CHAPTER 28: 28-DO NOT KILL HIM.

Clementine

"Oh, look at me, I’m such a damsel in distress, walking among the beautiful trees like a pretty little angel," I uttered to myself as I wandered around the trees.

This plan was going to suck ass. I don’t know what made them think a monstrous Faun would fall in love with me when not a single werewolf has ever fallen in love with me and yet the three of them decided I could be a lure just angered me so much.

What were they planning on doing? I only raised my eyes to check on Ian, who was sitting on top of a tree, holding a rock that had an alcohol drenched cloth wrapped around it, and then he had a lighter in his other hand.

They were going to set it on fire and throw it onto the Faun. Did they think that would kill him? I mean, it could scare him. I was completely lost, but I was just playing my part because I did not want them to come yell at me saying I did not help them catch that Faun.

So if this was their master plan, I was up for it. I would love to watch them fail when they realized that the Faun was not in love with me.

However, the minute everything went silent was when I started to feel my body go numb again. It was happening just like last time, and then I heard the haunting melody of the flute.

I quickly grabbed the cloth plugs that Troy had made for me and stuffed them into my ears. I began to look around, and I saw the Faun making its way towards me. I started to back down.

I sneakily looked up at the three of my squadmates, and they were ready, all set to attack him. Once, he was in the desirable zone.

I was shaking, gulping a lot, because coming face to face with a monster that had chased me down like it was having fun was so scary.

"But what if it doesn’t work," I said to myself under my breath, taking slow and steady steps back. It kept coming, playing the flute, and then it stopped suddenly.

Now it stared into my eyes while playing the flute before it slowly pulled the flute down. I steadily raised my hand to act like I was tucking the hair behind my ear when I pulled one of the cloth plugs out of my ear.

"Where have you been all this time?"

I felt my heartbeat stop when he said in a thunderous voice. His voice was so haunting. I pointed at my chest to know if he was really talking to me.

"I was here." I began to wonder if what they said was true.

"I have waited so long for you," he said, its movements so weird. Was he a goat? Was he a human? What the fuck was he?

"I was here all along," I replied awkwardly, keeping my distance from him.

"But you betrayed me," he said. "You ran away with him. You said he was just a friend."

I felt the goose pimples cover my skin. His emotions were so raw that I started to have tears in my eyes.

"We had a baby. We were supposed to take care of her together. But then you left me," he continued, taking his steps towards me. He was on his back legs while his hands held on to the flute, which were more like human hands.

I don’t know, I guess I began to stutter because we did not rehearse this part of the plan, and I wanted to hear, I wanted to know what he was talking about.

"We were lovers, Diana. We have loved each other for so long. But then look, look what you did to me. Look what I have become because of you. Because of my anger. Because of my hatred for what you have done. Because I hate love."

And he suddenly screamed, and I fell to the ground when I watched him come towards me with his horns ready to hit me.

But that is when he stopped, and he started screeching and screaming when they began to hit him with the fireballs.

"No, no!" I got up screaming.

"Stop!" I said, my hands in the air. "What are you guys doing?" I screamed. "Do you not hear me? I am telling you to stop!" I shouted.

I watched the Faun get up and then fall down, then struggle, trying to grab onto the fireballs and throw them back at my squadmates.

"There he is."

And then the worst thing happened. The White Crusaders came in and they all had made themselves makeshift crossbows with the tip of every bow on fire.

"Run!" I screamed at the Faun, who looked me dead in the eye and then looked back at the White Crusaders.

"I said just fucking run!" I repeated myself, and that is when he finally turned around and started to book it in the other direction.

In order to stop my own squadmates, I had to step closer to the Faun. Not too close, but the minute I was in the view, in the vicinity, I noticed that my squadmates stopped throwing fireballs, probably because they were worried that I’d get hurt, which was a rare thing.

I did not really think they would stop. I mean, Ian didn’t stop. One of his fireballs even hit the Faun and then tossed onto my shoulder, burning it a little.

Once the Faun was gone, the three from the tree jumped down, standing around me in a circle, while the White Crusaders started chasing after the Faun, but I guess he was long gone by the time they could even arrive.

"What the fuck was that?" Yorick yelled, almost like he wanted to get too close so that he could push me back and show me how angry I had made him.

"I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like we were doing the right thing," I argued.

That is when Troy stepped forward, almost pinching my shirt so that he could make me turn and face him.

"What do you mean by that? We are fucking supposed to slay these monsters so that we can go back home. Do you not want to go back home or what?" Troy yelled in my face, making me take a deep breath and step back.

"All I am saying is that there are other ways we could slay a monster. Ever heard of helping them see the light?" I asked, and the two shared a very disgusted look like I was saying something nasty.

"Oh, I knew she was gonna be trouble," Ian commented, sounding way calmer than them, but I could tell he was not. He was annoyed.

"I wish we had just left her here and left for our homeland. I don’t like her," he then added, playing with the ball in his hand. He would throw it in the air and then catch it back.

"I just wanted to hear his story!" I screamed back, once I felt like they were not listening to me.

"Huh?" Yorick scoffed, asking me with a simple gesture of his body. "You wanted to hear a story? You fucking want to hear bedtime stories?" Troy repeated, yelling again.

They were so loud and so aggressive, but that was the least of my concerns at the moment, because soon I saw the White Crusaders rush back, their shoulders puffed, anger on their faces, their fists clenched, and all four of them were headed straight towards us.

Suki came like a fire, standing, stopping just a few feet away from me, and then pointing her arrow at me. It made everyone gasp and stare at her in confusion.

"I think I know how to get out of here. We fucking kill the one he is in love with and he dies out of misery," she said.

And that is when she shot her arrow right at me.