Chapter 18

~Alistair~

In accordance to the plan Eliana had made, which we had all agreed to, Jenny had had her face made up to look exactly like the Beast of Vengeance’s late wife. I was still surprised at how perfectly well the makeup artist had transformed Jenny from the person I knew, into another that had been dead for twelve long years.

Before today, I had thought that a makeup artist’s job was to add spice to one’s look, by making them look more beautiful; never in my thirty-two years of existence had I thought that they could as well create a new person from another person, and this new discovery got me fascinated, and had got me thinking that maybe I was going to invest in the makeover profession.

I had been searching for another sector of the economy to invest in, since there was so much money lying around, and although doing makeovers wasn’t a sector of the economy; they could be a worthy investment. “Duke Makeover World" sounded like music to my ears, but I was very much aware of the fact that it was another dream that wasn’t going to be realised, as the board of directors were never going to agree with the idea I had only just thought of a couple of minutes ago.

“You remember the plan, right?” I asked, confirming it from Jenny.

She nodded her head in the affirmative, as a response to my question. “Don’t forget to keep your eyes on me every time. If he has the slightest bit of suspicion and you sense it, please, come to my rescue immediately,” She said, her heart pounding terribly in fear.

“Hey, don’t be afraid, okay? Breathe in, and breathe out,” I told her, seeing how scared she was.

She did just as I had instructed; inhaling and exhaling, till she was a little bit calmer, and although I could sense that her fears had not been completely erased, she seemed better off now and was not as scared as she had been before.

“You’ll be just fine. Don’t panic. If he notices you panicking, that’s when it should get really bad. Remember, the only thing you should feel is pain, so, he’d realise how much he has hurt you...”

“You mean, how much he has hurt his wife, isn’t it?” She inquired, cutting in.

“Yes, and his wife is you...”

“I am so not his wife,” She objected.

“Come on, Jenny, you know exactly what I mean. You are not his wife, but you look like his wife, which is why he’s going to even care that he hurt you... hopefully,” I said.

“You shouldn’t have added “hopefully". Thought you’d be completely optimistic until the very end, because now that you’ve mentioned that word, it means you’re also unsure of this plan, and I’ve low-key started to freak out again, because I’m now burdened with thinking about a million and one things that could possibly go wrong,” She said, breathing heavily.

“Nothing would go wrong,” Eliana said, coming into view, wearing a big smile on her face as usual. She had gone back home to get the sword, which I could tell was in the big plastic bag which she was carrying.

“Oh! Thank God you’re here. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it,” I said, giving her a warm embrace.

She giggled. “And why would you think that?” She asked, as soon as I let her go.

I shrugged. “I didn’t think your parents would let you our twice in a row in just one day. I’m starting to think that you sneaked out,” I said, pushing back a strand of hair that was in her face.

“Well, I didn’t. They’re trying to make atonement for their sins, so, they can’t stop me from leaving the house. You know, I only just found out that I come from a family of werewolf hunters today because of the incident that occurred last night, and because I expressed how hurt and disappointed I was at them for hiding the truth away from me all these years, and making me believe I was some kind of crazy bitch, they’ve been trying to get on my good sides. I left through the front door, and my mum was like: “be safe”. She didn’t even ask where I was going to, can you believe that?” She explained, laughing hard.

“Ask her something simple, and she goes off to speak like a historian, saying even the things no one asked her about,” Jenny said, with a loud hiss.

I rolled my eyes in total irritation at Jenny, and placed my hands on Eliana’s shoulders. “”That’s good to hear, Eliana, and it’s a welcome development. Perhaps, they’d even let you give opinions on issues related to the company now,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, I’m not interested in their company,” She said.

Before I could open up my mouth to say something, Garrett came running towards us., holding something in his hands.

“The sun’s going to set soon. It’s almost 7pm, and I was thinking of what I could do to help instead of only waiting in the shadows to see if the Beast of Vengeance is going to have the intention of ripping my sister’s throat out,” He said.

“And did you come up with anything that could help?” Jenny asked, seemingly uninterested in the good intentions he had.

“Yes, I did,” He responded. “Now, the Beast’s senses are highly intensified, and he could find out that we’re hiding in the shadows, so, I got something that could mask our scent,” He said, revealing what he had in his hand to be a bottle of baking soda.

“Wow. That’s great thinking, Garrett,” Eliana noted, giving him a warm smile.

“Yeah, thanks. It’s just two of us that are going to use it. Please, remember to keep your heartbeat steady, and try not to panic. Even if he doesn’t catch our scent, he may hear your heart beating loudly,” Garrett said.

