The supernatural force was gone. Judy's back slid down the wall, slowly, letting her knees hit the floor.

"No..."

The word came out in a whisper. Anguish took hold of her. The glimmer of hope in her eyes had disappeared. Tears began to form. So, fate could not be changed. She would lose Nick and didn't know what else to do about it.

"I warned you!"

The voice was affectionate and showed sadness. The wolf gently took the paw to the rabbit's face.

"Don't touch me!" angry, Judy took the back of her paw to the wolf's arm, pushing him away.

Frustrated by the situation, Natsuhiko grabbed the rabbit's wrists and put them against the wall.

"You need to understand the situation around you. Yae cannot be saved and Nick will have to die!" With her eyebrows together, her violet eyes met the wolf's angry blacks. "Your rage will not help you complete your mission!"

On Judy's lips, a smile reappears.

"You're so wrong if you think I'm going to kill Nick!"

"If you don't, you won't get out of here." The wolf sighed, but he didn't relieve the pressure on the rabbit's wrists. "The ritual needs to be performed."

"I don't understand you. First, you said that if I worked hard, I could save him. Now you're saying he has to die?" then Judy realized. Now laughing, leaving the wolf confused, she said, with an angry expression: "I get it. Your intention was never to help me or neither of us."

"I don't understand you!"

"From the beginning you planned everything. How stupid of me to think you would help!" now the tears flowed down her cheeks. Tears not of sadness, but of anger "Your intention was not to help me save Nick, but to lead him straight to his death." The wolf remained silent and finally released the rabbit's wrists. "Amazing how things change overnight. Even more incredible is the fact that I believe in a hope that never existed." Judy got up and wiped her tears with the back of her paw.

"She needed help to free the innocent mammals of this village. The opportunity came to me and I couldn't miss it at all," the words were sincere, but they only made Judy angry even more.

"You took advantage of us," she shouted. Once again, the silence was her answer. Taking a deep breath, she questioned him in a calm voice. "Why... us?"

"Your heart was broken just like Yae's" the wolf began to speak. "In love with a mammal who had feelings for another." a sigh "I saw Yae in you. However, your broken heart did not nourish evil, nor envy, nor jealousy, only sadness. Yae could never possess you even if she wanted to. Your determination and your purity would eliminate any darkness that approached. That is why I chose you. You would be the right choice to break the curse. The hope in me was rekindled. Finally, I could be free and rest in peace. The only thing I would have to do was help you on your way to the ritual." Judy didn't interrupt him. The wolf took a deep breath before speaking again. "However, things escaped its initial follow-up. Sae seized Nick because of the uncertainties in his heart. In love with Alisha, or so he thought, his feelings were changing or had already changed, but he didn't want to see them if you know what I mean. Sae loved and loves her sister just as she loves me. If she said her feelings for me, even though she had spoken to her sister earlier, in her perfect innocence, when she discovered that her sister also had the same feelings for me her heart was divided. Sae didn't know what to do like Nick," Judy's paws closed tightly. By now, it was nothing new if Nick saw more on her than a simple friend and Judy had noticed that. But even so, although Natsuhiko's words were true, his intentions were different right from the start. "Of all of you, you were and are the only one with the right common sense. Think first before you act. Your decisions are not made with a cold head no matter how complicated things get. To be honest with you, I never thought Yae would interview." Natsuhiko approached the rabbit and put a paw on her shoulder, which she was with her back to him, with no intention of facing him. "At first, I thought you might be able to save Nick, but with the knowledge of the things you saw, I realized that there was no hope for him. I'm sorry!"

"Even if I lose my own life, Nick will not die!"

At that moment, Natsuhiko made her face him.

"Didn't you hear anything I said? Do you want me to draw what I said for you understand that you are the only one who survives this whole situation? Neither Jack nor Nick will be left here!"

"What if I don't want to save your dear beloved?" Judy attacked him in another way.

"If you don't, you'll die too!"

"Good! So, the matter is resolved then!" she shrugged her shoulders and let go of the wolf, straying. She didn't take more than two steps before being grabbed by the arm and forced to face him again.

"You can't do that to me. You can't die here. You'll have to save us!"

"If you had been wise at first, tried to help Yae, you would be free as a bird at this point."

