Eli took a step back.

"What the- How'd he find us!?" He asked himself.

Recovering from his initial shock, Eli flipped his knife around so that he was holding it by the blade and threw it as hard and fast as he could right at the man's chest.

Thud

The knife struck, blade first.

"So predictable Eli." The man said.

"What!" Eli's eyes went wide with shock.

The man shifted, moving his arm and revealing a wooden cutting board he'd been holding over his chest.

The knife embedded into it, the point barely sticking out the other side.

The man placed the cutting board on the table, "Nice to see you again too."

He paused, seeing how tense Eli was, "Relax, I'm not here to kill you… this time. Now take a seat." He pointed to the chair across from him, "We need to talk."

Reluctantly, Eli walked over and sat down. The man taking his feet off the table as he did.

Alyssa stared up at the night sky.

Clouds flowed across the sky, hiding the moon as they did, causing shadows to dance across the ground.

Sighing to herself deeply.

"I hope they're alright."

She noticed a thick cloud off in the distance inching closer and closer as the wind dragged it along.

"That cloud looks mean"

A gust of wind swept through the property, chilling Alyssa down to the bone.

"I should probably get inside."

She looked up at the sky once more, all the stars gleaming bright almost like they were dancing.

She smiled, still staring up into the sky.

Eventually she moved off of the porch down onto the stairs and sat down, elbows resting on her knees, chin in her palms.

Softly, she cried.

She cried for her mother.

She cried for her father and brother out risking their lives.

She cried because she didn't know if they'd make it back.

She cried because she hated this world she was stuck in.

An owl hoo'd off in the distance.

She picked her head up from it's resting place in her hands and dried away her tears

The cloud she saw earlier had almost covered up the moon, leaving only small rays of its light shining down.

"What's that shining?" She asked herself as she noticed something on the ground in the yard, reflecting the light from the moon and shining softly.

She dried her hands on her dress and walked over to it, bending over to get a better look.

She almost took a step back in shock.

It was a picture of a younger Eli and a woman whom Alyssa assumed to be his mother based on the evident age difference between them.

"Oh no, he must've dropped this when they were leaving."

She bent down and picked it up, using the rapidly fading moonlight to study the photo.

"She's so pretty." Alyssa started thinking.

"Oh and Eli, he looks so young, so…" she searched for the word, "So innocent… and happy."

She frowned now, wondering what could've caused him to end up how he is now. The more she thought about it the more she fell into a pool of sadness.

"I'm so sorry Eli." She whispered, "I wish I could help you."

She thought back to the pain hidden deep within his face, the suffering in his eyes and the emptiness in his voice.

"He's out helping my dad and Sebastian find medicine for mom… if only I could do something to help him the way he's helping us." She kicked her foot across the ground in annoyance, pacing back and forth. Trying to think of something she could do.

The moonlight was nearly gone now, she took one last look at the photo before it did.

"He's kinda cute when he smiles." She thought to herself.

An idea shot into her head.

"That's it! I'll frame this and put it on the nightstand in his room! That should make him happy. Maybe I'll even get him to smile!"

The clouds finally overtook the moon, leaving everything covered in darkness. Rain began to pour down, picking up in intensity. Thunder crackled off in the distance.

"Okay now I'll go in."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She turned and quickly hopped up the stairs and through the door, heading down to Eli's room.

Eli sat there silent, eyes unmoving from the man in front of him.

Sighing, the man began to speak, "Lovely lady you've got in the closet over there. Is she yours?"

"Cut the shit!" Eli snapped.

The man continued, unbothered by the outburst, "She's clearly met you."

Eli smacked his fist down on the table.

The man put his finger up to his lips to hush Eli, "Let's keep this civil Eli, after all we wouldn't want to wake those two men upstairs you're traveling with."

"How did he-" He began thinking.

"They seem like good enough people. How they ended up with someone you though, I'll never understand. The older one clearly cares a lot about his wife. Rambling on and on in his sleep about how he needs to find medicine for her. Heartwarming truly."

"How the hell did he get upstairs without me knowing?"

"You on the other hand." The man started, allowing a grin to form in the corners of his mouth underneath his bandana, "Don't care about anyone. So that leaves the question, why are you helping them?"

Eli sat silent.

The man sighed, "Oh well, I didn't expect you to answer me."

They sat in silence.

"Your night terrors have certainly gotten worse. With how bad you were thrashing around in that bed upstairs I'm surprised those two could get any sleep."

"He watched me sleep too!"

"Why didn't I know he was there?"

The man started laughing lightly.

Eli shot up from his seat in rage.

“What's stopping me from killing you right here!"

The man let out a single chuckle, "Oh come on now Eli, when have you ever beaten me in a fair fight?"

"What makes you think I'd fight fair?" Eli shot back.

The man leaned forward deeply, resting his elbows on the table. Moonlight illuminated his face just enough to show the seriousness in his eyes.

His tone deathly serious, "What makes you think that I would?"

Eli stopped where he stood, before lowering his head and sitting back down in his seat.

"How'd you find me?" He asked.

The man smirked from under his mask. He reached his hand down under the table and grabbed something out from his bag, holding it up for Eli to see.

A mirror.

Eli frowned. The mirror looked familiar.

"Damnit." He realized where it was from, "That's the mirror from the barbershop."

