The Girl Within The Woman

Chapter 14: Ambivalence and Creepy Forests

Kito's POV:

Never have I ever hated travelling more than since I met Cyra, everything moved weirdly inside her body and me with it. Fortunately, it seemed everything would be coming to an end soon and I couldn't be happier about that.

Or rather, happiness was like a silly little mask I put on. I didn't dare admit to myself, the ambivalence I felt at the idea of soon separating from Cyra.

Of course, I was very happy to not be on the brink of death anymore. And to be normal sized again, outside of Cyra's body so we could finally put the whole cannibalistic debacle behind us.

God knows she got on nerves, but for some reason, maybe closed proximity was that reason, separating from her felt like a gut punch. I didn't quite know what to do with those feelings, I always had a hard time getting attached to people and here I was actually attached, yet I didn't know what to do about it.

I always prided myself as a person who was in touch with her emotions and could freely express them, albeit a lot of people from my village attributed that to impulsivity. But now, I felt stuck. It's not like I could remain inside her forever, that was weird.

I would have to go back to my village and leave her behind. Would it be weird to say that living inside her was homier than living back home?

To me, she felt like the family I never knew. We bickered a lot and I was a bit harsh to her, yet she felt safe to me. These feelings had me fucked up, so I just shoved them deep within to avoid thinking about them.

Because when I did, I couldn't quite put into words how I felt, it was after all a very unusual situation. I hadn't told her how I felt, because for the first time in my life, I feared rejection. What if she just thought of me as a parasite to get rid of ?

I looked out the portal, it seemed the spell was working. The state was too big to search with only three people.

Cyra came out with a brilliant idea for the first time, she, who usually was more of a fan of running stupidly around like a headless chicken. Maybe getting rid of me soon motivated her, I thought bitterly.

Lumière would summon for us the spirits of the families of Levi's victims. That would help us quickly locate him and what better motivation than revenge and justice.

Lumière seemed to be quite the powerful witch, I thought as I saw her call forth the spirits.

They intently looked at her as she explained the situation. I was worried whilst she had a commending presence, spirits drunk on revenge could fuck our plan up so bad.

Two day and nights passed before we had any sort of news. Like all things in life, it was good at first and then it was bad.

It seemed he was hiding in Woodstock; his love of small towns seemed to be eternal.

On the ride there, we started formulating a plan with the vengeful ghosts to trap him. He was too powerful to kill at once, and Cyra was growing weaker.

She was hiding her condition from the others, but I could see the effects of the tree growing in her. Her heart pumped slower, and it seemed she was having more and more trouble breathing.

We needed to be smart and careful. I prayed this would be the end of our troubles. Unfortunately, my wishes weren't heard.

Just as we pulled up to where Levi was supposed to be hiding, we heard a loud bang inside.

Cyra opened the door quickly in time to see Levi jumping into a portal. There were ghost guts everywhere; he seemed to have utterly annihilated the small party of vengeful ghosts that came for him.

Unfortunately for us, it meant he would never drop his guard down again.

We couldn't surprise him even if we wanted to know, I thought as Cyra, Lumière, and the rest of the ghosts jumped through the portal. This was our only chance, and no matter how much at a disadvantage we were, we had to seize it.

The ride through the portal is rough; that's how I knew we weren't going to a normal place. And boy was I right, because on the other side was the creepiest fucking forest I'd ever seen. You couldn't see more than 2 feet in front of you; the trees looked menacing, and there wasn't a single sign of life that could be seen or heard.