Duality

part three

Mila sensed someone above her before realizing she was awake. Memories of the horned man, the woods, his death—they jumbled in her mind, making her heart hammer and her palms clench. Of course the man leaning above her would be poised to strike: she'd tried to kill him!

Hands curled into fists, Mila knew she had one chance to make the killing blow. The real one.

But like before, she couldn't commit until she knew she had the right target. She opened her eyes and raised her fist at the same moment.

She stopped before she punched Anna in the nose. Anna tilted her head, unaware or uncaring. "You're awake."

"Where am I?" Mila maneuvered her way around Anna's head as she sat up, finding herself in the familiar surroundings of the hut. A cursory glance told her she hadn't been injured, though the horned man must have done something to make her pass out. Another sweep of the hut said the man hadn't come back with her.

"What happened?" Anna asked.

Mila... had no idea. "Where did you find me?" she asked, moving for the window. The moon still shone brilliantly overhead, confusing her. Had she only been out mere minutes? She didn't ask about the time only to avoid a snarky response about being blind from Anna.

"You were just past the pond. Why?" Anna approached her at the window, resting a hand against her shoulder blade. "Mila, what's wrong?"

For the first time in her life, Mila didn't know if she should tell her guardian, her best friend—her only friend—the truth. Rushing from the hut, Mila checked for an enraged, horned man charging at her. If she was awake, he had to be, too.

Rustling sounded on the right, Doll and Ghost plodding toward the pond. Mila had no time to scold Ghost for his absence: she crept around the edge of the pond, trying to find the place she had fallen.

The bloody rock told her she hadn't imagined things, but the man was gone. His absence left her feeling dizzy, struggling to process everything that had happened. She'd flung him; he'd bled; they'd both apparently passed out. Mila pressed her hand against the rock and the ground surrounding, searching for any remnants of heat or other clues.

"You're scaring me."

Mila started at Anna's voice, wondering who was really more scared in this situation. Anna moved forward so she stood in Mila's peripheral vision.

"Let's talk through this," Anna said. "Last I knew, you were looking for Ghost. I found him while I was out, brought him back, and found you lying right there." She nodded her head toward the rock.

Rolling the words around in her mouth, aware of the implications, Mila asked, "Alone?"

Anna stiffened. "Were you with someone else?"

The blood said yes, but without another pair of eyes to confirm it, Mila didn't know. Maybe the man had tricked her. "Someone was watching me," Mila decided. A partial truth would test out Anna's waters before diving in.

"Are you sure it wasn't a bunny?" Anna asked, completely serious.

That man was no bunny: Mila couldn't even fathom going along with that joke. He'd been half a foot taller than her, his arms triple her size, and the horns sprouting from his head made him look like a predator in his home territory. How had someone so different from anything she'd seen disappeared into the night?

And without Anna hearing?

"Something bigger," Mila continued, feeling chills running down her spine. If Anna hadn't encountered him—and she would have definitely done something, not just dragged Mila away—then he'd woken before Mila.