28. Forest King

"Y/N GO GET HELP! YOUR PSYCHO FRIEND IS TRYING TO BLOW UP THE HOUSE!"

"THEO!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" I yell at him and he sort of silently regards me for a second before finally wrestling the baseball bat away from Christian and cracking him in the head with it. Christian stumbles backwards and I run forward to catch him as he kind of slumps down into my arms, dazed but not unconscious.

"THEO!?" I scream, as I feel the anger rising up in my chest, overcoming and replacing the fear that once resided there.

"Nothing to worry about." Theo says calmly. "Please go back to bed."

"Like hell I will!" I scream at him. "What do you think you are doing!?"

He turns to look at me momentarily before turning his back and surveying the room.

"I don't like this place." He mumbles, more to himself than anyone else, as he grazes his hand over the tiles of the kitchen counter. "This place...it kept you away from us...it kept you away from me..."

"I don't understand." I mutter.

"Of course you don't. You're only human and your pitiful, small human brain couldn't even begin to understand the pain you have put me through. I didn't used to be so cold. I didn't use to be so mean. You made me this way."

"No I didn't! You've been like this since the day I first met you! You've always been mean and cold! How on earth is that my fault!"

Theo stands there silently for a second and then, in a fit of anger, he throws the baseball bat through the nearest window where it crashes through the thin glass pane. Next door I can hear the neighbor's dog start to bark as it is startled by the sound. Please someone wake up. Please someone come help me.

"It's this place." Theo mumbles. "It's this place and these people that kept you from me. They must all be destroyed." He walks over to the stovetop and turns the knobs on even higher so a higher concentration of gasoline is being pumped into the room. I cough from the smell and hold my nose as my head begins to feel light and fuzzy and that is when I realize that Theo is no longer paying attention to what I am doing as he walks around in a daze, searching the kitchen drawers for a lighter and, knowing he would find one three more drawers down, I decided it was time to make a quick escape. Christian was just barely starting to get his bearing as I sling his arm around my shoulder and crawl with him out of the kitchen and into the livingroom where I manage to get him to stand up and run with me out the door. Pulling Christian along, we run down the empty streets until we can no longer see our house in the distance.

"We have to go get the village chief." Christian tells me as we stumble about in the dark. "We have to go get the soldiers to stop him." He begins to pull me down towards the chief's house when I stop him and hold him back.

"They wont be able to stop them!" I yell at him.

"Them? Who is 'them'?" Christian asks and as if to answer his question the night erupts with a loud and inhuman sounding howl that echoes down the streets from our house.

"The monsters." I whisper and Christian looks at me silently as we both just stand there in the cold. In the distance there is a loud swooshing sound as embers appear over the buildings back towards our small house. I can hear people yelling in the distance as the town slowly wakes up in a panic.

"The king." Christian whispers. "The forest king. We have to go get the forest king."

"Why?"

"The forest king is the only one that can stop the monsters." Christian suddenly becomes very intense as he grabs me by the shoulders and holds me steady at arm's length. "Y/n we have to go into the forest. We have to go get the forest king."

"But it's dark and dangerous!" I argue.

"We have to do it and you are the only one who knows the way!" He yells back and then quiets his voice as the sound of another howl echoes through the night, this one a bit closer than the last.

"Alright." I whisper and Christian grabs my hand as we both take off at a sprint back towards the forest entrance. When we get there he stops as the area beneath the trees is shrouded in a thick blanket of shadows.

"Do you know the way?" He asks, suddenly uncertain of his plan.

"I think so." I mutter as I take his hand and lead him into the darkness. I keep my eyes glued to my feet as I follow the small dirt trail through the trees. At one point I think I hear splashing to my right and I stiffen as I stand in perfect silence waiting for any more sound. I listen but I hear nothing. I look and there is nothing there so I slowly continue, all the while starring down at my feet.

"Are we almost there?" Christian whispers to me and despite his quiet tone, his voice cuts through the silence like a knife through butter and startles me as I jump slighty in place.

"Almost." I whisper back and then suddenly we step out of the treeline into a small clearing standing in the middle of which is a small shrine. The stone steps of the shrine shine in the moonlight and the slanted roof tops casts shadows over the alter as we step forward and stand before it.

"This is it?" Christian asks.

"Yes.

"Where is the king?"

"He is inside."

Christian thinks this over for a couple of seconds and then kneels down in front of the shrine as he lowers his head and puts his hands together in prayer. I kneel next to him and copy his movements as I close my eyes and beg and beg and beg for somebody, anybody, to come rid me of the monsters ruining my life. Sitting with my eyes closed, I feel as if the forest is closing in around me and a small edge of panic creeps into my chest. And then, just as I am about to give up, a voice echoes through my head.

"I can't save you." The voice says. "But I can save your brother."

I immediately snap my eyes open and look about the darkness around me and when I do, Christian is gone.