment, Christian suddenly appeared from thin air, sitting on the bench next to our door. But he was tied up and gagged as he glared at Michael and Lukas yelling a muffled; “Mfmmmfphommmm!”

I don’t know what it was but I’m sure it wasn’t a hello.

So that was why my heart was drumming like crazy. The two crazies are here!

Lukas raised his palm and smiled, waving it at us. “Hello!”

At that, my eyes watered and before something gross happens in front of them, (or over Skye) I raced into the house, running to the bathroom.