Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 34

I spent the rest of my night up in my bedroom reading through the book I had stolen after I had finished undressing, cleaning myself off and climbing into bed. When Carmen eventually returned to the room, it was after 3am and she was exhausted. Far too exhausted to still talk to me about the night. She just barely managed to undress before dropping into her bed and passing out. I knew in her own way she was trying to avoid all what we had discovered tonight. The woods was a secret portal to another world and both Roman and Ms. Hatch were no ordinary beings. They were not human and they definitely were dangerous. So I really could not blame her.

Between Carmen and I, we both promised to try our best to avoid both of them without attracting any unwanted attention to ourselves. We knew their secret and we did not want to end up like Candice even though she had only sustained minor injuries. Of course the truth of what happened to her had been totally covered up. Candice was accused of drinking alcohol which caused her delusional outburst, landing her in the infirmary after taking a bad fall in the bushes of the school's wild flower garden. The mere fact that Candice believed that entire story and even apologized and begged to not be suspended was shocking to me. Than again, the rest of the school believed that too. And why shouldn't they? They trusted their principal. The very same principal that was feeding them lies after lies. Eventually the gossip surrounding the New Years Eve party died down and we were all allowed to resume classes without being eyed out too much by our fellow pupils. Though there were still a few too many eyes on me now that the guys in the school had started to notice me a little more ever since they saw me in my silver dress and especially since they saw me leaving the great hall without Dimitri by my side. And as the days passed on and classes resumed as normal, I spent most of my free time, reading the book and discussing it all with Carmen when we were alone together. In some sort of strange way, I used the book as an excuse to avoid accidentally bumping into Dimitri. I didn't want to see him in case I ended up in tears. I was afraid of that happening to me. I really did not want to ever feel as weak as I did that night of the New Years Eve party. Me avoiding Dimitri was made easier when he skipped a few art classes and when the weekend finally came after our first week of classes, Carmen and I could not resist a trip to town.

"Are you really going to leave it just there?" Carmen asked as we walked side by side across a cobble stone side walk which had once been covered in snow, but with the seasons changing slowly, had given way to the actual stone itself. "Don't you think it is worth another shot?" Carmen asked. She was referring to whatever type of relationship I had with Dimitri. Although I was dead set against ever seeing Dimitri again if I could help it, Carmen did not quite share my sentiments on the matter.

She desperately hoped that Dimitri and I would somehow make up and get together. If only life were that simple. Anyway, he had not exactly made any effort to contact me either. One would swear he was avoiding me just as much as I were avoiding him.

"It is just not meant to be Carmen." I said firmly as I bit into the toffee apple we had purchased from a corner bakery in town. As much as what I wished that were not true, I knew I could not deny the truth. Just like the discovery we had made, I could not run away from it.

Carmen was not willing to follow one of her favorite songs and just let it go. "Well if you really believed that than I guess you would have returned his tuxedo jacket to him a long time already." Carmen said with a smirk on her face.

I rolled my eyes at her while trying to swallow my bite full of toffee apple and talk at the same time. "I'm going to do that today still!" I choked out. Carmen just laughed at me. Sometimes she could be so annoying which she clearly loved to be because she enjoyed teasing me quite a bit.

Suddenly the sound of a very familiar voice calling my name, interrupted Carmen and I. Immediately we stopped and looked backwards to find Anastasia hurrying up towards us. She had a large smile on her face as she waved her one hand ecstaticly to greet me. I sort of just stood there, absolutely dumbfounded. Anastasia is here? I thought she had gone home weeks ago. Carmen didn't have a cooking clue on who she was. The moment Anastasia reached us, she threw her arms around me and gave me a massive hug. I was caught off guard by her very happy and welcoming embrace. I just barely managed to hug her back. Carmen stood there with one eyebrow raised.