Eugene kissed Loren goodbye. She did not kiss him back and he may as well have been kissing a statue.
Loren was a shadow of the woman she had once been. She had descended into hatred and depression since Erin had disappeared.
Eugene and Loren had made a trip one fine day to visit Horton and Erin at their house. They had not found Erin or Horton initially. A search of the property had led to the discovery of two bodies. The search had been widened to the nearby forest where Horton and a fourth body had been found.
Eugene had been livid and had ordered the surrounding forest searched. He blamed Lark and claimed it was revenge. He offered a reward for the arrest of Lark but no-one found Lark and no-one thought to search the forest near the witch’s cabin.
Loren on the other hand had blamed Eugene.
“If you never cursed the boy, he would never have taken revenge!” she screamed at him time and again. “It’s all your fault! These are the consequences. You’re responsible for her death!”
Eugene had stopped arguing. There was no sense in arguing with Loren anymore. Her mind was made up. They now slept in separate rooms and barely spoke anymore. Loren now found solace in drink and lived life in a drunken stupor where she was closer to the memories of her daughter and happier times with Eugene whom she now hated.
Eugene had come to enjoy his time away from Loren more and more and so he found reasons to leave the castle for the village more and more frequently.
He always took the same road and rode with two guards. He had never encountered anything or anyone bad on his travels even after temporarily increasing the number of guards after Erin’s disappearance.
On this day he rode with two guards. One in front and one at the rear. They were supposed to have been vigilant but after so many uneventful trips they feared little on their trips to the village and paid little attention to the surrounding forest.
And so it was that they missed the signs of danger even as they rode right into it. The forest had fallen silent around them. Birds had ceased chirping around them. Even the wind seemed to have become still with fear.
The first arrow struck the guard behind Eugene in his right eye. He died instantly and fell backward off his horse without uttering a sound. Even as Eugene turned when he heard the thud of the dead guard behind him, a second arrow struck the guard in front of him in the throat. He died too without uttering a word. Eugene turned in panic to look at the dead guard in front of him.
After a moment’s hesitation, he spurred his horse into action but he was too late. Even as his horse responded to the kick in its flanks, the monster that was Lark appeared in the path before Eugene.
His horse panicked and neighed as it reared in terror. Eugene had not been prepared and was unable to stay on his steed. He fell flat on his back as his horse bolted into the forest. The wind was knocked from Eugene. As he heaved to recover his breath and ease the pain in his back the monster appeared above him.
Eugene raised himself and tried to scramble backward. The monster simply kept pace with him as he tried to retreat. The monster wore a necklace of blonde hair which Eugene could only imagine was Erin’s.
As the monster kept pace with him it removed the necklace and threw it at Eugene. Eugene continued to scramble backward and watched as the monster transformed into Lark.
Eugene stopped and looked at Lark. Hatred and anger burned in his eyes.
“I knew it was you,” he blustered angrily. “I swear I will have your head on a pike yet!”
Lark raised the crossbow he carried and trained it on Eugene. “Shut. Up,” he commanded quietly.
“You killed Erin!” Eugene said angrily.
Lark released the crossbow and the arrow tore into Eugene’s shoulder. Eugene screamed in pain as he clutched the arrow with his other hand and fell backward causing himself more pain.
“I said shut up,” Lark said again. He maintained his distance from Eugene as he did not wish to transform again just yet.
“What do you want?” Eugene asked grunting as he tried to ease the pain of the arrow in his shoulder.
“That should be obvious,” Lark replied coldly.
“You killed Erin,” Eugene said angrily.
“Shut up or the next arrow goes through your thigh,” Lark said.
Eugene fell silent at last.
“Peace at last,” Lark remarked drily. He held the crossbow trained on Eugene. “I’ve come to clear some things up.”
Eugene said nothing but waited for Lark to continue.
“Firstly, I never killed Erin. I loved her until she died just before we could kiss.”
Eugene’s face turned white as he realized what it would have meant if that had happened.
“That’s right. She did agree to kiss me after all. I was just a moment too late. The fools Horton hired to catch me killed her. It was their arrow that killed her.”
“If you’d stayed the hell away, Horton would never have hired anyone in the first place…”
Lark raised the crossbow and Eugene fell silent.
“I gave her a decent burial and she is at peace now. Even with her gone, I can still transform as you saw.”
“Where? Where di you bury her?”
“It has nothing to do with you,” Lark said. “She is at peace. She had no peace with that idiot Horton you married her to. It was all about you, continuing the legacy that you had built, forcing your will on her. And what do you have now? Nothing. No heir, no-one. When you die the lands will revert to the king and all you worked for will have been for naught other than giving you a comfortable life.”
“What do you want?” Eugene asked risking getting an arrow in his thigh.
“Do you remember what you told me that night in the dungeon?” Lark asked.
Eugene looked at Lark stupidly and shook his head.
