I Don't Want to Love Him, but I Just Do...

Chapter Eight

Previously on I Don't Want to Love Him, but I Just Do...

The dress was a pearl white and strapless with beading on every spot of the top part. Around the torso, it looked like a strap was ruffled and wrapped around tightly on the stomach. Then, from just above the hips to the floor, it was wavy- designed, resembling waves in the ocean.

Lyn walked down the steps again to be face- to- face with Tom, holding a hand up to Catheryn and Ali, reassuring them that she could handle it. She looked into his light green eyes, remembering how much those eyes used to make her melt inside.

"Sebastian is the guy you're getting married to?" Tom chuckled but not with humor, with sarcasm. "Look who's with the enemy now."

"Made it out in time, for what?" asked Lyn, horrified. Her mouth was wide open, and her facial features showed complete terror.

"Before Monica turned me into an aracnidi."

Aracnidi

Lyn took a sharp intake of breath, her fingers twitching unconsciously. She stared at Tom's grave expression; he was waiting for Lyn to respond, but she was staring into the woods again, absent.

"Lyn?" Tom waved a hand in front of her face until she blinked.

"Tom..." she looked quickly to the ground and back up to his face, taking a huge gulp. "Tell me it's not the aracnidi that our parents have always tried to scare us with when we were younger."

"No, these aracnidi are actually real," he tried to keep a blank expression until he looked at Lyn's mad face and laughed.

She punched him on his arm hard as he chuckled hysterically. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes were showing a pigment of black now.

"This is a serious matter! I swear I'll break your arm if you joke around like that again," she threatened.

"Fine," he rubbed his arm where she punched him, trying not to laugh anymore. "As you might have guessed," he began, "Monica is an aracnidi. You know the legend; they're half- human, half- spider, but they are immortal.

"Their strongest weapon are their webs. They are as strong as diamonds. One little thread around you neck with so much as a small pull," he made a gesture with his finger sliding from one end of his neck to the other, "your head is snapped right off your neck."

As Lyn's eyes widened, Tom pulled up a sleeve from his red long- sleeved shirt he had on and exposed scars that resembled a spider web on his arm. "Monica did this to me when I escaped. I manged to untangle myself, miraculously."

Lyn softly passed her hand softly over his scars, doleful.

"If you're still the nice guy I used to date, Tom," she stared down at the scars, "you didn't deserve to have been through all of this."

"Everyone changes," he put his hand under her chin and tilted her head up so their eyes met, "but I still will never act like a jerk unless I had a real good reason to be."

She let out a loud breath out through her nose, escaping from his grasp and his gaze before she fell into a trance. She looked downcast and kicked a rock away that was right next to her foot, avoiding the awkwardness that just came upon them.

"How did you untangle yourself from the web?"

"Well, I used the web against itself," he smiled, proud. "When she wasn't looking or out of the room, I'd cut a thread with a thread."

"You still have the brains, I see," she giggled.

"I would never let go of knowledge," he shook his head.

"What else is there to know about them?"

"They can change into anything they want to be; one of their special powers. That's why Monica smelled like a vampire, and how she made the love potion. She could turn into a witch. Turning wasted a lot of energy but since she's been doing it all her life, she, let's say, evolutionized to not waste as much energy while she turns."

"Where's Monica now?" she cleared her throat.

Tom shrugged, squinting his eyes from the brightness of the sun. "Who knows? Just as long as I'm out of her reach."

Lyn agreed, nodding her head slightly. "Is there a way to identify who's really an aracnidi? A way they could be killed?"

Tom smiled crookedly at Lyn, placing his arm on the back of the bench around her, amused. "Princess Lyn, are you planning on a slaughtering?"

She felt something tug at her stomach, remembering how she would instantly give into something when he flashed her that smile.

He continued. "Aracnidi are a very evil bunch, and over the years they have gotten better and better at hiding themselves. But there's one way to identify them," he paused, "Brazilian Rosewood."

Lyn raised an eyebrow. "What? Are we going to cook everybody in town with rare wood, then, with their ashes, we'll know was an aracnidi?" she raised an eyebrow.

"What? No, Lyn, they're allergic to it," he went and grabbed something from his jean pocket and showed it to her.

It was a beautiful dark, reddish piece of wood, about an inch in length. Lyn grabbed it from his hands and noticed that it was a bit heavier than the average weight of a piece of wood. She bounced it up and down in her hands.

"You went all the way to Brazil for this?" she asked.

"No," he grabbed the wood out from midair in a millisecond, wry, getting an angry stare from Lyn. "My grandmother was always very suspicious about aracnidi's existence and gave it to me. She kept telling me what Monica was, but I didn't believe her. Only because I was under that love potion. She gave me this, so she could prove to me that she was right," he flipped the wood high in the air, and Lyn caught it this time, with a triumphant smile. "Burned right through her hand."

"It's settled, then."

"What's settled?" he asked, confused.

"We have to set up a search party for these fiends. I can't have my citizens in danger," she confirmed strictly. "I will be queen of Transylvania in less than three months. I need to prove that I can handle all this responsibility."

Tom nodded his head, understanding her situation. "So you wan to start, like, a committee?"

"A secret committee. I don't need there to be any chaos going on here."

"Sounds good," he smiled at her. He sighed and stood up from the bench. "Do you want me to walk you home?" he stretched out his hand, offering his hand to help her up from the bench, like a gentleman.

She shook her head, her cheeks getting warm. "You don't need to. I'll see you tomorrow," she grinned, getting up without his help. She grinned one last time at him and raced to her house; and on the way, trying to relax the rapid butterflies attacking her stomach.

