Act 9

“In your dreams and by the ways, the gifts you gave me look better in the trashcans.” she puffed. Mat sighed and looked down, he noticed she was wearing boots. He slowly raised his gaze saw that she was wearing a full hiking gear. “Where are you going anyways?” he asked. Lily looked at herself and Xavier warnings once again flew through her mind. After a few seconds of staring Lily finally broke the silence, “I’m going hiking in the woods today.” she blurted out. “Alone?” Mat said distraughtly and continued, “What are you going to do there?”. Lily casually walked pass him while trying hard to cover her distress, “I’m just going to do a little exploring, I read a book on what I might find interesting in the woods” she said. Mat tried to talk to Lily about the dangers in the woods but she just continued walking. After entering the tree line, she sprinted to the mansion and knocked on the door wildly. Xavier unlocked the door and she practically burst inside and shut the door behind her. “Did something happen? Is somebody following you?” he asked while checking the peephole. Lily took a minute to recover “I dumped into Mat just now” she said under her breath. “WHAT?!?!?! Where is he now? Did he do something to you? I told you to keep your distance from that man.” he scolded at her. “I did keep my distance; I just didn’t see him there while I was checking my list” she countered. Xavier simply sighed and peek through the peephole once more, it doesn’t seem like he followed you”. Lily stood upright and showed Xavier the list, “Well, if that’s the case then let gather the remaining items for the ritual. Very well but we have to stay hidden; I don’t want anyone to see me.” he said. Lily smiled and gestured a salute while saying “Aye aye, captain.” “Good, and were going to exit at the back door, I’m not taking any chances specially when that Mat is wondering around. Not a moment later they headed out the back door to the wood to begin their search.

They treaded into the wood for a full ten minutes before stopping and checking the list. “Ok so the first thing that we need is a stone with your family symbol on it. I brought a brush and some black paint; all we need it the rock.” Lily said. Xavier looked around and said, “Were in the woods, there many stones here.” Xavier said sarcastically. “We are not just looking for just any rock, we need a rock with a circular shape and a flat base.” she explained. Xavier sighed and suggested that there is a rocky hill a couple of feet north from where they stood so Lily gestured for him to lead the way and Xavier glided passed her. The walk was mundane and they made a couple of stops for potty breaks because Lily constantly took a swig from her container. Nevertheless, they arrived at the hill around 9:30 so they began the search. It took several minutes of intense searching, Xavier stayed near the shadowy side of the hill so he could hide faster if necessary and Lily searched for the stone in the other side. After a few minutes of silence Xavier noticed that Lily was getting bored and he wanted to cheer her up but he pondered on what he would do at first but he remembered a story his father told him decades ago. He crept slightly out of the shadows just enough to see her fiddling with some the rocks. “Feeling a little bored I see.” he said softly. Lily smiled and said “Yeah kinda, it’s just finding this rock it so boring”. Xavier bent down, fiddled with his side of the rock pile “You like horror stories, correct?” “Yeah, I’m a big fan of horror creepy stories.” “Would you like to hear the story my father told me a story about this part of the forest” a Lily nodded her head still grabbing random rocks. “Long ago, there were tales about a creature living in these woods. Locals called it the Spirit of Cannibalism; some call it the Hound of Famine but my father simple called it the Wendigo. It is a creature born from a person who succumbed to their hunger and fed upon their fellow men and women. Those who did will transform in to a grotesque creature with antlers of a majestic deer and a skull for its head.” Lily interjected the story “I know this legend, I already heard it in video in YouTube.” Xavier smirked and replied with “Well did this YouTube know that there it one still roaming around as we speak?” Lily got a little nervous when she heard but she didn’t let Xavier’s story get to her, “Hmm…That’s just an old wives’ tale so their kids wouldn’t leave their house at night.” she said shakily. Xavier grind and said “Or is it?” and right after he said those words, he heard a faint howl from a distance. “Do you hear that?” he asked tensely. Lily thinking it was a prank nervously said “Hey, you can stop with the act, it’s not funny anymore.” Xavier gestured for her to keep quiet and continued to listen carefully, there was another howl but it was closer than the last one. This time Lily heard it and she was shaking in fear. Xavier told her to come to him slowly and so he did but as she crept, she felt that she was being watched. A primal fear was slowly overwhelming her and she started to walk faster, she was just a couple of feet from Xavier’s position when a massive hulk beast burst out of the tree line. Lily instinctively stop and took a glance at the creature and saw that it was a Wendigo, it had long deer-like horns and a skull of a wolf. Xavier yelled from her to run towards her but Lily was frozen with fear. It let out a gut-wrenching howl before sprinting towards Lily. She still hasn’t moved from her spot; the creature was fast and was a few steps away from her. Lily remembered the day with the two men. The day when she almost got assaulted and killed, so she just closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. But it didn’t come, all she heard was the monster’s cries of pain. She slowly opened her eyes to see, Xavier was fighting the Wendigo. He saved her like he did on the first night they met. Its painful howls were cause by his sharp tentacles piercing the beast’s flesh, his shadowy form was on top of it and was attempting to sever its head from its shoulders.