Eliana nodded her head, showing that she understood the instructions that had just been given to her. “I’ll try to keep my heartbeat steady, to the point that even if I see Alistair being thrown in the air and pounced on, I would control myself not to panic,” Eliana said.

“Don’t worry, that won’t happen,” I said, shooting a small smile in her direction.

Garrett shrugged. “There’s no harm done with keeping an open mind, and believing that anything could happen. It helps you prepare yourself for the worst,” He said.

“Guys, the sun's down,” Jenny declared, looking up at the sky, and pointing at the disappearing sun.

“Okay, you all, don’t freak out. I promise to treat us all to a nice hot meal at a fancy Chinese restaurant, if we successfully pull this off. We can do this, I believe that strongly. Who else believes so?” I asked, trying to be their source of motivation.

“I didn’t want to believe in anything, and just go ahead with whatever fate might have in store for us, but you taking us out to eat once all this is over sounds really tempting, so, yeah. I believe that we can do this,” Garrett said.

“I believe that I won’t get eaten by a beast today. I’m positive that if I was going to die, I’d have already known by now, but since I know I won’t die, I am certain that things would go as we have planned or even better,” Jenny said.

“I believe that we can all this pull this off, and like Garrett, I really do want to be treated to a meal at a fancy Chinese restaurant, after all the trouble we’re going to go through today,” Eliana said.

“Okay then,” I said, nodding my head, impressed at how calm we all were.

“So, what’s the plan again?” Jenny asked.

“It all starts with me,” I said, and although I had something else in mind to add, that was halted when I heard the approaching footsteps of the beast.

I patted Jenny and her brother, Garrett, on the shoulders, and gave Eliana a kiss on the forehead. “It is time,” I said.

“Be careful,” Eliana said, squeezing my hands, with watery eyes.

I just gave her a small smile, and headed towards the approaching footsteps of the beast, who, like we had all guessed, was going to come after me. The plan had been for us to wait for the beast in the woods, close to the same road Eliana’s friends had died, and we had known for a fact that he was going to first try to hunt me or Eliana, given what had happened yesterday, and try to carry out his revenge on us.

As I saw the beast approaching, I couldn’t catch the scent of Eliana and Garrett anymore, and I could tell for sure that they had already masked their scent, with the aid of baking soda.

The beast growled as it approached me, with its giant steps and the raging fire in his eyes. I was not frightened, and yelled at him to even come much more closer if he dared, angering him the more.

It came closer and closer to me, and with every step he took, I challenged him to bring it on.

“Come at me. It’s me you want, isn’t it?” I yelled out loud.

The beast was directly in front of me now, but I didn’t quiver or tremble before it. In fact, my confidence level was on the highest it could possibly be on, and I urged the beast to keep on coming forward, ordering him to do his worst.

He picked me up with his thumb and index finger, and lifted me high in the air, then threw me down. Pouncing on me, he began to deal me with blows, and his claws scratched my arms and stomach, making me groan in pain, but I was not all that bothered; I knew I was going to heal at the end of the day.

Now that he was distracted was a good time for Jenny to show up and play her part, before he ripped me into pieces. It was as though she had read my mind, because as soon as I had had that thought, she showed up, wearing a black hoodie and denim pants, holding up a stick high in the air.

I heard her heart race faster, as with a loud growl, she hit the Beast of Vengeance very hard on its head, sending it staggering backwards. In fury, he turned to her and transferred the anger he had towards me, to her, pushing her with its paws to the ground, where she landed heavily with a thud, yelling out loud in extreme agony.

Dragging her by the leg, he rolled her over the muddy ground time and time again, that I was beginning to fear that he may erase her makeup completely, even though I had been assured by Eliana that the makeup was made to last for as long as twenty-four hours, and won’t get easily wiped off, except with soap and water.

Jenny managed to rise on her feet, breathing heavily, and with unsteady steps backwards. He didn’t relent in dishing her his own bit of anger even though she was clearly hurt, and he pushed her to one of the tall trees that surrounded the woods.

He wrapped his hand around her neck, and with his claws, started digging into her flesh, almost strangling her there and then on the spot.

Jenny was choking and placed her hands around the hand that was attempting to smother the life out of her, and was trying to remove it from her neck, while kicking him with her legs.

I nodded at Jenny, whose eyes had met mine like I had hoped, signalling for her to do what she had to do.

She perfectly understood the assignment, and in their struggle, she pulled her head backwards, causing the hood that had covered her hair and the upper part of her face, to fall off, revealing herself to be none other than the exact lookalike of the Beast’s dead wife.