"Can you believe that lion actually tried to put up a fight? He knew I was going to get him one way or another," Freddie ranted, his voice at top volume.

Lyn rolled her eyes as she stared blankly at Freddie at the table where Sebastian and all his other posse would sit for lunch. She hadn't spoken to Sebastian since the kiss, and much less about her conversation with Tom. She didn't know how he would take it. She didn't really know his feelings for her, but she had a feeling he wasn't going to like how she spoke with her ex- boyfriend.

Most of the time, she caught him glimpsing at her, and she would instantly feel her stomach drop. She really wanted to talk to him, but she really didn't want to face the awkwardness. What was she going to tell him about the aracnidi? Should she even tell him?

She was still very worried about the rampage aracnidi going around Transylvania. She would constantly look around at her surroundings, very alert. She really didn't who she should tell. She felt like this is something that she needs to fix on her own. Yet, she felt like she should tell her friends at least. Make them part of the committee.

She just didn't know what to do at the moment. With the whole Tom and Sebastian, aracnidi, and the wedding problem, she couldn't keep her brain in the right order. She was going crazy by the second, and she didn't know how to fix anything yet. Why is my life so complicated? She asked herself as she looked at around at her friends sitting at the table. She thought about actually trusting them with this information and them helping her with this search. She just couldn't make a decision.

She then thought about what could have happened back when she walked into the woods and fell unconscious. The time when Sebastian saved her. She was getting memory lapses here and there, but she couldn't remember everything that happened. She could only remember seeing the four men and the one woman around something in the clearing they were in. But that's the only thing she can remember. She sighed.

"Can they be any louder?" asked Demi, annoyed by Freddie's shouting. "They have nothing better to do except show off stupid stories that probably aren't real."

Catheryn stabbed the salad she was eating for lunch. "They're idiots," she scowled.

Lyn raised an eyebrow, staring at Catheryn eating her salad. "Cat, are you okay? You're eating human food; bad human food," she shivered at the thought of the last time she tried salad, disgusted.

"It's not as bad as it looks," she popped another spinach leaf into her mouth, "or tastes," she tried her best to gulp down the leaf.

Dominic chuckled and grabbed her salad and dumped it into the garbage. He placed the leftover antelope leg he had bought from the lunch line in front of her on the table.

"What the hell, Dom?!" Catheryn yelled at him. "I don't want this shit! I want what I bought for dinner; I don't need you babying me. I can take care of myself," she frowned, dumping the antelope and the plate off the table, causing a loud shatter of glass. She got up from her seat and stomped her way out of the cafeteria. "You're going to pick that up," she glared at him.

"Is she okay?" asked Ali, worried. "Or are you two okay?"

Dominic exhaled deeply and grabbed the shattered plate, throwing it into the garbage. "I hope we're okay. She's been upset since me and her had the talk about our lives after high school. It's too early to be planning that. You know what I mean?"

"Well, what did you tell her when she asked you?" asked Liv, folding her arms across her chest, knowing that he probably said something wrong that made her this upset.

He shrugged. "Just that I want to wait a little to get married and that I want very little to no children. When did she even start to think about this stuff? We're only juniors. I have a feeling she's been thinking more about this since you started to look for wedding things, Lyn," he looked up at her.

Lyn shook her head, giggling sarcastically. "Wow, of course men are oblivious to everything. They always want to blame something on someone else," she stared at him straight into his eyes, "this is your fault, buddy- boy."

"What are you talking about?" he said, dumbfounded. "That's what my opinion is! Yes, I might want to spend the rest of my life with her, but I can't really predict the future."

"You still don't get it," Lyn got up from her chair and ran after Catheryn. She knew exactly what was going on with her, feeling worried.

She found her next to the doors to the bathroom. She walked up to her and placed her backpack on the ground. "Tell me your not what I think you are..."

Catheryn's tears started to spill down her cheeks, looking to the ground, her arms folded across her chest. Her legs were crossed as she was leaning against the wall. "I am," she looked up at Lyn and started to cry even more.

Lyn frowned sadly as she hugged Catheryn and let her cry on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Cat, you just have to tell Dom. I'm sure he'll be happy."

A/N: Hello, my loyal fans! I know this chapter was short and not so good, but trust me, I'm trying my best. I actually left my Pre-Calculus homework for after I updated this just for you all! Lol So there probably might be some mistakes since I'm trying to finish quickly to get to my homework quickly, so bear with me. If there are some big mistakes, just tell me, and I'll correct it immediately.

Probably for the next upcoming chapters, they'll be a little shorter until I get organized and used to school starting again. :)

Anyways, I'd like to thank everyone who reads, follows, favorites, and reviews this story! This includes: BelievinginTrueLoveForever, Crazyed Vampire, HaterJo, WisegirlNL15, XxxJacobBlackForeverxxX, laurizzle, lovesfairytale, sunshine4evr, xXallegedangelXx, 19-abby-99, AlexandraSterling41, AureliaCrossed, DarknessInYourEyes, KarouBlue, ZisisGirl23, shadow-dea, xoxDarkFallenAngelxox, xxxxLaKerzxxxx, HPKaneChroniclesFan4Life,Hana15498, tinckles, wolf9653, lol2247, L4N498, blargablargameh, DarkSpiritsXx, Valkyrie18, WinnieThePooh, and two anonymous reviewers. And eleven reviews for the last chapter? That just made my day. :D Keep it up with the reviews, you guys! You know I love them! I'll be updating next Tuesday or Wednesday, so see you then. :)

~MythologyCrazedSchmidt15