That day the police officer brought what was left of our mother. Her shoes dyed with blood, once probably soaked and wet, now dry and black. He said that they already checked with the contracted magician whether the blood belonged to her. It did.

The day after that we held a small burial in our backyard during a late afternoon. We didn't disclose her passing to the public, but some of our loyal customers came anyway. I didn't have a good relationship with my mother's parents, but I was hoping that they would come to say goodbye too. They didn't.

Father was looking even worse than he did before she went missing. Larry confided in me yesterday that he's worried he'd try to do something to himself. He was wondering whether he should put off his military leave, but I promised him that I'd keep an eye on dad. He was now the only parent we've had. I didn't want my brother to postpone his plans, especially since the Beast was still alive and well and who could tell what would happen later with this wild creature hunting so close to our town.

There was also Caroline standing next to Larry and in the back of the crowd stood the man I've met accidentally the other day in front of the tavern. I've never seen him in this area before that, but since he was coworkers with Brich they must have shared a few friends.

Mother was buried on the small hill under the sole tree growing there. During this whole ordeal despite it being held in an early winter, the sun was as shiny as it could be at this time of the year. To summarize it up, the day was very sunny albeit windy. I had to hold my black dress down every time the wind became stronger.

'Not the best weather to commemorate someone's death' I thought to myself.

When they finished burying her the crowd slowly started to dissolve. When I decided to leave there was only father left standing in front of the freshly dug mound.

I went to the front yard of our home to say farewell to those customers that still lingered a little behind. They wanted to let me know that they appreciated what my mother has done and that our place was the best to get drunk in a nice friendly atmosphere. I thanked them for their kind words with glossy eyes and a few sobs. Inside I felt nothing. I was hollow.

When most of the guests truly left, the man who was waiting for a while in the distance to have his chance to speak finally decided to approach me.

"I'm so sorry for your loss." He said. He did seem worried, but I doubted that my mother had even an ounce of opportunity to acquaint him. The factory he and Brich supposedly worked at wasn't that close to our locale or shopping district, where mother used to go for groceries.

'Wait, no. Stop doing that' I reprimanded myself. He actually was kind to me even when I treated him harshly and if not for his help I wouldn't have known where to start my search and whom to ask. Thanks to that I had a chance to learn something new. I shouldn't doubt everything other people were saying.

"It's fine." I didn't know how to reply to that, it was the first time someone so close to me passed away.

"I forgot to introduce myself the other day, I know now it's not the greatest moment, but I still wanted to correct my mistake. You can call me Yoren. I also wanted to apologize for being so suspicious of you back then. I thought you were trying to hide something, I wasn't expecting that you were also dealing with the loss of someone close to you. " He said. I did try to hide something, he was right. No one knew that I was probably the last person who saw Mother and Brich before they've been eaten by a Beast.

Or was there someone else? After that day I didn't have time to check whether there were some clues left. If I wanted to do it I'd better hurry, since the snow could start falling in just a matter of days or even hours. If I was late I'd have to wait till spring to check whether there were some footprints or other traces, and to be honest there was a very high chance that it would falter before that. The melting snow could wash it all away and I'd never know what happened that night.

"It's fine." I repeated. But I quickly composed myself and replied in a more gentle tone of voice. "Our last conversation got cut short. I'm sure you'd introduce yourself otherwise. Anyway, let bygones be bygones. I also treated you harshly the first time we met."

"None offense taken, missy." Yoren grinned and continued. "So, did you visit that crazy woman? What did she say?"

"Why are you so keen on this topic? Do you still think that the Beast had something to do with my mother's death or Brich's?"

"I've never said anything about it being connected to your mother's death though? Looks like this little missy knows more than she lets slip away." Oh no, I accidentally said something I shouldn't have said. How could I've made such a beginner's mistake? I wanted to treat him only a little more kindly, not let my guard down.

He must have sensed my inner turmoil because he added. "I was only joking. Once again I committed a serious blunder. You're in mourning. You have already lots of things to worry about, I shouldn't have added any more to that. "

He looked like he wanted to leave it at that, but since I was already found out I figured it wouldn't make sense to reject the opportunity to come clean and maybe gain an ally. Since my reputation wasn't an issue to him I might've as well give it a try.

"Wait." I tugged at the hem of his coat and whispered. "You guessed correctly. You were right that day and today too. I was with Brich the night before his wife noticed he went missing. I'll tell you more if you follow me. We're not in an adequate place for a conversation like this."

He slowly nodded and followed me.

I took him to the place where it all started. To the woodshed. I wanted to check it out anyway, but since he was so willing to follow a stranger to an unknown location, how could I not make use of that? Last time the Beast left me alone after it took Brich. I hoped I'd be lucky this time around too.

Despite that a few days passed by, the place still looked as ghostly as ever. I was beginning to think that it looked less scary when the sun wasn't up. A small building made mostly of wood and fewer spikes than it was necessary to have. The door was hanging on its hinges slightly and with every stronger gust of wind an ominous creak was audible. The ground around it surprisingly wasn't covered in blood, as I've been expecting. Mother probably didn't die here in that case, but somewhere else. The only thing seen to the eye were pawprints of some large animal, some of them still fresh. I didn't want the man to start lurking around and destroying possible clues so I cleared my throat to catch his attention and to make myself seem hesitant and worried.

