Chapter 63 - No luck!

LENA’S MOTHER FINALLY agreed that they could go and search for a way out once daylight came around again. Until then, they had to keep a very low profile and hide from the hounds. Lena and her mother kept moving from hiding place to hiding place, always hearing the hounds in the distance, but they didn’t find them again.

When daylight finally came again after what felt like forever, Lena couldn’t hold her excitement in anymore. She was ready to search for a way out and, thanks to her mother’s knowledge of how things worked in purgatory, they would be saving a whole lot of time. There were only three possible places they could look according to her mom and they would have to find shelter before looking.

Since the daylight was so unpredictable, they had to make sure their shelter was close to where her mom wanted to take her, but they also had to make sure that it was safe enough. After taking care of their shelter near the first place, they set off. Her mother was softly explaining that there were many other kinds of monsters in purgatory and even more so around these three places, so they had to be careful not to make any noise.

As they reached the spot, Lena looked around but she couldn’t see anything that would indicate that it was the entrance to the purgatory until her mother showed her a small crack in the ground. A bright red light was shining there and the strong scent of Sulphur wafted through the ground. Lena pinched her nose, wondering what her mother was thinking.

Couldn’t she see that this was definitely not the place?! They had walked so far to get here that they didn’t have the energy to walk to the second one, find shelter and then search for it right away. They were both completely drained, tired, and thirsty. After sleeping for a couple of hours, they felt a little better and could make their way to the next spot, but as soon as they were ready to leave, they heard movement outside of their shelter.

A loud screeching growl echoed through the air and Lena slammed her hands over her ears. A shiver ran down the back of her spine the second she saw the absolute terror in her mother’s eyes. It was different to the howl of the hounds. It sounded bigger. It sounded pained and her mother pushed her to the back of their shelter, showing her to be very quiet.

Lena held her breath as they huddled together, covering their faces and their heads. She prayed that whatever it was, it couldn’t smell them or hear their racing hearts. The thing slowly moved around their shelter and Lena saw one thick mis formed leg between two sticks of their shelter. They weren’t in a cave this time.

They were hiding in a hollowed-out tree trunk! The thing moved around again and Lena didn’t take the chance of looking again. She didn’t move and was beginning to feel as if she was about to faint because she was holding her breath for so long. When her mother touched her shoulder, she nearly screamed. She hadn’t even noticed that the thing had left.

Her mom was breathing heavily and Lena felt tears sting the back of her eyes. She needed to get out of there if she was ever going to see her family again. She needed to move faster. They needed to move faster if they were going to get out. After the thing had been so close to their shelter, they decided to move immediately.

They also needed water and fast or they weren’t even going to make it to their next destination. Lena was just about to give up hope that they would find water when her mother gasped. In front of them there was a small spring and they could get some water. After drinking themselves full, they had a bit more strength and moved a little faster.

They found a cave near their second spot and her mother went hunting. They needed food if they were going to make it to the third destination. They had just finished eating and were about to leave their shelter to look for this mysterious spot when night came. It happened so fast that they hardly had enough time to turn around and get back to the shelter.

With night came the sound of the hounds howling, but thankfully it sounded as if they were much further away than they were before. They were careful coming to their second destination, since her mother was concerned that the thing might be following them. When they were ready, her mom took her to the new place. It was a tree with a symbol on it. It was the kind of symbol Lena had never seen before. She touched it and nothing happened. She didn’t even feel any energy coming from it and she sighed. Her mother told her that it was the only place she had seen something like this so far, but it was clear that this wasn’t what they were looking for.

Night had fallen and they couldn’t take the chance of walking to the last destination with the hounds clearly out hunting. It meant they had to spend their time in their shelter, but it could be a good thing. They could rest up and recuperate their strength. Their last destination was pretty far away from what her mother explained and they didn’t even know if they would be able to find shelter in time.

Lena wanted to sit outside and drink in the stars, but she was beginning to wonder if they were even real. This place was so dead that she couldn’t begin to imagine that the stars were actually real. Why would there be anything here that was beautiful? This was a place where people came to be punished. This place was the epitome of torture and she didn’t know how much longer she would be able to deal with it.

ALARIC PICKED UP LENA’S HAND. It was so cold that if she hadn't been breathing, he would have sworn that she was dead. That was when he noticed that the tips of her fingers were turning blue! He shouted for the doctor. When the doctor rushed in, he didn’t look happy and as they checked Lena from head to toe, they found that her feet were almost black.

He fought the urge to completely freak out when the doctor looked panicked. They couldn’t explain what was happening. Everything seemed fine. There were no signs that she was dying besides the fact, of course, that she was so cold and now she was actually turning black!! The doctor requested a gurney and he took her away to run some tests. He promised Alaric they would let him know if they had any news at the moment, they had the news.

Alaric had no other alternative but to let her go. When Rebecca pulled him into her arms, the tears started to flow. Nobody knew if she would ever wake up again and, until they knew what was going on, they were all living in limbo. When he calmed down, he went to check on Ben. His little boy seemed angry, sad, and frustrated and there was nothing Alaric could do to make it better.

Until Lena was physically awake and holding Ben in her arms, his son would feel the same way all of them felt. Hopeless and filled with fear that she wasn’t coming back. He picked his son up and held him. Alaric didn’t want to make any promises about Lena coming back. He couldn’t lie to his son by telling him his mother would be okay even if he wished he could.

He just couldn’t do that to his little boy. He loved him so much. He couldn’t lie to him. When he finally put Ben down, he sat down with him and explained that Lena was with the doctors. He explained that she was really sick, but the doctors were going to do everything in their power to help her. Ben nodded but he had been very quiet since Lena got sick.

Alaric felt as if his heart was being torn from his chest millimeter by millimeter. This was utter torture and Alaric wasn’t sure how long he would survive this. He wasn’t sure if their little boy would survive this. It was all too much to deal with. The tension in the pack house was so thick that when Alaric finally left Ben with Rebecca and took a walk around, he couldn’t deal with it.

He shifted and ran into the forest. He needed fresh air. He needed to get away.