The Girl in the Forest

An Unblinking Death

"So you're telling me you're actually a witch stuck inside a body that's not yours?" Cami believed she'd gotten nearly everything explained to her over the couple of days she'd stayed with Maleny. Still, one had to be sure - there had been plenty of information to retain.

"Long story short, yeah," Maleny nodded. She sat on her bed, against the headboard, nervously watching her blonde cousin.

Cami had stayed for a couple days at the compound to help Maleny get through her murder attempts as well as to finally listen to the truth. After listening and listening she could finally comprehend all of Maleny's odd background.

"This is something you should mention at firsthand to family," Cami stopped her pacing to face Maleny, "Instead of letting arguments happen."

"I'm sorry," Maleny honestly said, "but at first I wasn't sure."

"That doesn't matter anymore, I guess," Cami took a moment to gather herself and think clearly, "Now we just need to find your original body and break this curse. How long do we have again?"

"I suppose until someone kills me," Maleny shrugged, preferring not to find out, "Or until I age and die."

"Well," Cami sat at the foot of the bed, "this is one hell of an opportunity to fix it. All spells have loopholes and the fact you remembered quicker than the last is a warning you need to get a move on," Cami was convinced the fact Maleny kept her original name in her current body and that she remembered far quicker of her last was some type of loophole the spell gave.

"I only have one real clue right now," Maleny admitted and quickly got Cami to listen, "Genevieve said someone named Emily Cordera was looking for Maya Sterling in 1919. What ever she needed, it's a possibility she got it."

Cami tried to recall the name of 'Maya' because she was sure she'd heard it somewhere in the past.

"The woman, Maya, she was no ordinary human...Klaus thought her to be dead," Marcel sighed, speaking to Cami sitting beside hi,, "I regained consciousness and just as I was about to leave...she gasped awake."

"She survived being hung like a prop?" Cami blinked with wide eyes, "But...but how...?"

"I have no bloody idea," Marcel honestly said, "But we got out and the more I pestered her on how she survived, the more she avoided me. I kept a close eye on her for the next couple days...but then she disappeared."

"Just like that?" Cami was now intrigued but even that wouldn't make her disbelieve in her cousin.

"I don't know..." Marcel replied in a way that let Cami know even he wasn't fully over the mystery.

Cami's eyes widened, "Oh my God, was Maya this ginger woman Klaus was with in 1919? Here, right? In the Quarter?"

"Yeah, why?" Maleny raised an eyebrow, confused as to how Cami knew all that without having been told.

Cami was reluctant to answer, nervously biting her nail, "Do you know how she died?"

"Klaus said she was killed by his father and set to hung like a play prop in the old theater."

Cami stared at Maleny for a minute in silence, understanding that not even Klaus knew what really happened to Maya. Maleny knew Cami was hiding something and another mystery she would not handle.

"What is it?" she asked the blonde.

"Um...Maya didn't, uh...didn't actually die at the theater," Cami slowly confessed.

Maleny now looked at Cami with narrowed eyes, "How would you know?"

"Because I had a witness tell me," Cami answered nervously, "Marcel."