(Karl's POV)
As Ronan and I walked, I couldn't help but wonder how he really felt about me.
Lately, it didn't feel like we were truly best friends anymore. I hoped I was wrong — Ronan was the first real friend I ever had. But somewhere along the way, I'd gotten caught up in other stuff — girls, social status, attention — and maybe I stopped noticing him the way I used to.
He was a quiet guy. Calm and collected most of the time, but with a short fuse when pushed — probably one reason he didn't talk to many people. Ironically, everyone wanted to be around him. He had that kind of presence.
Still, most stayed away, wary of that sharp temper. It probably didn't help that the girls constantly compared us, even though we never asked for that.
"What if I'm the only real friend he has?"
Sure, we had classmates, but Ronan barely spoke to them. And they... they treated him like he was just my sidekick. Like he was only around because of me. That's not how I saw him — not at all.
I kept these thoughts to myself and kept walking, we turned towards our usual shortcut that led to the woods as it was faster.
Ronan froze, I looked back at him to see him staring at something in the distance. I turned around, only to be greeted by a horrid smell. It was a rotting head hanging upside down from the tree in front of me, it was close to my face, too close for comfort. I felt like my face would melt from its breath.
I tried to back away but my body was frozen. It smiled at me.
It looked me dead in the eyes and smiled, then it said something in a quiet whisper, almost like it wanted me to come closer.
"I know you."
And it slithered away back into the trees. As soon as it was out of sight, Ronan and I turned around and sprinted for our lives. We took the long way towards the chapel instead. We ran like our lives depended on it — it kinda did. We didn't know what it was going to do if it stayed.
We ran into the chapel and shut the door in a rush, accidentally making some noise, but not enough to attract too much attention.
"Oh thank God," Ronan said as he breathed a sigh of relief.
I was still out of breath and could only give a thumbs-up as a response to his remark.
"CHILDREN!"
We turned around to see a priest came rushing towards us all of a sudden. He stopped and looked like he was in a panic but tried to hide it from all of us.
"Why are you still here? Go into the prayer hall at once and keep yourselves safe!"
We didn't hesitate to question him and just rushed over to the hall.
As we got into the hall I looked around frantically. I spotted another priest and rushed towards him.
"What's going on?" I asked, still confused.
He didn't answer me and just turned away. I looked over at Ronan who seemed just as confused as me, and then we realized what was going on.
A loud explosion occurred right outside the chapel, causing the huge glass window at the front to shatter. Everyone ran for cover.
Ronan and I instinctively ran to the back of the church and hid behind some benches. This was something we knew we had no chance of handling.
I was lost in thought for a while but snapped out of it. I turned to Ronan just to notice he was peeking over the bench to see what was happening.
But he wasn't fine.
He was gasping for air.
Sweating.
He was scared.
Out of sheer curiosity I decided to also take a look.
And then I froze.
The same head was right there.
Rotten.
Smiling.
Looking straight at us.
Now I could see its full body. It was just a massive slithering sack of flesh with a rotten head.
It smiled even wider, coming closer to us. I could hear the screams of children as some scrambled farther into the corner of the chapel while some had passed out.
Something hung in between its teeth.
Something that felt eerily familiar.
It came close enough and then I was able to see it — the high priest's trinket.
It ate the high priest.
I couldn't handle any of this. My body started to feel heavy. My eyes started to shut themselves.
As I slumped to the ground and started to lose consciousness, I could hear my friend's voice trying to wake me back up.
But I didn't want to.
I was scared, I wanted to be brave, but I was weak.
I wanted to be strong,I really did.
But all I felt was fear.
And then nothing.