"Ellie!" I called out the second I stepped into the house.

Not even bothering to respond to my call, said little girl instead blurted out from the other end of the corridor just moments after I'd shut the back door. "Who was that?"

Almost immediately, the fear I'd harboured at the knowledge that the stranger might have gotten to her first morphed into relief so quickly that I had to balance my weight on the wall due to the emotion threatening to consume me.

That bastard, I gritted my teeth, absently placing a hand on my chest. Nearly gave me a damn heart attack.

"Who was that?" Ellie asked once again, fisting her hands on her hips. Apparently, she'd gotten rid of her fear during the time I'd been out conversing with the wolf-man.

"And what happened to your clothes? They look awful!"

"Those are not the questions you should be asking, Ellie." I pushed away from the wall and stalked across the small corridor towards where she stood.

"The first real question is," I grabbed her arm and pointed a finger to her face, "what the hell are you doing here?"

Ellie crossed her arms over her chest and threw me a defiant look. "Don't change the subject, Miss Lenny. Who was that? I know someone was out there. And why do you look so dirty?"

Her questions made me think for a moment. "Listen. If you tell me what you're doing here at this extremely late hour, then I'll tell you who that was outside." I waited for the little girl in front of me to speak, the wheels in her head turning.

"Well," she started with a small shrug, refusing to look me in the eye, "I just came here for a visit."

Yeah, so did that stranger.

"It's past midnight."

She gave another meaningless shrug.

"Ellie, look at me," I demanded, stretching all my fingers so that I could use that same hand I used to point at her face to grasp her left shoulder and adjust her body's position to face me properly. "What are you really doing here?"

Knowing I wasn't going to let it go, Ellie huffed, grabbed the hand I'd laid on her shoulder and pulled me after her. "Come on."

I rolled my eyes. "Where are we going?"

"You know where," the little girl retorted as she partially pulled me up the stairs towards my bedroom.

When we reached the door, Ellie turned to face me with an earnest gleam in her eye. "You have to promise to go through with it with me before I tell you what it is, Miss Lenny."

I arched an eyebrow. "I can't promise until I know what you're up to."

"Please?"

"No."

Ellie pressed her lips together and grumbled out an almost inaudible "fine" before she released my hand and opened my room door, marching straight to the bed.

"What the..." The moment I entered my bedroom, I glanced from my wardrobe to the haphazard clothes spread out on the wooden floor to the giant backpack lying idly on my bed in obvious confusion.

"What the hell were you doing in here?" I asked whilst I picked up the clothes from the floor and dumped them into my wardrobe.

"Packing," she answered, fidgeting with her fingers and playing with a strap on her backpack. "I already have my stuff packed so I started packing yours for you as soon as I came here. But then I found it fishy that you weren't here at that time so I went out to see what it was and that's when I-"

"Hold on," I cut her off, her words finally registering in my mind. "You're running away?"

"We're running away," she corrected. "If Mummy won't let me stay then I want you to take me far away where she'll never see me again."

"This is why I didn't promise anything." I glared at her before moving towards the bed and snatching her backpack from it.

"I'm taking you home."

"No!"

"It's too late for games, Ellie," I chided when she attempted to block my path, splaying her arms wide.

"This isn't a game, Miss Lenny," she argued, moving sideways abruptly when I too had shifted in that same direction. "I'm serious!"

I sighed in exasperation. "Ellie, I am not kidnapping you."

She shook her head vigorously. "It's not exactly a kidnapping if I agree to it."

At my sceptical look, an innocent pout reformed her face. "We'll just be eloping for a while," she murmured.

"We're not getting married either," I retorted in a dry tone, even though the adorable look on her face was beginning to break my resolve.

"But I didn't say that."

"Well, that's what the word means. Running away to get married because the family doesn't approve, and we're not doing that."

"Oh come on, Miss Lenny," Ellie pleaded, the slight quivering of her arms served as evidence that her strength was wavering.

But when I narrowed my eyes and didn't speak for more than a minute, she sighed and let her arms fall to her sides in defeat. "Okay fine. But at least let me stay the night."

"Your mother wouldn't appreciate it."

"I don't care," she mumbled and dragged her feet miserably back to my bed, plopping face down on it.

I almost rolled my eyes again at the action but instead held back and leaned her backpack against my bed frame on the floor before moving to sit down beside her.

"Look, I know you don't want to leave, and trust me, I don't want you to go either," I said as I brushed her ponytail with my fingers. "But there's nothing any of us can do about it."

Ellie shifted her head to look at me before saying in a soft tone. "We could-"

"Nobody's running away," I interrupted in a stern voice. "I don't want anything happening to you, Ellie. Or have you forgotten that we are surrounded by the Black Woods and are nowhere near any other form of civilization until miles travel? And that we wouldn't have any form of transportation besides riding on the wolves that live there? Which isn't even an option considering they will see us as a threat."

