Authors: Blair Aaron
Father O'Grady and his clerks transformed the town hall into an altogether different place, in order to honor Theo for his heroic deeds.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Please do your best to crowd on the other side of the room, as Theo and Lili enter from this end,” one clerk said, gesturing the crowd onto the other side of the tent. The crowd mostly consisted of young couples, though some adventurous old ones made it out that night. Elsa couldn't remember the last time her village put on a dance, as Father O'Grady and the others made it clear parties put you on a dangerous path. But this was a special time, and the town jumped at the opportunity for ceremonial engagements, given their rarity.
As half the town poured into the tent from one end, Elsa looked around the familiar faces for signs of Theo. But he was nowhere to be found.
“Elsa, girl! Get over here!” Chloe said from across the room, Sarah right behind her. Priscilla trailed behind them as a third wheel, her eyes perpetually rolled back in her head. Elsa looked away, wishing she could be left alone. She loved the girls, but this was not the time to play their silly games. Elsa's mind was preoccupied.
Chloe grabbed her arm and shoved it around her own neck, as the music in the background started. A small six-member concerto, with two violins, one cello, a single flute, and two harps, played a hymn for the people to dance to. As the band started up the entire congregation stood around, giving indication they didn't know how to dance. Chloe put her hands on Elsa's hips, laughing at they began swaying back and forth to the music.
“You never thought I would be your dancer partner, did you?” Chloe asked, as Elsa tried to ignore her, continuing to scan the room for any sign of Theo. She was sure all her intuitions about Theo yesterday were mistaken, and the growing vileness in her heart clouded her judgment. But, then again, she was sure Theo had feelings for her. Just when Elsa was about to give up on Theo and go home to crawl into bed, a man's hand touched her on the shoulder. From Chloe's expression, Elsa could sense it was Theo. Her heart leapt with joy and she turned to him, his beautiful smile there to greet her.
“May I have this dance?” he asked her. Elsa nodded in agreement, putting her hands on his shoulder. Her fingers felt electrified as she ran them over the ridge of his muscular frame, trying not to give her attraction to him away. Elsa locked her gaze on the back of the tent, near the banister where two chairs sat. She knew Father O'Grady put them there for Theo and Lili, thinking for some reason that O'Grady wanted the two together romantically.
“Why won't you look at me?” Theo asked her, trying to lock eyes with her, but she kept shifting away, angry.
“Why are you here?” she finally asked him.
This time he looked away, as if Elsa could see right through him. But the truth was that she couldn't. Elsa didn't know what Theo wanted. She couldn't figure out whether he wanted Lili, whether he was using Elsa, playing her for some cheap trick. Or maybe Theo had an even more evil motive, perhaps to infiltrate the village with his friends from the Forest. She just didn't know. And before Theo could answer Elsa, Father O'Grady interrupted them.
