CHAPTER 14

"WHAT DO YOU mean by bond?" Lucas asked Grace.

She went into a frantic read, skimming through all the scrolls.

"Grace?" Lucas called again. "What's wrong? What do you mean by bond?"

"That's what I am trying to find out," Grace snapped. Lucas kept quiet and sulked away. He walked to the window and looked out.

"How long do you think we've been here?" He asked Grace who did not reply to him.

"The rain is finally stopping," He said again. "And I think I see the beginning of sunrise."

"You should expect to hear the waking sounds of animals," Grace muttered. "But not these woods, there is no animal sound here."

Lucas cocked his head and listened. After a few seconds, he nodded and said, "You are right. There should be chirping of birds, right?"

"Yeah."

"What happened? Maybe the villagers killed all the animals for meat," Lucas suggested.

Grace snorted. "That's dumb." She said.

Lucas looked out the window again and his brows came together in a thick furrow. Grace noticed his changed demeanor and looked up from what she had been reading.

"What's that?" She asked.

He snapped like he had been sleeping and turned to look at her. "What? Oh, nothing." He looked back out the window at the spot that he had been staring at and shook his head slightly. "It's nothing." He muttered under his breath.

"Did you see something?" Grace asked.

Lucas walked away from the window and came to crouch beside her. "I did not see anything." He said. "Besides, it's still too dark for me to see anything. Just shadows and reflection of moonlight."

Grace looked at Lucas for a while. He was behaving strangely sane, Lucas was normally wild and daring, but now he is behaving calmly and collected, which was strange. But she simply shrugged and stood up. She stretched and yawned, feeling relief as the bones on her back popped.

"We should go," She said. "The rain has almost stopped now. George and Jeff would be worried about us."

"No!" Lucas snapped. "We can't leave!"

"What?" Grace turned sharply. "What is wrong, Lucas?"

He did not have the chance to answer because a dark shape with bloodshot eyes busted through the wall. The brick wall fell apart like it was made of old paper. Dust and stones filled the air.

"What the –" Lucas yelled. He pulled Grace behind him, shielding her with his body.

When the dust settled, Grace and Lucas saw they were standing face to face with something from their darkest nightmares.

If it is the same creature that they had read in the scrolls a few hours ago, then the artist made a very bad diagram and description.

It was shaped like a wolf, but even when it stood on its four legs, it was taller than an average man. Its black fur was matted down by the rain, but it shone and rippled, but it was splotched with parts of dust and sand.

The flickering candle made its shadow look bigger than life and contorted its face to look even more hideous. Two beady, bloodshot eyes shone red, in its face. And its snout and mouth glistened with saliva.

Its intentions were very obvious.

It saw a well-balanced meal in Grace and Lucas.

"Grace!" Lucas called. "Is this a figment of my imagination??"

"Noo!" Grace shrieked.

The creature bared its teeth at Lucas. Its fangs were the size of his middle finger, suddenly, it opened its mouth and roared. The force knocked Lucas and Grace off their feet and they tumbled to the far wall.

It tracked their movement slowly, its claws clicked against the floor as it walked forward. It was as if it knew that there was nothing the children could do against it, so it wanted to fake its time in killing and eating them.

Lucas's head hit the leg of a cupboard and it came smashing down. That stalled the monster as it took a step back.

Grace screamed and shook Lucas until he mumbled something inaudible and woke up. Grace grabbed the lit candle and waved it in the face of the monster. She noticed that its head followed the movement of her hand and it approached warily.

"What are you doing?" Lucas mumbled beside her. He coughed and touched his head. His fingers came in contact with a wet substance. Blood.

"It's scared of the fire," Grace said. "Quick, torch the scrolls,"

"You want to burn the scrolls?" Lucas asked but he was already putting an end of the paper to the candle.

Grace did as he did and together, they threw the lit burning paper at the creature. It skipped back to avoid the burning paper.

"It IS scared of the fire," Lucas cheered. Using his two hands, he lit two papers and chucked them at the monster who snarled but scampered back again.

Lucas was getting very confident, seeing that they had found a good weapon. He advanced faster than the monster retreated, throwing flaming paper scrolls at its feet. Then he got too close and the monster lashed out angrily at Lucas, knocking him backward. It snarled and then burst through the wall again and ran away into the forest.

Lucas laughed in victory and yelled. He stood up quickly and turned to Grace. "We scared it off!" He cheered.

"L-Lucas…" Grace whimpered.

"Don't worry about it, Grace," Lucas said. "It's gone for good."

"Lucas… your shirt," Grace said.

Lucas looked at his chest and saw that his shirt was hanging open. And there were 3 deep gashes across his chest, and it was bleeding furiously. "Oh shit… that fucker got me good," Lucas said, and then his legs went wobbly and he collapsed.

~ ~ ~

TRISTEN SLOWLY RETREATED. "Uh… we should get going. Come on, girls…" He said.

But Sophie was already walking forward. "Hello guys," She said approaching the people on the wood.

"Sophie!" Tristen snarled. Sophie stopped and turned. "What?" She snapped.

"Get back here…" Tristen said. "We should get going." He gave a dry laugh to the people and added, "Our mates are probably looking for us."

"Oh, that's true," Sophie said and hurried back to Tristen and Emma.

"Well, catch you later guys," Sophie said.

Tristen and Emma both waved blankly at the people who had not moved an inch, their dead eyes were simply focused on the three of them.

"Take a slow step backward," Tristen muttered. In unison, they took a step backward and turned around.

They turned around and stared directly into the eyes of one of the women who had been sitting on the log of wood just a few seconds ago.

The eyes of the woman were dark, hollow, and sunken. And it seemed to widen to suck in Tristen, Emma, and Sophie. They gasped once in shock before they slumped and fell to the floor in a heavy heap.

The people stood up from their logs of wood and moved in ethereal silence. On closer inspection, one would notice that their feet did not touch the ground. Their hollow eyes cast haunting gazes on the still bodies of the humans on the floor.

There were tiny sounds of whispers in the air as they moved and surrounded Tristen, Emma, and Sophie.

Jacob Baskins, the child who had brought them here was fascinated. He crouched next to Sophie's face and attempted to poke it with a finger, but stopped. He stood up and looked at the sky, his other members followed his gaze and stared at the sky.

The early morning sun was just starting to rise. They would have to go soon before the sun broke through the clouds.

But for now, they turned with renewed interest to these humans that had wandered into their midst.