The present…

“Lola?” Russel asked, looking at the girl while at the same time trying to control the emotions that suddenly erupted inside him. This was the girl he was supposed to kill? Really? Why the hell did it have to be her? She’s so beautiful with her silky, golden hair and eyes the color of a bright, summer sky. “What a lovely name.”

“Well…uh…thank you, Russel,” she told him, still nervously checking the area where Drake and the other Harvenk werewolves had disappeared into. “I need to go back to my village. I need to…to…,” She took a shuddery breath as more tears welled up in her eyes and then fell again. “See if there are any survivors.”

There wouldn’t be, Russel thought to himself. He could already tell but he didn’t want to come right out and say it. That felt unnecessarily cruel to him.

“I could come with you,” he said. “I can help you search and maybe provide some kind of aid to anyone who might need medical attention.”

“Yeah,” she replied, staring at him with grateful appreciation. “Thank you. I didn’t want to…you know…impose but I really didn’t want to do it alone.”

“It’s okay,” he responded, taking a half-step closer to her. “You shouldn’t have to do something like that by yourself anyway. How far away is the village?”

She pointed vaguely west, maybe northwest, toward a barely visible path.

“It should only be two or three miles down that path,” she explained. “I’ve spent the majority of my childhood in this forest. I know it like the back of my hand. You can trust me about my directions here.”

“By all means, lead the way,” Russel said, gesturing with a hand for her to go ahead of him. He wanted to make her feel useful at that moment in order to give her mind something else to focus on other than the tragedy of what Drake did to her village. The truth was, he could have found it on his own very easily. All he had to do was follow the scent of burning wood and scorched humans. It was potent and had carried on the wind from the same direction Lola just pointed to.

They made their way through the forest easily. It wasn’t a very thick one and the path made the way forward simple. Lola walked ahead of him, her pace slow at first. It didn’t look deliberate but Russel figured some unconscious part of her mind didn’t want to actually go see the remnants of her village and its people.

“Can I ask you something?” Russel said. He found the silence stretching between them to be mildly uncomfortable and edging toward downright awkward.

“Sure,” Lola responded, all of her focus on getting through the forest. She had even quickened up her pace.

“I don’t want this to come off as insensitive,” Russel told her, trying to be gentle about it.

“That probably means what you are about to ask is going to be extremely insensitive,” she told him, brushing a stray tree branch away from her face. After she let it go, the branch swung around and slapped Russel harmlessly in the chest.

“I was hoping you would know why Drake did this,” he said. “Why would he risk coming here and destroying Gloucester just to kill you?”

Lola felt more tears coming at the realization that everyone’s deaths, including her parents', were her fault somehow.

“It doesn’t really make sense,” Russel told her. “I mean, the risk alone…”

“Shut up,” Lola shouted.

Russel’s mouth snapped shut and he cursed himself for being such an idiot. He realized he made a mistake for three reasons. One, Lola was still in a vulnerable, grief-stricken state and any questions on what happened would push her too far. Two, she clearly didn’t know Drake or why someone she had never seen or met before wanted to kill her. And three, the fact that everything and everyone she loved was gone now because some werewolves had an unknown vendetta against her was driving her mad with guilt.

“I’m so sorry,” he told her in as gentle a way as he could. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She didn’t say anything back and for the rest of the walk down to her village, the one thing he dreaded happening happened.

The awkward silence.