Into the woods I P U B L I S H E D

23.

„The truth hurts more when you are in love."

- Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose mother always told her bedtime stories before she went to sleep. Stories about big, black, red-eyed beasts walking at night, destroying villages and killing people just to find their lover. Soulmates.

Lovers who would be bound to them until death separated them apart. Now thinking about that as I drove back home, made me think that all of those stories, not only my mom told me but also the people who were around me, were actually true. Every single story was true.

The stories about beasts, about the Nightclaws, and about Henry. All of them were true.

I still couldn't believe that I was so stupid to see the facts that were standing in front of my eyes. The bite, my neck, the eyes, and the stories.

My eyes were focused on the road next to me. Even if I tried to think about something else, something happy, my mind still found a way to think about the things I had found out tonight and what I had witnessed.

The man screamed in pain as Henry and Tyler bit the man all over his body. I wondered how people didn't hear his screams, or maybe, they just didn't care if somebody was fighting for own life. Both of them stopped biting him when the man stopped screaming.

Their snouts were covered in blood, and from their teeth, drops of the man's blood were dripping down at the street. The man was lying dead on the wall, his body visible to the stars and God. Tomorrow he would be in every newspaper if they find his body.

My eyes were full of tears as I focused on the lying corpse. I couldn't believe that everything was true. Every rumor about this family true. I wondered what will happen to me now after this.

Will he tell me?

What will he do to me?

Will he kill me just like he killed that man? I shook my head. I didn't want to think about that right now.

The only thing I wanted right now was to get home alive.

Tyler's ears got up as he turned his head to the right, and I immediately moved behind the wall, hoping that he didn't see me.

After a while of standing there in complete silence, I convinced myself to look if they were still there, but when I looked around the corner, they were already gone. There was not a single trace of them except the dead man.

„Thank you for picking me up, Louis," Turning around, I saw Louis smiling at me, so I smiled back at him. I didn't have much of a chance to talk to him lately. After all, he worked for the Nightclaws and wasn't really at home. That made me question myself if he knew the truth about them, or the only ones who knew were the inner family circle.

„It's nothing, Elizabeth," He focused on the road again. „Why didn't Henry pick you up?"

„He had something to do with Tyler, so I didn't want to bother them," I tried to stay as calm as possible. I didn't want to show him that something wasn't right. If he knew that I was even there, there was a possibility that he would go tell Henry, and I didn't want that.

„Did he mentioned what he had to do?" A driver turned his light brighter and Louis swore when the light hit his eyes.

I shook my head. „No," Looking out of the window again, I stared at the stars above us. „Did he tell you?" I could feel his eyes on me but I didn't want to turn around, so I stayed focused on the stars above me, trying not to cry in front of him.