“My dear Theo!” O'Grady said, pushing Elsa away from them, as Theo held onto her hand longer than she expected him to. “Theo, it's time for your commemoration,” and with that, O'Grady guided Theo, who had several inches in height on the rotund minister, through the maze of people to the stage area. Once there, Theo stood behind Father O'Grady like a marble statue, immobile and resolute. “My beautiful congregation. Standing next to me is the man who saved our dear Lili, the man who wishes to stay with us in our community. Don't you think it's the least we can do for him, given what he's given us?” The crowd erupted in cheers. Father O'Grady rushed to the side of the stage, grabbing some unknown person from outside. Anticipating that it was Lili, Elsa reached into her pocket, gripping the red ivy, subconsciously hoping it would have some effect on strengthening the connection between her and Theo, despite O'Grady's attempts to get them together. The sat in two chairs on the stage, as the band continued to play in the background. Hot and angry, Elsa stepped out of the tent to get a breath of fresh air. The air was cool, giving Elsa indication that autumn was on its way. Elsa lacked experience in romance, it was true, but she was no dummy. Even though Father O'Grady made it clear that the town should welcome Theo with open arms, Elsa could see before her a robed figure on the edge of the town, atop a wooden pedestal, watching over the area between the town and the forest, should any of Theo's friends decide to make a visit. They had been through the drills before, when she was little, so Elsa knew O'Grady's double-sided nature. Should the figure guarding the town see anything suspicious, he or she would ring an alarm bell, sounding the townspeople to hide and take wherever they could. Elsa knew the town's leaders didn't completely trust Theo, although at the same time they did wish him no harm. Rubbing her own bare arms in the cold, she sat down at a wooden table, as two little boys scuffled next to her. She could hear laughing and general raucousness from inside the tent, but her sour mood prevented her from enjoying the party. She couldn't figure out why Theo let the town push him and Lili together. They were not meant for each other. She, Elsa, was meant for him! Elsa also wondered what motivations Lili had for going along with the rouse. Perhaps she thought Theo would protect her from the devil in the woods, Elsa thought. In a way, Elsa did feel sorry for Lili, as the trauma of the last few days put her mind in a hyper-stressed state, and maybe she hallucinated the whole experience of the black wolf. Elsa looked back into the woods, using her imagination to conjure up an image of the black wolf, green eyes and white bared teeth, staring back at her. For a moment, she thought she could see a wolf-like figure in the darkness. Elsa blinked a few times to get it out of her head, breathing a soft vapor into the cold air.
“My Elsie,” a small and diminutive voice said from behind her. She turned around to see Father O'Grady staring up at her from his short height, with an expression that approached disdain. “You're on a bad path, little miss.” Father O'Grady was a loving minister, truly looking out for the best interests of his people, that much Elsa knew. And even when he did his best to show anger and disappoint, Elsa never once doubted his love for her and desire to protect her from harm. He resembled a jovial, cooperative elf whose compassion was matched only by his difficulty in getting things done.
“How am I on a 'bad path', Father?”
“This community needs you. I know your reasons for following Theo. I can see what is in your heart.”
“You cannot, Father. Why do you make him do things he doesn't want to do?”
“Who says he doesn't want to be at this party?” O'Grady asked, his curly white hair spilling out from underneath his tiny cap.
“That's not what I mean, Father,” Elsa said, getting anxious. “I mean that girl. She's not right for him.”
“That man and woman share a connection through their circumstance, Elsie. We cannot get in God's way. Please, your town needs you, and you're interfering where you do not belong.”
“And what if I don't want my community to decide what is right for me?”
“Then--” O'Grady stopped, looking behind her. Elsa turned around, just as the guardian at the watchtower sounded a bell, which rang out over the whole of the village. In an instant, Elsa forgot the conversation with Father O'Grady, as a great plume of fire and smoke entered the village. The whole town was chaos and confusion, as the drills instilled in Elsa's bones took over. She could not think of anything as she ran to her home, to hide under her bed. But in the process, she passed Lili's house, and caught an image of Theo standing on her porch, his arms crossed over a large canvas that was his chest, his darkened figure in the night causing doubts to flower in the dense soil of her mind. Elsa pushed past a sea of people screaming and hollering, and she saw whole building in her town burning with a raging fire. In the distance, near the forest, she heard a creature squeal with a demonic madness, not out of pain, but anger, pure anger.
And Elsa herself felt the same anger, as she pushed the key into the lock on her door, rushing into the house. She could see the reflection of the fire in her window, as people bounded across her field of view left and right. Elsa knew she had to hide from whatever beast came from the forest to destroy her town, so she did, climbing under a small cupboard in the bedroom, taking all the necessary precautions. But the image of Theo standing on the Lili's porch burned in her mind, and followed her into her dreams that night, her pillow damp with the tears of betrayal.
CHAPTER 11
The stench of burned wood, rather than burned flesh, permeated the entire town when Elsa woke up the next day. She crawled out from underneath the cupboard in her bedroom, thankful for being alive, but wished for some sort of death after what she saw last night. She could not figure out what Theo wanted, but looking around the various burned houses and cabins, she saw at last just what that was: to destroy all that she had ever known. The feelings Elsa had for him were all but gone, or so she told herself, and she joined the picketing angry mob that had formed since last night outside his house.
