She's The Lie (She's The Enemy Sequel)

Avery

CW: Violence and Gruesome Imagery

The forest is one of the most beautiful but most dangerous places on the planet. Because the best way to lure a person into a trap is to lead them into a false sense of security. A sense that all will be okay, that their pain is soon to end. But really, even worse terrors lurk within. Snakes wrap their way around trees, hidden in the mist, waiting for a moment to pounce; spiders that only need a second to make you suffer and cold, miserable death; wolves, trained to hear a single break of a twig so it can single out its predators.

And as I trek through the treacherous depths of this forest, I am aware of every single one. I move slowly and quietly, not risking an encounter with another breathing organism. When I was younger, in a time that felt like decades ago, I would stare longingly at the acres of forest in which the world had grown to hide the countless years of human war, dreaming in awe of what the forest withheld. But now, suffocating in the depths of it, I pray that I can finally see an opening to the Faerie kingdom.

I had to find Emelie. And, if they had her name in that cabin, the Unseelie Court is where I would find her. Not that I knew where that was, I only knew of the feeling of wood against my feet, drawing blood as I ran for my life. As she guided me once again. She was the one who told me about the collapse of the world. The final divergence between planes. You see, magic isn't what we first thought it was.

It was a ticking time bomb.

You see, magic was what held the planes of the earth together. Different variations of the world, times where different people made different decisions. And there are thousands of them- billions even. And drawing from that magic made these variations collapse upon each other, merging them slowly into one. And those on the wrong side would eventually cease to exist. She said that this was the final variation. 

She showed me the entire history of the earth. She showed me large, terrifying creatures she named dinosaurs, she showed me ancient roman civilisations, wars, modern technology and she showed me how it all ended. How the stars died as a large flash of radiation, covered the planet. How trees burnt, how flesh disintegrated.

And yet, the human race survived and another emerged.

One that could control the seal of the universe.

And as for her, she called herself a God. Or, the humans named her that.

From my time in the Unseelie Court, I learnt that some Fae believe in the existence of Gods, from which they drew power, from which they became stronger, faster. She tells me that their belief is not an untruth because it was never meant to be true to begin with.

I do not believe in a God.

Then suddenly something breaks the silence. The snap of a twig under my feet, then a soft rustle of the bushes as it echoes throughout the forest. I stop, focusing on slowing the beat of my heart so that my hands stop shaking. I beg for her guidance in this moment but she seems to have left my side. I slowly move my arms downwards, reaching into the sheath by my thigh, pulling out the knife I had stolen from the belt of that dastardly woman before I had left her oasis.

I breathe deep as the rustles become louder.

I hear a growl behind me and turn slowly to be met with the clouded pupils of a wolf. Its 2.5-inch cainies threatening to tear me limb from limb, snout tensed. It had quite a dark coat and honestly didn't look as if it belonged in an environment such as this. I lift my chest, remembering back to what they told us to do in the village if we see a wolf. Act big and noisy, don't stare it in the eyes. I couldn't afford to make any more noise, so I raised my arms in the air hoping to appear bigger and more difficult for the wolf to attack. 

I remember when I was ten years old and a young boy had been attacked by a wolf near the border. I remember finding his blood-ridden body- or what was left of it anyway. It was a sight no child should have had to see, his intestines pooled out of his stomach, his face half torn open, skin peeling from his bones. I did not want that to be me. The wolf growled again.

It was not intimidated by me.

And then it pounced, pinning the arm which held my knife to the floor and sinking its bacteria-infested teeth into the skin just below my neck, greedily letting my blood pour into its mouth, savouring the sweet taste of meat which followed. However, the canine soon realised that my flesh tasted anything but sweet and coiled away rapidly. It bared its teeth once again, eyes meeting mine, I raise the knife as the wolf prepares to attack once again, leaping in the air before I drag the knife straight through its fur coat from under its jaw to just below its stomach. There's a foul tearing noise as it passes through its flesh and a blood-curling yell as the wolf experiences the immense pain tearing through its veins.

I almost feel bad.

It falls to the floor in a sorrowful thump, scarlet pooling around it.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

***

Hours pass and the sky darkens. I feel an odd urge to sleep, something it felt as if I hadn't once done in the many months that I had run. But I knew I could not take refuge with the threat of another attack- wolves ran in packs. I had stripped the hide from the creature as I had seen them do in the village after the wolf had been hunted and was using it as a blanket as to not damage my skin from the forceful bite of the numbing night air.

That is when I hear a voice. A voice that guides me into an opening in the trees. And suddenly my sightline is no longer trees for as long as the eye can see. But rather my gaze lays upon the comfort of a crackling fire and the glint of wine bottles against the moon.

"What has the world come to? A planet so cruel and bitter that it continues to hurt every individual that sets foot upon it!" 

The voice which had led me to safety cries out with pain behind its words. A voice that I recognise belongs to a solemn, dark blue-haired boy.

"Shut up." A dark-haired girl sat next to him snaps. It's hard to see in the shadow of the night but it looks like her hair is tinted slightly purple, "I'm here to drink, not to wallow in your pathetic pool of heartbreak." The other boy stares ahead of him in response to this, finally noticing me approach them.

"Hey! What's your name?" He bellows.

"Avery of the Unseelie Court," I respond, not wanting the two, obviously Fae, to know that I'm human. My hair hides the smooth slope of my ears as I walk closer.

"What are you doing across the border Avery of The Unseelie Court, this is King Archer's territory?"

King Archer?

"I..." I take a moment to ponder upon my excuse, "I... am looking for Princess Isla and Emelie... Emelie Snow..." The boy begins to chuckle hysterically.

"Emelie Snow is dead..." The girl chimes in between the other boy's laughter.

"Don't you remember? Your kind killed her!" He states cheerily as if it were some sort of hilarious joke.

She can't be dead. It's not possible, she promised me. 

She promised me that my little sister would live.

A/N

Ok, so it's been another two months but I promise the gaps between chapters will get shorter soon, especially as I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one, despite the death of a wolf (I'm sorry!!!)

But... A lot of things were explained in this chapter, even though some remained ambiguous, so I hope things are starting to make a little more sense now! And... as always, thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you all so much and have a lovely rest of your day <3