Resident Enis: Trail of Lies

Chapter three

Machinery sounds like Dodger and Mark had never heard before screeched as if in pain, or maybe the machinery just hadn't been used in a while. Enis's face lit up, and he began squealing like a fangirl.

"Story time! Story time!!!" He exclaimed. "Amber's gonna tell us some forest lore!!!"

Mark and Dodger looked around as the whole room seemed to change levels and half of the room sank into the ground. Dodger stumbled back and fell onto Mark's lap, as he was still laying on the couch, as the floor beneath her began to sink into the ground along with half of the room.

Amber just stood there, her ears down in pain at all the loud noises that the machinery was making. But otherwise, she just stood where she was, insanely calm, as the whole room morphed around them. Enis watched the machinery morph and move as if it were one of those virtual 3-D rides at King's Island.

Finally, everything settled with a loud banging noise, and Dodger and Mark realized that they had been holding each other in fear. Getting up off of Mark, Dodger looked around at what looked like an old library as Mark sat up and swung his legs around so that he was facing everyone else.

Running her fingers over some of the dusty books, Dodger gasped in awe, asking,

"What is this place?" She looked at Amber as if she were crazy, and followed up with, "why do you have a secret cave in your dad's summer home?"

"Some people have secrets that need to be kept in shadow woods." Amber replied. "This is where my dad and I keep all of our family's forest lore. He's been researching the history of humans and monsters for years, now. With the amount of research that he's done, well..." Mark could swear that he heard music playing somewhere in the background. Oh no, not another song...but the music playing in the background sounded more...mysterious, maybe a bit sad. Mark wondered if this song would be gentle, possibly one he would enjoy.

Amber turned her back towards the others, walking towards a shelf and pulling an old, dusty book free from the old shelf. Placing it onto what looked like a wooden music stand with a thud, she opened the book and flipped the pages until arriving about 1/3 into the book.

"Over the river and through the woods..." Amber sang, in a bit of a hurried hushed tone. "Over the river and through the woods..." her tone and expression reminded Dodger of Elphaba casting a spell in Wicked. "Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go...this is the thing that started it all." She sang, looking at Dodger and Mark as if about to tell them a morbid story around a campfire.

"With stories like Hansel and Gretel, sweet little sing-songy rhymes. Why do you always find yourselves inside a crooked deep trail of lies? Why do these stories not tell you what goes on behind closed doors? Did you not know that monsters once helped when you were deathly losing your wars?" She began to circle Mark and Dodger, as if interrogating them. "So many soldiers and commanders, vampires and werewolves alike, all lost their lives with humans by their sides, so many risked their lives." She pulled another book free from the shelf. Opening it to the middle and slamming it on top of the other one, she continued, "did you think that we were inhumane? That we were monsters, all the same? Nothing to be done to change our ways?" She laughed sarcastically. "Well, that's why the stories began." She pulled what was clearly a brother's Grimm book of fairytales off of the shelf, showing it to the three.

"Over the river and through the woods, throughout this trail of lies." She flipped through the book, stopping on the story of Hansel and Gretel. "Two young children stuck in the woods, an evil witch who knows no good, tried to cook them, tried to kill, this one story-and wait, there's more-is one of the things that started...say, a different sort of war."

"What...what happens when war breaks out?" Dodger asked to the tune of the music. "What happens when lies are spread? What happens when there's nothing but doubt? What happens when lies consume your head?"

"Don't you know?" Mark asked, finding himself going to the tune of the music around them as well. "One person lies, that goes on to another. They don't know they've been fooled. That person may say the same lie to their brother, then their brother believes it as a rule. The trail of lies gets longer and longer, until everyone believes it to be true. And once it's that long, is it even possible to set everything right to anyone else but you?" Dodger looked like she was thinking, and Mark continued. "Let's say that you came up with an idea on your channel to get more views? What if I were to steal that and with it all the fame? And then I lie that it was my idea, that my subscribers helped me choose? And no matter how hard you try, you can't get back what was yours. You can't clear your name. People will think that you're the copycat, and with that, your reputation will die. Can't you see how easy it is to get caught up in this trail of lies?"

Dodger looked like she was thinking as Amber nodded. "It's true what you say, that example correct. So many liars, their stories connect. They work together to make up a lie. That lie gets spread and brotherhood dies. Fear starts to build, and with fear comes distrust. Before you know it, monsters left in the dust!!! We're no longer humane, our brotherhood gone. So many bonds broken that once stood strong. This is why, my human friends, we have to stay on different ends. Different ends of the spectrum, we hide far away. So no one gets hurt, so we can see another day."

She sat down, hanging her head in sadness. "Don't you see why we have to hide? We're in danger due to this trail of lies." The music slowly faded away until they were just sitting in silence.

"So, what happened exactly?" Mark asked gently. "You said that lies were started, but you never specified how. Who on earth started this trail of lies?"

"No one knows." Amber answered sadly. "Some say it was the monster hunter, Abraham Van Helsing. Some say it was the mob of villagers after Frankenstein's monster. But no one knows for sure." She sighed helplessly. "All we know is that that person, or group of people, led us to where we are today." She finished.

"So, all of our beliefs of monsters...everything we've known about them...is a lie?" Dodger asked.

"Maybe not entirely." Amber answered. "Even I can become dangerous on the night of the full moon." She admitted. "It's kind of the thing that we have to cope with. Like if you found out that you had an allergy, just a sort of condition that you would have to find a way to live with it." Mark and Dodger nodded, understanding.

"What exactly happens on the full moon, Amber?" Dodger asked. "Do you go like, full wolf, or something?"

Amber nodded. "I turn into my full version of a werewolf." She replied. "I go savage, and there's next to nothing that can help me until the night is over."

"Next to nothing?" Mark asked. "So there is something that can help you?"

She nodded. "There is one thing."