Your eyes open with the same urgency as a shiver crawls under your skin whilst you spasm off bed, literally falling from it. The force with which you hit the floor produces an awfully loud “thunk”, so much so that your spasms cease immediately… Immediately to be replaced – that is – by an echoing pain throughout your muscles, joints and bones as denial spreads through your mind:

-        N-No, i-it’s not… Tr-True… IT’S NOT TRUE!

-        I-It was j-just a nightmare, it was just a nightmare…

  As maddening as the pain spreading throughout your body is, the one that your soul experiences is far worser, so much so that you yield to denial’s embrace without even a hint of resistance.

-        I-I never met those people… The-They are just strangers that I saw somewhere, that’s it… That’s it…

  With each word– each lie leaving your mouth, the ache from your body seems to diminish, up to the point of even becoming bearable enough – though still rather incapacitating –  so that you may get off the floor and back on the bed.

-        What they said is nonsense! I-I don’t even remember my past, haha…

-        Why would those things bother me so mu-

  Yet, before you are able to finish your sentence, a thundering echo of a gunshot startles you. Then, in the blink of an eye a sharp silence seems to cover the whole village as something beyond the windows behind you draws your attention. Carefully – and rather feebly as well – your body moves on its own towards the glass panels, first setting your sight on the starless clouded night sky but soon turning to the Cœur D'Argent manor at the distance or, more precisely, to the crowd forming before it.

  You remain as still as a marble statue for a moment, waiting to see if something happens but yet again, the feeling of something calling you invades your mind and hurries your very being to investigate the commotion more closely. Almost as if a deep animalistic instinct within you knows that something quite wrong is happening.

  With a clear goal now, you move away from the windows with your eyes closing so that your mind may weigh the available options without distractions. However,  as soon as your eyelids meet, spiteful voices filled with disgrace echo throughout the room, cursing your name and satirising your past relentlessly, causing you to simply grab your coat and flee to the hallway as a desperate fool, with but a single thought following you as the voices dim behind:

-        I did nothing bad, I did nothing bad, I did nothing bad I did nothing ba- Did I?

  As you are done descending the stairs and reaching the main hall of the tavern, your thoughts are interrupted by the sight of two guards preventing Jorge’s and Thaís’ leave:

-        Désolé, but we cannot allow any more people to leave their homes, it is not safe out there…

-        What do you mean it is not safe?! We’re part of the hunting party, whatever got in the manor, we can deal with it!

-        We know but, uh… It’s supposedly not the Beast…

  The uncomfortable manner with which one of the guards turns his gaze away upon replying to Thaís’ protests only spike even further your curiosity towards the commotion. Noting that there seems to be no guard barring the back exit of the tavern, your feet are as swift as they are light at making your stealth escape.