The Eden Trials

The Forest - Chapter 5

Lifting the knife in her hand, she was poised to continue when she heard the bang of the door behind her. Her attention shifted as the sudden glare of sunlight streaming through placed his form in a frightening silhouette. A trick, certainly, because in the quick second that she turned to kill another dead daringly close, then turned back to run up the stairs and join him, he looked...human. She took note of the condition of the door and the dead before urging him forward. She didn't need his help.

"Go, go, go!"

So far only the slow and dull seemed to occupy the hotel but she wouldn't put it pass the council to have something more waiting in the shadows for them. They already forced the pair to start running almost immediately, something that was so unlike them. However, with the condition of the door she was starting to suspect that her Chosen was something more than any of the others they'd given her. By now, the angry ones they left behind were making such a racket she knew they would bring others. 

"The forest," she finally answered. "Just keep walking, watch for any sign of movement and kill it. There are only the dead or animals and we'll need the meat." 

Neither of which they saw for the hours they were walking through the woods. Not unusual. Where it may have unnerved others, Sophie was actually thankful for what looked to be moving to a seemingly quiet evening. 

Obviously she hadn't seen his short transformation or if she had, she had seen something like it before and wasn't too fazed by it. Maybe she even knew that he was a werewolf. The third option was that she wasn't fazed by anything at all much longer and that was an option that actually made Derek's skin scrawl.

He studied her openly when they walked through the forest in silence, taking her in properly for the first time. She looked about his age physically but her eyes spoke of an old soul. Her hair looked as if it had been washed only recently, even though it was crusted with blood and...other things now, but before that it had been clean which told him that she couldn't be here much longer than he was. There were scars on her skin, peeking out of the sleeves of her zipped up jacket. She was pretty, someone he usually would chat up in a bar if he was looking for company for the night but her features were hard and determined, tell-tale signs of years of distrust and pain. Judging by the way she looked she was as much a prisoner within this situation as he was. All in all she was well guarded and very composed. Definitely more composed than he felt right now.

On the outside he probably looked calm enough but the events of the day had left their traces. They were walking in silence to not attract any corpses and even though Derek had pressing questions he was actually glad that there was no opportunity to talk right now. He finally seemed to be able to breathe a little easier again but the horror of the last few hours was deeply burned into his consciousness, the things he had seen still on his mind, the stench still fresh in his memory. At some point he noticed that there was something he thought to be human skin sticking to his shoe like a small piece of toilet paper and he paused in his step to clean it in disgust. He felt the urgent need for a shower, but knew at the same time that there wouldn't be one. Not anytime soon.

He also kept an eye and an ear out for animals, as the woman had told him but even though he could smell some traces in the distance, nothing crossed their path. He realized that he was actually hungry and very thirsty, something that had been completely subdued so far by the horrors of the day but by now his body wanted what it needed.

"I know you have questions," she finally spoke up, convinced they were finally a good enough distance away from their followers. "And I know by now you've probably realized that I'm...used to this. In a way, for lack of better explanation..." How odd that she found herself struggling over an explanation she had memorized. But something was different this time. Rather than continue with her sudden onslaught of a speech impediment, she stopped and turned to look at him then looked around them.