Chapter 8
I met Thomas outside my house. He held something in his hands. When I came over he handed me a small eagle carved from wood on a leather string. It was Luca’s. I looked at Thomas with eyes filled with tears. ”I took it off before we buried him. Taught you might want it.” He said as I took it. I put it around my neck pulling it under my t-shirt. “Thank you” I nearly whispered.
When we left the gates heading into the forest I asked “any idea where to go?”
"There is camp East from here.”
“How far”
“About a week on foot” I nodded.
"Don’t you think it’s weird that they killed everyone? They didn’t take anyone to enslave them. I remember when I was slave they were always bringing people in.” I said as we walked through the forest.
"Ya.. something is happening. We need to warn the other camps. That’s if we are not too late.”
With that, we headed East following the sun setting. We both walked quietly drown in our thoughts. There was nothing to talk about. We both were grieving our hearts were drowning in sorrow. We both lost our loved ones, now we only had each other.
When the sun was behind the horizon we stopped to rest for the night. It was dangerous travelling during the night. We decided we would sleep in the trees as I did all those years ago to keep us safe from wild animal and werewolfs. When we found the perfect tree we climbed it. After having something to eat and we tried to sleep. We each kept watch as the other slept. I offered I would go first.
As I was leaning against the tree I watched the sky. Stars were glistening in the night and the nearly full moon was illuminating my surroundings. I touched the eagle pendant that belonged to Luca. Tears filled my eyes again. I thought about the first time I laid my eyes on him. It was in this forest. The first thing I saw was his mesmerising grey eyes after I opened my eyes. Then I remembered the first time he kissed me. I touched my lips when I thought of it knowing I’ll never feel his lips against mine ever again. Then another memory slipped into my mind. It was a memory of him telling me he loved me. The happiness I felt once he told me how he felt about me. Then the birth of my baby girl. The thought of her not seeing her growing up, not seeing her smile every day and hearing her laugh was slowly killing me from inside. Tears were escaping my eyes and I was tasting the saltiness of them on my lips. I would give anything to see them alive again. Tonight was the first night without them. First night out of many.
I woke up at the sound of Thomas’s voice.
“Reine, time to wake up,” he said softly.
I rubbed away the sleep out of my eyes. When I looked at him his eyes were red and swollen. He avoided looking into my eyes.
We got off the tree carefully and started walking opposite of where the sun was rising.
We walked for hours until we came across a river. We decided to take a break. I washed my face with the river water and Thomas did too. As I sat on a rock I took out an apple and ate it.
Travelling for days, we pretty much repeated the same things every day. Sleeping in the trees at night and walking during the day. We didn’t come across any werewolfs, vampires or any big wild animals.
After over a week of travelling, we finally reached the camp. It was smaller than our camp used to be. The outskirt walls were made of wood. As we approached the gates we were greeted by a very unfriendly guard.
“Leave, or you will be killed” he spat at us.
“We mean no threat,” said Thomas calmly.
“We need to talk to your leader,” I said eyeing the guard. He was in his forties, with blue eyes and long brown hair was framing his face. He had a crooked nose and sporting goatee. He wore forest green pants and a brown t-shirt. He had a bow around his shoulder and a small knife was attached to his belt.
" LEAVE!!” He screamed into my face I flinched and took a step back.
In my peripheral, I saw Thomas was about to rush towards the snappy guard but stopped.
A woman opened the gate.
"What’s going on here,” she said as she approached us.
"We need to talk to your leader” Thomas's voice was serious and his face stoic.
"About what,” she asked.
“We came here to warn him. Our camp was destroyed, everyone was killed and your camp is most likely next” I said.
She watched me cautiously and then glanced at Thomas. She looked like she was having an inner argument with herself. Then she signed and said ”come on in” she looked at the guard. He was about to say something but she stopped him. ”It’s ok Peter.” She turned around and held the gate open for us. As we passed I looked around. It looked similar to our old camp. In the middle was a small market and wooden houses were surrounding it.
As we were passing through the camp people were giving us unfriendly stares.
“What are your names,” the woman asked never facing us.
“Thomas and Reine” Thomas replied
"How long have you travelled?”
"Over a week” I replied this time.
We entered the wooden house.
“Dad! ” She called.
After a few seconds older man walked down the stairs. When he spotted us he looked alerted almost angry.
" Astrid who’s this,” he said sternly as he stood in front of us.
He wasn’t as tall as Thomas, he had brown hair laced with grey on his temples. He had green eyes and was medium build.
"This is Reine ” she pointed to me ” and this is Thomas” she pointed towards him. ” They’re here to talk you”
He turned around to us ”I’m listening”
This time I kept quiet I let Thomas deal with him.
"Our camp was destroyed by the werewolves, they killed everyone and your camp will most likely be next.”
