CHAPTER 6

[10:05. Somewhere in the jungle]

"I told you not to send her out why didn't you listen!" Mrs Gray proclaimed to her husband while she snatched the book he was reading away. "Clara had been taken because of You!"

"What?" Mr Grayson removed his glasses. "What are you trying to tell me?" He asked.

"I am not joking, husband, a monster took Clara right in front of me" She replied.

"Don't Piss me off wife, you know monkeys don't bite and there are no bears at this part of the jungle. And as far as am concerned, monsters don't exist!" He argued.

"This matter is not up for debate. My only daughter maybe out there alone with that beast. And you are here telling me bullshit" Mrs Gray gazed outside the window. "I can't believe she was telling the truth all along and we didn't believe her." She added.

"She is not your daughter. She was just ADOPTED!!" He corrected her.

Guilt choke her when she remembers that pain in Clara's eyes while she was going out, it was as if she was waiting for her to say something but she did nothing, she stood there like a statue while Mr Grayson sacked her out.

"Clara is just trying to pull some prank on us and I am not falling for that." He had said when Clara screamed a moment ago. And despite the fact that she was out for almost an hour, her husband never thought of checking up on her.

The more Mrs Gray thought of it the more she wanted to pouch him in the groins.

*******

Clara had no option but to held on tightl to Benjamin as they run through the dense jungle together. They had been on the road for several minutes, The ground was uneven and Benjamin had to rely on his agility to carefully navigates through tangled vines, branches, and thick underbrush of the jungle.

Benjamin's pace soon slowed down, while he held the girl in his arms. Not gettng enough strength, he had decided to land Her on a grass field. Clara notice they had arrived at a clearing in the jungle. The ground beneath them was soft and it was covered with lush green vegetation.

Benjamin soon dropped her to the ground. Immediately he started questioning her. "Who are you"

As usual, Clara just stared back at him not understanding what he meant. " I am talking to you" Benjamin leaned closer into her face. Strangely he felt her heart beating, just like his.

'Humans have hearts?' He wondered.

Uncertain of what he just thought, Benjamin Reeds brought his hands to touch her chest area. 'This is soo soft' Confusion engulfed him as he continues to massage Clara's breast.

"Get your hands off my privates you pervert monster!" A sudden anger boiled in her as she dusted Benjamin Reeds hands away. How could a monster be this pervert? She looked at him feeling rather angry than scared. "Kill me already"

Benjamin Reeds instinctively drew back. He could hear and understand her words Right so it must mean she also understood him right? but why didn't she respond to him? Could it be that she could not understand him? Or she just didn't want to tell him what her name was. He wondered.

"Maybe she needs some space" He had thought, moving forward towards the edges of the field.

Hunger was forcing Benjamin to have that single bite on her. All he needed to do was to just bite her small on the neck and leave the rest to his fangs .

Looking at her he could not stop that strong force pulling him to feed. He had resisted himself for a while then but he had to clear his mind by walking. At least it would help but after he had finished with his question, he would suck off her juice.

Not knowing he was going a bit too far.

Angry and hurt, Clara buried her face on the ground raging mad after the beast had touched her. But when she raised her head, she came to noticed that the monster was leaving. Clara remained still while waiting for an opportunity for her flee. Time passed, and still the beast was still moving back and forth as if planning on doing something her.

Luckily, when she saw Benjamin went further into the bushes, Clara wasted no time. She quickly ran her way into the woods.

She screamed. However after noticing she had taken the same road the monster took.

She then stupidly ran into him. Clara's heart raced with the attempt of avoiding collision with him. In so doing she stumbled on a jagged rock, causing her to lose her balance. She closed her eyes as she welcomed the awaiting pain.

Then Nothing!

Two wide arms had caught her in mid air. Clara stood there eerily silent, while she kept on wagging herself inside Benjamin Reeds welcoming arms.

Confused. She could not tell whether the beast was about to eat her alive or not. If he wanted to eat her alive why did it border to save her?

His actions were uncertain and the animastic structure of his facial appearance made it even harder to predict his next move. She watches as the creature's hands form around her waist. Her heart trembling, she immediately flattered her eyes closed as if waiting for something to happen.