Satisfied that Eli had figured out where it was from, the man returned it to his bag.

"How'd you know we were here?" Eli asked.

"Oh come on Eli, you should know I always find my prey. But I gotta say, I'm pretty disappointed in you, you didn't even make it hard." The man paused for effect, "You and I both know that locked doors mean somebody's home."

"When did they get locked?" He thought frantically to himself, then it dawned on him.

"Silas! Dammit! He must have locked it when he came inside."

"If that door would've been unlocked I probably wouldn't have even bothered coming in… that's how I left it after all."

"What!"

"Wh- what did you just say?" Eli questioned.

"I said I left the door unlocked… just like how I told that woman to hide in the closet if she wanted to live. Nice to know she stayed where I told her too, shame she couldn't manage to stay alive. Sad she had to die, she was rather good looking, which is oh so very hard to find these days."

"How… how the hell did you make it here before us?"

The man smiled under his mask, "I guess you'll never know."

Eli clenched his fist tightly, so tight that his fingernails punctured into his palm causing it to bleed.

"Now then ca-" the man began before he was cut off.

"Why are you here?" Eli asked, "If you aren't here to kill me, then why are you here?"

The man leaned forward, "I'm here to warn you."

Alyssa carefully made her way down the stairs. There were no windows to allow moonlight in, and even if there was, rain clouds were blocking out any light that the moon was making.

"You've done this a million times before." She told herself.

She continued down the stairs, feeling along the wall as she went. She felt her way down the hallway until she arrived at the room Eli had been staying in. Unlocking the door with the key, she went inside.

She first went over to the window and pulled the curtains open, allowing the tiny bit of moonlight that seeped through the clouds into the room, illuminating it ever so slightly.

Now that she could see, ever so slightly as it was, she made her way over to the chest they kept in the corner of the room by the closet.

"Damnit." Alyssa thought to herself, "I can't see anything clearly enough."

After fumbling around in the dark a little while longer she stood up from the chest, giving up on trying to find what she was looking for in the dark. She went over and sat on the bed, angry and disappointed.

She held up the picture and smiled.

"I just wanted to do something nice for you." She thought.

"Please make it home safe you three."

She set the picture on the nightstand next to the bed, rolling over after and staring up at the ceiling. Lost in thought, but not thinking about anything in particular.

Eventually her eyelids could no longer remain open and she drifted off into sleep.

"Warn me?" Eli said, his surprise all too evident.

"Yes."

“Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because it's no fun to kill you when you aren't looking."

"I'm looking now." Eli said in a deep tone.

The man leaned back in his chair, "In truth Eli I was sent here to kill you. But those two men you're traveling with are innocent, they aren't a part of this. Luckily for you I have a soft spot for those kinds of people."

"Must be new." Eli responded.

The man chuckled before setting his tone serious, "When we're done here I'm heading back, and I will tell them I saw you. They'll come here and start their search. When you get back to wherever you're staying I suggest you leave those two and anyone else at the camp before they get dragged into this. He won't share my compassion. They'll all be killed and their blood will be on your hands.."

Eli was quiet.

"He's right."

The man stood up, stretching his aching muscles.

"I believe we're done here." He said, picking up his things and turning towards the door.

"Oh." The man said, "Two more things. I noticed you were a bit lacking in the arrow department. Here's a dozen or so, it's not fun if you don't have the means to put up a fight back."

"He got that close to me while I was asleep!"

The man outstretched his hand, holding a handful of proper arrows in it. Not like those single use one's Eli made before they left.

Eli reluctantly took them from the man's grasp silently.

"You could learn to say thank you some time." He said to Eli.

"Why should I? You're only giving them to me so you can have more fun when you come to kill me."

"Fair point." He said back, "But I'm also hoping you can manage to put a couple of those in a few of our mutual friends that I'm not fond of."

"If you aren't careful one of them might end up in you." Eli responded in a threatening tone.

They both lowered their hands now that the exchange was done.

"What's the other thing?" Eli asked.

"Oh right I forgot." The man started as he was opening the backdoor, "In the morning check the medicine cabinet upstairs, I left you a little gift that should hopefully help the man's wife."

He finished speaking and walked out the door, off into the woods.

Eli stood in the doorway, watching him walk away until he was in the forest and out of sight.

Eli collapsed to the ground, his whole body began shaking uncontrollably. His breathing came out in ragged gasps until he began hyperventilating, sweat beating down his forehead.

Sunlight began beaming through the curtains Alyssa had left open during the night before she fell asleep, silently waking her as dawn was once again lighting up the world, pushing the darkness away until night fell once more.

She rubbed her eyes gently to wake herself up.

"Why am I down here?" She asked herself.

She rolled over in bed towards the nightstand and saw the picture laying half off the edge.

"Oh right!"

She shot up in the bed and quickly strode over to the chest she had been looking through the night before.

"Come on, where are you?"

She searched and searched until finally she found what she was looking for.

She once again walked back over to the bed, sitting on it as she popped out the back of the frame.

Carefully she set the picture in it and put the back on, before flipping it around and admiring her work.

"Looks good!" She said to herself.

She stood up and placed the frame on the corner closest to the bed, turning the picture itself towards the bed so that it would be a surprise when he came in.

"Hopefully he likes it."

Alyssa turned and walked out of the room.