To His Hell and Back-Chapter 268: A Friend For life

In the woods was Donna. She had bunched her skirt and tied it to her knees, preventing from her falling accidentally as she ran inside the woods. There were traps in this forest and she had to learn it the hard way by watching a girl whose leg was caught by the bear trap and couldn’t walk for the entirety of the hunt.

After inspecting, Donna realized that the rest of the forest was covered in traps. There were log of woods that would fall and crash to a person’s body, there was even ground that would cave in with wooden stakes sharp enough that would skewer them.

Donna had taken a walk with so much carefulness when suddenly she felt her body about to fall forward.

Done for. She was done for.

Donna closed her eyes, ready to fall into her death when someone had pulled her by the collar and pushed her backward.

Shocked and confused, she turned around, finding Arabella who had helped her. The two friends were quickly relieved to see one another and in a hurry, Donna rushed to hug her and Arabella did the same, she pulled her friend to a tight embrace, gently patting her back.

"What happened?" Donna asked, there was no blame in her voice, just a curiosity brimming in her eyes. "You said that... the human hunt wasn’t going to take place anymore."

"It’s a long story," she whispered, her voice trailing to the distant, "I was accused," she then drawled her words. "Princess Marissa, Cassius’s younger sister was killed and they accused me of killing her."

"I knew that it was weird how easy the human hunt was going to be put to a stop," said Donna with a furrowed eyebrows, "The Crown Prince... he didn’t say anything to protect you?"

"He isn’t in the castle now and the queen," she turned to the entrance of the forest, sighing, "I don’t know what she had done but she had made the King into her puppet. I’m afraid she was the one who killed the princess and had planned all of this from the start."

"That sounds like her," answered Donna, "Anyway that means that we have to survive here. Have you met any vampires?"

She shook her head and Donna nodded, "I think they are still busy hunting for the ones who were either trapped in the entrance."

"They want to hunt but they don’t look too excited running around either," Arabella added, "They are all still in the entrance so if we go deeper into the forest, we should be safer."

"Alright, ah and there are traps here," Donna said as Arabella nodded.

They walked deeper into the forest but Donna could see how Arabella was absentminded. Donna could see that Arabella was trying to survive and that she wasn’t absentminded because she was so confident that Cassius would come to protect her from the human hunt.

Instead, Arabella was absentminded because something else, perhaps an even bigger trouble had haunted her.

"Have you been... Did the Queen put a hand on you?" Donna seemed to have clenched her fists as she asked her this question.

Arabella studied her friend and fall into a small smile upon seeing how Donna seemed ready to put a punch into the Queen’s face despite the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get close the slightest to the Queen.

"Well she," Arabella heaved her breaths, wondering how she should tell to her friend that she had been stabbed by the chest and was supposed to die yet she didn’t die at all. She pursed her lips and finally broke the news, "What do you think of someone who couldn’t die despite being stabbed to death?"

Donna’s eyes went wide as she stared at arabella as if her friend had grown two more heads on her neck.

"A magic trick?" Donna asked and Arabella almost chuckled in the tense air.

"Not a magic trick," she reiterated, "Just a fact that she had been seen as someone who couldn’t die at all despite being killed multiple times."

"An immortal," Donna said in an awe, "Well I don’t think that’s bad? The fact is that not dying is a good thing, you know."

"A good thing," Arabella repeated, "Is it really..."

"It is! Don’t you fear death?" Donna hummed as she thought of it, "I always feel death but these days I think that it wasn’t death that I’m scared about... it’s... dying alone? Or maybe the thought that no one else would visit my grave after I died or celebrate the day of my death in my grave. I don’t have... any single good family left so once I died no one would be there for me."

Arabella who heard this shook her head and grasped Donna’s hands, "I won’t forget you."

"Hahaha, you are supposed to tell me that I won’t die in this moment you know," she sang but Donna seemed to be in a better mood. "So I think that not being able to die is like a gift."

"But it’s a curse that would make you seen as a monster," Arabella however wondered whether she was truly an immortal or not. The immortal she had heard was just a tale for the old, tales that everyone knew wasn’t real. Immortals won’t die or get old. But she does get old doesn’t she?

She never skip a year in growth and was always the same as the rest of the girls her age.

Or was her growth going to take a stop soon?

Arabella shivered at the thought of not getting older. She realized now how growing was a part that she had loved in life, that she didn’t mind getting older, weaker, as long as her life was lived with the radiance of life.

"To be seen as a monster isn’t too bad," Donna whispered as she jumped over the trap under her feet. "I was always seen as a monster back in my village, they think I could bring death and unluckiness just because all my dads died after marrying my mother. But think of it, was that really me bringing the unluckiness or was it my mother? Or was it just a terrible fate dawned on us that made us look very unlucky? I was always called a monster but do you think I am a monster?"

Arabella shook her head firmly, "Never."

"See? Not everyone who sees someone who died and came back alive as a monster, Bella," Donna hummed, "Even if I see you coming back to life after being beheaded, I would be shocked at first but then amazed, I would even ask you how you had done it and then treat you the same as always."

"But," Arabella whispered, "It’s terrifying."

"It’s terrifying at first but soon people who cares about you would overlook that horror. What matters to them isn’t how you could come back to life or how you’re an immortal but just you as a person, as a soul," Donna then tapped her heart, "Though I say this to you, not everyone would treat you the same after knowing that you’re an immortal. Sometimes, others would see you as a curse to avoid, but that’s fine, that’s how life is, isn’t it? People like that will just run away from you and in a way that isn’t far too bad."

Arabella’s heart softened hearing what Donna had said.

It was odd. They were running from danger, people were after them, the vampires were hunting them like livestocks yet here they were talking from heart to heart.

"The one you should worry isn’t the one who is terrified from you," Donna’s voice lowered, "Rather the people who would use that power of yours as theirs, using you like a weapon or a pawn. So many people would do that and I hope... you can avoid them as long as you lived."

Arabella looked at Donna, struck silent. The sincerity in her friend’s words settled deep into her bones like the snow that never melted, slowly cooling the panic that had clung to her chest ever since the hunt began. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

She whispered, "I’ve never said this but... I’m so glad I met you."

Donna smiled softly, stepping over another shallow pit cleverly disguised with leaves. "Of course you are. Who else would bless you with such charming company in the middle of a murder maze?"

"By the way... did I tell you I was the immortal?" Arabella tilted her head as she asked and Donna grinned.

"Hey, give me more credit than that, I’m clever you know."

Arabella huffed a laugh, but it barely escaped her throat before it was swallowed by the stillness around them.

Then a snap.

They both stopped. A twig had broken, but neither of them had moved.

Donna’s smile dropped instantly. Arabella turned her head slowly, carefully, scanning the woods. The trees were unnervingly quiet, the wind having died down entirely. There was no rustling of branches, no chirping of birds, nothing.

Just that sound.

Snap.

Another twig. Closer this time.

Arabella’s eyes widened. She reached for Donna’s hand and pulled her behind a thick oak tree, crouching down low.