A small smile grazed the visible corner of her lips. "We could ask nicely."

This time I did roll my eyes before leaning in to place a peck on her slightly chubby cheek. "Only in wonderland."

After I'd smoothed the back of my hand gently down her face, I nudged her body with my palms, scooting her towards the far corner of the bed. "Come on, go to sleep. It's way past your bedtime."

"But you didn't tell me who wah er wi ya," she murmured just as a yawn took over the last part of her sentence.

I smiled at how adorable she sounded. "I'm turning out the lights."

"But you didn't tell me who was out there," she whined, but nevertheless, curled underneath the blanket. "I'm not sleepy yet."

Rolling my eyes, I rose from the bed and walked towards the nightstand, flipping the switch on the wall. "Goodnight Ellie."

"Tell me what happened tomorrow?"

I smiled again amidst the darkness. "I promise."

A small murmur met my response and I waited until I was sure Ellie was asleep before I left the bedside and walked towards the french doors that led to the balcony.

Pushing them open, I stepped out and breathed in as the night's cool breeze brushed against my skin, making me shiver.

Leaning against the banister, I sighed and permitted a few minutes ago's events to play out in my mind.

Whatever that stranger wanted with me and thought I was ready for, I wasn't prepared to deal with. Already I had the shopkeeper and Erik's body to take care of, I couldn't let that weird man just barge in and make my night worse.

I sighed when it registered that I still had that unfinished business to complete outside.

Like hell I wanted to go back out there and finish the burial, but I also didn't want to have to deal with that in the morning. So begrudgingly, I dragged myself out of the bedroom - careful not to wake Ellie - and right out the back door to cover up the corpses. All the while, keeping an eye out for any strange movements in the forest that would be of any danger to me as I worked.

Especially those involving a red-eyed wolf-man. Though I wouldn't classify him as too "dangerous" per se...

A soft rustle in the bushes had me halting on my way to return the spade into the shed after burying the bodies.

Confused yet thinking it to be the wolf-man again, I shoved the spade blade-first into the ground and was about to tell him off when something strange caught my attention.

Hadn't the wolf-man's eyes been red before they'd turned piercing silver? Was yellow part of the equation? I had no idea, but it was certainly a possibility.

However, there was something just...off about the way the pair of yellow cat-like eyes were leering at me.

Wolf-man surely did not have cat eyes.

I forced down the uneasiness slowly creeping up my spine and instinctively tightened my grip on the spade's wooden handle.

"There's no point in hiding," I said cautiously and into the shadows, still staring deeply into those unfathomable yellow eyes. "I can see you."

So you can.

I blinked at the hissing snake-like voice that invaded my mind out of nowhere.

That definitely wasn't my conscience.

Without thinking, I drew out the spade from the ground and pointed its blade towards the eyes like some sort of weapon of defence.

"Did you just talk to me?" I whispered, moving closer as I spoke. Why? Ask my legs.

The eyes didn't reply to my inquiry, they merely floated from side to side, proceeding to simply remain there and stare.

Daughter of the Shadow Bender.

"I'm sorry," I whispered again, all the while advancing carefully. "You've got the wrong person."

An instant hissing noise made me hesitate in my tracks for a second. I'd wanted to know what that thing was in the bushes, but after hearing its weird and almost inaudible snake-like voice in my head, I wasn't so sure I wanted to find out what it was anymore.

Maera...

The name rocketed something deep within me and I nearly gasped out loud when the eyes hissed the name violently again and again.

Maera...Maera...

I let go of the spade and clutched my ears desperately, unconsciously falling down to one knee in the dirt. 

I wanted to close my eyes in an attempt to block out the sudden continuous hissing sounds that kept growing louder and louder by the second, threatening to burst my eardrums. But I couldn't.

Not because I wasn't in control of my own eyes, but because my gaze had frozen in place when out of the blue those pair of eyes had begun to multiply until they filled every shadowed corner around where I kneeled on the ground. 

Maera...

They spread quickly, eating up every darkened area that the only street light in my backyard didn't reflect on.

Maera...Maera...

The name was a tangled mess on their tongue. Hissing it out so unceremoniously that it was a wonder I didn't go deaf.

I refused to acknowledge the fact that they were referring to me as Maera, daughter of the Shadow Bender, so I mentally shoved their nagging voices into a big bloody box and tried real hard - though unsuccessfully - to seal them in.

My eyes, however, stayed open and glued to the swift appearing of so many yellow eyes all around me that I failed to notice something entirely off about a certain pair until the owner decided to make itself known by stepping into the light.

It was then that I looked up, following the queer pair of eyes as its black shadowy form began to take up a shape.

When I craned my neck to look further up - up, and up - my eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.

Oh no.

The shadow grinned. "Maera."

☆~☆~☆

I've changed the name to Maera so if you see another name instead let me know. Gracias.

~TBK✌

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