Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 20

“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.”-Jim Rohn.

Chapter 20

-Karen-

When we reached the place, I was pretty sure that Beth would hate me for being late. Mom had given us a hard time getting out of the house. I had to describe everything to her before Jon and I ran to his house to get his mom’s car. Then, we had to give an explanation to his mom too.

Our parents had to understand that we weren’t working for a drug or theft gang.

So, when we passed Gale Restaurant, we found it empty. The only person inside was a man who was eating his food slowly.

“Where are the people?” Jon asked.

“You know what, keep driving.” I retorted. “I’m worried about Beth and Xavier.”

“It looks like a zombie apocalypse,” Jon murmured, “I have seen a movie—”

“Cops,” I narrowed my eyes as I saw the police cars parked on the left side of the road. “Stop here.”

Jon complied silently and parked the car at the side of the road. I got out of the car and saw a little crowd surrounding the roadside. It was hard to see where Beth was.

I walked into the crowd and peeped ahead.

There was Beth, standing with two cops. She looked terrified. I had never seen her terrified in my whole life. Not even when the result of the chemistry test was being announced. It was a subject she was totally scared of.

I ran up to her with Jon following me.

“Hey, there,” One of the cops stopped me by moving in front of me. “Who are you?”

Beth looked at me. It was dark but I saw her red eyes.

“She is Karen. She is my friend.” She said to the cop. “The one I called some moments ago?”

The cop nodded. He gave Beth a sympathetic look which worried me. Where was Xavier?

“What’s going on here?” I asked her.

“Can I talk to her?” Beth asked the cops.

“You know this guy too?” The cop pointed at Jon.

Beth nodded.

 “What happened here?” Jon asked as soon as the cops left us. “Where is Xavier?”

Beth started sobbing and Jon looked at me helplessly.

What did I do?

His question was clear.

Beth had said that Xavier was hurt. Maybe she had called an ambulance for him…but why were the cops here? I could only think of a car accident. But I couldn’t see any evidence of a car accident.

“After eating at the restaurant, we decided to take a walk here. It was my fault,” Beth said between her sobs. “I was stupid enough to get out here at this time of night. Those stories are true.”

That caught my attention.

“What stories?” Jon asked before I could.

“The stories about the werewolves in Wolf Woods…they are true.” Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.

I hugged her for comfort.

“They took him,” She said in a muffled voice. “They took Xavier.”

“You mean werewolves took him?” I asked.

“Yes, they were hideous. Nothing like the books described them or the movies pictured them. They were beasts in the form of humans,” She trembled in my arms, speaking quickly. “They were real.”

“Beth, are you sure about this?” Jon rubbed his forehead.

“We heard something and it was me who suggested looking out for the source of the noise. They emerged out of the woods and Xavier tried to protect me. They frigging bit him.” She pushed me away lightly. “They took him. The cops won’t believe me, Karen. You believe me, don’t you?”

“Beth, I—” I started.

“You’re just traumatized, Beth. There aren’t any werewolves. They are fictitious,” Jon interrupted. “Maybe someone kidnapped Xavier. You are imagining things. You need to calm down.”

I looked at Jon questioningly. He simply gave me an assuring nod like it was nothing at all. He was trying to prove her wrong and keep her safe. There was nothing safer than staying away from the other world.

“You’re saying that I’m mad?” Beth asked angrily. The last part came in an incoherent rush. “You’re f*****g unbelievable.”

This was certainly not good. Beth had never liked Jon and now he was irritating her.

“Here in the woods,” A cop screamed.

One of the cops who had been standing with us a while ago came running to us.

“A body is found in the woods.” He said. “We are taking it for autopsy.”

My heart thudded in my chest. Silently, I prayed to God to prove my thoughts wrong.

“Can we see it?” Beth asked.

It couldn’t be Xavier. It couldn’t be him.

“I’m sorry but he is wearing the same clothes you described on Mr. Woods. We just want to run a DNA test to assure that it’s him.” The cop said. “I’m afraid you can’t see the body. It’s completely mutilated and you wouldn’t want to see it. Whoever did this to him must be a psychopath.”

