WARNING - 1

"Mosley?" Called Finch as she opened the door.

When Finch woke up early in the morning, she found the rocking chair to be empty. She had not seen Mosley since last night, wondering where the woman might be. Mosley never told Finch about her business, but it was strange for the woman to not come home.

Finch thought that Mosley might be outside because the woman was not able to enter the premise unless Finch invited her in. But when the girl stepped outside to look for her, she was nowhere to be found.

Where is she? She frowned. Sweeping her gaze around the foggy forest one more time, Finch decided to go back inside. She was just about to make something to eat when she heard a soft knock on the door. She quickly pulled the door open and was ready to invite Mosley in when she noticed it was not Mosley. Her brows knitted together when she saw the person at the entrance.

"What are you doing here in the morning, Will?" Inquired Finch. Her voice was stern at him, indicating that she had not forgiven him and Thomas for what they did to Edmond few days ago. She then remarked to him. "Go back to your village, I'm not your friend anymore."

William, who had come to see Finch in the morning, looked hurt upon hearing Finch's remark to him. The pain was vividly drawn on his face which caused Finch's stomach to stir with guilt. She did not mean to hurt him but she could not accept what he and Thomas did to Edmond.

"I'm sorry, Finch." William mumbled. It was hard for Finch to ignore how genuine he sounded. It brought pain to her heart herself.

In a short time, Edmond had turned to be someone she cared the most compared to William and Thomas, who had known her longer than Edmond. However, that did not dissipate the fact that she cared about William. She did not want him to get hurt.

"I don't want you nor Thomas to hurt Edmond anymore. He's my friend." Finch spoke lowly.

William nodded to her. "I promise I won't hurt him anymore."

Finch could not help but smile at him. "What about Thomas?"

"You have to tell him yourself." He smiled back at her but his green eyes looked at her pleadingly. "I hope Thomas will understand."

Finch shrugged. She knew how stubborn Thomas was. He was the one who was totally against Edmond playing with her. "I'll try." She said as she stepped outside for the second time that morning.

"Why didn't Thomas come with you?"

William shook his head. His lips tightly pressed together and his eyes looked sad.

Finch was waiting for William to tell her more about his visit in the morning, instead of being silence. "Are you okay, William?"

"My parents are not happy with you." He muttered.

"Your parents?" Repeated Finch in bewilderment. Never for once that William mentioned anything about his parents before. Why did he do that now? "Why?"

"I told them about you." William confessed as he lowered his gaze, looking at the wet ground as he felt ashamed of himself for revealing the secret about Finch. He knew Thomas would not approve of it. "They found out about me going to forest almost everyday to visit you. They do not like it."

"Why don't they?" Finch still could not fathom out the reason behind their dislike. Then she remembered when Edmond's father was there. He did not seem to like the idea of Edmond coming to the forest either. Was the forest really bad to them?

William sighed. He looked up to see her frowning. "I need to tell you something, Finch."

Finch nodded at him. "Tell me, William."

"My father will send people to come here and look for you. You need to promise that you are not going to let them find you. They're not good people."

Hearing this, Finch got tense. "Why do they need to come for me?" She muttered.

For nine years, Finch had never been bothered by the idea of bad people coming to find her in the forest. The people that usually did that were the boys that she befriended with. What was William's parents' problem to send those people to find her? Finch was utterly confused.

"They don't like you, Finch. You need to hide from them." William now spoke in urgency.

"I will have to tell-" She paused. She was about to say that she would have to tell Mosley and the woman would be able to help her hiding from those people. Finch was not sure if Mosley would be happy if she let William know about her, despite the fact that Mosley did not mind to reveal herself in front of Edmond and his father. "I will hide myself, William."

"That's good, Finch!" As William said those words to Finch, he suddenly turned on his heels and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Finch was not happy that William had to leave so soon. She had not been spending time with him since the last time he came. Usually William was the most cheerful and carefree one. Now, he looked bothered and sad. She wondered if his parents had done something to him.

William stopped walking and turned his head around as he answered, "I have to go home, Finch. I need to rest." His voice sounded weak.

"Are you sick, William?" Finch looked at him with concern. Then, as she noticed something unusual from him, she asked, "Aren't you feeling cold?"

