"Honey, Ravenswood doesn't exist!"
The ground slips underneath me as I stare at Grandpa Victor in shock.
What is he talking about? How can it not exist when it literally went there and stayed there?
I let out a nervous, disbelieving laugh.
"It does exist, Grandpa. I went there yesterday. I even met people from that town—."
"You met the people of that town? As in, you could see them?" Grandpa looks at me with terror in his eyes. That shocks me even more. Of course I could see them.
I slowly nod my head, unsure what kind of answer he's expecting from me. He clutches his chest, and his face scrunches.
"Grandpa, you are scaring me! What's so weird about Ravenswood and me being able to see it?" I approach him and hold his hands. He looks at me with this sympathetic look on his face.
"Oh my sweet child! You don't know what you have gotten yourself into." He then staggers towards the entrance of the library as I follow him and closes the door, turning the "close" sign.
"Why are you closing it, Grandpa? We just opened it." But he doesn't pay me any attention and gets behind the front desk.
I watch him closely as he approaches the little cabinet on the wall and opens it with shaky hands. He rummages through it for a bit and takes out something that looks like a journal.
He flips through some pages and turns it towards me after he finds what he was looking for. I quietly go closer to the journal and see it.
"Ravenswood and the Third Eye"
I feel like I'm losing my sanity. For some reason only I can see that town. Only I can see those houses. That castle. And not just the houses. I saw people too. Those people also seemed shocked that I could see them. They didn't tell me; I figured it out later. When I told Victor about it, he said he has never heard of that town, nor has he been there. So I took him there. But for some reason, this time I couldn't get through. I couldn't even enter. It was as if there was an invisible wall in front of that entrance. But it wasn't invisible, Victor said. He said he couldn't see the divergence the way I did. He said there was only one road and that it led to another city. But I knew what I had seen, so I went there again. Alone this time. Like the first time when I actually went through, and just like the first time, I passed the entrance and entered that town again. Saw those same people again. But this time, one of them told me to not go there again. And to not speak of what I saw. So I stayed quiet. I only ever told Victor, and this time he believed me. He didn't question me, and he didn't doubt me. Just made me promise to not go there. And I listened. I will never go there again.
I stare at Grandpa Victor, who's already looking at me. The question was evident on my face. He sees it, and he starts explaining without me even asking.
"Years ago when we were young, I and your grandpa had an argument about something stupid. He got mad and left the house. He took the car, and I didn't follow after him since I was pretty mad myself. But he didn't come back. I kept waiting for him. It had already been hours since he left, and it was getting dark. I started getting worried, so I went looking for him. I went to every place he used to frequent but didn't find him anywhere. I came back home thinking maybe he had returned, and fortunately he had." He looks down and lets a little smile form on his lips as he recounts the moment.
"He was sulking, though, and gave me the silent treatment the whole night. The next day, when he finally talked to me, I asked him where he went and said that I kept looking for him everywhere. He glances up at me as he says his next word.
"Ravenswood. That was the first time I heard the name of that place. Your grandpa told me that after he left the house, he went on a long drive to clear his mind, and he didn't realize that he had driven out of the city until he saw a board with Ravenswood written on it." My breath hitches at the mention of the board. That's exactly what I saw.
Grandpa continues.
"He saw a divergence and kept driving and entered that path, which led him to that town. He apparently saw old houses and met a lot of people there. He was exhilarated when he was talking about it, so I kept listening, but something didn't sit well with me. I had never heard of that name. Nor did I ever hear about any residential town that matched your grandpa's description. So he told me he'll bring me there."
I hold my breath, half expecting him to say he saw it, but the other half of me feels like he's going to say the exact opposite. My fingers twitch against my knees, restless, betraying the panic I don't dare show in my voice. "So…? Did you see it?"
"No." My body freezes in shock as my eyes widen. The word lands like a stone in my chest, leaving me hollow and unsteady. Grandpa gives me a sad smile as if he already expected that kind of reaction from me.
"When your grandpa drove me there, he stopped the car abruptly in the middle of the road. There was only one roadway leading ahead, and it had a slight turn. But he kept insisting that there is another road right in front of us and there's a board too. Grandpa swallows hard and clears his throat as his eyes turn misty. His shoulders slope under the weight of the memory.