Beth nearly fell conscious when she heard this. I was afraid that I would burst into tears anytime. I had to keep breathing deep.

“I’m sorry,” The cop said before leaving us. “Miss, you’ll be asked some questions by our detectives tomorrow. You may go now.”

No questions asked we got into Jon’s car. Beth remained completely silent as Jon drove past the tall trees. She didn’t even answer us when we asked her if she wanted water. She just kept staring ahead.

“Beth, you want me to call your mom?” I asked softly.

She didn’t reply.

“She needs to take some rest,” Jon whispered. “She is in shock. I know how it feels after spending a little quality time with werewolves.”

First I thought Beth would react to this, but she didn’t move an inch. She continued to stare ahead on the road.

“I can’t believe they killed Xavier,” I said. “Why would they do so?”

“They killed Adam, left his body on the school ground and I don’t think Adam had anything to do with werewolves,” Jon said quickly. “They are ruthless creatures who take pleasure in killing someone.”

“I know but—” I started.

Then I screamed.

“Jon, stop the car.”

A person was standing in the middle of the road.

And he wasn’t moving.

“What the hell?” Jon cried out as he jammed his foot on the brake paddle.

The car screeched and the tires definitely burned. The car came to a sudden halt and I held Beth. I thought she wouldn’t respond to this near-accident experience. But she did. She screamed and hugged me tightly.

I blinked my eyes to see the headlights pouring on the person standing in front of the car.

Jon was already out of the car before I could stop him.

“You f*****g i***t!” I heard him shout.

“Oh, drop the bad language.”

It was Victor.

Damn him!

“Beth, I’ll be back in a minute,” I said. “Please stay inside.”

She moved aside, leaned on the closed window, and went back to her staring self.

I got out of the car and shut the door as noiselessly as I could.

“—I’ll cut your head off and toss it in the fire,” Jon was still shouting. “I’ll make sure that the ashes won’t—”

“Jon,” I said.

Jon turned around to look at me while Victor c****d his head sideways and gave me a grin.

“Here she comes for my rescue,” Victor commented. “Thank you, sweetheart. This guy was making me sick with his nauseating ways of killing a vampire.”

I walked up to them and Jon opened his mouth in protest because he obviously thought I was going to say something to defend Victor. Only I wasn’t.

I balled my hand into a tight fist and punched his face hard.

A cracking noise filled the silent night and I smiled in success. Jon chuckled.

“Ouch!” Victor covered his nose with his hand. “That hurt.”

He removed his hand and sniffed.

“Now, tell us, why were you trying to kill us in a road accident?” I asked.

“How was I supposed to stop you?” He said with his healed nose.

“Why are you here?” Jon asked.

“I followed Karen’s scent and ended up near you guys. There was a crowd and you were talking to cops.” Victor explained. “I heard a classmate of yours died.”

How could he sound so heartless?

“That’s none of your business,” Jon said through his gritted teeth.

“The girl, Beth, your friend kept shrieking werewolves again and again so, it kinda makes it my business.” Victor glared at him. Well, they were never going to be friends. “We have to alter her memories.”

That got me.

“You can do that?” I asked suspiciously.

“I’m handy when superpowers are mentioned.” He gave me the egoistic smile but it got replaced with a serious look in a split second. “We can’t let those memories scar her for entire life. And it is important to make her believe that it wasn’t some werewolf.”

“Why?” Jon asked. “Was it you?”

“Of course not,” Victor made a face. “I don’t kill my victims or donors and more significantly, I don’t feed on guys.”

“She is in shock.” I ignored their useless banter. “Can you tell her that it wasn’t werewolves but some people who took Xavier?”

Victor started straight into my eyes for a while. I felt a little tug.

“I’ll tell her that,” Victor nodded.

We walked to the car and I opened the door. I guided Beth out of the car and she followed me without asking any questions.

