“Since first year college, you never approached me. You did not talk to me. Not even once. What changed? Why me? Why drag my friends into this mess?” Sierra started raining questions on Josh while trying to control her temper.

“The connection between us began from the memories you cannot remember,” Josh earnestly replied. “That link weakened but it had never been completely severed. I'm sorry, Sierra,” he regretfully sighed. “To keep you safe, I need to secure the bond between us. I need to keep it alive.”

Sierra massaged the sides of her head that were beginning to hurt. Their conversation had only started, but instead of getting answers, more questions were popping out of her itchy brain.

“I can’t understand anything,” she impatiently frowned. “Tell me things I can understand.”

Josh stared at her for a long while, as if trying to discern which words she could comprehend.

Gaining high grades since grade school up to that moment, Sierra thought she was an intelligent person, that she could understand almost everything. But being thrown into that side of the world without any preparation and where everything she learned from school had little to no value, her brain was going into a total malfunction.

“Remember that ancient tree in your dreams?”

No matter how carefully Josh let out those words, Sierra was still completely bewildered.

“Did my friends tell you about it?” she asked with her heart pounding wildly against her chest.

“Remember what that ancient tree looks like,” Josh had gently spoken instead of answering her question. The intensity of his stare felt like he was diving right through her eyes and searching deep within her mind. “Reach out to it like you would in your dreams. Step into that place and wait for me.”

As if his words had remarkable power, everything around Sierra instantly blurred and was replaced by the ancient tree in her dreams. She reached out to it like Josh had instructed and when she took a step towards it, she found herself only a foot away from the ancient tree, as if she walked right through an invisible portal.

“Am I dreaming?” she asked out loud with sheer confusion. She looked around her but could not find anything from the kitchen of the mansion. She was completely transported to a place in her dream. The ancient tree had plenty of knife carvings that was definitely her doing. Even the knife she used to carve on that tree was still hidden in the same place, between the thick roots sticking out of the ground.

“This had never been a dream, Sierra,” it was the same growling voice she heard from Jin in her latest dream. It was also the same voice she heard from Josh when he transformed into a werewolf.

Holding her chest that was pounding painfully with dread, she turned around and gazed at the source of that growling voice.

Walking on all fours towards her was Jin. He was carrying in his mouth a bag that was similar from the one Josh owned. The one filled with instant noodles.

“Jin and I are one, Sierra,” the tamed giant wolf gradually transformed into a naked human that was Josh.

Sierra quickly looked away from him and gazed back into the ancient tree.

“I can’t believe this,” she slumped on one of the giant roots scattered around the ancient tree and leaned her throbbing head on its massive body. “How can this be real? You’re just double his size but you look a lot like him.”

“Your dog is me,” Josh sat on the giant root opposite her. He was now wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and black shoes. That must be the content of the bag he was carrying.

“How can you be my medium-sized dog?” Sierra scowled at Josh. “He’s dead. Can you die and live again?”

“I can be any dog that I want, though my fur will always stay the same color,” Josh replied with utmost seriousness but Sierra was having difficulty believing any word he was saying. “You’ve seen my medium-sized transformation got hit by a truck but you had not seen my body afterwards. No matter how hard you searched, my body cannot be found. It took a toll on me, but I can survive incidents like that. Not only because I’m a werewolf but also because I have Dan and Renzo with me. We planned it all, Sierra.”

“Why?” Sierra weakly breathed. Her chest and her head were both throbbing with terrible pain. She was furious but something deep within her, something she could not explain, was preventing her from exploding with rage.

“I need to protect you, Sierra,” those words reverberated inside her head, causing her more pain and her vision to blur.

“Stop…” she tightly shut her eyes and covered her ears. She could dreadfully sense the memories she could not remember trying to squirm out of the chained doors from the deepest corner of her mind.

“Sierra…”

“Just a moment,” she quickly told Josh while waiting for the voices and the blurred visions inside her head to fade.

“If this is too hard for you…”

“Tell me the reason you had to protect me,” she took a few deep breaths and gazed back at Josh. Her mind, as well as her heart, had finally calmed down. She needed to maintain that composure in order to understand everything that Josh had to say. She should hear him first before she could decide whether to remember her past or not. “Tell me everything.”

“I am your childhood friend,” Josh began without breaking eye contact. He wanted her to sense the gravity of his words. “We promised to protect each other. But my mother, the one you had seen ordering me to kill that defenseless werewolf…”

“What?! That woman is your mother?! And that man is a werewolf?! Then is your mother a werewolf too?!” Sierra was again bewildered and distracted by what Josh revealed to her.