Benjamin held her close in his arms. ' I will eat her at least after she has answered my questions." He reassured himself. Trying to make peace with his burning stomach. Unlikely, he smelled some kind of fragrance coming from her bruised leg. As his gaze followed suit trying to detect the origin of this, he noticed red thick object oozing out at the tip of her toenail.

Benjamin's eyes quickly burned in admiration as the vapor of her blood raised directly into his nose. His eyes darted open. He spotted the veins on her neck as it carried pure blood into her whole system. He could not resist the urge anymore. "Just one bite won't hurt right?"

He spread his mouth open revealing his sharp teeth, Clara's heart raced as she realized she was about to die at any moment. It opened its mouth wider and wider as it brought her near its fangs.

Clara eyes widened in anticipation waiting for the feeling of death, She felt her neck close to Benjamin's fangs and immediately shut her eyes closed.

Thrust!!

Benjamin was about to bite her when an excruciating pain shot through the side of his ankle. Surprised, Reeds stopped in his tracks trying to figure out the cause of the sudden sensation, then the pain grew in intensity. He dropped Clara quickly before heading to the bushes.

He stopped at a place where the moon's direct rays befall so that he could see everything clearly. He bent over as he realized the cause of the sudden pain in his ankle. He spotted a dark looking creature with two by two large front pincers with a curved tail and a poisonous sting at the end,

stuck inside Benjamin's skin.

That sting, was unlike anything A sea creature like Benjamin had ever experienced before, a burning, throbbing, pain radiated up his ankle and throughout his entire leg.

Each breath he took seemed like he was in labor, and every movement within his muscles created sharp waves of pain through the affected area. The ankle became heavy and swollen.

The end of the scorpion's tail was still stuck inside his Ankle. Benjamin could feel his pulse pounding hard, he could see the scorpion scurrying away, disappearing into the underbrush with its tail missing. He tried to chase after it but every step and every movement made the pain worse.

"This is impossible"

Before he could finish with the sentence. His scales started to peel off his ankles. "What is happening?" He tried to remove the remaining piece of the tail but his fingers were too huge to grab it.

Immediately, His fingers started shaking, his blood boiled. Benjamin could feel his own blood trying to resist the venoms but that only made his pain escalated. His veins started coiling in reaction, Sweat drenched his face making all his sight blurry. He tried but it seems like he could not resist the immense pain surging through the vein. Then all of a sudden, his heart pumped at a very slow pace.

Every time his heart beat the pain would increase in two folds. It wasn't just any normal scorpion sting. This was different. And it seemed like the scorpion was sent by someone.

His limbs started shrinking causing immense pain through his muscles and the scales on his skin were vanishing slowly. His animastic face started to change shapes

It was real pain. Benjamin Reeds felt like forever. Involuntarily, he dashed out from the bushes with the last strength left in his body. His legs tried to carry him somewhere safe but unfortunately he legs felt like spaghetti making him fall with a thud.

Clara sat there relieved as she noticed that she was almost killed. But when she tried to get her head around it, she realized that the beast was far gone?

Happy and relieved at the same time Clara moved along hoping to find her way to the tent. The more she tried to walk further on the road, the more she was getting lost.

She had stopped running, when the moon hid behind the clouds again, the only thing she could see was her own fear as she anticipated that the beast could show up any minute. And she was supposed to find a way to get herself to the tent.

While she stood there memories of her and her family came back to her. For a moment she missed them. Unsure if the feeling she was having was genuine, she started to recover events that created hatred between her and her family.

However this was the first thing she recalled. It was a normal gathering in their school and of course her school was a high school, everyone was there because the mayor of the town- Mr Grayson was invited to that gathering. And as much as the event concerned people, they also made sure to come in their numbers. Their numbers summed up to over 1 thousand people excluding parents. Her dad was the last person to talk, during that occasion and because of that everyone was listening attentively. That day, they had their differences before school so she never expected anything else from her father. And that was her mistake. Her father invited her on stage, telling everybody that she snored in her sleep, using that as a joke.

"Why am I thinking of all these?" She wiped off the tears. She had been standing there deep in thought for several minutes knowing the moon was out again.

Wasting no time at all, she ran through the woods with her hands holding a staff for just in case purposes.

However when she reached close to their tent, a familiar sight caused her to stop.