Asa already knew where Kaleb was hidden, but she didn’t know where Betsy was. The smoke was clearing up quickly, and Betsy was nowhere to be seen. If Asa attacked Kaleb, she knew Betsy would come out of nowhere and protect him. Asa was astonished by Betsy’s abilities; all they did was underestimate her skills and power, and she held her own against someone twice her size. The family saw Betsy as a burden because she took up so much of their time by teaching her how to hunt and hide. The family hid her in the shadows so she wouldn’t tarnish the family’s name.

Kaleb started to wonder where the small piece of rubble had landed because he didn’t hear a sound. Only the clicks that followed every second in the silence.

His distraction failed, so he tried five more times, but nothing, not a single thing, could be heard. ‘Why can’t I hear anything?’ He thought to himself. He then decided to go even bigger and throw a rock about the same size as his whole arm. He swings it from the back of his head and… Nothing. The deafening silence still controlled the entire room, and the obnoxious clicks along with it. Asa sees small pebbles being thrown up in the air from the kitchen counter. She almost laughs at how idiotic Kaleb’s plan was. Asa also considers the small remains of the wooden floor and walls being thrown, but then they disappear when they reach somewhere near the roof.

Asa locks eyes with the small debris, but then sees it disappear. She does it again when Kaleb chucks a huge piece of debris and locks her eyes on it. This time, she makes sure not to blink.

CRACK

The silence was interrupted when the huge rock somehow hit Asa on the left eye. Kaleb finally makes a run for it while Ada is finally sitting up, dumbfounded. Kaleb plunges the cleaver knife into her chest, and it breaks into pieces. Kaleb does not give up in a matter of seconds; he assesses the situation. The cleaver isn’t the only thing that broke, but so did a chain that was around Ada’s neck. The chain had a key attached to it, and without a second thought, Kaleb grabbed the key and plunged it into Ada’s back.

Ada gives out the most excruciating scream, enough to make anyone’s ears bleed. Kaleb twists the key, adding more pain to Ada’s miserable cries for help.

Her back opens like a door, letting out a cold breeze instead of blood, and a glowing blue heart can be seen beating loudly inside the hollow chest. Kaleb grabs the heart and rips it out of Ada’s back, and it starts to beat even faster. Ada falls onto the wet floor in agonizing pain. Kaleb couldn’t use the debris from the wooden floor to make a fire because it was wet, so he ran back to the room where he had been hiding a while ago.

Asa was in utter confusion, didn’t know how that rock hit her. It was going to fall in the other direction. She then takes a look up, on the roof, and feels completely and utterly stupid.

Betsy was hiding on the kitchen ceiling the whole time. She was catching the small pieces of rock the whole time. She knows anyone’s whereabouts through scent and sound. When Kaleb touches a rock, she can smell the stench on it. She had a completely different skill set when she was in her Wendigo form. Her two senses, smell and sound, surpass any wild animal or creature that walks on the earth.

She was a beast that could walk silently in anyone’s shadow.

Asa had chills run down her back.

‘How long has she been hanging up there? When did she get up there?’ Asa questions herself and her abilities as well. Betsy didn’t realize that Asa was looking directly at her. What she does know is that Kaleb had ripped out Ada’s heart and is now running away with it. Believing she hasn’t been caught yet, she starts to crawl on the ceiling like a spider trying to follow Kaleb silently.

Asa, of course, doesn’t let that happen. She grabs Betsy by the horns and slams her down onto the wet floor, causing her whole body to go through the floorboard.

Ada was now up on her feet, ready to take what belonged to her with Asa, and they both sprinted towards Kaleb, who had already locked himself in the room he was previously in.

Kaleb rushes to get the sticks, rocks, twigs, and dry leaves from under the bed to start the fire. He scratched the rocks together once, and it sparked a small fire, but not enough to burn the heart.

As soon as the small spark produced a hint of fire, the door went flying.

Ada was the first one to launch herself towards Kaleb. Kaleb whips out Ada’s heart, blue-pumping heart, and squeezes it. Ada falters right next to him and falls onto the floor. Asa was next; she hurled herself over the small fire, putting it out. Asa turns and sees the small gun pointed right between her eyes. Kaleb pulls the trigger and fires directly at Asa’s head.

By the time Asa had woken up, she was lying next to her twin sister’s dead, frozen body. Asa’s heart was already ripped out of her chest and ready to be burned by Kaleb’s hands. The whole family came downstairs to see the chaos that had ensued. This was all planned, but the outcome was not.

Betsy was supposed to be dead.

Kaleb was just an unexpected variable, but they didn’t think it would change Betsy’s fate.

They stopped Kaleb before he threw Asa’s heart into the pit of fire he had created in a few minutes. Betsy was knocked unconscious under the floorboard. Ada was dead. Finally, the place was turned into a war zone.

This wasn’t part of the plan at all.

Kaleb, still confused about the whole thing, tells the family what happened.”There was a monster attacking me! I have proof I sw-” Kaleb cried out until he was rudely interrupted by Joshua, the eldest sibling.

“Hah, nice one, Jaques ya killed Asa, genius, or is it, Ada? Asa is the smart one and Ada is the dumb one…right… I dunno I could neva tell the difference between em?” Joshua says, shrugging his shoulders.

“What… What are you talking about?” Kaleb yelps in confusion.

Jaques sighed in frustration. Rubbing his right eye with the palm of his hand, he yawns and walks away. He takes his hands out of his pockets and throws a necklace with a key onto the floor. He leaves the scene like it was trash waiting for somebody else to pick it up.

“It’s Ada, she’s dead, “Finch commented.

Kaleb mumbles with a blank expression.”What?”

“You killed Ada.”

“No, I killed a monster,” Kaleb corrects.

“Ada is the monster.”

“Th-The Wendigo?” Kaleb asks, dumbfounded.

Betsy grabs Kaleb by his arm and snatches the key that Jaques threw on the floor. Her head was bleeding, but she didn’t seem to be in any pain. She leads Kaleb back to her room and tries to explain everything that just happened outside. She sits down on the floor and takes a deep breath in and then exhales.

“I know how the storm starts and I know how it ends,” Betsy says, fiddling with her fingers.