我要再来一次

Chapter 169 Dream Part I

A girl, around nine years old, wearing a sky blue winter jacket paired with red scarf was walking in the snowy woods. Her clothes along with her dark hair complimented her delicate and angelic feature.

The girl was walking quietly, stomping on the snow under her feet as she smiled. She liked the snow, the woods, the silence and coldness of this place. She felt as though she was finally free. She had grown up in a rich family’s mansion but she always felt like a caged bird. To her, that city, that house, was nothing but a boring prison. That was why she was like a bird that was set free the moment her mother left her in this place.

She felt like a free spirit and she was enjoying her newfound freedom but there was one thing she just couldn’t understand about the folks in the village. Everyone was always reminding her, warning her not to go to the woods but she couldn’t help it. The woods were a beautiful and mystic place. She felt like she was experiencing what it may have felt like to live in a fairyland.

She had been visiting these woods every time she walked back home from school for a month now and she never met with any trouble so far. She even started thinking that the folks in the village were scaredy cats.

As she walked further, the girl halted in her tracks. She heard an eerie sound so she slowly looked around, wary and curious.

The noise got louder. The girl finally started to feel scared. She knew what that sound was – they were sounds that were made by wolves.

When she looked behind her, the girl was horror-struck. A pair of wolves were right there, growling hungrily at her.

The girl held her breath as she began to shiver in fear. She wanted to run but her feet wouldn’t move. She wanted to scream but her lips wouldn’t open. She felt as though she had become a breathing ice statue.

Still growling ferociously, the wolves began to slowly circle her. She knew she was going to die. She knew the wolves were going to eat her alive.

"N-n-no... p-please don’t eat me." She managed to talk but her voice was almost inaudible. A hopeless tear fell from her eyes as she followed the wolves with her eyes. "M-m-mommy... grandma... grandpa... I’m sorry... I should’ve listen to you..." she cried, whispering to herself in horror.

Just as she said those words, she saw the wolf jump to attack her and she shut her eyes closed as she prepared herself to die.

But the attack she was waiting for didn’t happen. Instead, she heard another strange sound which seemed to be a whistle.

The girl slowly opened her eyes just to see the wolves licking someone. It was a boy and he seemed to be around thirteen to fourteen years old.

He was standing meters across her. He was wearing a black winter coat. His dark unruly hair was damp and his eyes were colder than the snow covering the ground. His hair was hiding his eyes but the girl could see the dangerously cold glimmer in them as he looked at her. His gaze was so cold she felt her knees weaken.

They stared at each other but when they heard people’s voices, the boy, along with the wolves, abruptly disappeared.

"Little girl! What the hell are you doing in this place?!" An old uncle was shocked upon seeing her.

"Shit, it seemed like the wolves almost got her!" another one shouted as he looked at the wolves’ footprints.

"Bring that girl back. We’re going after them!" another man yelled and they ran after the direction where the boy and the wolves disappeared. She saw them holding guns and her heart began to beat wildly.

"No, uncle... don’t go after them." She yelled but the old uncle with her carried her like a sack over his shoulder.

"Shut up, kid! Don’t you know that there are monsters in these woods? Those wolves can transform to powerful human beings. You don’t know how many hunters they’ve killed until now!"

"Bang!! Bang!!" A loud sound echoed, startling her. The girl knew that it was the hunter’s gun.

"No, don’t shoot them!!" she pleaded. She didn’t know why but she was crying. The face of that boy was clearly pictured in her mind, staring at her with his ice cold eyes.

But the uncle ignored her and didn’t put her down.

That day, when she was brought back to her grandparent’s house, she was scolded pretty hard and was locked in her room as her punishment.

Her grandparents were usually very kind to her. They doted on her a lot but that day, she realized just how strict they were when it came to going to the woods. And it wasn’t just them. Everyone in the village seemed extremely obsessed with the superstition that evil creatures were living in the woods and that was why the dare devil uncles kept going to the woods to hunt them down.

"Darling, please don’t hate us about this. We are so afraid that something bad might happen to you so please understand. Goodnight." Her grandmother who came to check on her kissed her after she left her room.

The girl couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t forget about that boy and she was worried to death about him. ’What if they shoot him? What if he was wounded right now and was wailing all alone in the woods? His wolves definitely won’t know how to help him. Was he all alone in that woods? What was he eating out there? Was he sleeping in the snow?’ She kept asking herself anxiously until she eventually drifted to sleep.

...

The next morning, her grandparents let her go to school. Of course, they had to sternly warn her not to ever go to the woods again and she promised them.

But on her way back home, the girl couldn’t stop herself from heading to that place. She told herself that she just wanted to see if he was alright. She just wanted to know that he wasn’t shot by those hunters yesterday. If she could only see that he was alright, she promised to herself that she wouldn’t return to the woods ever again.