Penelope continued to walk, her eyes looking ahead of the trees as the density started to decrease. Finally, when she started to hear something in front of her, she felt her heart stutter at the sound of the flowing river.
Happy to have finally found about it, she caught sight of a rocky cave-like house which brightened her mood. She did come here and this was the missing part of her memory. Turning around she went to speak to Damien to notice three people coming from behind.
Damien noticing her widened eyes turned around. Raising his hand to shoot the person one after another right at the center of the head to have them fall down in less than fifteen seconds. The sound of the gunshots echoed through the quiet forest.
“Corrupted vampires,” he said for her to nod numbly.
“Where did they come from?” she asked, looking behind him to make sure there was no one.
“From the village, by walk, I believe,” when Damien said this, Penny who was still looking over his shoulder shifted her gaze to him to give him a dull smile.
“I thought they came flying,” she rolled her eyes before going to check back at the forest they had come from.
“Only witches fly with their broomstick. Vampires use the land,” he informed her as if she wasn’t aware of it, “This side of the forest must be isolated which is why they were here. Many creatures take home deep in the forest. Do you know what that means?” Damien himself turned to look behind him before crossing the edge of the forest, “You could have been in grave danger the first day you tried escaping.”
Now that she thought back at it, Damien was right. At the same time, she remembered something, “You didn’t tell me why you killed the inn man. The night I stayed away before you caught me,” she asked, her eyes this time looking all around rather than focusing it on just the rocky cave.
“The man had plans to sell you off to the slave establishment. I wonder how you would have felt to go back to the place where you tried to escape from,” he couldn’t help himself from smiling. Penny smiled,
“Nobody likes to go back there, Master Damien,” Penny commented as they made their way down the little slope that led to the rocky house.
“Wait, there was one person who didn’t mind staying there. She was my cellmate,” Penny said remembering the woman who had helped her get out of the slave establishment. Once they came near the house, Penny searched for the door to see there was no door. It was possible that wood was used here to cover the place but that must have been years. She was a young girl.
“No one has lived here in awhile,” Damien stated looking at the inside of the house which had collected dust and cobwebs around, “It is possible that your family was the only one who lived here and no one else came here. Most of the villagers don’t step this deep in the forest with the fear of being attacked by witches or vampires.”
“What about the other creatures?”
Damien picked up a small thin stick which was lying on the ground, using it he moved the cobwebs that had formed inside the house, “They might have thought it was a trap. Every creature will think twice at the fear of the place being a trap. But then if you come from behind, this looks like a normal rocky slope unless one goes around and finds the open door.”
He saw Penny staring at the walls, turning her head to look at the empty place except for more cobwebs that greeted them. She then stepped out of the house. She heard the soft sound of the water that flowed down from right to left and the birds that chirped in the trees.
“Something bad must have happened here,” Penny said trying to recollect the dream she had dreamt. Inhaling and exhaling out the air through her lips, “My father asked my mother leave this place with me, that he would be here before joining us,” she shook her head, “I don’t know what happened after that.”
“Did you remember anything recently?” he asked to have her shake her head again, “Were you hoping to remember?”
“It didn’t work though,” Penny’s reply came out to be in a disappointed tone. She had hoped that it would jog her forgotten memory. No not forgotten but tampered. It was frustrating to think that her own mother would do it. No one was supposed to meddle with one’s thoughts and memories.
All these years she had thought she had never met her father, who had never spent more than two weeks of time with him. Now that she knew the truth, she had spent years with him and her mother had taken that away from her. She clutched her hand tightly while staring down at the river. Anger bubbling up over it.
“We should head to my aunt and uncle’s house,” she proposed.
“I can hardly wait to meet them again,” Damien’s eyes brightened up with pure evilness.
She turned to see the look on his face to say, “Don’t break anything,” the last time they visited, Damien had broken her uncle’s fingers. The cracking of the bones giving her a slight shiver, “Do you have a fetish with the fingers?”
“I do. How did you know?” he smiled, then started to climb back up the slope to reach the edge of the forest.
She shrugged her shoulders, “Guessed it,” he chuckled, knowing well how she knew about it.
As they stepped back into the forest greeting back the three dead bodies that laid on the snow ground, “What about these people?” She wondered how many years Damien had practiced having an aim like this where he had got the vampires in three bullets.
“They will form a good compost to the plants once the ice melts down. Let them enjoy the snow until then,” he said, continuing to walk past the corrupted vampire’s dead bodies.
