These Dark Eyes

Chapter Two: 2

Evelyn did her best to shake it off, and turned Tempest back down the road.

However as the sun set, plunging them into darkness, her nerves only grew. It didn't help that Tempest's ears now remained pinned down as well, showing that his unease mirrored her own. No matter how she mentally made fun of herself for being spooked by a little dark, her hands began to tighten on the reins.

Eventually, she turned Tempest around, only to see the dense fog had swallowed up the trail. She squared her shoulders, trying her best to keep her mind from straying to fanged things in the dark.

However, it was then that Tempest heard something behind them, something that must have terrified the usually reliable horse. He bolted forward into the darkness, causing Evelyn to be hit by branch after branch as they flew by.

She cried out in surprise, but in her panic, her grip slipped, and a particularly large branch sent her tumbling off of Tempest's back.

For a moment she only lay there below the fronds of a large fern, as she tried to calm her pounding heart. She sat up slowly, grateful that the only pain she felt was the slight sting of a few scratches.

However her heart sank as she took in the situation. The road was no where in sight, and neither was Tempest.

She dusted herself off, shivering in the cool night air.

There came a soft rustle in the brush nearby, it sounded large. She let out a relieved breath, turning toward what she assumed would be Tempest.

"Hey buddy, it's alright" She called out soothingly. But in that moment, whatever it had been scuttled up into a tree, despite it's size.

Evelyn nearly screamed, stumbling back several steps.

At this point, she was starting to understand why Harlow had preferred to leave before sunset. However she took a deep breath. She had no other choice than to keep going, she'd just have to be braver. With any luck, Tempest would be smart enough to return home on his own.

As she began to walk again, she became aware of quiet footsteps somewhere behind her. At first, she thought that it was only her imagination, or the drip of water from the leaves of a plant onto the ground.

But the sound was so persistent, stopping whenever she did, as if trying to disguise itself by using the sound of her own, clumsy steps.

The further she went, the closer the sound became, until she finally stopped. A prickle went up her back as she stood there silently.

After several minutes, she breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing had attacked her, she was just being paranoid. Still, she turned to glance over her shoulder, just to make sure.

But at that moment, a gust of warm air blew across the back of her neck. It was unmistakable as anything but the breath of some kind of very large animal. Before she could react, or even fully process what had happened, she was thrown to the ground.

Whatever it was stepped up onto her back with one paw, claws sinking into her skin threateningly. From the corner of her eye, she could see a tail lashing back and forth like that of a cat. Except it couldn't be a cat, not with the spines rising up out of it's fur.

She quickly closed her eyes, preparing for whatever this... thing was to end her life. But as suddenly as it had come, the creature stepped off of her back with an anguished cry.

Evelyn took the opportunity and sprung to her feet, scrambling away until her back hit a tree. She was too spooked to get much further. Luckily, The creature -which she could now see did resemble a cat the size of a horse, with tall spines down the length of it's back- had been backed into a corner itself, as at some point a masked figure had appeared from the darkness, and was now forcing it back with a substance that looked a lot like a fine purple mist.

The moment the mist touched the creature's body, the creature shuddered, and crumpled to the ground. The stranger pulled down their hood, seeming to relax a little now that it had been dealt with. She was surprised to see messy black hair falling just to their shoulders. Could a human really have dealt with a creature like that? She didn't realize how intently she had been staring until the stranger turned, meeting her gaze with soft purple eyes.

"Who are you?" He asked, in a strangely accented voice, that same purple mist gathering around his fingertips from the air.

"No one" She answered a little too quickly. At the sight of that strange mist, she had begun to realize that though the monster appeared dead, she might not have been out of danger at all.

If anything, the stranger only seemed mildly annoyed by her presence, muttering something under his breath about tourists.

"Excuse me..?" She asked, staring at him again. She could see very little of him in the dark and foggy night, and what little she could have seen of his face, was hidden behind a mask.

"Don't worry about it. You won't remember this anyway." He murmured as he began to walk toward her. His words seemed like they were meant to calm her, but instead she panicked.

Her hand closed around a stick behind her, and she swung it quickly upward, managing to strike him in the side of the head with it.

However he barely seemed affected by the attempted attack, only slightly more annoyed than before.

"Relax, I'm trying to help you" he assured her. It was hard for Evelyn to believe him when he still wore that mask, and was still moving that purplish mist toward her, the same mist that had so easily killed that monster.

Before she could attack again though, he pulled the stick out of her hands. In the same motion, he brought one hand up to the side of her face.

She gasped as almost instantly, her body went limp. What was he doing to her? No matter how hard she tried to fight it, she could feel herself slipping under the influence of whatever it was.

As she finally faded into unconsciousness, those bright purple eyes were the last thing she saw.

"I will not," she whispered into the suffocating darkness that had clouded her vision, "forget."