#rollercoater

…A huge monster, tall like a horse, with glowing yellow eyes jumps out of the forest to attack Abigail, who tries to dodge it but her body doesn’t listen and she’s left paralysed on spot, staring up at it. In the last second, she’s pulled back, trips over and lands on her bum, tiny splash hitting her face. Lucian is standing in front of her, his tall figure blocking the view, the monster with yellow eyes has its teeth sunken into his arm. 

The monster looks like a horrible amalgamate of things from nightmares. It has a wolf snout, pointed ears, long limbs which makes it as tall as Lucian and a strange humanoid form. On it are shreds of Hanna’s ripped clothes which now barely cover the faintly haired body. Despite its entire monstrosity it strongly resembles Hanna. Lucian and the beast have started to wrestle now, Lucian trying to pin the creature down and immobilise it, the creature trying to bite his head off.  It’s unclear who has the upper hand - Lucian seems stronger but he is struggling not to hurt the creature which in return is not scared to dig its long fangs into his flesh. Abigail takes out her gun and tries to shoot the creature without hitting Lucian. She misses few times but in the end she manages to shoot its shoulder, the beast now crying out in pain. Then it locks its yellow eyes on Abigail instead of Lucian, running very fast to her. 

Abigail makes the run for it, heading into the cave, hoping to reach the pool but doesn’t get even nearly as far, as she’s soon roughly hit from behind and pushes face down to the rough ground. The beast is sitting on her back, pressing her down. It prepares to strike just when Henrietta’s voice comes shouting: “Stop! Let her be!” The beast freezes and turns around, obediently letting go of Abigail. Lucian comes running to her to check up on her. Henrietta can control her but she’s unable to force her into the water, Lucian will still have to do that. 

Abigail, Lucian, Wolfgang, Henrietta and the beast which used to be Hanna make their way to the bath. The beast stands there torn between avoiding Henrietta and the water. Lucian grabs her and forces the beast into the water. Abigail and Henrietta soon follow, Abigail citing the incantation to perform the ritual, however nothing happens.The sacrifice is still missing. Henrietta offers to do that herself since it’s her responsibility. “I am sorry I have done this to you. Please... forgive me, Hanna. You deserve better, you have the kindest of hearts, I hope God will show his mercy for you and perform a miracle.” Henrietta tells Hanna while cupping her cheek, she then takes knife and slices her own hand, drops of blood falling into the water. Suddenly, the water starts to lighten up and glow golden. The light from above is getting stronger, blinding everybody around, then abruptly it disappears again. Lucian is now holding unconscious human Hanna in his arms. Abigail watches it surprised. It actually worked… 

Everybody gets out of the water, Lucian suggesting to take Hanna to the village. Outside is Henrietta’s carriage waiting, Lucian places Hanna inside. As he’s about to help Abigail inside as well, the clouds move and the moonlight illuminates the little clearing in front of the cave. Wolfgang gasps in panic. Henrietta has turned around, grabbing her chest. Wolfgang roughly pushes Abigail inside of the carriage, slamming the door shut, smacking the horses to move. Henrietta falls over, standing on all four now, a shudder runs through her body. Then suddenly, at the place where the tiny girl kneeled before, now stands a wolf, not a beast like the monster Hanna turned into, but a very majestic wolf the size of a big horse. It watches the carriage with red eyes.The carriage dashes off as Lucian is standing, facing the large wolf. 

The horses pull the carriage further into the depths of the dark forest. It's a very bumpy ride, Abigail is jumping on spot, Hanna is probably hitting her head very hard. Then the carriage starts to tilt dangerously. Abigail truest balance the carriage by moving to the other side, dragging Hanna with her but it doesn’t have a chance of working, the carriage is tripping over, landing with a loud bang on the ground, the glass of the window shattering. Abigail and Hanna are thrown on the ground, Abigail hurting her arm and ankle. The horses outside neigh in panic and dash away. Abigail tries to stand up, only able to stand on one leg and manages to unlock and push open the door of the carriage which are now on the ceiling. She tries to wake up and then lift Hanna up with her to get out, unfortunately Abigail isn’t strong enough for that, so she just climbs up herself, sitting on the top of the carriage, looking around. She can hear footsteps and a tall figure comes out of the darkness of the shrubbery. Abigail holds her breath but is relieved to recognise Wolfgang. He helps Hanna outside and says that they have to get to the castle because it’s not save in the forest. He carries Hanna and ushers Abigail forward. Her ankle hurts but she manages to grit her teeth and keep moving. However she’s much slower and soon looses  him in the darkness of the forest, only hearing his steady footsteps in front of her. 

