The House In The Forest

Chapter XVII

Chapter Seventeen

I returned home, grandfather stopping me in the doorway. More like he jumped me, he had a strangely serious look on his face though.

"Albert, don't leave your guest alone," he told me, gesturing towards the kitchen, "It's not gentleman like to leave a girl by her lonesome."

"Sorry, I just forgot something I had to grab," I spoke, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at his random gentleman speech. But, for some reason, I got a slight sense of urgency from it and hurried to the kitchen.

Giselle was filling cups with ice, she smiled when she saw me. "Albert, you're back."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I told her, walking over to her. My eyes went to the mark on her face, light and pale. "What happened?"

"Oh, I wanted to talk to you about that," she spoke, glancing around, "Want to talk in your room?"

We ended up returning to my room, I closed the door behind us. Giselle glanced out the window of my room curiously before turning to me. "I met this lady at the party, I don't think she was a guest though."

"What do you mean?"

"She talked about Sasha, and keeping him happy, I think she has to be one of the dark things," Giselle told me, a serious tone to her voice despite the fact she was talking about a town legend. Though, she had mentioned them prior involving Sasha. I had no reason not to believe her, not after everything else I believed.

"She scratched you?" I asked her, running my finger over the thin line.

She nodded. "Yeah, and she threatened you, Albert, she acted like she was going to force me to go back with you on the line."

So that's why she looked so upset. "Don't worry about that, we'll figure something out."

"I don't want you to get hurt, I won't have that," she told me, glancing down, "I'm not going to just run away though."

"So, you have a plan?"

She sighed. "Well, I'm working on that, I sort of have one, but I don't know if it'll work."

"What is it exactly?"

"Well," she mumbled, glancing around as if thinking. She stopped, her eyes catching on a book on my desk. "Hey, I know this book."

I followed her eyes, it was that French novel. The English one was still in my bag. Though I was still upset with the ending. "It's written in French, you know French?"

"Not much, we read it in French class though," she spoke, walking over to pick it up. "It was Sasha's favorite though, even though it ended so sadly."

"Sasha's?"

"Yeah, he said he liked the two characters, he was angry at it ending with him cursing her though," she chuckled. "He went between hating and loving it, depending on the question you asked him."

"Beatrice, about Sasha," I started, but she cut me off surprisingly.

She set the book down on the desk, glancing at me. "I understand that Sasha can only be seen as a villain by you, and everybody else too, but you have to understand, he's my best friend."

"I wasn't going to call him a villain," I told her, stepping closer to her, "I understand he's important to you, but you have to be honest with your friends. I support you in saving him, but you have to tell him how you really feel."

She stared at me, sighing. "I know that, I've always known that."

"But, having said that, whenever you decide to do that, don't go alone, okay?"

"You'll go with me?"

"Anywhere," I told her, and she just smiled.

"Oh so dramatic." Her laughter made me smile. She just stared up at me, that gentle look on her face. "No need for dramatics, I'm not going anywhere."

So she said, and I believed her.

But, perhaps I shouldn't have.