Chapter 15

ARIELLA. I dreamed the same dream again, only this time it was a lot more vivid. In this dream, I was walking in this foggy forest again. Bare feet and dressed in a long white gown, I was definitely running from something... dangerous. I wanted to look back to see what it was, but I couldn't. I had no control over this dream like a normal dream, but something felt odd about this. It was like this dream actually happened sometime in my life that I can't just remember. And then there was the moon, which was eerily big and haunting. As I stared into it, I could feel melancholy and happiness at the same time. I thought to myself, maybe I was going mad. The haunting image of the big moon made my heart beat faster, and then that was it. I woke up sweating like I just ran a mile. At work, my co-workers hosted a dinner party so we ate and drank until closing time. It was my 'welcoming party' and everyone gave me well-wishes which surprised and touched me so much that I teared up a lot. There were five of us in the kitchen, plus the two waiters and the boss, but all of them were way older than me so it was only David who became close to me. The rest were nice as co-workers, but as soon as their shift ended, they would leave the place immediately and tonight wasn't an exception. David and I were the only ones left as we cleaned the kitchen. We were talking about the upcoming holidays when we heard a knock on the main door. I went to check who was knocking and saw that it was Eli. He went inside the restaurant and looked around, ignoring my glares at him. "Why are you here? We're already closed, Eli." He did not answer my question. "Are you not finished closing yet?" "No. We are still cleaning, so would you mind?" I showed him the door so he'd get out, but he wasn't listening. Instead, he walked towards the kitchen because we just heard David call me, asking me who it was. "Oh. It's your friend," said David. He walked towards Eli and offered his hand for them to shake but Eli just looked at his hands and then back to his face. It was very rude of him so I hit him on his back but he just ignored me and talked with David instead. "Thank you for helping Ariella settle here at your work," said Eli to David in his coldest tone possible. Every word he said sounded like irony, and I almost wanted to laugh at how good he was at irking someone with his attitude. "But it's late now, so can she go already?" "Eli! What are you saying? This is my job!" Never mind laughing, I wanted to hit him in his head now. "I'm sorry, David. This guy is just tactless, as always." "Don't worry, I'm not mad," David replied with his signature cheerful smile. He even smiled at Eli, which only made me feel more guilty. "And mister..?" "Eli." "Eli," David repeated, smiling over something I didn't get. "Don't worry, we've finished what we were doing. We were about to pack up when you arrived." Eli nodded. "Okay. Come on now, Ariella. I'll walk you back to your apartment." He walked back to the door as I apologized to David again. "I'm so sorry. He's really like that to most people. Don't worry, I'll tell him off later." But David shook his head. "No need, Ariella. I understand why he is acting like that. You're just eighteen, and you were left here with a fully grown man. He's just looking after you." I nodded shyly, my whole face red from blushing. I then said my goodbyes to David and followed Eli out of the restaurant. Eli was waiting for me near the lamppost. But he wasn't alone. I saw him talking to a woman probably our age who had red flaming hair and was holding a lit cigarette. They were laughing over something which annoyed me. I cleared my throat to get their attention, so the woman turned towards me and saw that she wasn't that pretty. In fact, she looked boyish, something that made me happy for some reason. I’m not a judgemental person but for some reason, I was glad that this girl was just normal. "Oh, there she is. We'll go now," Eli said to the girl, who in turn waved at him sweetly before walking in the other direction of the sidewalk. "Who was that?" I asked him as we finally walked back to my apartment. "Courtney. She's the owner of the bakery below your unit so we talked for a minute." "Ah. Let me guess, you asked why her shop was always empty if not closed?" "What? No. I asked her if her bakery had vacancies for a part-timer." That slightly pissed me off. "You want to work at her bakery? I wonder why?" I asked sarcastically but he just laughed at me. "Are you perhaps jealous, Ariella?" I pushed him playfully, and that made him almost trip on the cement. But he was also smiling, something that made my wolf growl in approval. "Of course not! Why would I be jealous? You can work with her 'til eternity if that's what you want." I walked faster so that he'd get pissed, but he just matched my pace and continued teasing me. "But that's not what I want, Ariella. Do you want to know what I want? That's for you to forgive me." He said that so sincerely that I couldn't even give a retort back. "But of course, I'm not pressuring you or anything. I'm happy with what we have now." "What is that? What exactly do we have right now, Eli?" He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we're finally friends? What I'm saying is, I love how you're no longer pushing me away. And I'm very grateful about that." His answer made me feel warm. His sincerity was affecting me, but it also made me relieve every emotion that I had because of him. But I didn't want to cry anymore, so I changed the subject. "By the way, I finally asked David about this town. It turns out that this place became an actual ghost town some years ago, and most of the people here were now gone. The local government has just started to bring this place back to life again, all thanks to the tourism that the nearby wildlife reserve is making." "Oh, really? But what do you mean by 'gone?' What happened to the people who used to live here?" "I'm not exactly sure what happened, but according to David, some years ago a group of serial killers lived in this town. And yes, you guessed it right. They killed a lot of people here." "I see. That sounds horrible." "It is. And maybe this place still bears the bad reputation it had before, so people don't come or live here anymore." We finally reached my apartment building, and as I walked to the stairs I stopped when I noticed that Eli was looking to his left with confusion in his face. "What's the matter? Are you not going up? You can have dinner with me. it's the least I could give you in exchange for walking me home." "I like that," he replied, still looking to his left so I went back to him and looked at where he was looking too. "Ariella, go up now. Hurry!" he ordered. "Why?" "I can sense something. It has been following us for a while. Hurry up and go to your unit!"