“We want answers!” a man yelled.
“My house is gone. What fire-breathing monster have you sent our way! Tell us!” another shouted. Elsa prodded someone next to her for answers.
“Do you know who sent the monster?” she asked the woman standing next to her.
“It was Theo, of course! He wanted to kill us all along.”
Elsa found it hard to believe, given the undeniably kind impression he made on Elsa when they first met. She was angry and wanted to protect herself for what he did to her, but she didn't want to encourage the people around her that Theo meant them harm. She just couldn't bring herself to do participate in the witch hunt. She bowed out of the crowd when they picked up stones to throw at his window, an image that resonated with Elsa's own childhood troubles with Freja Stein.
CHAPTER 12
That night, Elsa found herself feeling lost and alone, while she worked in silence through her duties at the tavern. The night was dead, as all the villagers were too busy picketing Theo's house. Several people, including Priscilla and the twin sister, came through the tavern during intermittent hours in the night, to give Elsa new information about Theo, whom they told Elsa had all but disappeared. The townspeople wondered if Theo had escaped back into the forest, and the idea disturbed Elsa, because that meant she might never see him again. Although she did wonder what Theo's motivations were for attempting to assimilate himself into the town permanently, there was nothing in her gut that told her Theo wanted to harm the townspeople. By the end of the night, when her feet were throbbing and toes were sore, her exhaustion and anger from the night before finally took its toll. For some reason, the feeling that she was being watched overcame her again. When she had completed her duties, she requested early leave from her manager Mitch, given the lack of customers that night. He agreed, and Elsa made her way out the back entrance to the tavern, in order to avoid the rioting crowd in the front. The night was cold and biting to her naked ankles when she stepped out onto the alleyway. She rubbed her arms from the sides, trying to warm herself. A voice from behind her spoke in the darkness.
“Hi Elsa.” Theo was standing in the shadows of the alley, waiting for her. She started to scream, but he cupped his massive hand over her mouth. “Listen, I'm not trying to hurt you. It wasn't me last night who lit the town on fire.” Then he let her go for a second. Elsa's mind told her not to trust him, but her heart said otherwise.
“Then who was it?” she asked.
“My brother.”
“Theo,” she said, taking a breath, ready for the big fight, right there in the alley. “Tell me what you want. Who are you? Why are you here? I know it wasn't just to save Lili. You did that for another reason. Now tell me what it is,” Elsa said. She was fed up with beating around the bush.
“OK, but not here. Please come with me. I have a lot to tell you,” he said. He looked down the alley when a few hushed voices whispered in the darkness. “We aren't safe here. They want me dead, I know that.”
“Yes, the crowd is mad. But my village is not violent. We do not want to kill anyone,” Elsa said, correcting him. “But they do want some answers. And so do I.”
“No my brother wants me dead.”
“What is going on?”
“I can explain somewhere else, but we have to move, ok? Do you not trust me?” Theo asked her. She crossed her arms, thinking that if he admitted to using Lili, maybe he would tell her that he had been playing with her as well. “No,” he said, reading her thoughts, “I do love you. I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.” Elsa's heart burst into a million pieces of joy, and her tears from the night before transformed themselves into diamonds. She was elated beyond words. “But you have trust me. Where can we go?” he asked Elsa. She grabbed his hands with no hesitation.
“My place,” she said, as they jogged down the opposite end of the alley, past Freja Stein's house, to Elsa's lonely little palace.
CHAPTER 13
What happened next defies explanation, for Elsa trespassed into secret areas of her heart she never before dared to tread. Her identity fundamentally changed the moment she stepped through the threshold of her home. Theo's weakness and frailty seemed more pronounced than ever, second only to the softness and heartbreak emanating in vibes from his soul. Had it not been for this keen perception on Elsa's part, she'd never really given Theo the time of day. Something told her to listen and that he was a safe confidant, although he lacked any remote chance of being romantically involved with her.