CHAPTER ONE PART TWO

                                    

                                          


                          
The next few days were blank. The police were called, the funeral was held, and there was nothing more left to do. Nothing felt right anymore. Ivy's Parents 'held' the funeral, but most of everything was done by a grief-stricken Louanna, who was really the one who had lost a daughter. She brought a fresh rose to her grave every day, straight from her own garden. She knew it would soon be barren, and she would have to cope another way, but that was something for her future self to worry about. 
                          
	If anybody could feel worse than Louanna, it was Cecilia. Everything she did was without purpose. Her expression always blank. Her every move took three times as much effort. She tried doing things to distract herself, but found no motivation. if she pushed herself to do anything it would only make her tired again and she would just return to her bed. There was a depressed mark of where she had been laying,staring at the wall. The skin on her thumbs was holding on as well as she was. They were a bloody mess at this point after all the absent-minded scratching and picking. The insides of her cheeks in a similar state. She never knew a person could sleep this much. It was better than reality though. Her dreams were either pleasant memories of Ivy, had nothing to do with her, or, on the rare occasion, were reenactments that she had to force herself to wake from. She would rather occasionally suffer than live for hours in a world without her... without Ivy.
                          
	She had tried visiting her grave in the woods. She still had no courage to do what she wished she had when ivy was alive. She felt so useless. She couldn't save her. She couldn't even profess her love to a stone that bore her name. Every time she went she would just stare at the waters. They no longer ran red, but they may as well with how fresh the memory of incident felt. The water just babbled by innocently, pretending that it hadn't taken everything from Cecilia.That it hadn't taken her love. Her capability to function. Her will to live. She felt the grass between her fingers, and tugged at the cold earth. This planet truly was cold, and no evidence could support it more than what had happened in this very spot. Where she dreamt of being in Ivy's arms, only to have her embrace forever removed from her life. 
                          
	The air was still hot, but Cecilia felt only chills. The frost snaked up from the earth and invaded her veins like a drug. It ran up her arms and finally reached her spine. She shivered. She began to cry. She surprisingly hadn't done much of that. She began to think of life without Ivy. Actually think about it. It wasn't a thing she wanted to see. She thought about joining Ivy. Wherever she went. It was as simple as taking a few steps toward the water. It was the strongest urge, but she was able to fight it back. She knew that if she were to find Ivy in some sort of afterlife that she would be nothing but pissed at what she had done. She silently began her trek home. She listened to the silence of the woods and she wandered through the branches and vines, the sun setting quickly in the distance. She was almost out of the woods when she noticed it. Something in the corner of her eye moved in the darkness. Something large and mysterious. She didn't let it on to her knowledge of its presence. She continued at the same pace. The creature followed. Its movements were almost sleek. It seemed almost majestic, like a cat lurking in the shadows.She grabbed her phone from her pocket, and swung around quickly,facing the bright screen outwards.
                          
	Behind her was a beast. She had never seen anything remotely like it. It was pure black with skin like leather. Its face resembled that of a wolf,its long tongue hanging, dripping with hunger. It had elf like ears at the base of devilish horns. Its arms reached all the way to the ground, each finger at least a foot in length. A long tail resembling that of a rat waved around carelessly, rubbing against its oddly shaped legs. They had a normal knee, but beyond that was one that seemed to be facing the wrong direction. Its first knee was connected to its dog like feet with a long tendon. That was not the strangest feature of this creature. It had no eyes.