After being trapped in Petra's home for two days with only a wild six year old and a silent four year old, she embraced the feel of her camera beneath her frozen fingers. She didn't known how it had made it out of the woods without a scratch, but she was thankful it was in her hands again. Outside, the cold air tickled her throat with each intake of breath, but she embraced the crippling silence and the smell of the outdoors. The frozen land of Russia was beginning to grow on her and she couldn't imagine how hard it would be when the time came to go back home. But she did miss New York, and its electricity and the warm covers of her own bed, the only thing she didn't miss was all the noise. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, she felt like she could breathe without the crowds of people and she could think properly without the constant honking of horns and loud voices.

Pulling her camera up to her face, the sound of the shutter snapping frames filled her ears as she stared at the rundown barn in Petra's backyard. She'd missed this - taking pictures, it was something she'd been in love with since she was young; the way a moment could be frozen forever in time. All her happiness and sadness had been documented on this camera of hers.

Moving her view to the ominous forest, a shiver ran down her spine as she took more stills of the frozen world. The trees stared back at her, not moving in the wind as if they were watching her too. She'd never seen such eerie trees before, yet they intrigued her and she found herself taking as many pictures of them as she could. After taking a few more shots of the spacious backyard, she stood in the middle of the yard and flicked through the pictures she'd just taken, assessing them with careful eyes.

The pictures were dark to say the least, that ominous vibe radiated from even the pictures. But pictures didn't do the world here justice. With the cloudy sky and an a abandoned barn in front of a dark forest, the pictures looked like scenes from a horror film. As she scrolled through the pictures, she felt a strange feeling settle in the pit of her belly, as if her body was warning her for what was to come. But she brushed it off as nothing and continued scrolling through her pictures with pride.

It was then she noticed something odd about the pictures of the tree line. In the seemingly black and white world, there was a spot of crimson red that pooled at the base of the trees. Looking up at the real world with wide eyes, she could see the outline clearly - a body laying at the edge of the tree line. How she hadn't noticed it before was beyond her, but the dread in her stomach warned her not to investigate.

But Grey was Grey, and she was curious and there was also something that overpowered that fear and pushed her to get closer. So, she slowly approached it, her legs heavy. The closer she got, the more she could make out. A small body; a child with brown hair. A boy, with his back to her and his face to the trees, blood covering and surrounding his body. When she was feet away, all breath left her body as she looked at him. It was as if her pounding heart was an alarm inside of her, screaming at her to run away but she couldn't hear it.

Carefully she rolled him so he lay on his back, the wounds on his small chest visible. But it wasn't the deep gashes down his chest that sent dread down her spine, it was the fact that they were identical to the ones on her stomach, yet they were larger, deeper. This was not the scrawny wolf that had almost killed her but one with power, one far more dangerous. And she had a feeling deep in her gut that she knew exactly who it was.

But not even that could scare her more than his eyes. Lifeless green eyes that stared up at the heavens. Green eyes that once held life and a spark that she had seen with her own eyes. For there, in the crimson snow, lay Ethen.

"Petra!" She sobbed, backing away from the boy. "Dimitri! Someone help!"

Petra was running towards Grey the moment she heard her cry, her grandmother and Dimitri with Rosalie on his hip were behind her.

They found the girl at the edge of the forest, on her knees sobbing in front of a body. Petra's pace faltered for a moment, " what would have her like this?" her mind was rushing with possibilities as she continued and regretted it almost immediately.

"Oh my god." She choked as Grey turned to her with a pale face and red eyes.

Petra pushed past Grey to the boy and fell to the ground, taking him in her arms. "No. No. No." Her hand hovered over the claw marks that tore deep into his small body, shaking with the fear that froze her body. She was holding her little brother, his lifeless eyes now looking at her.

"Ethen!" Rosalie cried out. The little girl had pushed out of Dimitri's arms and ran to Petra's side. "Petra what's wrong with him?"

But the girl didn't answer, only stared at her little brother with wide eyes. The little girl stared at Ethen for another moment before turning to Grey with pleading eyes, as if she was asking her to save him. When Grey didn't do anything, Rosalie rushed over to her grandmother and wrapped her little arms around the woman's frail legs.

