Whylight

36.

True to her word, as soon as Paul was finished eating Aveline brought him straight to the den. It had taken them some while to get there. They had taken a bus before walking through a forest and although Aveline had chatted away to him for most of the journey, Paul's head felt like it was in a blur. He supposed that it was probably the events of the past two days finally catching up on him.

Aveline had brought him to a house. It was a large house, situated in the centre of the forest and as they had approached Paul was vaguely aware of a boy at the entrance. Upon seeing the newcomers he had knocked on the door and let out a howl that momentarily startled Paul out of his stupor but before he could even begin to ask Aveline what was going on Paul felt the air being knocked out of his lungs as a human shaped weight barrelled into him and he let out a yelp before realising that it was only Pat.

"You're here!!" Pat exclaimed, squeezing his brother so tightly that Paul was sure one of his ribs would snap. Maybe puncture one of his lungs. That'd be an interesting way to go all right. "You're okay!!!"

"Yep I- hi Pat," Paul winced before hearing a low chuckle and he glanced over Pat's shoulder only to realize that they were being watched by two goths. One tall, one short. And also by a whole bunch of wolves.

"Careful sweetheart," the taller of the two goths said and the more Paul stared at him the more sure he became that they were the same two goths who had led Pat into the Beating Heart that one night. "Wouldn't want to crush your brother now, would you?"

"Oh- right. Sorry Paul."

Letting go of his brother, Pat stood back and Paul blinked before looking around

"Is this the den?" he said eventually.

"Sure is sugar," Aveline piped up and Paul wasn't sure if he were imagining it or not but he was almost sure that the shorter of the two goths blushed. "You'll be okay here. Promise."

"Wait-- you're leaving me here?"

"Dob already said we could stay, Paul. It's nice here," Pat said in what Paul was sure was supposed to be a reassuring tone but he could already feel the panic building up inside of him of him and so it had very little effect.

"And if you don't like it you can always leave," the taller goth interjected. "We're werewolves, not monsters. We don't keep prisoners here."

Forcing himself to calm down, Paul slowly nodded his head and mumbled his thanks. He felt Aveline squeeze his shoulder, telling him that she would visit soon before she turned around and began to walk back the way they had came, Pat grabbing him by the hand and dragging him inside.

Paul hoped that maybe now things would finally return to normal.