Celia Thorpe

The fifth hour

Celia's heart was in her mouth. The tiniest sound set it thumping. She gripped Xavier's hand so tightly that she was worried it would fall off.

"It's ok. Only an hour left." Xavier reassured her.

"From personal and a small degree of fictional experience, this is the part where it all goes horribly wrong."

"Yeah. I was trying not to think about that."

Celia's whole body was numb with cold, the kind of cold that takes ages to shake, where you just feel miserable. The rain and thunder had been continuing all night, so Celia was not only cold but wet and muddy too.

Still grumbling to her brother. Celia continued walking through the forest, until she heard another noise. Twigs snapping.

"What was that?"

"Probably another coyote or something."

"That sounded both bigger and worse than a coyote."

"Yeah. It definitely did."

The siblings continued walking, but slower than before.

Another noise came from behind them. Celia spun around.

"Ok. We need to go back."

"We are. This is the quickest way back."

"Is there no other way? No shortcut?"

"No, like I said, this is the quickest-"

Both Celia and Xavier screamed. Standing in front of them was a man. His features appeared handsome bar the bitterness and anger that covered his face. His left hand spotted a razor-sharp talon. A wave of fear swept through Celia when she noticed that it was stained with blood. The Kruger spoke in a low voice.

"Hello."

It lunged. Its talon struck Xavier in the shoulder. He cried out. Celia ran forwards to help him and was caught in the stomach.

Celia cried out.

"Ah! Shit."

The wound didn't feel too bad, but Celia was losing a lot of blood. Her arms began to feel heavy, when she saw the Kruger looming over Xavier, who was on the floor.

Celia barely had time to react when the Kruger suddenly barrelled sideways. A ball of fur was attacking it. The moonlight revealed a streak of pink in the wolf's fur.

"Enid." Celia breathed. Within minutes, the Kruger had stopped struggling. The wolf transformed back into human form.

Enid helped Xavier up.

"You ok?"

"You saved my life."

"No sweat. Hey, where's Celia?"

Panicked, Xavier looked around, when he saw his sister.

Celia was on the ground now, holding her stomach. She gasped in pain. Xavier ran over.

"Ohh, shit. Shit, shit, shit."

Xavier knelt next to her, picking up her shoulders. By this point, Celia's ears were ringing. Her vision was fading, and her brother and saviour appeared to be far away.

"No, no. Celia. Ci-ci, keep your eyes open. Stay awake. Ci-ci!"

Xavier shook her gently.

Celia fought as hard as she could, but eventually, couldn't keep her eyes open, and she welcomed the darkness that took over her senses.

Outside POV:

Xavier carried his sister back towards the school, Enid trotting along beside him. Even she could see that he wasn't in the mood to talk.

From five different directions, five different parties approached the school, each in sombre silence. They all arrived at the same time.

Ajax, Kent and Yoko were all holding the bodies of the three missing children. Bianca was holding Martha's shoulder, and both looked very shaken. Divina had her hand on Kent's arm, and Xavier was holding the limp body of his sister.

Without speaking, all of them walked towards the school.

I know it's a bit hastily written, especially towards the end, but we drove halfway across England today to visit relatives. It was supposed to be a three, four hour drive.

It was seven and a half hours.

So yeah, my brain is kinda dead, but I did this anyway. I also think I'm over my writer's block, so the story will continue.

Sophie <<3