Loving My Father's Murderer

Lexy's Pov “For God's sake, Lexy! We've roamed around this forest for over four hours and it's always ended in a dead end. Ughrrr!” She exclaimed, pulling her hair in exasperation. “I know it's somewhere around this forest. Look at the map,” I said, showing it to her and pointing at it. “It should be around here… somewhere. I can feel it in my gut that we're close.” “That's what you've been saying for hours. My feet hurt. I need to get out of here before I lose it,” she answered, glaring at me. Sighing, I walked closer to her, holding her hands, “Sunny boo… you know you’re my bff and we made the promise to do this together… Pretty please…” “Remind me again why I made that promise to you?” She rolled her eyes. “Because you love me,” I answered, pouting and batting my eyes in an attempt to get her to smile and it worked. She scoffed and then smiled. “Fine!” She said, walking ahead of me. “Let's keep searching this unending forest for a world of werewolves,” she sang the last part, her voice displaying a hint of irritation and joke, making me giggle. I knew I was asking too much of her but this was part of my bucket list. I had planned on leaving it later in the future until I lost my mum last summer. She was my last existing family member and losing her broke me. So, I went to our family house just to clean up the place when I stumbled upon a room filled with unimaginable equipment, books telling tales of werewolves and then it reminded me of when mom said my dad had gone missing in a supposed werewolf kingdom. The hopeful part of me thought maybe he could be alive, maybe I could find him or at least find out what happened to him in the supposed werewolf world. And so, I convinced Sunny, closed down my business and here we are. But it's been two weeks of searching for this kingdom, using my dad's map and yet nothing. We'd gone to several states, searching but nothing. However, I wasn't ready to give up. I need answers about what happened to dad or where he was. And maybe this could serve as a little adventure, at least for Sunny. “You know, you never told me what happened between you and Jonas,” Lexy said, making me halt in my steps before I picked up again. Jonas was my boyfriend, or should I say… ex-boyfriend? We were dating for over two years and everything was rosy, lovely and even seemed like we were heading towards marriage. Then, he suddenly disappeared from my life, no calls, no texts, just nothing. We haven't talked or texted for over six months now and I hadn't had the mind to tell Sunny about it. She had always believed that our relationship was too good to be true. “Lex…” she sang, bringing me back to reality. “What happened with you both?” “Uhmmm… we uhmmm…” Sunny turned and narrowed her eyes at me, as if warning me not to lie to her. “Fine, we don't talk anymore.” “So you broke up?” She asked, resuming her walk. “Well… you can't really call it that…” “Lexy!” She exclaimed, turning to me fully now. “The guy ghosted you. You better believe you're no longer together,” she added, her hands akimbo. I broke into a smile and said, “Alright, alright… Jeez.” We both laughed and continued our search in silence. Over an hour later, we had decided to call it a day as it was getting dark, so that we could go back to our hotel in town when suddenly, it happened. “Did you hear that?” Sunny's voice came out really low. “I'm sure it's just some bush rat or some deer. Nothing to worry about,” I answered without turning back. Then the sound came from a distance again. This time, it was clear; a sound of tooth clacking and growling and it sent shivers down my spine. But something told me to wait. What if it actually turns out to be a werewolf? What if this was a sign that they existed? What if we were close to the werewolf world? A lot of what ifs ran through my mind but I just stayed put in one spot, waiting for whatever it was to come out of its hiding. “Lexy…” Sunny said slowly, moving behind me. “I think we have to leave, like right now.” “No… let's see what that is… it could be our clue.” She stepped in front of me. “Are you out of your damned mind?” She asked, her voice rising. The growling intensified, and slowly, it came out. A werewolf, a big black, spit pouring, hideous werewolf standing on all fours like it was about to attack us. “It's… it's behind you,” I said slowly, my eyes widening in fear as at that instant I regretted not leaving when Sunny had told us to. “s**t,” she muttered. Slowly, Sunny started to walk away and so did I but fate had another thing in store for our retreating figures. Instantly, the wolf started chasing us. We began running at full speed but we were lost in the woods with no idea on where we were running to. “We're gonna die! f**k! f**k! f**k!” Sunny exclaimed, running along with me with the werewolf hot on our trails. At that moment, I began to regret this whole trip, especially as when I looked at Sunny, she was already crying and cursing. Then, she started praying to God, still running. The wolf was close, really close to Sunny when she took another turn and ran off. Now it was on my trails. I was losing my breath but I kept going, then I misstepped and fell on my butt with a loud thud. I instantly felt a sharp pain on my ankle and as I tried to force myself up, the pain intensified, making me wince. Looking at the wolf, I noticed what looked like a smile on its face. It came slowly at me like I was its prey, menacingly. I dragged myself with my butt, moving away from it but it kept coming. “Please… stop… please don't kill me…” I begged, stretching out my hands to indicate a stop sign but this beast was far gone. Fear gripped me. A cold ran through me and I wondered if this was my end. A thought came to my mind then; Was this how my dad died? The wolf was closer now, baring its teeth as I went into a panic zone. It raised its claws to strike at me and I shut my eyes, bracing myself for the impact. Suddenly, I heard snapping of bones and wincing in pain. It felt like bones were being broken and flesh was being torn in a gory way. But I couldn't open my eyes. I dared not to. My panic attack worsened when I began imagining the several things the wolf could do to me. My legs hurt and my head pounded. Then my eyes became blurry and foggy Next thing I knew, I felt my body falling fully flat and my eyes giving in on me. I forced my eyes to open one last time and then I saw him. “Mine… mate,” he said.