That Dark Forest

Chapter 4

"Amazing. You made me unconscious and then talk about me trusting you."

"For your own safety." He replied with obvious patience in his voice.

"Right. I assumed so." She nodded.

Not wanting to spend another minute with him, she furiously put the coffee mug on the bedside table, threw the blanket away and got out of the bed.

He held her hand and she tried to leave the room and turned her around.

She spoke, "You said you won't stop me."

"What will you do about the dreams?"

"I'll figure that out."

"Meira please, let me help."

"Like you haven't done enough." She stormed out of his house while grabbing the keys to his car. Well of course she needed that, her own house was about seven miles away.

As she drove angrily, images of that dark forest and Mark's confused face when he saw her there flashed before her eyes.

By the time she reached her house, it was dawn. Her house was empty, parents lived in another country. The housekeeper should be home in a few hours. She almost ran up to her room and sat by the window, looking at the sky. Finally, she let the tears fall.

What was he? What was happening? What kind of dangers should she look out for? She wished that all of this was a terrible dream.

Amidst all the crying, somehow she fell asleep.

Around nine a.m she was woken up by the housekeeper- Brenda. Brenda called out, "Honey, aren't you late for college?"

Meira murmured in her sleep, "I'm not going today."

"What happened- are you sick?"

"Yeah I guess so. Might be coming down with something."

"Let me make you some soup."

"That'd be great Brenda."

Meira reluctantly woke up and brushed her teeth. As she came back into her room, she noticed a piece of paper stuck on her window.

The paper read-

I am sorry things had to be this way. I know it is unfair to ask you to trust me. The secrets cannot be said out loud. Everything that I speak, it's heard. Everything I do, it's watched. Your dreams mean only one thing and that is, it is up to me to keep you safe. As suffocated as you feel with the burnt wood smell, that smell is the only indication of my presence. For now I can only say that if you feel the burnt wood smell anywhere around you, just know that it's me and that you are safe. If you ever feel drawn to the dark forest again, just carry with you an iron object. An iron key or knife- anything with iron will do.

Anything with iron will do. She rushed to the store room in her house where all the hardware equipments were kept. Much to her own surprise, she found there an iron rod. It wasn't that big, about the size of her palm. Perhaps a few centimetres longer.

That's it, she realised.

Anything with iron will do. Basically, iron was his weakness. And of all the people of his kind. It felt so weird saying 'his kind'.

She no longer knew who he was. Or what he was capable of. Were there any obvious signs of his being a different...kind? Did she miss any obvious hints?

He ate normal, slept normal, spoke normal...everything about him had always been and felt perfectly normal.

Except for that one thing..she shivered as she finally remembered. That one thing.