When Thomas said it the leaders facial expression changed, realization hitting him, “I’ve heard about what happened to your camp”
“Then you know they will be coming for other camps too.”
" Ya,” he said as he touched his chin thinking, "I just hope we have more time ”
"How long have you travelled,” the leader asked.
" Over a week” the woman replied for us.
I glanced at her. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, green almond-shaped eyes and freckles across her cheeks and nose. She was her father’s height taller than me.
Then she asked ”how is it that you two are alive”
This time I replied ”we weren’t there when it happened. We were hunting. When we came back-” I stopped as my voice cracked then looked to the floor. Thomas put a hand on my shoulder.
"Then, if you weren’t there when it happened, how do you know it was werewolves,” the man asked perplexed.
“We heard howls,” said Thomas next to me.
After that the leader allowed us to stay. Astrid led us out of the house towards another a lot smaller house.
“You can stay here. This house is empty. There should be everything you need inside” she said as she opened the door.
The house looked like someone lived there and left for the day. The kitchen was filled with pots, plates and mugs. Wardrobes we full of clothes. Everywhere I looked was dust. The furniture looked handmade from wood.
It was getting dark outside. I decided to have a shower and call it a night.
I woke up to a scream. My eyes shot open. I quickly sat up in the bed scanning the room. Thomas wasn’t there. All of a sudden dread filled senses.
I quickly stand up and looked out the window. I saw people running around with horror on their faces. I quickly got dressed and threw my bow and arrows over my shoulder. When I ran out of the house werewolves were attacking people and spreading fire. Some were in their animal shape some in human shape. I quickly scanned the area looking for Thomas. My heart sank when I couldn’t find him. I hoped he was ok. I couldn’t lose him too.
I got my bow and arrows ready aiming at the werewolves that were attacking people. I kept shooting and killing the beasts when all of sudden I heard someone called my name. My head snapped towards the person, It was Thomas, he was covered in blood. But he didn’t look wounded. He was running towards me. In my peripheral, I saw a man running towards me too. Before I could do anything Thomas slammed into him flying across the ground. He was lying on top of him throwing punches in the werewolf face. I saw other werewolves running towards Thomas so I shoot at them, killing them. They fell to the ground.
I felt someone pulled harshly on my hair. I fell backwards. I saw a man towering over me. His eyes were glowing yellow full of rage. He grabbed my neck and started choking me as he straddled me. ”Die bitch!!” I clawed at his arms as I tried to free my throat. I lifted my bottom off the ground hooking my legs over his torso and pulling him off of me. Once my neck was free I gasped for air. I saw a knife lying in front of me, quickly grabbing the knife before he lunged at me. I stabbed him in his lower belly as he fell to the ground. I glanced at Thomas, the werewolf was on top of him punching him viciously in the face. I quickly picked up my bow and with precision, I shot him in the head. The dead werewolf fell on top of Thomas. I quickly ran over helping him to push the dead body off him. His nose was bleeding, his eye was closed bloody around and his lip was busted.
"We have to run,” I said to him.
He grabbed me by my hand and led me to the other side of the camp to the wooden wall. Few of the wooden pieces were missing from the attack. He pushed me first. I squeezed through and when I turned around my eyes widened in shock. Thomas had an arrow sticking out of his thigh and two more arrows sticking out just above his hip. His eyes were wide.
"Thomas!" I cried out as tears filled my eyes. I stretched my arm out to grab him.
He shook his head "no, run!" He ordered me but his voice was weak.
"No, please, not you too" I begged. He fell to the ground unconscious. I heard muffled voices rushing towards me.
I turned around and ran into the dark forest. I could barely see where I was running thanks to the tears. I ran for hours never stopping, never looking behind. When the sky turned orange I realised the sun was rising. I stopped leaning against the tree catching my breath. Everything crashed on me. Another person who I cared about was dead. My close friend, the only person I could count on was killed. My eyes were filled with tears again. I was all alone.
Days went by, I don’t even know how many since Thomas’s death. I was wandering around in the forest. I didn’t eat, I didn’t drink and barely slept. I lost somewhere along the way my bow and arrows. I didn’t care if someone would kill me. At this point, I felt nothing I was numb.
The loneliness that hanged around me was filling my head with morbid thoughts. I wanted to be with everyone in heaven. Now that I had no one I had no reason to live. I wanted to end my life.
I sat at the bottom of a large tree to rest when I noticed next to my left thigh a sharp-looking stone. Is that sign?? Does God want me to kill myself? Without even thinking about it I grabbed the stone and held it to my wrist with the sharp edge. Then I pressed on the stone and ran it across my wrist. I felt a sharp pain as I cut through my flesh but I didn’t care. I was thinking about everyone I loved, happy memories filled my head as blood oozed from the wound. I was waiting for my death. More blood I lost I started seeing black dots until blackness enveloped me.
