Starless Child

21. Bravery And Stupidity

Brave girl,

You were made for far more beautiful things. Chaos is only understood when it is loved by the wild, not the weak.

The bicycle wobbled so much over the rough tracks it was a miracle Lola hadn't plummeted face first into the ground yet.

"How can it possibly take you an hour to get to the woods? It took me fifteen minutes and I walked," Hera glared at the girl in from of her who was struggling to make her ride lean against a tree. She went ahead to help her.

"Sneaking out is an art. And all art requires time," Lola said. "And besides, have you seen yourself walk? You look like a deranged turkey running after a rat."

Lola is probably the last person she should've called for help. Okay maybe not the last. But the first thing she should've done was call Alice's mom. But she quickly dismissed that idea after realizing how insane it was.

Hey Mrs. Young, your daughter's found a new hobby which involves shoving her tongue down people's throats so deep, it kills them. Literally.

Yeah, no. Not a great plan.

The rain had stopped. But not before turning the earth into a massive bowl of nutella. Her boots sank a few inches into the mud every time she stepped into the soil.

"Shouldn't we call Cavum first?," Lola said.

"I went back to the church to find him. He's...gone."

"What do you mean gone?," she asked.

"The coffin, the door, everything, it all just went poof." Lola squeezed out the water dripping from her hair. "Don't ask me how that's possible."

The only person who knew what they were dealing with was gone.

It wasn't the first time in her life Hera had felt helpless.

But as she let the gravity of the situation sink into her heart she felt a cold spark slither up her spin.

"I should've brought my dad's gun," Lola said. Her dark eyes looked through the cracks in between the tree trunks, searching for a glimpse of a familiar blonde streak of hair. The rows of trees stood like solid pillars, their branches intertwined with each other like a massive web, becoming denser and denser until all the eye could see was pure darkness.

"We can't go back now. And besides we'd be in more trouble than we already are if you get caught," Hera said.

"I don't know if this is us being brave or just us being stupid and suicidal," Lola said.

"Bravery and stupidity are like chickens and eggs. You can't have one without the other," Hera said. "And besides, it wouldn't be the first time we've done something stupid and suicidal."

"Correction. It wouldn't be the first time you pulled us into doing something stupid and suicidal," Lola glared at her from the corner of her eye.

Hera's lips pulled upwards into a proud smirk.

She wished she could say she regretted doing them but she didn't.

The deeper they went the more crowded the trees became. Roots pierced through every inch of the soil, making it harder and harder to find a solid ground to step on. Hera's throat was soar from repeatedl

y screaming Alice's name for the past hour. The pain and fatigue shooting through her legs were so sharp it felt they her body was going to collapse any second.

From inside a dark hole in the bark of a leafless tree, two tangerine eyes were staring at her. At first sight it seemed like tree had come to life and the eyes belonged to the tree itself.

It was just an owl.

She let out a sigh and rubbed her eyes. The rush of adrenaline which flowed through her veins at the sight of the owl disappeared. The former fatigue returned, every bone in her body screaming at her, begging her to give in.

The owl was staring at them, unblinking. It's petrified eyes almost made it seem dead.

Something's wrong.

Stone cold eyes burned like fire, piercing and mesmerizing at the same time.

But they weren't looking at them.

It had been staring at something behind them.

The hairs at the back of her neck stood up. The faint sound of a strained animalistic breathe passed through her eardrums. The familiar sound shook every fiber in her body. The air became heavy with the scent of rotten flesh, stumping over the smell of the rain and moist earth.

"Hera?," she heard Lola whisper her name. Her voice was shaky, almost unrecognizable.

She slowly turned around, almost too afraid to set her eyes on the thing behind her. Flashes of the siren's face cluttered her mind, images that were engraved into her memory until her last breathe.

Her eyes went wide, her body felt numb as she laid eyes on the source of the familiar inhumane gushes of breathe.

Just a few moments ago, she had pictured the siren. She pictured it sucking out every inch of their souls, feeling their lives leaving their body, little by little, until their was nothing left of them. She pictured their lifeless bodies rotting away in the forest, where no one would ever find their remains.

She thought she had pictured the worst.

But she was wrong.

Things could always get worse.

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