𝘭 𝘶 𝘤 𝘢

𝐭 𝐰 𝐨

1200 BC - ITALY

Luca could feel the red eyes watching him, making sweat run down his neck. Gulping nervously, he didn't turn around, afraid that if he moved, the monster would pounce on him. As calmly as possible, the young man walked towards Anastasia's house, on the other side of the village. Luca tried to breathe slowly, believing that if he made himself smaller, the monster wouldn't attack him. He did not have much hope about that. 

Knocking on Anastasia's door, Luca jumped in fright when it opened immediately. The old woman was holding a candlestick in her hands. 

"He's here, isn't he?" She whispered, looking around in the darkness before grabbing Luca's arm and tugging him inside her house. Startled, the young man stumbled into the room. He watched as Anastasia put out the fire, walking around the house and making sure there was no lights coming out of it.

"Ana - calm down, who is here?" Luca stopped the pacing woman, holding her shoulders between his hands. 

"Him. I know he followed you. I can feel his presence," Anastasia stopped for a second, listening carefully, as if she was sensing something Luca couldn't. "His name is Amos," She whispered, jumping a little when the wind slammed on the house harshly. 

"Who is he?" Luca had never heard that name before. He was sure that man was not someone from the village. The elder looked around anxiously one last time before leading Luca to the small table. They sat in front of each other, only enlightened by the moon. 

"He is a red eyed monster. The same one as the stories," Luca sucked a breath in. Anastasia knew how much those stories scared the brown-haired boy. 

"How do you know him? And how do you know it is him?" He asked in a small voice, fiddling with his fingers as he glanced outside nervously.

"It's not the first time Amos visit our village. When I was around your age, a strange but gorgeous young man came around, claiming he was looking for someone. Everyone was gushing around him, thinking he was so kind and so beautiful, they didn't care he had bright red eyes. They were not suspicious about the newcomer. I was the only one thinking he was an odd one. First with his red eyes. The stories you heard about, they were already going around at that time, but not as much. When people around the village started to die suddenly, with strange bite marks, I was the only on thinking it was Amos. I didn't tell anyone, I was afraid he might hurt me.

But even if I made it pretty obvious I was wary of Amos, he seemed to like me. When I was walking around the village, he always had a pretext to talk to me. He was always around and I felt like he watched my every move. I talked to my parents about my strange feeling about Amos, but they were amazed by him too. I had nobody. And one day, Amos cornered me.

"Hello, Miss Anastasia," He greeted me, with a cocky smile and a kiss on my hand.