({Before I start... Christop didn't die. I was thinking about having him...die, then I just couldn't do it. So he was just... attacked...badly, but still alive... Ooh, and the comment about saying 'Lucius' and 'Ivy' sounds a bit disrespectful... well I thought always using 'Mother' and 'Father' would get a bit...Too used?})

Anna sat next to Nicholas and her father on the benches in the meeting hall. She glanced down to her younger brother who was staring at his small brown shoes. Softly she reached out and held his hand. He looked up to her and Anna tried to put on a smile, "Don't worry, Nicholas...Everything will be alright."

Nicholas tightly held onto his sister's hand, "Are you sure?" Anna looked to her parents who were intently listening to one of the elders talk. She took a breath and gave a single nod, but she didn't know. Eventually all of this had to stop, didn't it? Maybe...Maybe the way it would stop was for the creature to kill more people of the village. Anna felt goosebumps make their way up her arm as she focused her attention back to the meeting.

"Does anyone, anyone at all of any idea of how all of this was started?" An elder with thinning hair asked, pacing back and fourth in front of the villagers. Everyone looked at each other, hoping someone would have the answer, but no one did.

Ivy stared ahead blankly, a thoughtful look on her face. Anna watched her mother then looked back to the elder. Anna knew him; his name was Samuel Jefferson, or, Mr. Jefferson. He had helped bandage Anna's cut she got from the creature when she was younger. Their eyes met for a brief moment but that was broken quickly by Anna looking down. "Anna Hunt." He said suddenly and everyone's gaze turned to her.

But her gaze was on the wooden floor, she didn't want to again be questioned.

"Anna." Her father said softly in her ear. She lifted her eyes to him and he nodded toward the elders to the front, "You can do it..."

She frowned but stood up, folding her shaking hands behind her back, "Yes...?"

"When you went into the forest... You told us that you saw a creature before you went in."

"Yes." Anna said clearly. She already had to answer these types of questions before. Couldn't they remember the answers?

"Are you sure that what you say was a creature? Maybe you were only seeing things...?"

She looked up to him "No." She said firmly, "I wasn't seeing things. It was the thing we do no speak of."

"And how can you be so sure?" He asked. She knew he wasn't very much trying to...but he was making it all sound like it was Anna's fault.

"How can I?" Anna scowled, "I think I'd know when I've seen a creature, or have seen nothing. After all... My uncle and I came in very close contact with one. He was attacked-" From the corner of her eye, she saw Cristop cringe at this, "- I've still got the scar from when I was scratched." Her voice was rising steadily, "I saw the creature in the village border before I went into the forest. It is not my fault."

"Anna!" Whispered Nicholas pulling at her skirt, "Don't yell at the elders."

Anna sat back down and looked at her father, "It isn't my fault... I did see it." She then looked past Nicholas to her mother, "I really did."

XwXwXwXwXwXwXwXwXwXwX

Anna walked out of the schoolhouse and sighed, starting to walk back to her home. She looked down to the grass that seemed to have lost it's summer green... Pressing her lips together, Anna lightly kicked a small rock that was in front of her foot. This is her something to do.

The red flowers that seemed to appear out of nowhere the day before, where now all gone. People spent all day, picking the flowers to have them thrown back into the forest, buried, or else burned.

The wind blew her hair in front of her eyes and Anna stopped walking. Slowly she looked over to the forest. The leaves were slowly losing their green color, slowly dying. Tree tops softly swayed with the breeze. She put her hands into the pocket of her long dark blue skirt, gazing at the forest.

Looking around herself, she saw that she was alone.

Clearing her throat, Anna started her walked to the edge of the forest.

At the edge she stopped and glanced around, still, no one with in sight. Anna paused for a moment and looked at her clothes. She had none of the safe color on her clothes. Her eyes looked to the forest again, taking a breath, she crossed the borderline.

Leaves crunched and sticks snapped under her shoes. Silently letting out the breath, she walked a bit further in. She had heard that the creatures may take pity on a few of the villagers. Then again, she had heard that her mother's friend was killed by a creature... Noah was his name. But... her mother had somehow gotten past the creatures, hadn't she?

The feel of water woke her from her thoughts and she quickly stepped out of the puddle.
Looking over her shoulder she saw that the village was a distance away, but still was in sight...You just had to look quite hard to see it. Sighing, she started to turn back but a red rose had caught her eye.

Anna kneeled next to it and reached out a hand to pick it, but a thorn pricked her soft skin. Pulling her hand away she saw that her finger was bleeding, but only a bit. Blood was also red. The bad color. If the creatures were attracted to red, so they were to blood... They could cause bleeding... Suddenly, she felt a shiver go up her spine and she picked a single petal, carefully walking back to the borderline.

She stood behind a tree, and made sure no one was watching before she quickly crossed the line. Slowly, she started to walk back to her home back was quickly stopped by Nicholas.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Nothing, what are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you."

"You found me... What do you need?"

"We're to go to our aunt and uncle's house for dinner... Kitty and Christop."

Anna rolled her eyes and nodded, "I know who you mean. We only have one aunt and uncle after all... Why do we have to?"

"Father's sick...He's sleeping now." Nicholas shrugged, "So come on..." He took his sister's hand and started pulling her to the village, but stopped. "Your bleeding...What happened?" He asked, looking down at her finger.

She stared down at him then glanced to her finger. After a moment Anna said, "A needle... I was sewing." Anna walked ahead of her younger brother.

Nicholas stood there, staring after her, "You were sewing out here? By the forest?"