Releasing once again, she turned her back to him. The fury reached the peak on the wolf. Without warning, he grabbed her by the arm and threw her hard against the wall. Judy squealed when her back hit the wall with violence. She lacked air. Natsuhiko didn't let her have the opportunity to recover. He grabbed her again. But this time, by the neck. Judy took her paws to the wolf's paw, trying to get him to let her go. He, yes, let her go, but without first squeezing her neck and throwing her back against the wall one more time. This time, it was her right shoulder to complain about the pain. Judy's tears filled her eyes and took her left paw to the sore shoulder. Once again, she was lifted, but by the collar of her blouse.

"You will kill Nick whether you like it or not!"

And with such words, he disappeared, causing Judy to fall on her tail.


The corridor seemed to have an end. After walking more than necessary, two doors smiled at him. Without delay, he reached the handles of the door and opened it. In front of him a small table with a small candle. On his right side, some kind of cell. Inside, a small cupboard with books, a partition and, on the other side, a small table with a candle. On the left side, three small steps lead to a stone floor. Two steps forward, the path also cut to its left side. From then on, he did not know. Nick pondered adventuring along that path first, but something caught his attention through the corner of his eye in the little "prison". The little door opened easily, but Nick had to crouch to pass it. Several notebooks and old books were neatly stored on the shelf. His emerald green eyes watched each book and notebook with some attention. Instinctively, his finger passed through them as it moved forward. Almost at the end of one of the shelves and for no apparent reason, one of the books fell to the ground. His attention suddenly turned to there. Nothing surprised him anymore, so he just came over, crouched down and picked up the book.

'Ritual' was the title printed in black ink. Nick opened it. The first two pages were blank. The third only indicated the year and the day. The fourth one had the names of the twins. The fifth one had the name of the wolf and the remaining five were blank. Sighing and turning his eyes, he closed the book and put it on the shelf, looking first for where it had fallen from. As he deviated once more, with the intention of getting out of there and going in search of Judy, the book fell again, but this time on a written page. Coming back, he knelt, took the book and began to read.

"Not everyone can break the ritual. The gods ask for blood. We must calm their fury. An uncontrollable fury, driven by revenge, fear, suffering, and jealousy. This anger, imprisoned for so many years, but now liberated." Nick turned the page. "Poor Yae fell into all these temptations. Destroyed by her destiny, she requires the souls to proceed with the ritual." Nick noticed that it was a diary and not a book. "I could not stop such an event. The devil has always been imprisoned. Every year there was an animal sacrifice to establish the harmony of the village, but that thing demanded more and more. We didn't know what to do." the page was turned. "The wise priest of the village explained to me that I would have to marry my firstborn to the oldest villager. Only then, that would calm down the demon..." the leaf was torn in half, so Nick couldn't decipher anything else. He changed the page. "Today Yae confronted me in the meeting room. I tried to stay calm, but seeing her suffering upset me. She was right to stay that way, but I didn't have a choice," Nick's memory goes to the dream he had previous. The one who wrote the diary was the same tired expression wolf he had seen in the hall. He was the father of the twins. "Today will be the lunar dance, wherewith it, Yae will be sacred by the bath of the full moon and given her blessing before the villagers of how she will be the next head of the village and who will accept the union with the old mammal. My broken heart gained a little light when Yae, smiling, came to me when I calmly explained to her why I decided to this marriage. If it was a sincere smile, no! If in her expression he could see the pain and discomfort, yes! However, I decided to be blind to such emotions and think that everything would be fine. Oh, but how wrong I was!"

Suddenly, the notebook begins to change color. What had been white, began to stain with a half-red color. Dropping the book of his paws, a gentle ring of a bell turned him to where the sound came from. He recognized the white kimono with a crimson ribbon attached to a bow on the wrist. The pale eyes without color, hid an empty expression without emotions. It wasn't Sae who was there, Nick knew it. That was the twin. On both sides of the wolf, two priests. Their paws were holding her arms. They pulled her through that little path that Nick hadn't seen before. His heart was beating at an abnormal rate. He knew he had to reach her and stop them from going. His instinct told him to run and get her out of those priests. If he didn't it, Nick knew that would be the end of her and him.

Forgive me, Yae. Forgive me for not having seen how much you suffered before! I'll make the things rigth. You'll be free just like all of us.

To be continued…