The Melancholy of Sebastien Huxley

III | Alder Estate

          He switched on the radio, hoping that some music or someone's voice might distract him, but all he got was static noise. Every channel he flicked through was fuzz and muffles. There was always Mathew's screamo metal music...but he didn't want a headache right now.

          So, he just sat there. He listened to the townspeople waking up and starting their day, and when he glanced at the sign again, he frowned. This town was closer than Ulrora Slope; why had the Aldergrove Academy students not been sent here for supplies and whatever else they'd been going to the city for?

          This place was giving him a weird vibe. The longer he sat there, the more a strange feeling of angst grew in his gut. And he hadn't forgotten about the hitchhiker he'd seen last night, either. The hitchhiker who slowly transformed more and more into a corpse every time he passed him.

          A shiver spiralled down his spine, making him sit up straight. Maybe the academy didn't send anyone here because it was weird as fuck. All the coughing people and the strange, thick fog. Sebastien would choose a snowy city over this place any day.

          It was time to go. He didn't care that his eyes were trying to close. He didn't want to spend another moment here.

          Sebastien sat the chair back up, started the engine, and reversed out of the parking space. Then, he got back on the road and headed towards Alder Estate, glancing at the map Lord Caedis had given him. So far, he'd managed to follow it to Alderon, and when he located a turn he was supposed to take, he drove onto the dirt road and headed through the woods.

          The swampy-green murk faded almost instantly. He didn't know how fog worked, though. Maybe the trees were responsible for keeping it from entering the woods or something. He was just glad to be out of it.

          He leaned forward in an attempt to fight his drowsiness and to search for signs of the estate, but all he could see were trees.

          Trees, trees, more trees...and an animal sniffing around by an old barn. At first glance, it looked like a stag, but when he looked again, he saw that it had a very long neck...and human-like arms on each side of it.

          Sebastien slowed the car as he stared at the creature, watching it use its human arms to pull something from the bushes. But then he drove over a branch, and the loud crack startled the beast. It sharply turned to face him, and Sebastien could see that it was some sort of centaur; the beast had the body of an elk instead of a horse, and atop its head were a pair of impressive moss-covered antlers.

          But there was something off about it. The brief moment of awe it gave Sebastien faded when the creature's eyes flickered red, and it let out a screeching roar. It threw whatever it pulled from the bushes to the ground, swung around, and fled, disappearing deeper into the forest.

          Sebastien was sure an elk-man wouldn't be the creepiest thing he saw out here; Aldergrove Academy prepared him for the weird and freaky shit the world had to offer, and it would take more than a centaur to spook him—it would take a whole lot more than that to get him to even consider halting his mission to get Clementine back.

          With a quiet sigh, he drove a little faster, following the silent forest road. Every time he glanced at the time, another five minutes passed by, and just as it was coming up to nine, he approached a pair of rusted metal gates.

          Sebastien slowed his approach and stared at the sign hanging beside the mailbox. It read 'Alder Estate', and just like the iron gates, it was entangled in twisting, blue flower-sprouting vines.