"what are you doing in the forests?" she demanded, raising her spear to my throat.
"I got separated from my group." I stayed calm, remembering the training. "I mean no harm."
"Is that what they tell you to say? So we wont kill you?" There was a hint of challenge in her voice, an eyebrow raised on her face.
"To be blunt, yes, but it's the truth. I did get separated. If you lower the spear, I'll just go back to my group and we can forget this ever happened." I brushed my hand over the gun in my waistband, giving me a sense of security. Her almond eyes shot to my hands, her expression darkening.
"So you can tell them about me? Not happening. If you plan on using that you better make it quick because I will kill you." She was still challenging me, a ghost of a smirk on her lips.
"Actually," I pulled it from its slot and threw it away from me. "I figured you feel safer if I didn't have it. Now can you lower the spear?" She looked at me shocked, clearly not expecting that. Perfect, just what I wanted.
"Sit."
Khatay had spent his life locked away in the city, afraid to leave the walls because of one reason, the Kasal; the dangerous inhabitants of the forest. That is until the day he is separated from hiss group and walks in on one of them. He quickly realises that things aren't always what they seem.
Elliot's partner was his whole world, but after Allan's death, his ghost haunts Elliot's dreams. Everyone tells Elliot to move on, but he isn't sure he can.
*****
It's been a year since the love of Elliot's life, Allan, passed away. Everyone thinks he should have recovered after that much time, but Allan still haunts Elliot every night. He struggles to maintain relationships with his family, and despite a coworkers interest he can't summon up the courage to date. Elliot is living for the past, because to live for the present means he'll have to live with a hole in his heart. But the question Elliot has to face chases him through his monotonous days: is mourning Allan with everything he has truly living?
[[word count: 40,000-50,000 words]]