Foraine ( Eng)

Chapter 7 : quidquid latet apparebit

Frightened and nauseous, I had avoided Leaf all night. Lost and scared , I went knocking on Carol's door who invited me in without a word, without a question. I curled up and shivered in the sheets still warm before sinking into a stunned-like sleep.

My feet don't carry me, they dance, they dance without me and I turn, turn, turn in the middle of these terrifying animal faces. The music creaks in my ears and people laugh as the drums rattle and rattle past the detuned violins. She grabbed my hand with a broken crystal laugh and suddenly I did not dance anymore.

- Come, come instead of fooling around like a mad dog, she said.

She dragged me behind her, her pretty white dress slitting the waves of the crowd that stared at me, venomous. The air had thickened and the man with the cigar was laughing somewhere, far away. The heavy perfume of the beautiful stranger and the little white hand in mine. My head is spinning, I want to cry, I want to run away, I shouldn't stay there, I can't stay there. She raises her hand to her white and smooth mask while undoing the knot that holds it. I have to leave, I have to leave, I have to ...

The gaps that came out of my throat resembles that of a wounded animal as I regained consciousness on the steps of a caravan that I didn't recognize right away. It took me a few moments to realize that it is Mr.X's and the terror that roared in my head almost made me collapse, legs broken, knees sawed. The pain that compressed my chest was so sharp that I knew I had to talk about it or lose my mind. On the brink of madness, I knocked on Elaine's door, hair stuck to my forehead with sweat, teeth chattering, eyes rolling in my sockets. She grabbed my hand and let me in before throwing a blanket over my shoulders and wrapping my bare feet in a woolen sweater.

- If you chase after the death Snow, you'll end up finding her, she said in a reproachful voice while pouring me a glass of amber alcohol.

"I think she's the one who's after me," I answered in a hoarse voice.

She kept silent for long minutes, looking serious, waiting for my hands to stop shaking.

"Tell me," she demanded, peremptorily, while serving me another glass, which I swallowed in one gulp.

In a broken voice I told her about the discovery of the body, the threats, the fear, the dream. As my voice went high pitch, explaining how much I feared he would go after Leaf now that I had broken my promise, Elaine put a firm hand on my flailing arm and said:

- What's been said here is stays here.

- For .. for .. the body .. we have to do something. It's a child, I strangled feeling the bile raising up along my trachea.

- And what ? Go to the police, yo tout cé cochons? What do you think will happen to the camp if we report another child murder?

I lowered my head and started to cry.

- I can't .. I can't anymore. I'm so scared.

- For Nathaniel let me take care of this.

- How? He'll hurt you, then he'll go after Leaf.

Elaine sat down before pouring herself a drink and said:

- I know him better than you think. Better than I'd like to.

I raised my head abruptly, taken aback. Elaine turned the bourbon in her glass before taking a long sip.

"When he arrived in my village, he said he was an explorer," she began.

Then she pouted in contempt.

- The only thing he wanted to explore was the exotic koukounes. He was beautiful, yes but arrogant as the zoreils are. Always sure of their right, always sure that everything belongs to them.