Carry on my wayward, son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest.
Don't you cry no more.
-Carry on My Wayward, Son by: Kansas
***
He was on the brink of ten when it happened. And, in that little mind of his, all he could remember were glowing eyes and snarling teeth.
***
"Don't go too far now, Gabriel!"
He only responded in kind with an irritated huff and a roll of his eyes. Nine and three quarters, like hell he wouldn't go too far.
His mother didn't need to know that, though.
***
He remembers pain. Aching, unbearable, pain. The sound of tearing flesh echoes through the night and he sees his own blood splash across the dry grass in splattered rusted red, and oh god. Oh god. I'm dying. It hurts so bad. Lost my arm, I'm going to die. Oh go, oh god.
***
Jess told him stories about the woods.
He isn't sure if he should believe her or not.
"A creature lives there." She hisses in his ear, brown eyes twinkling, "And when the full moon rises, it goes on a hunt. For it's mate."
"Mate," the word is foreign on his tongue as he carefully feels around it.
"Yes, a mate, Gabe. Someone to spend the rest of their existences with. Forever and ever."
Forever and ever makes him swallow thickly. "Forever and ever is a really long time, innit?"
She grins, top tooth missing as she licks chapped lips over and over. "Very. That's why our momma's tell us not to go into the woods. Creature's waiting to find it's forever and ever mate." her hands get all giddy, like they normally do when she's telling a tale, tongue running over her bottom lip again and again. "Are you gunna be it's forever and ever mate?"
The thought makes him queasy, but he doesn't speak out his newfound fear, instead snarls. "Like hell I am!" if his mother would've heard him then, a bar of soap would have promptly been stuffed in his mouth as she pulls out her wooden spoon.
"Never go in the woods then. You won't come back. Ever." she cackles, then, a high pitched squealing noise.
He hates it.
"I don't believe none of that shit." again, if his mother were here...his bum aches in response.
Her cackle stops, a thick blonde brow raised. "Is dat so? Alright, then, I gotta dare for you."
His back stiffens at that. "Alright. Let's hear it."
She grins again and the sight of it makes his skin crawl. "Full moon, tomorrowa night, you gotta go in the woods. To the very center."
***
He disappeared among the thick walls of trees, the dirt path narrow.
"Creature's gunna find a mate tonight."
***
((A/N: And another story!! Thanks goes to EncoreDeZiza! I have this written for a month now and she loved it so...I'm posting it to all of you!!
Hope you enjoyXD ))
YOU ARE READING
Lay Your Weary Head to Rest
Adventure"Why are you crying?" His ears twitched at the sound. Soft and innocent. Comforting. Two large paws fell away from his snout, a quiet whimpering following. "Don't cry."
