Predator

Part Twenty Six✔️

When Grey awoke in her room, everything was silent, eerily so. So silent that the creaking of her bed as she sat up seemed impossibly loud. She was confused, still half asleep and drowsy but confused nonetheless as she tried her hardest to hear even the slightest sound in the house, but there was nothing. With careful movements and quiet steps, Grey made her way downstairs to find what she expected: a completely empty home. No breakfast waiting for her, no empty vodka glasses, everything was untouched and felt abandoned.

Grey sat in the kitchen for awhile, waiting for anything to happen but when nothing did she returned upstairs for a shower. After a long shower and dressing, she grabbed her camera, tied up her wet hair and made her way out of the silent house. She stopped outside for a minute, staring at the trees as if the brothers she'd grown so fond of would walk out of them at any moment but there wasn't even a rustle of leaves coming from the forest. It seemed as if time had stopped in the world, and everything was still and silent except for Grey. This made an uneasy feeling stir in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn't right.

As she looked around at the land that surrounded this old abandoned castle-like mansion, she found familiarity warming her veins and that feeling of being home - a feeling she hadn't felt since her mother died. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the scent of a nature so deep so it could embed itself in her lungs and sprout life inside of her. Life that she so desperately needed. She then tilted her head back so her eyes opened to the sky, looking up in search of any sign of God looking out for her but as it seemed lately, he was nowhere to be found. With a sigh from somewhere deep in her lungs, she trekked into the trees that everyone called enchanted, but she preferred the term "possessed" when describing the demon trees.

Deeper and deeper she traveled, stopping occasionally to bring her camera to her face to snap a few pictures of the environment. The silence in the air had slowly turned less int an eerie silence, and more of a peaceful one with the sounds of little wildlife around her. In the distance the sound of soft running water calmed her wild nerves, so she followed it until she reached a small stream running back in the direction of the old castle she'd grown so used to. Snapping a few quick pictures, she sat down beside the stream and just watched the water flow. For some reason it calmed her, it cleared her head enough so she could think of the situation rationally.

Yet if she hadn't been lost in her thoughts, Grey might've heard the creaking of the trees around her as the dark magic moved their roots.

Then, he was coming. She heard him before she saw him and she knew he had known where she was long before she was aware of his approaching presence. Grey didn't even bother turning her head in his direction despite the low growling that rumbled against his teeth. She just closed her eyes and leaned her head back to the sky as he continued to growl behind her.

"If you're just going to stand there and snarl at me then leave please." Grey snapped, her head turning to face the wolf with blazing eyes. "You're ruining my peace."

His growls got louder against his bared teeth and he took a step closer.

"I said leave me alone, Alexei!"

He snapped at her and Grey grew furious, her nostrils flaring, body rigid from both anger and fear. Grey was ready to burst at him, to yell and scream until he left but when she opened her mouth nothing came out from her lips. She gave a sigh and ran her hands down her face after she turned away from Alexei and back to the stream.

"You've ruined me Alexei Volkov." Her voice was but a whisper but the wolf heard it and the growling stopped. "You ruined me so beautifully and I hate it."

There was a long silence and when Grey turned around, she found that she was alone yet again. She sighed, biting back the tears that so desperately wanted to fall, and looked at the flowing water to distract herself. Her thoughts wanted to go to Alexei, she wanted to find him, she wanted to talk to him but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't do that when he was like this; a beast.

She pushed herself up despite the pain in her chest and turned back to the trees, but her heart dropped.

They'd moved.

"Are you kidding me?!" She groaned.

Grey scanned the area, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth as she tried to find trees that looked familiar. She found nothing. They wanted her to go somewhere, that much she knew but she didn't want to let them lead her, but for some reason, this feeling pushed her into the trees and let them guide her. It was the feeling in the pit of her belly that pushed her to walk into the trees, something that was telling her she needed to listen to them. Something deep within her was screaming at her to run to wherever they were leading her, yelling at her to hurry but she was wary. The trees had a way of screwing her over and she didn't want to know how they planned on doing it now. Yet, she followed them and watched them move to form a path for her.

And then, the trees thinned out and in their place was the town she'd stayed in; Petra's town. Her heart ached for that family and she had the urge to just see them, to just go hug them, to apologize for all that's happened; but the tug in her body pulled her in the opposite direction of her home.

Walking through the town streets was odd, not only because she hadn't been here in so long, but because there was not a single soul in the streets or outside. It was oddly silent despite this low murmur from the direction she was following. The farther she walked, the louder the murmur got and the more she realized it wasn't a murmur, it was angry voices and vicious sobs. Her stomach turned and her throat closed. The pull in her belly turned heavy and she suddenly found it harder to walk closer.

Grey stuck to the shadows when she got closer, close enough to make out all the villagers faces and the voice of the one standing in the middle of a murder scene.

Petra stood among bodies, her face contorted in anger as she spoke violent words in her native tongue. Grey couldn't pick up a single word, but whatever she was spitting was creating a flame inside the villagers as they yelled along with her. Some were throwing their fists in the air as she screamed, the passion in her tone overwhelming.

"We cannot sit idly by any longer! Our people are getting slaughtered and we are doing nothing! It is not a simple animal that has done this. No! It is a beast! A beast that can lure men and women and children from the safety of their homes and drag them to their death. And yet, this is no average beast. . . This is a beast - a wolf that walks among us in a sheeps skin! He walks among us as a human! I've seen it with my own eyes, I've watch a human man transform into a wolf before my own eyes. He is real and he is a murdered. He murdered my brothers and he has murdered our loved ones!

This beast must be killed! We can destroy him with our numbers, with our vengeance! He deserves something far worse than the serenity that death would grant him, but the best we can do is slaughter him like he has done to our own. . . If you help me, I can lead you to him. He and his brother live in our forest, right in our backyard - two beasts right under our noses! I can take you to them and we can end this reign of suffering. Help me, I beg of you, avenge my brothers and your wives, your sisters and brothers, your fathers and families! Help me kill the beast!"

"Kill the beast!"

They were yelling, screaming and crying. Petra looked upon the chaos with a smile and tears of her own, while Grey looked upon it all with shock. She watched as Petra turned to her grandmother and whisper English words that she'd never forget.

"We end the Volkov reign tonight."

Grey stumbled back from the crowd, tripping over her own feet and falling to the ground. She was panicking, breathing too heavy and too fast, trying to move too quickly while her mind couldn't catch up - it was stuck on the image of Petra killing Alexei and Maksim. She wanted to cry, scream and kill Petra all at once - but she was leaning more towards breaking down and crying. Yet she still managed to pull herself together for another second and push herself to the trees where she broke into a sprint.

Weaving in and out of the tall trees, running in the direction of the castle-like house she'd learned to love, Grey felt tears streaming down her face as images of the townspeople tearing apart the brothers. Images of their lifeless eyes flashed across her mind and brought more tears to her eyes, and when her eyesight started to blur with tears, she let the trees lead her in the right direction.

And when she broke through the trees, the house in view, Grey was screaming their names. She needed one of them, beast or not, she needed one of them to know. She needed to save them.