"I'll start from the very beginning." I quickly described to Yoren the gist of the events that unfolded that night. He was silent through it all, only sometimes nodded to show that he was still listening. When I finished I also added. "As for the question you asked earlier, yes, I went to the shopping district, but didn't find out much. Only that the young witch in question really was here on a visit six years ago."

"She must've been the one to cast that cruel curse on someone." He said with full confidence.

I didn't really have any other idea either, but accusing a stranger without any concrete evidence wasn't something I wanted to do. It was different from breaking a bottle next to someone, this time if we made a mistake we could never find who was the cursed human or the real caster.

"How can you be so sure? We don't have any evidence to base that theory on." I voiced my doubts.

"Think about it. She must've cast a curse by an accident or on purpose on someone to retaliate or perhaps of some other known only to her reason. After that she simply left the town and vanished."

"So we're never going to find her."

"Not exactly, haven't you noticed that the Beast started to get more violent? I went to the library after our last talk and read a bit about curses." He then proceeded to show me the book he must've been hiding this whole time under his cloak.

The volume was a very thick, massive tome clothed in a black sturdy frame. On its cover were engraved in gray color letters spelling "All about curses".

"Were you carrying this thing around with you this whole time? Did you already plan this whole talk from the start to finish?" No matter from which perspective I was trying to look at it, it definitely wasn't something a person with all senses intact would do. Even me, a girl known amongst people as crazy or unhinged, wouldn't do a thing that suspicious.

Yoren looked slightly abashed at that remark. "No, of course not. To be truthful, I visited the library I've just mentioned yesterday and decided to borrow this book for a while since I deemed it to have valuable pieces of information inside." After saying those words he looked down on me from his height and said while grinning. "I just wore the same cloak I had on myself yesterday, little missy."

"Sure."

"Don't give me that look, missy. I know what you hide inside that basket of yours." He got me. "Anyway, let's not banter about such trivial matters. As I've been saying before someone rudely interrupted, this book concentrates on curses in more detail and look at what I've found." He showed me a page depicting an ugly bald creature half crawling, half kneeling on the floor.

"The beast didn't look like that."

"I didn't mean the picture, read the text that's above it." He said impatiently.

"The curse of transformation" I read aloud. "This type of curse gets only stronger over time. The transformations can become more frequent if the victim is under a lot of stress or other intense emotions. Possible cure is not known to this day. The severity of spell depends on the intentions of the caster while making the spell." We're doomed. I looked skeptically at Yoren.

"Missy, stop glancing my way, you're way too young for me to even reconsider."

"Stop joking and explain this, old man. " I pointed at the page. "What does that have to do with the possible return of the culprit?"

"You're smart, use your head a little. If the curse gets only stronger with the passage of time, won't it mean that rumors and victims will start to become more frequent? Even if the girl specialized in dark magic, she wouldn't possibly want anyone to know that she was the one to cast such a spell. Especially if it was by an accident. So I say, if she's the one that did this, she's going to come here soon. And try to fix that mistake."

"So you're saying we should just sit back and wait?" It would be nice. I really didn't want to wander through the night ever again in my life.

"You can if you want to. But Brich's dead, your mother, Roxana's dead. They both were associated with your family's tavern. She might grow worried that your whole family is in the known and want to get rid of you first." Everything he said was logical. I didn't know how I could refute that.

"So what you're saying is, we should get rid of the witch first and the Beast later?"

"Seems like it, Missy." He grinned. "It would be perfect if we could wait 'til the girl does the job for us and eliminate the creature, but since your life's on the line, we should first take care of her. If we're lucky we might find a clue or even a true identity of the cursed person. Maybe they're able to somehow communicate with each other." He whistled through the clenched teeth and started stretching. "It's good to finally do something with this. What do you say, let's stop for today and after a good night's rest start afresh tomorrow morning? I doubt that you're going to be busy with that tavern. Your father wasn't in the best shape during the burial."

"I can't see why not. Let's meet in front of my house tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock sharp."

"That early? I'm not really used to being awake at that time... I'll see what I can do. I'll walk you home, let's go." He said and tried to take my hand but I dodged and said. "Don't get chummy with me just because we happen to have a similar goal. I get it that you want to avenge the death of your friend, but don't think that I suddenly become one to you. And if you try to backstab me, remember, I caught you red-handed today." I warned him.

Yoren swiftly changed the topic earlier, but I knew better. A book about dark magic laying in the white light inside a regular, easy to access library? Nice joke. If he ever were to betray me he was sure to go down together with me. Dark magic was strictly prohibited even amongst witches, I wonder what would happen if a human got caught with a book like that.

He must've understood the meaning hidden behind my words, because his demeanor became more serious. "You don't want to cross me." He said menacingly.

"I wonder." I smiled and started to play with my basket that I recently fancied to take everywhere with me. There's not much to lose for me anyway if he decided to spill the beans to someone. My happy family's life ended with my mother's death. I stopped playing nice.