"I didn't see anything. No divergence, no board. Just one road that leads to another city. Your grandpa started losing his patience and accused me of lying to him, saying that I was doing it to get back at him for leaving me that day. I could see he was getting hurt more than mad. I didn't like seeing him that way. So I told him that it doesn't matter whether the place exists or not, but that hurt him more, as he thought I didn't believe him. So he tried to enter what he saw as the road to the town, but then something happened." Grandpa's voice goes quiet by the end as he takes a seat to gather himself. He clasps the armrest with white-knuckled fingers, forcing his body still while his eyes glisten.
"What happened?" I ask, and I realize I sound spooked. I shift in my seat, restless, unable to shake the chill crawling down my arms.
"Something pushed him." My brows knit together, not understanding what he means by that. My lips part slightly, and I tilt my head, as if just looking at him might make the meaning clearer. A tight knot forms in my stomach, unease coiling quietly.
"Something we couldn't see, couldn't feel. One moment he was about to enter the road, but the next moment he fell back. He said it felt like he tried to walk on a wall. He tried again, and this time he landed on the ground with more force. That shook him. We quietly returned home that day, and I thought that would be the end of it. But the next day when I woke up, he wasn't home and came back half an hour later. This time he said he went through again, but this time he was asked to never return there by the people of that town. We didn't talk about that incident until years later." He draws in a deep breath before continuing. His hands rest loosely in his lap, fingers curling and uncurling slightly, as if he can't quite settle them.
"Someone made an anonymous post about that name, that place, and that town. It said that they had a friend who saw it, who later mysteriously vanished just days after talking about the town. But it was that one comment under the post that stood out the most." He hesitates, eyes narrowing slightly as if sifting through the memory before continuing.
"The commentator said that they know someone who has experienced the same thing, and apparently, only the people with a third eye can see it. And that the town and the road have existed for centuries hidden from people's eyes, and only a few chosen ones could see it." His eyes linger on the floor for a moment, then flick back to me, quietly searching for understanding. It almost feels like a conspiracy theory, I realize, yet something about the way he recounts it keeps me from dismissing it entirely.
"Later that post was deleted, and so was the comment. But that told us enough about the mystery behind the town and about the people who could see it. After that your grandpa and I made a promise that we would forget about that part of our life and never talk about it again. Pretend that it never happened." A quiet heaviness settles in his expression, eyes distant, as though the memory still leaves a bitter taste.
"I don't know how much of that comment was the truth, but what I do know is that there's a reason why I and your grandfather made that promise. There's a reason why that post got deleted. A reason we didn't want to find out." He then holds my hand tightly with a determined look on his face.
"If what you say is true and that boy Oliver is from that town, then he isn't someone you should associate with. Do you understand me? For a person of that town to enter our world so easily and fool us into thinking he's one of us, he is not someone to be trusted. Promise me. Promise me that you will not speak to him again. Promise me that you will never see him again. If he approaches you, you run as far and fast as you can. Promise me!" I stare at my grandpa's frantic, worried face. Somehow his frail, old face looks like it has aged 10 years in a span of an hour.
This is the first time he has asked me for something in my entire life. That too for my own well-being. So I don't hesitate.
I crouch in front of his sitting form and clasp his hands tightly, smiling reassuringly at him. "I promise. I won't see him again."
He looks visibly relieved and kisses my forehead. I contemplate whether to tell him about the people of that town not being entirely human. But I eventually decided against it. I will tell him next time. I don't want to worry him more than he already is.
I was so blinded by whatever attention and affection I got from Oliver that I didn't notice the red flags from the very beginning. He was really secretive, and I just chalked it up to him being very private. I even thought that mysterious aura about him was fascinating.
Even after all that happened, I was ready to believe that the attack was just a coincidence. That he miscalculated things. I was ready to believe that he wouldn't take me somewhere that would harm me anyway. But I was wrong.
Because why would a werewolf of a hidden town approach a normal human like me? Why would someone like him actively pursue me if it didn't benefit him in some ways? Unless he knew something about me that I didn't know.
He didn't even flinch when he noticed I could see the board and the road that led to the town. He didn't look surprised when I could see every house in that town.
But the real question is, how come he let me go so easily? How come he let me leave that town without actively trying to stop me by using force? Knowing the kind of creature he and the entire population of that town are, how come they didn't retaliate? Were they not skeptical, I would run my mouth.
The more I think about it, the weirder everything gets. I need answers. But how?
I can't break my promise to my grandpa about not seeing Oliver. But how do I get the answers to my question without involving him?