The cousins took advantage of my moment of weakness to sneak past me, down the stairs.
“Whatever about Bayla. We need to get to Moenia.”
Those were the last words I heard before the images took me and I sank to the floor.
Chapter 35
Bayla
Back and forth, back and forth.
I turned to the mirror, hitting my head as if it was my fault, as if I had actually dreamed it all.
Maybe it had just been a misunderstanding, a stupid coincidence. How many times had I not had delusions?
The guys, Nash and Julian, maybe they were just strong… But Vivienna...
Back and forth.
And the eyes, that might as well have been the sun. But this huge creature with its threatening look, which had suddenly appeared where Emely had been standing before...
Back and forth.
I couldn’t keep telling myself that a wolf had simply appeared there. Maybe the professor was just crazy. What if that had been his dog, who also happened to be named Emely? It was possible that he had brought him to campus with him.
God, Bayla...that was no dog. That beast had been as big as a damn pony, and I hadn’t been dreaming.
I didn’t want to believe it, but what if all those myths about supernatural creatures were true? What if the wild wolves in the woods of Blairville weren’t wild wolves, but...?
No.
I shook my head hard as goosebumps spread all over my body.
Thump.
Panicked, I froze in my movement.
What had that been?
Fear rose up inside me. The very same fear that had helped me run from campus to Mum’s dodgy summer house, where I had been pacing my room, terrified, until just now. I had been trying hard to find an explanation for the recent events. Unsuccessfully.
Now, I was fully back in the present. That noise had definitely come from downstairs, and all I knew right now was that I was home alone.
I had locked the door behind me, which didn’t make it any better, and the fact that I had taken karate back then only gave me the barest hint of hope.
Creak.
Oh, no.
“No, no, no, no, no...” I whispered desperately, but then pressed my hand over my mouth, realizing how stupid that had just been.
If there was a list of potential serial killer victims somewhere, I was certainly on top of it.
Creak.
Shit.
Some wild wolf was running around the first floor, possibly trying to eat me, and here I was, typically me, standing in my new room, panicking, looking for a place to hide.
Actually, I should have realized myself that there was none because the closet was too small for me, and under the bed, only those were hiding who always died first in horror movies, not to mention the idiots who went into the basement just to ask if someone was there. Of course. In the basement!
I did the next best thing, and at the same time, probably the dumbest thing: I tiptoed through the bulky door of the room and peered across the hallway.
Somehow, I had to get into the bathroom, where the window could be opened in such a way that one should be able to disappear silently over the side roof. However, once again, I hadn’t done the math with the creature on the first floor.
Creak.
My heart sank even lower.
It was the damn stairs.
I was at the mercy of this monster if I didn’t hide somewhere now. My eyes darted down the hallway in panic, and I discovered that the door to the room of death was open a crack.
I was about to reach for the door handle. But instead of a giant wolf, my mother appeared on the stairs.
“Oh my God, Mum!”
I rushed to her and threw my arms around her shoulders.
