Forlot - Books 1-3 {Completed}

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"The Creature From Beyond?" I repeated. From that moment, it all came back to me.
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"We need to find that monster," I heard. It sounded like a man's voice.

"You mean the Beast," I overheard. Another male voice. "The Creature From Beyond."

"Someone needs to go to Forlot and at least get a picture of it. This station would be rich."
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Then I remembered what Katrina told me and Hansel.
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"First of all, the eyes belong to the creature. Second of all..." She paused, and then continued. "...I was the one who took the picture."
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The connection made sense. At the same time though, it did not.

Was Lena talking about the creature that the two men were discussing about back at the news station? She had to be. The monster had the same title.

Did this "Creature From Beyond" have anything to do with the creature that Hansel and I encountered earlier?

Did Aunt Katrina take the photo of "The House with the Eyes" because she wanted to show it off to the people who work at the news station? Did she need the money? Or did she desire to be famous?

No. That did not sound like her.

And while I am at it, was she the one who took those other photos? The pictures that were in the file? And did she make a copy of "The House with the Eyes" photo? Was that the reason that there were two of them?

That were identical?

All of these thoughts and questions swirled around in my mind. My head was now aching from all the thinking.

"You must be confused. Lost," Lena stated. It was as if she could read my every thought. "I would be happy to answer any questions that either of you may have." Her smile reappeared as she locked her eyes on me and my twin brother. "That is, if you have any."

I was surprised by her offer. Hansel was too.

Could we trust this lady? We barely knew her. But she seemed like a nice person. And she did say that she was a close friend to our aunt.

Well, anybody who is a friend of Katrina's is a friend of mine.

"Sure," I answered. "Thank you. My brother and I have lots of questions." I eyed where my twin was. "Right?"

Hansel placed a hand on the wall. He leaned against the wall and squinted at Lena. I could tell that he thought that she was suspicious.

"All of our questions?" he questioned. "What makes you think that you would know the answers?"

She giggled and grinned. "Try me. I know Forlot from the bottom of my heart. I know every event that has happened here." She pointed at the floor. "Please. Sit and ask me your first question."

I sat on the hard floor and wrapped my arms around my legs. My brother pressed his back against the wall and let out a yawn.

"Someone is tired," I stated, hearing him yawn.

"Not tired," he snapped. "Just bored."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever." I glanced up at the woman and thought about what question to ask first. I had so many questions. Hundreds. Millions. Billions!

Okay. Maybe not that many.

"Has your aunt told you anything?" Lena said. "About the Creature From Beyond? 'Cause we can start the conversation with that."

"Hmm." I glanced over at our unconscious aunt. Her eyes were shut. Her chest and stomach went up and down. I let out a sigh of relief. She was not breathing when she collapsed.

"I believe that she mentioned something about it," Hansel said.

The lady was intrigued. "Really? What was it?"

"I mentioned the creature to my sister. That was when Aunt Katrina said it. She said that she hoped that my sister and I saw it."

"The creature?"

"Yes."

"What else? Do you remember?"

I pulled out the photo from my pocket and showed it to her. "'The picture. 'The House with the Eyes.' That is what I call this picture," I told her. "Our aunt had a photo that is identical to the one that I am holding."

Lena leaned forward and examined the photo.

"Yeah!" Hansel backed me up. "And she even said that she took the picture!"

"Ah." Lena leaned back and turned to Katrina. She then turned back to us. "So I see."

I blew a strand of hair away from my face. "There are other pictures."

She blinked five times. "Pardon me?"

"Yes. There are more pictures in a file. The file was given to me by a friend."

"...might I ask where the file is?"

I sighed heavily. "I...I left it."

"Where?"

"In...in the wooden house. Where a creature is."

Her eyes widened. She stood up and walked to the other side of the room. Where the door was. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

"You have seen it too," she spoke, breaking the silence that filled the room. "You have seen the Creature From Beyond." She narrowed her eyebrows. "Do you know what you guys must do now?"

We shrugged.

"No. What?" Hansel asked.

"You need to go to that house and bring back that file."