Into the woods I P U B L I S H E D

„My heart is all yours,

as yours is all mine.”

- Elizabeth

Elizabeth

I swam up and down the swimming pool as fastest as I could. The water was splashing all around me as I tried to break my personal record, and also win against Monica, the blond haired girl from Nicklaus’s group.

She glanced over at me for a second before she went under the water again.

She swam really fast for a person, even If I have to admit that it was hard to catch her but I wasn’t going to let her win. We both started swimming faster when coach Wolf announced that this was the last line.

Students were screaming our names. Some of them, I mean her group, was screaming her name, while Kathryn, Ashley and some of the students were screaming my name.

Nicklaus, on the other hand, was sitting silently on the bench with his arms and legs crossed, a small smile of admiration spread on his lips.

„Come on, Elizabeth. You can beat this blond bitch!” Kathryn yelled.

„Watch your language, Miss. Walton,” Coach warned her. He stood next to her with a stopwatch in his hand.

„Sorry coach,” Kathryn apologized.

There were a few meters left and I closed my eyes, scared of the ending. My mind turned blank as soon as I touched the end of the pool with my hands.

Diving out, I could hear them screaming. At this moment, I didn’t know which name they were screaming until Kathryn, Ashley and a few of the students that I didn’t know their names lifted me up and started shaking me.

„You won!” Ashley hugged me with every strength that she had.

I hugged her back. I didn’t expect to win but I had to say, the feeling was pretty amazing. I felt like a champion.

„I knew it!” Kathryn joined us in the hug.

„Girl, please let me go. Snälla du,” I said in my mother language. Probably realizing what it meant, they let me go with a smile on their face.

„Congrats Zemerlöw,” Everyone turned quiet when the coach walked to us with Nicklaus beside him. Coach threw a towel at me. „I didn’t expect you to be such a great swimmer.”

„Neither did I,” I joked as I wrapped the towel around my body. „She was a hard competitor.” Monica and the rest of the group walked to us. She was wrapped in a towel too but she wasn’t happy at all. Her face was dark, furious. And something I haven’t seen before. Sadness.

Boby was the first one who congratulated me on the win. Then came John, the blond-haired boy and at the end Lara, the exotic green haired girl. Monica didn’t congratulate me, she just stood there, watching every person congratulating me.

Nicklaus came to her, leaned down and while staring at me, he whispered something down at her that made her eyes widen. She turned to him and stared him in the eyes.

„So here is a perfect example that you can be better with just a little practice,” I took my chance by sneaking out of the group as the coach gave them a speech how to be better, and made my way to Monica and Nicklaus.

„Hey,” Both of them looked at me. „You were really good,” I stretched my hand at her. Looking down at it, she glanced back at me. „You were really good too, for a human,” She passed next to me, and at the same time, she bumped into me with her shoulder.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

„Calm down,” Nicklaus placed his hands on each of my shoulders. „She is just sad that Henry chose you and not her,” Realizing what he had just said, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

„I shouldn’t have said that.”

„It’s okay,” I smiled up to him. „What happened between them it’s in the past. I’m the future.”

„So you will call him?”

I shake my head. „I don’t know, but If you could give me the number just in case I changed my mind,” Lie. I lied to him and also to myself.

Boby called out his name and before he left, he smiled at me and gave me a hug. „My phone is in my locker. You can go take it yourself. See you later.”

Kathryn and Ashley walked past him to me. My eyes were focused on his group. All of them were whispering something to each other as they stared at me. I started feeling insecure, even if I was covered with a towel.

„So, did you get the number?” Kathryn asked and I shook my head, still looking at them. Nicklaus said something and all of them started laughing. I wondered if they were laughing at me.

„No, but I will get it.” We walked down the stairs to the dressing room. Some male students waved at us. Boys.

„How will you get it?” Ashley asked as she took out a bottle of water from her bag. Sitting down, I started drying off my leg.

„Nicklaus told me to take it from his phone,” Both of them stared at me like I was going crazy. Kathryn shook something in her hand and said something under her breath while Ashley drank the entire bottle in a few seconds.

Ashley picked her wet hair into a ponytail. „I mean, you two are really good friends, but I didn’t know that you were that close.”

„I don’t know. I think for the last few weeks I started to consider him as a friend,” I shrugged. Taking off my bathing suit, I quickly dressed behind the curtain into my clothes and pulled my hair into a ponytail too. I had to thank the rubber cap to not make my hair that wet.

„You know, you are actually becoming like Nicklaus,” I opened the curtain and stared at Ashley with widen eyes.

