I woke up the next day with slight bruising on my ankle, but the swelling had gone down quite well, although I was still slightly limping. Brea was at my house at 9 am that morning with a bright smile on her face that turned to a frown after she saw my limp after a lengthy scolding for not mentioning I was hurt and a disappointed look since I wouldn't be joining her in her endeavors she left promising to come back later to check up on me, she also briefly mentioned that lunch with her father was not all so bad since they barely quarreled only a few spiteful remarks but generally it was the most normal meeting they had had for a while and to that my heart eased, she also didn't have that irritable look she usually did after meeting with her dad which proved how moderately well it had gone
I didn't mention what I saw last night, mostly because I was afraid she wouldn't believe me, but partly because I wasn't even sure I believed it myself.
I chose to spend the day at home and start on a series I had been putting off for a while, but it wasn't long before my mind drifted to Anson and his brother; they seemed to be looking for something, and whatever it was, was dangerous. His brother had mentioned that if they didn't find it, it would continue killing, meaning it had already killed someone, and the thought sent a chill up my spine. Whatever that thing was, I had an inkling it was not from this world, just as they possibly weren't
Graven, they had also mentioned the town to the north of ours, connected by the Mystic forest, which was where this thing was, since his brother was heading there, but if it was there, why did they come here first? Could it be that it was initially here but, for some reason, decided to leave? I took in a sharp breath at that, the possibility of bumping into it or any of my loved ones falling prey to it made a migraine form
Wait, I once got a news alert that there was a weird rise of missing people in Laydel. Could it be associated with that thing? If that was the case, why wasn't he heading there? The more I thought about the whole thing, the more questions I had, and what surprised me even more was how well I was taking in this whole thing; perhaps I had indeed gone mad
The doorbell rang, but I didn't bother to leave my room since Fridah was around. After a few seconds, I heard footsteps approaching my door, then a slight knock
"Come in."
"Excuse me, mi.. Lyla" Fridah started almost slipping, it had taken a long time to convince her to stop calling me miss, "someone is looking for you."
"Who is it?"
"He says his name is Anson, he's your friend."
My heart skipped when I heard the name. What was he doing here? Did he know I followed him, that I was at his house spying on him on them, that I had heard what they said and seen his brother's wings? All these possibilities brought a deep fear in me that I didn't understand, perhaps the fear of the unknown. If these two people weren't from my reality, then I didn't know what they were capable of
"Lyla.. miss?" Fridah's voice brought me back to my room she held my shoulder soothing my back and it was only then did I realize my breathing had become uneasy, " I'll tell him you're not here if you don't want to see…"
"No, it's okay, Fridah, tell him I'll be right down, offer him something, please."
"Okay," she gave me a worried look, but I only smiled reassuringly at her
I quickly changed into some sweatpants and a T-shirt and made my slow descent downstairs. I found him sitting on the couch, clad casually in a T-shirt and Jeans. Immediately, he saw me he gave a small smile. I tried my best not to make my limp obvious, but it was an impossible quest
"Are you okay? What happened to your leg?"
"I'm fine, I slipped."
"Oh, I came to check if you were okay since I left you abruptly yesterday."
"I'm fine, you seemed to be in a rush, everything okay with you?"
"Yes, I just remembered there was something I had to do."
"Is that so? I hope you were able to do it then." My tone gave away that I didn't believe what he just said
He smirked, humor dancing in his eyes, "You know the strangest thing happened yesterday, my brother and I were talking, then we suddenly heard some noise outside like something had fallen. I went to check what it was, but there was nothing, only a toppled watering can."
I swallowed but did my best to keep calm, "could be a cat."
"Yes, it could be, but the strangest thing was there were shoeprints, unless this town has cats with feet instead of paws, it seems impossible."
"Haven't had any cases of burglary here for a long time, perhaps some neighborhood kids just messing around."
"That does seem more likely, although one of them had such a familiar scent, something I could've sworn I've smelled closely before, something unique it smelled like night blooming jasmine, the flower, you know it?"
My heart sank, this was how I fall, I thought, just because of my hair oil. My mother's friend Rita had her own company making skin and hair products, and she had been recently experimenting with a new hair oil that she gave my mother and me to test out. The hair oil in question contained an essential oil made from the flower he mentioned. I looked to him and he was now smiling widely, he knew he had me, the flower in question was hard to harvest and was also considered a rare find, because of that, not many companies tested with it
I kept my face calm and serious and said to him, "Let's go for a drive." I stood up and headed for the door, not waiting for him. There was no use denying it at this point, plus I had a lot of questions eating me up
"You sure you can drive?"
"You have your truck, don't you?"
"Not scared, I might kidnap you."
"You think I'd go down easily?"`
I sat in his car and immediately wanted to ambush him with questions but withheld my self as he drove not bothering to ask where we should go, part of me wanted to demand he stopped if there was indeed a possibility he wanted to kidnap me but the other dumb part of me was still curious so much so that I sat there quietly after sending Brea a text that I was with him and sharing my pin track, it was always best to be cautious even when doing stupid things, if Anson had noticed he didn't bother saying anything
We arrived at the forest minutes later, and I looked at him with a questioning look, making him chuckle
"I thought it would be best to take you somewhere you liked."
"How did you know I liked it here?"
"That day at the waterfall, I could tell from how relaxed you seemed."
"So we're going to the waterfall?"
"Not really, I'm thinking I rent out a quad bike for us."
"Okay"
Every part of me that had any common sense left begged to leave. This was not safe, I didn't know him and thus couldn't trust him, but I was curious. Perhaps this opportunity will provide the answers I need, or I could disappear and end up buried in a hole here never to be found again, a voice screamed in my head