Again, even though our lives were on the line, I could not help but admire the creativity the makeup artist possessed, and how she had successfully turned Jenny into being the shadow of herself, and causing her to have a striking resemblance with the Beast’s wife, who had been long dead from just seeing an old picture of her.

Although I had been a little bit skeptical about Eliana’s plan, it seemed that she had actually made quite a good prediction of what was going to occur, because on recognising the face of his late wife, the Beast slowly removed the hand that was around Jenny’s neck, and had a shocked look written all over his face.

A tear slid down Jenny’s face, and she looked at him with so much pain and hurt, which was evident in her eyes. We had already discussed that she wasn’t to say a word, lest the Beast remembered his wife’s voice and knew we were toying with his emotions, which would make everything go totally wrong in a matter of seconds.

I watched the Beast go from being an angry no-nonsense creature, whose only aim that was once just for exacting revenge and later grew into the aim to kill off anyone who dared to stand in his path, to being a regretful creature, as he watched tears fall from Jenny’s eyes.

He held her face in an affectionate manner, wiping her tears away, and thirty seconds later, he spoke. No, he did not growl. He spoke!

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” were the words that came out of his mouth.

He extended his arms out, then pulled Jenny into a warm embrace. I could see the fear in her eyes and also a glint of happiness, upon the realisation that everything was going according to our plan.

The fur which covered his face had been completely erased, and he had gone from being a giant to a normal-sized werewolf, with his face now human, and his body no longer a fur zone.

Immediately it was obvious that our plan had succeeded, Eliana and Garrett, who had been hiding in the shadows, came out, and before the Beast could find out that he had been tricked, Eliana threw the sword to me, and I caught it, then standing up, I drove the sword through the back of the beast who was back to being a normal werewolf.

A growl escaped his lungs, as he fell to the ground, wincing in pain and soaking in his own blood, and realising that he had been tricked, he said: “You’re not my wife.”

“No, I am not. Your wife is dead, she died twelve years ago,” Jenny said, removing the black wig that she had worn, since his wife’s hair had been black.

“Thank you...thank you for ridding me of this kind of life...” He struggled to say, in a slow ragged breath, as he battled the last moments of his life.

Eliana suddenly shocked us all, by suddenly stepping forward, in front of the man, who was almost dead.

“If you’re really thankful, tell me what happened to my friend. You remember me from ten years ago, don’t you? Alistair thinks you came after me to have your revenge for the time my parents tried to kill you and your kind when they spotted you, while hunting for a deer. I watched you kill two of my friends...”

“What are you doing, Eliana?” I asked, in a very perplexed state, cutting her off.

She ignored me and went on, “Everyone believes my third friend was eaten by a wild animal. Is that true? I’ve read that you don’t eat people, you just kill them. His body was never found, and I want to know what really happened to him. You chased him that night, didn’t you? What did you to him?” Eliana asked him, demanding a response from him before he gave up the ghost.

“I...I bit him... I wanted to kill him and just finish him off, but I decided to go after you instead, believing he wouldn’t survive it, and since... since you were the one I was truly after...however, I vanished that day from the face of the earth...and... and I don’t know what became of your friend,” He responded shakily, carefully choosing his words.

“That means...he could still be alive?” I asked, helping out Eliana, who was still trying to grasp the news.

There was no response coming from him, and when I looked at him, wondering why he wasn’t giving an answer to my question, I saw his eyes closed, as he lay on the cold hard muddy ground, without breathing, and lying with the sword in his stomach. He was dead, finally dead!

I stood up from my crouched position, and took Eliana in my arms, then gave her a pack on the forehead.

“We did it,” I said to her.

However, I didn’t hear her say anything. Rather; she sobbed, as she buried her face in my chest, while I patted her hair; soothingly, lovingly.

“If this is about your friend, I promise you that we’ll find him if he’s still alive, okay?”

“Okay,” She said, in a sad tone, wetting my sweatshirt with her hot tears that flowed freely, like a river.

I smiled at Garrett and Jenny, giving them a thumbs-up, as a signal for a job well done.

They smiled back at me, and as his sister stared longingly at myself and Eliana, still cuddled and loved-up in a warm embrace, Garrett took her in his arms, giving her a tight hug. I watched as she tried to wriggle free from his embrace, but he didn’t let her, and I chuckled mildly, watching both of them.

Right now, right here, everything was perfect; but even though the Beast of Vengeance may have been the biggest threat I had ever encountered, I still couldn’t stop myself from feeling that we were going to encounter something worse, and that things weren’t going to be this good with the four of us for any much longer.