For Finch, walking around in the forest wearing only a dress in the rainy and cold weather, was not going to bother her body temperature as her body was different from any normal human beings. She had been knowing the boys for a while and noticing that they would not go anywhere without wearing coats to keep them warm. That morning, the rain had not poured down from the sky but it was absolutely cold for a normal human being like William.

So, when she noticed that William wearing nothing but a plain blue shirt and brown pants, Finch narrowed her eyes down at him.

The boy now strangely smiled at her and shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm feeling warm for the first time. I'm fine, Finch."

"Okay then, William." Finch gave up. She did not want to hold him here as she could see he was unwilling to stay. "I'll see you again later."

He smiled at her and nodded, before he resumed to walk, leaving the girl and the forest behind him. Nothing was uttered from his lips as he went.

Finch stood there watching William leave. There was something strange that she felt about William yet she could not tell what it was. Her eyes kept watching on William who began to walk further away from where she lived.

"He must have known the way back to village very well now." She commented to herself bitterly that he did not ask her to lead the way out of the forest. She kept grumbling as she went inside to continue making the food for her breakfast.

She felt annoyed that William and Thomas had barely visited her recently, leaving her to spend the whole day by herself. Her mind then remembered of Edmond's father's promise to come and see her again with Edmond. But, that did not settle with her as it was uncertain when they would come. Now she became lonelier than she was before she met any of them.

"Finch."

The girl, who was eating her meal in front of the fireplace, startled as someone called her name from behind the door. The first few seconds of hearing her name got called, had made Finch alert of the people William mentioned. Then she recognised the voice of the person who called her name, who was none other than Mosley. She put her plate down and got up to open the door for the woman.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by a hostile Mosley who glared at Finch with her white eyes.

"Who did come here, Finch?" Spoke Mosley in a harsh tone of voice.

"William." Answered Finch. She then quickly added, "But he stayed outside. Only for a bit."

Mosley raised her right eye brow as she looked down at the girl in front of her. "Do not lie to me, Finch." She snapped at her.

Finch was taken aback with what Mosley said. In her life, she had never lied to Mosley.

"I spoke the truth. It was William."

Suddenly, Finch's neck was grabbed by a skeleton hand that belonged to Mosley. She gripped Finch's neck tightly and pushed her to the side, slamming her against the wall. Finch's eyes went wide as she started to choke. Fear was set in her eyes as she saw the real form of Mosley who forced herself coming into the house uninvited.

Gone the white-paled skin that covered her body, leaving her as a living skeleton with clothes on. A skull, with a few strands of white hair still attached onto it, tilted to the side. Her white eyes were still there and they kept glaring at the girl as she continuously warned her to stop lying.

"I…I…don't..lie" Finch was struggling to get Mosley's bony hand loose by trying to pull the skeleton hand off of her.

"I would have known if that spoiled brat was the one who came. You think I'm stupid?! You can't fool me." Yelled Mosley as she got more and more angry. "Tell me the truth! Or I'll end your existence, Finch."

Tears began to flood in Finch's eyes. She did not know why Mosley thought she had lied when all she did was speaking the truth. She tried to remember the boy who came to see her earlier, trying to see any indication that he was not William. But she found nothing. Everything about the boy looked exactly like William. So why could not Mosley believe her?

Mosley noticed the pain and bewilderment in the girl's eyes. "What made you think that it was that boy?" She slowly loosened her grip on Finch's neck but still held her firm. "Did he come here by himself?"

"Yes," Finch said.

"Did he come to this oasis without your lead?" Finch widened her eyes as she registered what Mosley just asked and what answered she had for her question. Gauging Finch's reaction, Mosley let go of her immediately, causing the girl to fall on the ground, coughing and feeling dizzy from being held up and choked against the wall.

"Whoever he was, he was not William." Mosley stated as her skeleton form stepped out of the house, turning her back into a normal human form.

She sniffed the air in front of her oasis, trying to identify the smell of whoever it was that came there earlier. Mosley caught a smell like rotting flesh. She followed the smell that led her to walk few meters away from her oasis until the smell itself disappear, leaving nothing but a smell of fresh air in the forest.

"He died." She whispered through the wind.