"Who did this?" Petra whispered, her voice broken.

"Khishchnik." Klara's voice was grim. "No other wild wolf near us is big enough to leave marks this deep. . ."

Petra then looked up at Grey as her grandmother took a crying Rosalie into her arms. Grey stayed crying quietly a couple feet away from the boy and her.

With venom on her tongue, she spat. "This is your fault."

"Petra-" Grey looked pained.

"You did this! You killed him!" Petra screamed and stood up, eyes blazing. "This is all your fault! He's dead because of you!" Grey was shaking her head, crying.

"Petra, stop it!" Klara said.

"If you hadn't come here, he wouldn't be dead! This is your fault." Petra then lost it, trying to lunge for Grey who screamed and tried to scurry away.

Dimitri's arms encircled Petra's torso as she tried to attack Grey. She growled and clawed at his arms, her attempt to free herself. It was then that Petra broke down into hysterics, body going limp in Dimitri's arms as she sobbed.

"Petra, I'm sorry." Grey said softly, shaking her head.

Through sobs, Petra managed. "Just go."

"Petra-"

"Leave!"

"Dimitri, get her inside." Klara said, her hand rubbing Rosalie's back.

To Grey, the world was spinning and her ears were ringing, the only thing visible were Ethen's eyes now looking at her. She could her the little girl sobbing into her grandmother's neck and her own heartbeat. She heard Klara calling her name from a distance.

"Grey." She turned to Klara who gave her a sad look. "I think it's time you went home."

Grey nodded and began to stand.

"I mean home. I think it's best if you go back to America."

Grey felt her heart break as she nodded - too out of it to hear the growl that shook the trees. "I'm sorry."

"Don't blame yourself. Khishchnik is more beast than man. Nothing can tame him."

• • •

When Grey got back to her cabin, she packed her things and sat in a quiet home and just cried. Never before had the girl felt so alone. She simply sat there, on that old couch in silence late into the night when her sobs had subsided and turned into hiccups. Even then, the feeling of loneliness had settled deep in her veins and she was left numb and staring blankly at the far wall. She felt like life had nothing in store for her anymore. She felt like there was no point anymore.

And those feelings and silence could be a dangerous combination. A combination she hadn't felt in years. Years before she made it to New York. Years before she barely even made it. She was scared deep down, because the last time these feelings had taken over her, her thoughts turned dark and had she not been such a coward she would've listened to them and not made it out. In the silence of her cabin, Grey sat not only in the darkness of the night, but the darkness of her mind.

And then, the silence was broken by a long howl from nearby. The sound alone sending chills down her spine, coaxing her out of her episode. It was a howl that called out to her. It whispered with the wind long after it stopped and it left Grey mesmerized with it's voice. Another howl, this one long and low, closer than the last that left strong emotions floating in the silent night. It left her breathless. It kept calling out to her, so Grey stood and slowly made her way out on the back porch, where the wind bit her skin and seemed to whisper in her ears louder, more forcefully. Had she been in her right mind, she would've turned around and went inside, but the tear trails on her cheeks and the blank look in her eyes showed she was out of it; and the tugging in her chest told her to go into the dark trees, just like that little voice that the wind seemed to carry. So without any source of light but the big full moon looming above her, she went into the forest with the thought of seeing the man she knew as khishchnik again.

While her thoughts should have shook her to the core after what happened earlier, they didn't. The thought of encountering the beast again sent her heart thumping wildly beneath her chest. She didn't know why: why she felt this way or why she was even going into the forest again, but she didn't try and stop any of it. So she deemed herself mad, all sanity gone and in it's place a hollow shell of insanity. No soul should crave the presence of a beast, let alone his touch. To feel her skin on his skin again, the thought alone gave her the sweetest kind of chills that made her toes curl. Grey accepted it, she had lost every bit of humanity and common sense in her body, and she was okay with it because that meant she got to see the beast one last time before she returned home.

{this is short but I tried to lengthen it but it was actually really hard. if it was to be longer it would've had to be completely rewritten and i like the feel of this chapter a lot.}