• Absolute •

][ XXXII ][

*Sorry for this late update guys! I was out of town and barely had Internet (I know, I know but meh) :)*

This chapter is a bit long (I hope you guys like that?) :D

++++++++++

We walked through the dark forest for what felt like years. It probably took us only an hour to find the clearing in the middle of nowhere, but when we did, our feet hurt and our breathing was short and shallow.

"Well this is just fantastic. He probably wants to lure us out here so he could snap our necks. . ." I muttered while I looked around the moonlit meadow from where I stood beside Ezra, at the edge of the trees. I could him peering into the shadows as well, looking for the same thing that I was: Lorin - or movements in the darkness that told us Lorin was near by.

I stopped grazing my eyes over the open meadow because I knew that my eyes - as blind as I already was - were pretty useless in this lighting. Instead, I bent down and searched for a loose stick that I could use as a baseball bat if that creep decided to sneak up on us.

My fingers had just brushed a thick branch that had fallen when I heard Ezra inhale sharply. From where I crouched near his feet, I could see that his whole body had gone rigid, standing as still and tense as a threatened animal.

"What?" I whispered. "Ezra?"

"It's. . ." Ezra trailed off. He was at a loss for words and that shocked me because even though Ezra barely spoke, when he did he always knew what to say. And right now, he didn't.

"Ezra. . .what is it? You're scaring me." I was still crouched on the ground, staying as frozen as I could for the fear that if I moved, Lorin - or whatever it was that had Ezra speechless - would attack without warning.

"Well. . .its. . ." Ezra whispered in a tone that told me he was shaken. "Big."

"Should I stand up so we can run?" I whispered back. I then heard something snap, a twig, a bone who knows with Ezra and a 'big' thing around.

"No - no. If you do that, we'll both be dead in seconds." Ezra replied as he breathed out slowly.

"What is it?" I asked again. I was too curious and I didn't like being in the dark - with anything.

"A. . .bear." I heard Ezra breath. I immediately stopped the fidgeting I was doing and stopped breathing as well. "And it's right in front of me." With that, I heard a shuffle, a grunt and then I felt heavy, hot breathing on my back. I whimpered quietly as tears began to form in my eyes. I had never seen a bear in real life, and whenever I did see a bear - on TV - it was always about an attack. Was this how I would die? A bear? Was I more terrified of the bear than the fallen angel beside me - or the crazy nephilim trying to kill me - because it was humongous and had too many teeth? Or was it because I didn't know if it wanted to kill me - and that it could at any moment - with its non-existing facial expressions?

With Lorin, I could tell what he was feelings from his expressions - and even though Ezra's were buried somewhere, I could at least see what he might be thinking by his eyes. With a bear? I wouldn't be able to see its attack until it was attacking me.

"Wh - what do we do?" I stuttered out.

"Kill it." Ezra's voice replied in a blank tone, devoid of any emotion. "We just have to wait. . .until the right. . .moment."

"This is - this is so stupid and crazy. . ." I breathed, sweat trickling down my neck and temples despite the cold weather. "We're trying to kill a - a damn grizzly bear while our real. . .enemy roams around - probably watching us right now and laughing like the maniac he is!"