Hi everyone! As I post each chapter, I'm becoming more and more aware that they're aren't many left to post :( I don't want this story to be over but i guess all good things must come to an end! This is the long-awaited Mob Song chapter and, although there isn't a mob in the sense of angry farmers with pitchforks, I hope this will suffice. And I apologise for the shortness of this chapter but the next chapter is going to be looooooooooooooooong, so it'll all balance out. For anyone who wants to know, I got my uni results today! I'm officially a Bachelorette of Arts now, woohoo! Anyway, on with the story...
…Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows…
Seven men marched into the cold, green forest, most of whom were not entirely sure what they were doing or where they were going.
"A favour for Tristan," Luc had reassured them before they had entered the forest and somehow that seemed to be enough. Somehow not knowing the full details of their mission made it all infinitely more exciting. Ignorance was like a drug.
Somewhere at the front strode Tristan, determination causing ugly lines to form around his usually perfect face. The whisky was kicking in. Every sense he had was heightened—he could hear the noise of twigs snapping beneath his feet, he could feel every drop of perspiration on his skin, he could see every inch of darkness in front of him like it was separate from the next. True, his head was starting to hurt and each footstep he took shook a little more than the previous one, but he hardly noticed. He had never felt so powerful. Men were following him without caring why—now that was leadership. He found himself imagining the moment when they would all make their triumphant return. They would be so glad they had chosen to follow him. The whole town would cheer, his father would be beaming with pride and perhaps best of all, Bella would come running into his arms, thanking him from saving her from making a huge mistake and begging him to be hers.
He wasn't actually sure what he would do to this Bastian once he found him. As long as he got the message across that Bella was his girl…and that he couldn't just go around killing people when he felt like it, of course. He wondered how Bella could let herself get involved with such a monster. It was beyond stupidity. He didn't doubt one word of what his father had told him—why should he? Patrick had no reason to lie to him. He had given him the chance to become the ultimate hero, and for that Tristan was starting to develop a new-found respect for his father. He wanted to make him proud. Maybe they could be a family again—two solid rocks at the foundation of the Blaine empire--and then when his father retired, he would take over and create a perfect future for Bella and their children. They would never want for anything. It would be perfect.
"Er…Tristan?" came a voice at his ear, harshly snapping him out of his daydream.
"What?" he snapped back.
"Can I at least know where we're going? I…I have a bad feeling about these woods…"
"We're going to pay someone a little visit."
Luc put himself between Tristan and his next step, causing him to stop suddenly and the rest of the group to narrowly avoid crashing into him. He took a deep breath and put a hand on the shoulder of the man he admired and feared so much.
"Tristan…please. I'm your buddy. Can't you just tell me what it is, instead of talking in all these weird phrases?"
Luc gulped when he realised Tristan was staring at him like a panther about to strike.
"I….uh…I just think I'd be able to help you better if I knew what we were actually doing. You can tell me anything, you know."
Tristan's gaze didn't shift and Luc started to seriously regret his boldness. He braced himself for a fist in the face.
"This guy's been after Bella. We're going to teach him a lesson. That's all. Happy now?"
Luc nodded and Tristan resumed his pace. He had decided that Luc didn't need to know about the danger they could be in. He had a sneaking suspicion that if he, or any of the others, knew that they were going after a homicidal maniac, they'd be less enthusiastic about following him, and as much as he hated to admit it, he did not want to do this all by himself. The tiniest shred of anxiety was just starting to creep into his otherwise supremely confident mind. He had realised that he didn't actually know where he was going. These woods had always been forbidden to him. When he was younger, he had often had nightmares that took place here. Monsters of all shapes and sizes had emerged from between the trees to get him as a twelve-year-old. The trees themselves had come to life on many occasions, reaching for him with their claw-like branched and tripping him with their vicious roots, and deep, deep down in the heart of the woods had been something so terrifying that his sub-conscious had long since made him forget what it was.
But he had been a child then.
This wood, for all its shadows and secrets, was just a pathetic little clump of trees and grass for him to push through and stomp on.
…Say a prayer, then you're there…
Suddenly, he was in a clearing and a house loomed up in front of him. It was huge—much bigger than the 'Maison du Blaine' (which Bastian immediately resented)—and deathly still. Neither light nor sound came from within its seemingly empty shell. The small band of men that now stood in the vast shadow it cast upon the clearing felt fear grip them like a vice and slowly squeeze their conviction out bit by bit. All except Tristan, who just felt all the more infuriated that he was second-best to the careless owner of such an isolated and squalid house. It looked like it was going to fall down at any moment, just like its inhabitant soon would…
Tristan grinned.
