A.N: I've had to type this Author's Note up 3 times already! So this one won't be as detailed... I know this and the last chapter was short, but I think I had, in earlier chapters, stuff abotu the last 2 chapters being short. If not, I had it a few times in my 'Bio' updates...It's just to explain some things. Hope your not disappointed. If you are... Well, this was my first 'suspense' fanfiction, and making the ending was difficult...

Sorry for the wait, had troubles logging in, and getting time to myself to post this. Also, sorry for the mistakes. Spell-checker isn't working...
Will there be a sequel? Most likely not. But if by some chance I will make one, you'll have to wait...

Ooh, and so you aren't confused. This is going back in time. I repeat, back in time.

Suppose I can't keep you waiting... So... Go ahead.

Anna sat in her home, at the table, her back to the door. Her grandfather sat across from her, her mother to the right and her father to the left. Nicholas was at a friend's home. He was still too young to hear the secret. Well, actually to hear the truth behind the secret. Anna's eyes flickered to her parents and grandfather, but she was comfortable, so she droppped her eyes to the single candle that was in the center of the table. Wax dripped down the side of it.

"Anna." It was her grandfather's voice and Anna looked up.

"Yes?" She asked just above a whisper. Although she had no idea of what they were going to tell, she knew it was something very, very serious. Anna didn't want to know anything like that. She was happy the way everything was. Nearly eight months ago she had got of the forest, and things were just starting to get normal again. Well, as normal as things could be.

"We've decedied that your now old enough to know..."

"I'm fifteen." Anna sat in a hurry. Was fifteen really old enough?

"Yes, Anna. We know that." Her mother said, looking in her direction.

Anna's hands were clutching at her skirt under the table and she looked to her father, "Why can't Nicholas hear?"

"He's much too young." His low voice said as he watched his daughter, "Nicholas wouldn't understand... He'd tell his friends, who'd tell others, who'd tell others... We just can't let that happen."

"But will you still tell him? When he's my age, I mean?"

Her grandfather nodded, "Yes. And if not me... your mother or father."

"Do the others elders know?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Other villagers?"

"No."

Anna glanced between her mother and father. It wasn't making sense.

"Why not?"

"They might try to leave the village then... Bring their family with them."

"But the creatures-"

"This is what the conversation is about, Anna." Ivy said softly, closing her eyes.

"Why is only the elders and...our family that knows?" She asked louder then she meant to.

"When Ivy had to go to the towns for Lucius," Her parents exchanged glances, "I had to tell her." Her grandfather sighed, as he looked at Anna. "She was safe because... The creatures don't exist."

Anna blinked, "What?"

"They don't exist..."

"Then why are we stuck here?!" She demanded, looking at their faces.

"We meant to leave a while ago. A long while... Maybe a few months after you were born... We sent four men out to make sure that the path was still in place, and not washed away by the rain..." Anna felt a questioning expression place itself on her face. What path? "Only two came back... But after just four days, one of them died...They were attacked."

She leaned forward on the table. "By what?"

He rubbed his forhead, "The monsters that live in the forest."

Anna took a breath, "You said they didn't exist."

"Not that kind that we made up..."

"You made up the creatures?"

"Yes... We meant to keep famalies here. To be safe... So we made up the creatures to keep people in... It was years after until we realized we need to get out of this place, but... They extended the forest...Took down the roads to let the forest grow... Not by much, but it's bigger then it was when we first came."

"Who's 'they'?"

"The people that live on the other side...." He faded off, but quickly refound his voice.

"But... When the four men tried to find the path, two were attacked by monsters that we didn't know still lived in the forest, or even existed for that matter... We heard about them when all of us were children, younger then you. But everyone said they were fake..." He looked at Anna who was still leaning forward on the table, her mouth slightly hung open.

He took a breath, then sighed, "The monsters though, are blind."

"How do you know?"

"The one man that survived said that the other three tried to run, but he was too scared to move. The monster ran right past him to catch the others. It didn't hear his footsteps like it heard the other's."

"If they're blind, why can't we just go past them?"

"Like your mother here," He patted Ivy's hand, "They've got excellent hearing... Very, very fast as well. If they decided to go after you... there really isn't any hope... But it seems as if they do actually decide who can pass, and who must suffer. We do not know how they decide."

Anna sank back into her chair as she looked at the small flickering flame sitting ontop of the candle, "So we're stuck here. All of us. Forever..."

"No, Anna." Her father said quickly, looking to his daughter.

Ivy held her daughter's hand, "We will find a way out... There will be a way out before you have children and they are fully grown. By then... By then, you can live the village... And go explore the world. You won't have to be stuck in this village for that much longer..."

'I hope so.' she thought, but she didn't say it outloud. Because, she didn't want her parents and grandfather to feel guilty for being here, and if they didn't get out...

Anna looked outside of the window. "Have they... The real creatures came to the village before... Before-"

"No." Her grandfather shook his head, "That was the first time... When you were lost, and Micheal... The red flowers...all of that was the first time they came..."

"Do you think they'll come again?"

"I don't know. If they do...Hopefully it won't be as horrible as it was."

Anna fell silent as she watched the young men of the village began to light the torches on the borderline. One said a good-bye to the other one, and began to climb up to the watch tower. Anna looked to the bell that seemed small in the distance. She remembered what everyone told her since she was young...

Do not go into the forest, for that is where they wait...
Do not show the bad color, that only attracts them...
Heed the warning bell, for they are coming...

.The End.

Thanks for reading, and...
Review!