CHAPTER 31: 31-THE BRUTAL BETRAYAL

Clementine:

"So, how does the story end?" Yorick asks, giving me the apple.

While they were preparing for the night, I read through the diary. And honestly speaking, the tale was sadder than I thought it was.

"So basically, she had a best friend she always had a crush on, but the two never shared feelings. I guess it was back when everything was normal, or the monsters were only in one corner of the North. And then Diana began to have second thoughts about her marriage once her best friend returned. They were all omegas, by the way," I added, clearing my throat.

Troy was squatting down, one arm on the knee and the other just against the thigh, with his fingers meeting and him plucking the grass between them, whereas Yorick sat next to me, his one knee up and the hand resting on it. His head turned to me.

"So she fell in love with her best friend again?" Troy asked.

"She began to have feelings and introduced him back to her husband. The three started going around, farming, everything together. Diana and Elliot had a daughter too. Everything seemed to be fine for Elliot until one day he found them together in his bed. He cried, she wrote it in the book. He was devastated. He asked her why she did this to him. And she said it was just that she never got to experience what it was like to be with the man she had always loved. So when he appeared again, she couldn’t help but love him again. And this time, even he was in love with her. So the two started just fucking around when Elliot was not around. It upset Elliot, but he still gave her a choice. He told her if she wished to be with him, he would forget about the best friend and they would just live like nothing had happened. She told him fine, she’d do that and forget about her best friend," I sighed, taking a pause, because I could tell the two had questions.

"Then how did it end up being so messy?" Troy asked.

"Good question. The answer is simple. She lied," I uttered, watching them nod their heads as if saying, ’woman.’

"She was planning on running away with her best friend," I explained.

"Then why did she lie to him? She could have just told him. He was giving her a choice. He was not going to force her to stay with him," Yorick explained, definitely taking sides.

And honestly speaking, I was on Elliot’s side too. His wife, his lover, fucked him up in all sorts of weird ways.

"She didn’t want to leave her daughter behind," I said. This was something I had read in the diary.

"Oh, so she wanted to have everything. She wanted to break him, waste his years of life, and then take his daughter away from him as well?" Troy was right. I agreed with him. We were so angry with this woman.

"But then how did he turn into a Faun?" Yorick asked.

"Actually, there is a twist," I uttered.

"What is it?" Troy questioned.

"She ran away with her boyfriend and her daughter. Elliot came home, probably must have cried, drank himself to sleep. But I guess he had too many drinks. And the bottle near him, at some point in the night, tripped. And the alcohol was poured onto him while he was sleeping and in his drunken state. He must have tipped over the candle when he tipped over the bottle as well. He was caught on fire. Elliot had a goat that he had always loved and taken care of. That goat rushed through the front door, the door he had left open thinking his wife would return, and started to jump on top of him to put out the fire. Something his wife didn’t do, his goat was ready to do for him, to fight for him. But sadly the two died together, or so they thought."

I paused because, once again, Troy started to click his tongue.

"Is it written in the diary?" he asked. "How did Diana know?"

He was right. She didn’t.

"Actually, after some point, when Diana left, she left the diary. So Elliot started to write in it. And this was him, filling in the last pages, telling his story." I finished and watched Yorick and Troy go so silent.

"How can someone you love so much turn out to be so evil? How can one person move on from their love just to go back to their past?" Yorick asked, sounding low in energy.

I was too. I had the same questions, but there were no answers.

People are just mean, especially when they get too much love without any struggle.

"So now that we know the whole story, how are we going to deal with it? Because it seems like there was no misunderstanding. It was just pure evil on behalf of Diana. And just an unfortunate death of a man and his pet goat that night," Yorick exclaimed, his sorrow clear. His eyes were red, almost like they had mist in them. Was he crying?

"Yorick is right. What are we going to do now? That Faun is already dead. He died that night. Whatever this thing is, this is a monster who just wants revenge. And for him to think you are Diana, he’s going to come after you and kill you." Troy added.

But there was more to the story. There was more that we could do than just kill it.

"When Diana introduced her best friend to her husband, the men actually bonded over their shared interest in farming. They also grew close and became friends. I think it was the fact that he got betrayed by both his wife and his best friend that makes this story so sad," I said, gently tapping my chin, "and the fact that the two did not even care about him probably made him turn into a monster. There has been only sadness in this story for him, for Elliot. There was fire that night, and the only one that tried to put it out was the goat."

"What if, what if his lover tries to take it out? What if he sees that they care about him? They just ran away because they could not face him out of shame and guilt, and not because they were just cold-blooded people, which they definitely were," I mumbled, until I noticed them roll their eyes at me.

"So what are you suggesting?" Yorick asked tiredly.

"How about I play the role of his girlfriend, and one of you plays the role of the best friend?" I suggested. "How about this time we help him? We show him that we care for him. I’m pretty sure that is all he wants," I said.

But Yorick started to shake his head.

"You’re going crazy, thinking a monster cares. He just wants revenge."

Obviously, he disagreed, and I understood him. There was a possibility that would be the case.

"Wait, one of us has to be the lover. Who would it be, then?" Troy asked, and I kind of felt like he was on board with the plan.

"You’re seriously not thinking this would work?" Yorick turned to question Troy, who shrugged.

"Why not? The fire can only hurt him so much because it reminds him of that night. It’s not gonna kill it. But what if peace is what he’s looking for?" Troy questioned.

"Okay, fine, then I’ll be the best friend," Yorick said, raising his hand.

But I disagreed. The minute I shook my head, Yorick narrowed his eyes at me, almost like challenging me to explain why I did not want him as the best friend, because whoever gets to be the best friend will play the role of my lover too.

"I just think Troy will be the best option."

The minute I said that, I watched Troy’s shoulders widen a little, while Yorick looked very defeated and very upset, as if he had such great expectations for me.