“Let me remind you,” Lark said. “I will live forever. In every life she has hereafter, life after life, I will chase her to find her, and when I find her, I will beg her to love me and to kiss me, to believe that one kiss can break the curse and you were so sure that it would never happen. And yet she almost did in this life except that fool you married her off to and his goons killed her. So now I have to wait for her next life. There is something more I discovered though.”
“What’s that?” Eugene asked barely concealing his hatred.
“I discovered that your life is tied to her for all eternity. You will be her father for life after life on into eternity until this curse is broken. I’m guessing that you thought that was okay because in your next lives you won’t remember this.”
“That’s right,” Eugene smiled arrogantly. “You’re the only poor bastard that’s ever going to know.”
Lark smiled.
“What do find in that worth smiling about?” Eugene asked confused.
“What I find worth smiling about, is that I’ll be there to remind you in every life after this one of who I am and who your daughter is. And you won’t remember at all but I hope some part of you will have the good sense to listen when I remind you, to follow your gut feel or that little voice in your head that tells you I might just be telling the truth.”
“Why? Why would that be so important?”
“You don’t get it do you?” Lark asked.
“Get what? Being that monster has already made you insane,” Eugene said.
“What you need to get is that you will be her father in every life she has. So, for her to be reborn, you too must be reborn. The sooner you get on with it the better it will be for me.”
Eugene frowned as he wondered what Lark was talking about and then realization dawned on him. He began to scramble backward as fear entered his eyes. It was more than fear. It was terror.
“Aah, now you get it,” Lark said as he followed Eugene scrambling back down the path.
Eugene managed to get his feet under him and turned to run. Lark fired the crossbow and the arrow pierced Eugene’s knee from behind. Eugene screamed and went down again. He turned around and faced Lark.
“Please, please, I’ll do anything. Anything you want. Just name it. Please. I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”
“You disgust me,” Lark said. “You think you can bargain for your daughter’s life, for my life?”
“Please forgive me,” Eugene said as he started to cry.
Lark stopped advancing, “You didn’t forgive me when I refused to leave Erin. Did anyone ever stand in the way of your love for Erin’s mother?”
“That was different dammit,” Eugene exclaimed.
“How different?” Lark asked. “Your love was more important than ours? Love is love. Your reputation was more important. That’s what it was about.”
“It was about her future!” Eugene shouted.
“You didn’t even know the future she wanted!” Lark shouted. “She didn’t want the life you wanted for her if she couldn’t have it with me.”
“Damn you!” Eugene shouted.
“You know I’m going to kill you now,” Lark said. “And I will kill you in every life hereafter if I fail to have her love me and break the curse. Every life. Because I may have eternity thanks to you, but I’m still a man in a hurry. And killing you every time, means I will have another chance with Erin sooner rather than later. That will be a standard life process for me. I will kill you just as I’m going to kill you now.”
Eugene stared at Lark. “You’re a damn coward.”
“The only reason I’ve kept my distance is that if I come close to her hair that you are holding, I will change into the monster you cursed me to become. And when that happens you can’t understand me.”
“It’s what you’ve always been. A stupid, dumb, angry beast,” Eugene replied angrily.
Lark closed the distance between them quickly transforming as he did so. Eugene screamed as he tried to move away. He was too slow and Lark reached Eugene quickly. He snatched Erin’s hair from Eugene’s grasp and placed it around his neck. Then he reached down with one claw extended and Eugene felt his sharp nail pressing just under his bottom jaw.
Eugene tried to rise as the pressure of Lark’s claw under his jaw increased. He couldn’t stand quick enough and he felt Lark’s claw pierce his skin. It tore through the bottom of his mouth and Lark’s finger eventually curled out of Eugene’s mouth as he pulled Eugene to his feet. Eugene screamed in terror and pain. He could taste the blood from the gaping hole in the bottom of his mouth.
Lark looked at him and then swung his other hand. Eugene screamed as he felt Lark’s claw rip through his clothes in the front and carve him open. His immediate reflex was to grab his stomach and he barely managed to stop his intestines from falling out of his shredded stomach.
Lark pushed him hard removing his claw from Eugene’s mouth and he stumbled backward. Eugene forgot about his intestines and his arms flailed wildly as he tried to grasp something that could stop him from falling. He did not succeed and landed hard on the ground. His guts spilled out with his blood and other organs. Eugene immediately tried to scoop up his intestines that were covered in dirt.
Lark turned and retreated a short distance from Eugene. He was sure Eugene would not survive the night but he would stay until he was sure he was dead.
He did not have to wait long. Drawn by the scent of warm blood a pack of wolves arrived a short while later. They advanced slowly on Eugene who shouted at them and tried to scare them away but they smelled his fear and they advanced taunting him and distracting him. Soon they attacked him from a few different sides and Eugene died screaming with his arms held over his face as the wolves heads dug into his shredded stomach and pulled out his warm intestines. They started eating his intestines as he watched. Lark watched, sickened by what he saw but he stayed until he was sure that Eugene was dead.
Then he turned and disappeared into the forest.