"Right! You guys…" He turned to face them and tried not to grimace at the way they clung together and glanced anxiously around them,"the plan is this. You all just go in and enjoy yourselves. Make some mess, steal anything valuable, raid the fridge…whatever. But if you find him before I do, you leave him alone. He's all mine."
"Who? Who's all his?" whispered Andre to Max, who shrugged his shoulders.
"Who cares? We get to have some fun and besides, it's Tristan, he knows what he's doing. Hey Tristan…"
But Tristan was already gone.
"Well…"said one of the men they'd recruited at the last minute, a trainee butcher named Carl, "I don't know about you guys but I'd rather be in there than out here."
He had noticed the sky becoming blacker. Rain was on the way and he didn't want to get caught in it. And hadn't something just moved in one of the bushes behind them? He wasn't sticking around to find out and so he ran towards the house. The others followed, entering via the door that Tristan had just kicked in.
…Hearts ablaze, banners high…
………………………………………………………………………………………
Bastian sat staring at the single rose in his hand, allowing the soft pad of his finger to be punctured by a thorn. How could something so beautiful be so deadly, he thought as a single drop of his blood fell to the floor at his feet.
A noise.
A noise--the all too familiar sound of shattering glass—broke into his ears and echoed round his head. It swirled around his thoughts and his memories. Suddenly, he was ten years old again and hiding under his blankets. His hands protected his ears and he was whimpering. He was crying…there was a scream…he was clamping his eyelids shut…he was drowning out the sounds of his dying family…he was becoming a shattered child…he was dying too but without the bliss of ending…he was shivering beneath the blankets…
Bastian massaged the rose roughly, causing it to tear and shredded petals to float down onto the consequences of that night—his parents graves.
Not this time.
This time he would stop them.
Slowly, he rose and silently he slid into the house, preparing to hunt and wearing a terrifying smile. He had nothing else left to lose.
Kill the beast!
And yes I know i'm mean with my cliffhangers, and this is not going to be the last one, i warn you now! Mwahahahahahahaha! My thanks once again to Trudi for her help.
Ok review responses (phew, and there was a lot of them this chapter!)
Isabella:-Yay! My mission in life is done! The more peopleI can get to want to hug Bastian the better, cos hugs are the best!
Damian:- I can do that to Bastian and I will, so there! Anyway you're hardly innocent when it comes to making heros suffer! And of course she will go back to him, its like an unwritten law. I think i'd get lynched if I wrote it any other way! Hope my version of the mob scene lives up to your expectations :) And seeing as you asked me to update again soon so nicely, here it is. The next chapter may be a bit longer in coming cos I have no idea yet exactly whats going to happen!
elvenwriter:- Bastian and I (why am I talking about him like hes a real person?) thank you for your concern. Yes I know I'm giving him a bit of a hard time at the moment but I'll make it up to him, I promise!
LumBabsFan:-Did my sneak preview prepare you adequately for this chapter? I wanted to save the better bits til now. As for whether Bastians going to get beaten up or do the beating himself...you'll just have to wait and find out. I wonder who you'd put your money on? Its quite and equal match, I'll give you even odds lol (I don't gamble, honest!)
TrudiRose:-You're so good to me! All the nice things you write in your reviews and your grammar checks :) gives you a hug Oh, and when I've finished with Tristan you can have him lol I have no idea how thats gonna work but he could sit next to your Gaston figure and they could argue over who's the manliest...can you tell I'm tired? lol
bellamegs:-I have never heard Ellen Degeneres speak so I'll just have to take your word for it that you sounded like her just then! I do dare to leave you hanging and I have left you hanging again! Mwahahahahahahah...please don't hurt me. As for who she chose...you'll find out in the next chapter,I think...I think you can probably guess though, i'm not THAT evil! Are you still waiting? Is your foot still tapping?
RoxyFoxyChick:- I'll have you know that I CAN stop it there and I've just done it again...why do I have the feeling I'm going to be very unpopular because of these cliffhangers? Hope this chapter satisfies your thirst for knowledge for the moment as I really don't know how long the next installment will be in coming...
jrJournalist:- Hope i churned out this chapter in time. I seem to go through stages where I write loads and then leave everyone waiting for ages! Enjoy!
Pearly:- Hi Pearly, thanks for reviewing :) I've done it again I'm afraid (leaving the story at annoying moments) so I hope you'll forgive me. Hope you like!
