How to Slay a Beast (Book 1)

Chapter 7

Violet

It had been three days since Del died. three days that didn't seem to end and instead going on forever and ever of days that I didn't want to live. Nobody seemed to want to leave me alone. like it would be bad for me or something. I wanted Merry with me, but the visiting days had to stay like normal and it was Friday night, and so it was her night with Matthew. I begged her not to leave the house. She said she wouldn't. She hadn't been to school all week but today she said she would go. I thought that was okay for her. And I needed to find Richard.

I drove up and down that road a dozen times. And I didn't find him. Eventually I stopped and got out and just started walking. I didn't know where to, but on the edge of the road, where I had first seen him.

"Violet," he was standing in the trees, wearing his red button up shirt, looking like he'd been wandering out there for days.

"How the hell did you know?" I asked, walking up to him. I hadn't realized I was this angry till now.  "How the hell did you know what happened to him?"

"What are you talking about?" he mumbled, quietly. His voice was hoarse as though he hadn't been talking for a while.

"He's dead---Del is dead—how did you know?" I asked, sobbing, hitting his chest.

"He is?" he asked, softly, "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry."

"How the hell did you know?" I asked, shaking him.

Richard

"Don't tell her I'm still running," Del said, standing behind his mother, staring at me with those eyes still filled with tears.

"I had a dream---a dream that something was happening," I said. I didn't know if it was a lie or not. It certainly felt as though something was happening. But nothing could have been happing at all. The world is strange like that.  It had happened once before, but that too seemed like a dream. I was staring at his body, yet he was still in front of me, talking.

"You need to get out."

"Please Trevor I'm scared," I had said.

"You need to get out, get out," he took my arms and I was filled with cold but my arms weren't my own and they were smashing the window, till the window was broken and my arms were bleeding. and then he was gone. And I never saw him or his body again. but that might not have happened. They told me that didn't happen and gave me medication for it. but I think it happened. And I think it's happening again.

"How could you---how could you know," Violet sobbed, collapsing into me, just sobbing. "He's dead. my baby is dead."

"I'm so so sorry," I said, squeezing her. "What---what did they say happened?"

"It got me," Del said.

"They said a bear---a bear attacked him," she said, shaking in my arms.

"A bear," I said, quietly.

"It wasn't a bear," Del said, "It was something else."

Merielle

I told them I was going to school. But I didn't. instead I rode my bike into town. I should have been afraid, going off by myself, after what happened to Del. But I wasn't. A strange force was pushing me on. Something strong that I didn't know was inside me before.

"You sure you need all this?" the clerk at the Walmart was staring at me, blankly. I had a camera, a bunch of rope, a few flashlights, and a pair of binoculars.

"Science project," I said, pouring the change from my hands onto the counter. I raided my piggy bank, and Del's. I figured it was for a good cause.