He seemed to have given up after this, as he slowly sunk onto the roots of a tree and just stared at the broken pieces of bark surrounding him. “The forest spreads for miles, if I were you I’d stay here until dawn before finding my way back,” he informed me almost robotically. I didn’t answer as I still wasn’t sure as to whether he could be trusted or not. “But you don’t have to if you really think I’m so dangerous,” he quickly added glancing up at me and back to the bark again. He was right, there was no point in trying to find my way back as it would just be like a dead end for me. There was also something about him that made me want to trust him. He was surprised to see that I too placed my self near the roots of a tree, and casually leaned against it. Now that I was calmer, I could actually feel what all that running had done to my muscles, every part of my body ached. I closed my eyes for 5 seconds and before I knew it I drifted off into a deep sleep.
That night I had the weirdest dream. I found myself back at home, in my small, cosy living room. I frantically looked around trying to preserve the images, and the pleasant memories that came with these images. The blaring fireplace burning with the warmth it dispersed, the caramel brown sofa and fresh white walls. Strangely, I have always found the smell of wood burning very calming, and inhaled this sweet scent deeply. But I was interrupted with thunderous shouts coming from the kitchen, and hurried off there to investigate. Then it all hit me. This was a replay of the heart wrenching allegations from my mum. It felt bizarre seeing myself from an out of body experience. My eyes had turned into a bloodshot red colour, my face was also completely tear ridden, and so was my earthy brown hair. My mother had quickly pulled up the sleeves of her woolly red jumper, to point the accusing finger at me. “ I trusted you but you let me down. I never expected you out of everyone to steal from me. Why did you do it?” The words stung me like a thousand thorns had sliced into me. No matter how many times I tried to explain to her that I hadn’t done anything and that I had been framed by Mandy (my step sister), she still clung onto her beliefs. The array of emotions had overwhelmed me, and before I knew it I ended up running. Running as far as my puny legs would take me; zooming past tree after tree, until I finally collapsed onto the floor. My vision became impaired and I don’t seem to remember what had happened next.
The black night sky was overshadowed by vast, hazy and gloomy storm clouds. For some reason I had a salty, metallic taste in my mouth, and there were red droplets all over my arms. These droplets burned like I had just touched an open fire. I glanced up at the sky. More of these perilous droplets blasted towards me, painting me red. My heart was racing so fast it felt like it would leap out of my chest. At that moment I could’ve sworn that someone had just walked over my grave. Frantically, I glanced behind me. But luckily there was no one there. At that moment I felt a piercing pain in my throat as if someone was tearing it apart with a sharp knife. All I could see was the back of someone’s head and a pair of familiar pale hands.
I sharply jerked myself awake. Breathing heavily and glanced behind me just in case. Suddenly, I just saw a glimpse of a pale blur that resembled Caius lunging towards me, positioned like a predator striking for his prey before it got away. Somehow I wasn’t surprised that he would betray me. After hearing so much about his kind, I was actually surprised that he waited this long to kill me when he could have easily done it effortlessly the moment he saw me.
He landed on a bush and began tugging at something or someone hiding behind it. Finally, he pulled out what looked like a tall, extremely fair female version of him, but the only difference was that she had fiery red hair whereas his hair had a hint of dark brown to it. “How could you Irina! Another human, but why would you care it’s not like you were being blamed for it! Instead your little brother was!” he was shouting so angrily that I expected him to be turning red at this point, but of course he was still as pale as snow. It was then that I realised that he had just saved my life, and I felt guilty for ever doubting him as he was anything but betrayer. I despised the people who without knowing the full truth blamed him for something he clearly would never even think about doing.
Irina glared at me menacingly with her teeth bared as if she would rip me to shreds any second, but as soon as she noticed her brothers angry gaze she turned back and faced him with a questioning look on her face. “I really cannot believe that you’re yelling at me for that useless human, you really need to toughen up, marshmallow. Then maybe, just maybe Dad may want you back into his life. Your over-protectiveness over these petty humans is what drove him away from us in the first place,” she taunted. He grimaced as if he was remembering something excruciatingly painful. “Don’t start that again, all I’m asking you to do is to keep away from them. They’re just innocent humans who have done nothing wrong to you Irina,” he pleaded looking exhausted. I got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time that they had this conversation. “Ok, ok I’ll try to stay away from your precious pets,” she taunted one last time before disappearing into the forest.
Embarrassed, Caius edged towards me and just about managed to murmur an apology to which I just shook my head as if to say that no harm was done. Golden streaks of sun began to fill the forest and shone off his skin creating a luminous effect. “You should really get back before my sister nearly kills you again. C’mon I’ll show you which way to go”, he ordered, pointing to a trail of bark on the floor. “Just follow that trail and it should lead you to out of this forest.” I did as I was told and carefully followed the trail, making sure I didn’t put a foot wrong and end up losing the trail. I turned back to thank him but to my disappointment he had already disappeared, so I just carried on walking eagerly waiting for the moment when I would at long last be at home after all this time.
After seeing many familiar houses of neighbours I immediately recognised mine even after all this time. I examined the familiar creams bricks and dark green vine growing up the wall, and I was actually happy to see the dull brown door that I thought I never wanted to see again. My mother hurried out of the front door as soon as she noticed that I had returned home, and without hesitating I rushed into my her arms with tears running down my face. “I’m sorry” she admitted. Those consoling words were so comforting, that I immediately forgot all about our previous argument. “I swear I won’t ever run away from home again mum,” I promised hugging her as tightly as I could to reassure to her that I was intending on keeping this promise. Her hug was so warm and safe and I felt as if I would be protected from then on as long as I had her support.
