Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 30

Exams were over and yet we were still instructed to attend class as this school seemed to have no concept of normal breaks between terms, almost everyone could only focus on the up coming New years eve ball. The gossip about me and Dimitri seemed to die down. Especially when Candice made the announcement that she and Roman were now officially an item.

No surprise there.

I was pretty glad to see Roman move on too. Deep down I always had a feeling that he had something for her. As for Carmen and I and our whole experience together, we managed to find two ways of dealing with what we saw. Eating lots of chocolate together and taking early morning runs together. She was even there cheering me on during my cross country sessions every second afternoon. Yes. I was still being forced to attend those and compete in the competitions that our team had been invited to. We actually managed to win a bronze medal for one of those competitions. That surprised Ms.Hatch too. Though she was pretty happy about it and proud of the team. All of this normality happening around me almost made me forget about the woods and what was drawing closer and closer. Every chance I got to spend with Dimitri, alone and uncomplicated, made me think twice about going into the secret room. I wanted normal. I wanted to dance the night away with Dimitri. Unfortunately I knew that normal was just not on the cards for me in this present moment of time. Maybe after I find out what the secret room holds then I would be able to put this all to rest and move on with my life. Or maybe it was going to be a change of a lifetime. Something I would never be able to just walk away from no matter what. Only time would tell I suppose.

As I stood there before the mirror in the corner of my room, staring at myself all done up in my dress with my hair straightened out and a touch of make up to match my dress to a certain amount of elegant degree, I wondered if this was really what I wanted. Would I be able to accept never knowing what the truth behind those woods were? Was that evenan option. Since Dimitri and I had started becoming close, it sure seemed like it nowadays. At the same time, it seemed a little too late to just drop things now.

"Are you ready to go?" Carmen asked as she stepped up from behind me. She was all dolled up with her hair hanging lose in long dark curls over her shoulders and across her back. She looked beautiful. We both did. I turned around to face Carmen. There was perfume floating around in the room as Carmen felt the need to spray herself at least a dozen times before preparing to really actually leave now.

"Are we making the right decision by doing this?" I asked.

Carmen was taken aback by my question. "You want to know the truth about the woods right?"

"I do. But there is no turning back after tonight." I replied.

"Good thing we got to keep moving forward then." Carmen gave me a smile and a single wink than. She knew what to say when I needed to hear it. I think I was almost ready to admit out in public that she was one of the best friends a girl such as myself could ever have asked for, even though, technically I never asked for her or any other friend for that matter. Carmen held out her hand to me. "Come on now. I don't want to be late." Carmen said rather persistently. I reached out and took her hand without an argument. She immediately pulled me towards the door and right out of the room.

I felt nervous. Extremely nervous. There were two reasons behind that. And I think one out weighed the other. Although I was nervous and even hesitant about sneaking into the secret room tonight, I believed I was more nervous about seeing Dimitri tonight all dressed up like this. I knew this wasn't a date, but it was pretty close to one and it could end up with a kiss if everything worked out alright. I took deep breaths as I was pulled down the steps by Carmen who knew exactly where the great hall was. There were a lot of stares along the way as we walked. It aided to the nerves that kept building within the pit of my stomach. Was I going to successfully pull off everything tonight? I could only try my best and hope so. We approached the great hall where the music and voices of those already inside were booming from. He stood there in his black tuxedo with a silver rim around the collar and silver cufflinks. I was pretty sure that Carmen had secretly told him the color of my dress in an attempt to have us color coordinated tonight. I wasn't going to frett about it now. He looked absolutely dashing and by far the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. His hair, slightly longer then what it was when I had first met him was combed back in a sleek look and he had a small white rose sitting in the front of his tuxedo pocket. He looked over at me almost as if he could sense I was there. Our eyes met and there was this instant static energy which came shooting across the floor between us. I didn't even feel Carmen release me or even notice that she was no longer at my side and heading off to go greet her date. Somewhere in the back of my mind the secret room kept jumping up and down like a crazy school kid in a candy store. I pushed the thought away and ordered it to settle down.