The hooded man rose to his feet and his black cloak moved with him, like it was an extension of himself.
She couldn't see his face, or anything at all.
Blood rushed through Idalia's veins. Her grip around the doorknob tightened as she took a step back.
Oh, wow.
Now her body listened to her. After it had already put them in trouble. Now her body obeyed.
The wheels in her head were turning fast. The hooded man had not moved any closer after he stood up. He just kept looking at her.
Or maybe he wasn't.
Maybe he couldn't see.
Maybe he could just sense that someone was there and he needed something to happen to move. She was tempted to close but she was convinced that even that would be too loud.
So instead, she placed her finger over Arik's lips. She let go of the doorknob and took a step back. But before she could even take another, he was right in front of her.
The fish of air rushed over her, slamming at her as hard as her heart was.
She turned to run but he was there too.
She backed away and he followed.
Two steps and her back hit the wall. There was nowhere to run. Her eyes moved around swiftly, searching for an escape, her chest raising and falling rapidly.
She could run towards her right, but he would catch her.
When he took a step further towards her, she slammed her lamp against his face. Hoping the pain would distract him long enough. Then she bolted in her right direction, but his hand slammed against the wall in front of her, denting it.
She froze, her breath coming out shallow.
She watched him pull his hand back, watched his long claws let go of the wall as his fingers trembled, watched the black ink the black ink that spilled just right underneath his skin move like webs.
A low chuckle cut through the space. Cold.
Tingles ran down Idalia's fear.
The air felt filled with it.
Her hand tightened around the lamp.
Greater force this time.
She whirled around to slam it against his face again. But he caught her hand and held it over her head as he pushed her against the wall.
Instinctively, she tried to attack him with her other hand but he captured that too.
Trapped.
Literally.
When he moved closer this time, there was nowhere to run.
No.
By Argon, no.
Then she heard Arik babbling something and he looked down. Then up at her, then down again, then up.
His movement, slow. As if he were calculating something.
Maybe he hated babies.
Maybe he would let her go because she had a baby?
She steeled herself for anything that would happen next, to fight to death instead of having anything happen to her son.
She had expected anything. Anything but what he had done.
His hand slipped against her cheek, and her breath caught in her throat.
Coarse.
Cold.
She could feel his long claws against her locs. And when she tried to move, he leaned in.
Then she saw his face.
Beneath the mysterious dark cobwebs under his skin that was reaching for his eyes, beneath the blood that ran down the corners of his lips and completely smeared his chin, beneath those long fangs that protruded from his mouth, she could see him.
And she knew him.
The Grand General?
The Silver Hunter.
The name echoed in her mind.
An involuntary gasp slipped through her lips and before she could even start to think about anything, something about his eyes drowned her in them.
A questionable feeling of bliss washed over her before she started seeing the images of dread. Every hostile thing she had ever witness, everything she had ever lost, all that grief, consumed her with how much she looked.
But it wasn't only sadness.
It felt like she was reliving each traumatic moment anew.
She could feel the rage, the horror, the anguish and most especially the loss.
Tears ran down her cheeks and her lips quivered with a plea. "Please…"
The images suddenly stopped. The cold feeling at her cheek vanished. The hooded man staggered back.
She dragged in a ragged breath as she felt like she had been yanked out of a nightmare into the present.
She bolted.
And this time, he didn't follow.
Why?
She didn't know.
She didn't care. He might want a chase. He might be waiting for her ahead.
She didn't care, she just ran.
Her trembling hand had found the right pattern on the wall. The wall had pushed open and she had continued to run. This time around though when she try to open to door, it did open.
The images wouldn't stop flashing in her mind. The words wouldn't stop echoing in her ears. She could see Grandpa Alfred on the floor, cut open. She could see Alpha Kalio's message on the wall. The blood. The threat.
Her feet kept running through the woods. Not stopping.
The tears weren't stopping either.
The memory that had been yanked towards the forefront of her mind wouldn't cease.
'Mother!" She could hear her voice in her head, as the memory of the day she had found her mother that way filled her mind.
'Mother? I heard you were sick. I had to rush here. I brought you some medicine and the Royal Pack Healer.'
The deafening silence.
The everything.
The sounds of sirens cut through the memory. She looked around to realize that she was still in the forest. She brushed her tears away, angrily. She could no longer still the mansion a good distant away, and she could see the Grand General looking at her from one of the windows.
She heard the whistle again and a siren.
She looked behind her. A good distance away, past the mansion, there was the reflection of white light from different torches.
And ahead of her, there was a lone reflection of light.
It was flickering.
As if it was beckoning to her.
Her hand held Arik's own as she tried to push the memories away.
Then she chose what light to run towards, feeling the gaze of the Grand General on her back no matter how far she ran.
Leaving with the consequences of what he had done to her.