Soon, she looses those footsteps as well, now all alone and lost in the forest. Everything seems to make noises, the bushes rustle next to  her, the leaves above her head too, the wind howls between the branches of the trees. The rustling gets louder, a wolf howls somewhere in the distance. She can hear panting behind her, she tries to keep on moving but it hurts and she’s slow. She tries to speed up but ends up just falling over, hurting her palms and the pain from her ankle gets stronger. She looks behind her and sees red eyes glow in the dark. 

Abigail cannot move, just staring at it in terror, begging for mercy. The eyes blinks and disappear and suddenly she’s being lifted off the ground. The wind pulls on her hair as the trees fly by her in terrifying speed. She shrieks and awaits the bite but it doesn’t come. Instead she is held in secure by familiar strong arms. She can hear flapping of wings and eventually see the moonlit sky above her as the trees stop blocking the view. Abigail holds onto her saviour, not saying anything, happy to know that she’s safe now. Lucian flies her to the castle however his landing is not as smooth as Abigail is used to, landing on his knee but managing to secure Abigail against his chest. 

Wolfgang comes running from the forest, carrying Hanna, ushering everybody inside the castle and locking the gate. Abigail asks about Henrietta, Wolfgang explains that she will come back safely in the morning and takes Hanna away. Lucian carries Abigail to her room in the castle, shivering, his beautiful white wings are now stained with blood. In the light of the castle, Abigail can see the damage done to them, they look rumpled and destroyed. He softly puts Abigail down on the bed, trembling. His clothes are soaked in blood, his hands red and wet. “I am so sorry I have failed you my l-lady…” He reaches his hand out to her cheek, looking very desperate, not touching her, his fingers trembling. Then he suddenly sinks down to his knees and falls over, sinking to the ground unconscious. 

No! Abigail kneels down next to him. He’s still breathing fortunately but his body is lying on the floor, not moving. Abigail examines him, finding deep cuts from claws, several deep bites on his shoulders and arms, his wings are torn. She limps to the bathroom and gets cloths and towels and a bowl with water. She spends the night tending to his wounds, cleaning them, tying them up but they refuse to stop bleeding. Outside the moon sets and sun starts to break through the darkness, yet Lucian is still unconscious, his wounds bleeding. 

Abigail can hear voices downstairs and footsteps approach the room. Henrietta walks in, looking very tired and unkept. She looks at Abigail and Lucian in terror. “We need to get him to the cave. The curse keeps the wounds from healing.” Abigail looks at him worried, unsure if the water can help him, if God can perform a miracle for him. Henrietta calls Wolfgang, then turns to Abigail: “You know, before yesterday I would have been more than happy to keep him here and let him bleed to death. I had no idea my teeth could even hurt him. But… He was ready to die for you. He wouldn't have hesitated even a second to. He could have just left at any moment but... he didn’t. I was wrong to mistrust you, I'm sorry.” Abigail watches Lucian with tears. That idiot! Why is he doing this?! Then she looks up at Henrietta, begging her for help with her eyes. Henrietta gives her a weak smile and together with Wolfgang, they carry Lucian to a less-fancy carriage. They sit Lucian inside, Abigail sits down inside with him, taking care of him during the ride as Wolfgang and Henrietta sit at the front and drive to the holy spring. 

When they arrive, Abigail gets out, then Wolfgang pulls Lucian out and together with Henrietta they carry him to the bath. They put Lucian down in the shallow water at the shore of the lake, the clear turquoise water is now being tainted by blood. Abigail gets into the water with him, sitting down next to him, holding hi pact-hand out of water with hers. Henrietta offers to sacrifice her blood again but Abigail stops her, saying that she has to do it because he got injured like this for her. Henrietta doesn’t argue and leaves them to it. 