“Beth, he is a friend of mine,” I said. I didn’t know what to say next. Guess I was a very bad story maker. “He wants you to…umm…pay attention—”

“Let me handle this,” Victor said and lightly put his hands on Beth’s shoulders.

He made her face him and concentrated on her eyes.

“Listen carefully, Beth.” He whispered. “You’re going to be fine.”

The way he looked right now, was a Victor I never knew existed. His face was angelic. His voice was so soft and tender. It was mesmerising and it pulled me. There had to be some gravitation law applying to his voice.

Now I knew why vampires could allure their prey so easily.

“Xavier was kidnapped by some people you saw. They were wearing ski masks, so, you couldn’t see their faces. They were tall and muscular,” He continued. “They tried to hurt you but Xavier saved your life.”

Beth was motionlessly looking at him.

“Do you understand?” Victor asked her.

 “Yes,” Beth answered silently.

“Now, go to sleep. Karen and Jon will drive you home safely,” Victor smiled. And this time, it wasn’t filled with ego or sarcasm. It was real. “And you don’t remember me.”

Why couldn’t he smile like that for me? Was I jealous?

Jon nudged my elbow. I stopped gazing at Victor.

Get a grip, Karen. I scolded myself. You aren’t jealous.

Beth closed her eyes and Victor caught her by the waist before she could fall. She rested her head on his chest and slept peacefully.

“Whoa! That was easier than I thought.” Jon said at last. “Are we ready to go?”

Victor laid Beth on the backseat and closed the door. Jon got into the driver’s seat and gestured me to get inside the car. Before I could reach the passenger seat, Victor moved fast and opened the door for me.

“Thanks,” I was speechless.

“What for?” He asked. “Opening the door?”

“No…yes…I mean for both,” I said. He raised his eyebrow. “For altering her memory and for opening the door.”

“Get into the car, Karen,” Jon said bored. “We need to explain everything to Beth’s parents. It’s getting late.”

“See you soon,” I said to Victor before getting in.

“Sure,” He said.

I watched him disappear when Jon started driving.

“Can’t stop staring at him?” Jon chuckled while driving.

“I wasn’t staring. I was seeing if he was doing his job right in erasing Beth’s past memory.” I lied. “You never know when Victor Devries makes things worse than they already are. So I was paying attention to the details.”

“You can’t lie to me, Karen,” Jon said. “You were staring at him like he was a Christmas turkey.”

“Uh, well, I’m never going to eat turkey ever!” I said. I looked out of the window, smiling to myself.

We had to explain to Beth’s parents about the k********g of Xavier. We also told them how the cops had found a body in the woods and they were suspecting it to be Xavier’s. I never mentioned that Jon and I believed that Xavier was really dead. We told them that some detectives would be coming to ask Beth some questions in the morning.

After leaving Beth’s house, Jon drove me home.

Explaining everything to Beth’s parents was an easy task but when it came to explaining to my parents where I had been and what had happened near the Wolf Woods was very difficult. Dad grew tense and mom nearly cried.

They wanted me to stop going anywhere near the Wolf Woods. Even though I told them the same story Victor had made up, dad had already heard another version of it from his friend, who happened to be a cop. This story included werewolves and vampires. If this kept going on, the town folks were going to invent new creatures to add to the list.

It was hard to convince them. It was harder than the time when I’d told them about my green hair. Mom even switched on the TV to get something on the News. Our town wasn’t big but I was sure the news reporters were going to be here in the morning. Dad asked me about Xavier and I told him whatever I knew about him.

Dinner was more intolerable.

 “God!” I looked at the bathroom mirror and screamed in my towel which muffled my voice. “Why would werewolves kill Xavier? He was just a boy.”

I trembled and reminded myself that the autopsy reports weren’t out yet. It wasn’t determined that it was actually him. But I couldn’t stop crying. I looked at the tired image in the mirror and washed my face numerous times. I took a long breath and came out of the bathroom.

I was too tired to scream.

Victor was sitting on my bed.