Kathryn nodded. „That’s true. It’s like you are dating Nicklaus and not Henry. Both of you are pretty much the same,” Kathryn shrugged, picked her bag from the floor and smiled at me. „Don’t take it seriously. We are just messing with you,” She tapped my shoulder. „There is no way that you are like him.”

Both of them left me here standing in silence behind the curtain. I couldn’t believe that they just said that.

But when I actually thought about it, maybe they were telling the truth. Maybe I was becoming like him.

Walking into the boys private dressing room, I tried not to be caught by someone. Especially by his group. Luckily for me, no one was near his locker.

I opened his locker and I immediately regretted asking him for help when I sew how much stuff he had in there.

Not even God could find his phone in here. It was so messy and disgusting. For a second I thought about actually dropping this and just ask him to send me his number but knowing Nicklaus, he wouldn’t leave me alone after that, and he would go tell his brother.

Going through his clothes, I searched for his phone until I finally found it beneath his jeans. I unlocked it, went the phone book and searched for Henry’s number.

I stopped when I saw my picture and his name for me.

Love.

Closing my eyes for a second, I scrolled down the phone until I reached Henry.

It’s just a sign of friendship. Yeah, that’s it.

I comforted myself.

„What are you doing here?” Turning around, I saw Monica standing in front of me, and behind her, Boby, John, and Laura were staring at me.

„It’s nothing you have to worry about,” I placed his phone back into the locker, shut it and turned around to face Monica again. She made a step forward, pushed me to the locked, making me hit my head.

„Of course I have to worry,” She started choking me. „You think you can just enter our lives and use Nicklaus as a puppet? I won’t allow you to take another one from me,” Her eyes turned black as she choked me harder in anger.

„Monica!” John placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t give a damn as she choked me that hard that I could see the stars in front of me. But I didn’t let her see the way she was hurting me. I showed her that I wasn’t afraid of her. Or her group of friends.

„Monica, let her go!” Boby and John grabbed her and she finally let me go. I took deep breaths as I tried to catch my breath. Laura came to me, lifted my head up, pushing my hair on the other side, she shoved them my scar. „She is marked! You know what you just did?” Marked?

„What the hell are you talking about?” I asked in each breath I took.

„You don’t know?” Laura asked. Boby and John let go of Monica, and she stared at me, her eyes full of tears.

„What should I know?” I stood up, looking at them confused. „Is something wrong?”

Before I even know it, Monica came to me, looked at me in the eyes and apologized before she stormed out of the dressing room.

Laura made a step forward, placing her hand on my shoulder. „I’m sorry for this. This shouldn’t have happened. She has some anger issues that runs in her family.”

„You didn’t answer my question,” I pushed her hand down. John made a step forward, scanning my whole body. „She just did,” He said.

I made a step forward. „I don’t know what the hell is wrong with this place, but I sure as hell will find out,” I didn’t give them a chance to say something back as I stormed out, leaving them alone in the room.

Walking down the hallway, I tried to cover my neck because I was sure that after this, my neck would be full of bruises.

I found a quiet corner and leaned at the wall, taking my phone out and opened the massage ap.

This was it.

I needed to do this.

My hands were shaking as I typed the number and the message. A few seconds later, I stared at the message one more time before I closed my eyes and without waisting another second, I hit that send button.

We need to talk. – Elizabeth

A second later, I get a reply.

I will pick you up at seven, love. – Henry

~ - ~

The moment I stepped back into my room, I threw everything on my bed, including my heavy bag. And taking my laptop out, I placed it on the desk next to the book that Ashley gave me about this town.

I never had a chance to look at it properly.

Taking the old, brown leathered book in my hands, I sat back on my bed and opened it. The same smell of sulfur came into my nose, and I tried to breathe again. I took a tissue from my bag and placed it over my mouth.

My fingers turned the first page around and I came across a sigil with a wolf carrying a rose in his mouth. Beneath the sigil, the town’s name was written in a bold font.

I turned the next page around, seeing a picture of the same man that I saw in the library.

Henry James Nightclaw I.

Also known as the Beast of the Rosegarden.

It didn’t say much about him that I already didn’t know. But the one thing I never saw in the library was the picture next to him.

It was a picture of a giant black wolf with red eyes. It looked very much like the demon I had faced so long ago.

I looked down the picture, reading the small text that was written beneath it.

A rumor has it that the Nightclaw’s own a beast who does their bitting or they could transform to the beast too. But such things were never confirmed. But one thing we know, there is an awful smell of death coming from them. - Shadowrose mail, 11/20/1967 - Jackson Johnson