WinterFall: Once upon a ghoul

2. IN THE WOODS

"Henry! Wake up!" cried Jack's voice. "Please."

Henry didn't move. Something had attacked him, while Jack was collecting firewood. He remembered being thrown off his legs, to find a pale face with red eyes staring at him. It had whispered in a cold, hoarse voice, "You are mine now."

He felt awake now. Yet he couldn't move or speak. It was as if he was binded together.

Something felt odd. He didn't feel like himself. He told himself that it was because he was traumatized by the monster that had been staring at him a while ago, and brushed it off. But it didn't end there. He felt the sudden urge to scream, but he couldn't. He was shivering all over and his blood seemed to have run cold.

A while later Jack dragged him to the half-completed shelter that they had started to build earlier. Henry noticed that Jack's face was filled with emotions. He looked like he would cry any minute, and Henry could see concern in his face. Henry noticed a part of Jack's ankle was scratched and was smeared with blood. Immediately he felt his body bind lift. He called for his friend.

"Jack! Jack!"

"Oh thank god you are awake! Are you okay?"

"I hope so! What about you?"

"Not so bad!"

Panic faded away and relief flooded Jack's face. He turned and resumed to build the shelter. Then, his ankle caught in Henry's eye. He turns to see Henry's eyes turn from blue to red and finds him licking his lips with a smirk.

"Y-y-you're n-not H-Henry" stammered Jack.

"Of course I'm not" spoke a cold voice and sprang at jack. He picked up a piece of wood from the shelter and threw it at "Henry". It caught him right in the eye. Jack started tearing apart the shelter and collected a few sticks in his hands. He threw the sticks at "Henry" while he was being chased by him. Jack hit a rock and landed on the ground. He turned, breathing hard, to find "Henry" about to pounce at him.

"Henry, please..." Jack begged with tears in his eyes.

The red in Henry's eyes faltered, but he shook his head to maintain it. Henry pounced, aiming for Jack's neck, but was thrown off by a big blow to the head. Jack had hit him with a log that was lying beside him. He stood up, ready to defend himself. He looked over at Henry who was propped up under a tree. He was clenching his teeth, his red pupils full of rage, and was sweating all over. He was struggling. But Jack did not dare take one step towards him. Then, Jack saw some kind of a blurry figure float away from Henry's body. Just then Henry gave Jack a look with his ocean blue eyes and fell sideways. Jack dropped the log and rushed beside Henry. He patted him a couple of times on the cheek.

"Henry, Henry! Please wake up!" cried Jack.

Henry slowly opened his eyes to reveal his bright blue pupils. Jack let out a sigh of relief.

"You're not going to try to kill me again, are you?" asked Jack.

"What are you talking about?" asked Henry, confused.

Jack narrated the whole incident to him.

"What is happening to me?" cried Henry.

"Don't worry, I think whatever was inside you, has gone as the blurry figure."

"I hope so too" said Henry desperately.

"Thank goodness you're back! Come, I cannot spend any more time in this dreadful place! Let's go home!"

"Yeah! Let's go"

As they both headed towards the little cottage near the forest, Henry's eyes glowed red again.