She reads out the incantation, cupping his cheek with tears in her eyes: “Please... heal his wounds.... I know it's complicated between you two but... he doesn't deserve to end like this... not for me or for anybody.” She then pulls her hand back, grits her teeth and cuts her non-pact hand, letting the blood mix with the water and Lucian’s blood. But nothing happens. “Why is it not working?” she whispers, trembling. She looks up at Henrietta and Wolfgang but they don’t know either. So she turns her glance back down sadly, cupping his cheek with her bleeding hand, squeezing his pact-hand with hers. “Lucian…” Tears dropping into the water. “Please don’t leave me here alone…” Abigail leans down and softly presses her lips against his, pulling him a bit closer with her bleeding hand. For a sad moment nothing happens... then slowly, he kisses  her back, moving his hand up into her hair. He slowly opens his eyes, pulling back an inch to look at her, whispering her name. The water starts to glow in faint golden light. Lucian raises his hands to cup her cheeks holding her close to make sure that she is still there behind the light. Lucian speaks in quiet voice: “I need to tell you something. I... I'm sorry... about... everything that happened but... well... the truth is…” Abigail shakes her head: “It doesn't matter, it's all fine, you don't have to apologise for anything.” But this doesn’t stop Lucian from continuing, afraid of what’s going to happen next: “When I saw you that night in the water... I have been trying to tell myself that I wanted to be noble... that I wanted to save you from suffering in Hell for eternity because of your own guilt but the truth is… I just fell in love with you the first moment that I saw you. And I was trying to deny it, to tell myself that you are just a simple human girl but... you are so much more than that. And every day that I have known you for I just fell in love with you even more. I... I'm sorry if I shocked you that night I just... I couldn't hold back any longer… You're the most beautiful being I have ever seen.” He raises his hand to cup her cheek, then runs his fingers through her hair. 

The tear never leave Abigail’s eyes  but they are tears of happiness  now as she listens to him surprised. She looks at him with big eyes: “I- I know that you're the devil and are supposed to be evil and everybody says awful things about you but... I know that's not true. You are the exact opposite of that. You are the kindest, sweetest, most handsome man I ever met and although everybody is telling me against it. I disagree with them because they don't know you like I do and... I love you, Lucian.” She runs her thumb over his cheek, he smiles at her a heartbreaking, honest smile, looking very small and vulnerable. “So please, just be all fine…” she whispers pleadingly, hoping somebody will hear her out. 

He pulls her down into a deep passionate kiss, digging his hands into her hair, she can feel the longing in him, the desperation, he is pulling her in like a magnet, like they were just made to be together like this. They don’t see the bright golden glow all around them as they are lost in the kiss. 

Eventually they pull back and he looks up to her with the happiest smile and tears shimmering in his eyes. The light is gone together with his wings and wounds, just the mark from the pact still leaves an ugly mark on his hand. Lucian and Abigail get up, noticing that Abigail’s injured ankle has been healed as well. Now that nobody is in immediate danger, there is a lot to talk about, so everybody walks outside, board the carriage and gets back to the castle. 

Once arrived, Wolfgang leads Lucian away to lend him some of his clothes since Lucian’s have been torn apart. Abigail and Henrietta sit down in a tea room. “I owe you an apology. What you saw last night must have been... shocking. But you have seen right, I am the curse. The wolf blood has run in my family ever since we can remember. It's what brought us to our power and wealth. However it is not my intention to hurt my people, on the contrary, I consider myself their patron and protector. The things that have been going on these past months are quite... unfortunate. And what happened to the poor little Hanna and all my people before her breaks my heart. It's my fault and I will suffer my punishment for the pain I have caused.” She looks down sadly. Upon Abigail’s questioning, she further explains that Hanna was out on last full moon and Henrietta tried to hold back but the wolf is not always easy to control, especially during full moon the instincts are overpowering, and she bit her. Her family uses potion prepared from the moonflower to drug themselves on full moon nights to calm the beast inside but the flowers are disappearing. They only grow at the holy spring. They have been here as long as Lichtenburg's can remember. Cooking them creates a strong sedative, strong enough to affect the Devil. She believes that somebody is stealing the flowers, not anybody from the village, somebody from outside. She has already tried putting Wolfgang there to guard the flowers but they were there and then suddenly gone, without spotting anybody. Magic was quite likely involved.