“She is a werewolf,” Josh confirmed with a defeated sigh. “That werewolf lying on the ground was the man you punched on the face when I brought you at the cliff.”

“That man is also a werewolf? Is this woodland filled with werewolves?”

“This woodland is filled with creatures that thrives in the dark.”

“Are they also living in a mansion like you?”

“You don’t look afraid,” Josh commented with an amused smile.

“I refuse to get frightened,” Sierra resolutely stated. “If I get too emotional, I might recall things I’m not yet ready to accept,” she shook her head and glanced back at Josh. “What was it with your mother again? We were childhood friends but your mother was against you befriending a human like me? Is that what you are about to tell me?”

“It was the opposite,” Josh flashed a wider smile at her. “She wants you to be my friend. That’s why she made an effort for us to meet and become friends.”

Sierra suddenly remembered the surprise in the woman’s face when she popped in front of her.

“Is that the reason she did not follow us here?”

“Maybe,” Josh shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what is going on in her crazy mind.”

“Is there any reason why she wanted me to be your friend?”

“You have a powerful bloodline,” Josh seriously answered. “The very first priestess that received a remarkable blessing from the moon goddess is your ancestor.”

“What the fudge are you saying to me now?!” Sierra could not stop herself from laughing out loud.

“But that’s the truth,” Josh told her, looking confused. “Creatures like us will do anything to gain favor from people like you.”

“If my bloodline is as powerful as you are claiming, why did I become an orphan?” Sierra seriously questioned Josh. “Why did I lose my memories? You and your kind are mistaken about us.”

“Possessing a remarkable gift doesn’t mean you are emotionally invincible,” Josh countered with the same gravity of seriousness. “I don’t recommend remembering your past. If you have enough trust in me, just believe what I’m saying. I will not lie to you, Sierra. I cannot tell you everything but that is to protect you from unpleasant memories.”

“I don’t want to force myself to remember either,” Sierra sighed. “Not right now. So, until I'm ready, I’ll choose to believe you. Even though everything you are saying sounds totally crazy,” she could not stop herself from beaming at Josh. “I don’t even know how I transported myself in this place from your kitchen. The same thing happened earlier, right? When I helped you escape from your mother?”

“That’s the gift given to you by the moon goddess.”

“Really?” Sierra doubtfully raised an eyebrow at Josh. “I can teleport myself?”

“You had been using that gift for more than eighty-six times,” Josh touched her carvings on the ancient tree. “Your soul can travel from place to place, Sierra.”

“You mean, right now, I’m only a soul? Like a ghost?”

“Yes.”

Sierra grabbed Josh by his hand and gripped it as tightly as she could.

“If I am only a soul then why can I hold you like this?”

“It’s because you wanted to touch me,” Josh smiled teasingly at her. “If you don’t want to be touched, don’t want to be seen, don’t want to be heard, don’t want to be felt, no one can. You only need to focus on that thought. Do you want me to prove it?”

Sierra let go of his hand and said, “Okay. Prove it.”

Josh reached out to touch her hand and Sierra was astounded when his hand passed through hers.

“Wow… how did you know I can do this?”

“I told you. We are childhood friends. Your body can still remember how to use your gift.”

“I'm already using this gift since I was a child?” Sierra ran her hand through the long and lean arm of Josh. She was amazed at how her hand was magically passing through his body.

“It began to manifest a month before your seventh birthday and vanished after a few months or so. Then it reappeared after you turned eighteen.”

“You know me that much?” Sierra was circling her hand right through the broad chest of Josh.

“Be careful, Sierra,” he seriously warned her. “If you suddenly lost control of your gift, you can easily seize my heart and pull it out of my chest.”

Frightened by his horrible warning, Sierra quickly yanked her hand away from his chest. She pulled way too hard that she had been pushed back to her body.

She was expecting to find herself lying at the kitchen floor but it seemed that Josh was thoughtful enough to lay her back on his bed.

Sierra stared at her hand with dread.

“I didn’t hurt Josh, right?” she hurriedly moved out of the bed and rushed towards the door, but when she opened it, a more alarming sight was waiting for her.

Kate and Ella were standing outside the room. The former was trembling with fear while supporting the latter that appeared to be in a state of shock.

^#######################################^