As soon as both of us reached the church, I stormed towards the small and the congested room, now supposedly my room, and dropped onto the electric green sofa, tremendously tired and exhausted. I needed to recharge my batteries by taking a quick one-hour nap so that the next day, I could continue my investigation on finding my grandmother. I closed my eyes and then settled my feet onto the sofa's arm, and the next thing I knew, was drifting off to good sleep.

                               ***
After hours and hours of napping, I awoke to a painful feeling of something sharp and pointy pecking continuously on my neck just like a woodpecker pecking for a hole. I groaned scathingly as I managed to get up when a blur of black flapped just inches away from my face, and due to the suddenness of the creature, I screamed.

In fact, I screamed so loud that the thing became stunned itself, and started flying in circles above the room like a shark circling its prey. I could feel the warm blood oozing from the two small wounds on my neck. D*mn, it hurt! Completely annoyed, I gawked up at the confused crow which didn't know what it was doing. Ugh, I thought. From where did it came from--

The casement window which was once closed seemed to be opened now. I didn't know that who opened it, but outside, the sky was washed with the beautiful and glamourous colors of red, yellow, orange and sparkling blue. The day was falling quickly. It was evening. The crow may have come from the outside through the window.

I got up from the sofa, and then started waving my arms up in the air whilst looking up at the crow and shouting, "Shoo! Shoo! SHOO!"

I heard the sound of the door opening, and then a familiar voice shouted, "Oh my God what's going on?!"

Before I could answer, the crow itself made a loud ugly croak, and then sped out of the room through the window, still flapping its wings wildly. The d*mn bird had left tufts of its black feathers in the air which were gently piling onto the floor. I slapped my neck to stop the pain, but it only got worse! "WHO LET THE WINDOW OPEN?" I shouted, turning back towards Ma, my face in a horrible sneer.

"I opened the window. It was getting pretty hot in the room. I feared that you were going to suffocate-"

"Well... Next time, I would rather poke my eye out with a dirty stick rather than being pecked by ugly birds. I would rather die suffocating!" At first, my tone was angry and raging, but then, it suddenly turned into a jolly and cheerful tone. That was the good thing about me: I had immersive control over my anger.

The priestess laughed and then ushered me out of the room, saying that it was time for lunch, and I happily followed her out of the room, realizing that I was mighty hungry! She guided me to the small circular wooden table covered with a plaid tablecloth, matching my shirt, and on it were put two glass of orange juice, and a big bowl of spaghetti along with a small bowl of soup, too.

I licked my lips and raced toward the table, quickly sitting on the chair and grabbing my fork and spoon, ready to eat, but Ma suddenly stopped me from the very distance and said that I could not eat until we both said the prayer. I made a low "oh" sound, a sound which you make when you realize or understand something.

Ma sat at the table and then we both joined our hands, closing our eyes. Ma began to say the thanking prayer out loud: "Dear God, we thank you for this life. We thank you for every breath. Your creator. Our master. Oh God, we thank you for this food. Amen.

"Amen", I whispered.
__________________
4 HOURS LATER.
__________________

From the moment we had lunch, I couldn't keep my mind clear from the confusing mystery which was currently surrounding my grandmother. These strange thoughts and questions were piling in my mind as I was laying on the sofa, dangling by one leg from the sofa and the other resting on the sofa arm. I stared up at the ceiling, thinking these dreadful thoughts: What if my grandma is... dead? What if those werewolves have harmed her and have kept her hostage? Ohhhh good... This cannot be happening! I have to do something! There is no hope now!

The clock ticked continuously, and I wondered how much time had gone. I looked at the clock. Just as I expected. It was 8. Not too late.

There was still time that I could travel to the family manor again and try to uncover the truth which awaited me. There was still time that I could find a troika or a horse carriage from the town square and hurry to the crumbling house before it got too late. These thoughts made my blood pump in a nostalgic way, and my body started to crawl with goosebumps and shivers.

This time, I was not going to go unarmed. This time, I would surely bring a weapon with me. I didn't want to be that werewolf's dinner.

I heaved up from the sofa and then stretched my contracted arms, setting my feet on the floor and grabbing my satchel from the coffee table. I hung the strap over my shoulder and raced towards the door to get outside quickly. I needed to be quick and fast! I did NOT want to waste time!

Outside, I could hear the water running from the tap inside the kitchen and Ma humming deeply to herself, and then the clink and the clatter of plates and spoons. I thought that she was washing dishes, judging by the sounds. I strolled inside the kitchen and then saw her back facing me leaned over the sink, moving her hands in a rapid movement and then putting the 'now clean crockery on the crockery stand.

Should I tell her where I'm going? Or I should lie to her?

I chose to lie over truth because I didn't have a much clear explanation for telling the reality. So I took a deep breath and then opened my mouth to say, "I am going to the library..."

This made her turn her face towards me with bulging eyes. "At this time of night?"

"Yeah. I have a habit of studying at this time of night. I want to study my thesis book so..."

"All right. All right, but return before midnight. Nine-thirty is the designated time."

I also wanted to talk to her about finding a carriage.

"Uh... Can you please also tell me that how much do horse carriages cost? I also want to go somewhere else after the library... to my grandmother's house..." I mumbled.

"Huh? You also have a grandma here? I didn't knew. Well, carriages here cost at least 15 euros if you want to go to a far-off place otherwise, they cost 10 euros. This is an old town. There are no cabs here", She explained to me.

"But in Zurich, we use swiss franc, and there are hardly any euros used. I am afraid that I don't have euro-"

"It's okay. You can borrow money from me. Wait till I get my purse. Don't leave yet!"

                              ***
It was along a bumpy track of the Atlantic shore as such that a pony and a cart made it's tortous way, an inconsequential dot against the wide expanse of moor, of dune, of sand and of sea. A small group of houses was barely visible through the uplifting fog, hiddled around a squat church. I winced as the carriage juddered yet over another pothole. I looked out the small carriage window over the wide expanse of bone-white sand and black-blue mountains, with their summits wigged with woolen clouds.

That moment, the manor also appeared at a distance as a gloomful enormous shadow. Just watching at it made me want to run away to some area far away from that grim house.

I pulled the reins and insisted the man sitting on the pony to stop. I didn't wanted the man to know that where I was going, because then he would think that I am mad to be going inside a forbidding and a scray-looking house. I alighted from the carriage and, handing over the money, I crossed hummocky grass, closely cropped by some animal (maybe rabbit). I looked over the wide Atlantic.

Oh, what a day. A silly dangerous day!

Even though there was nothing to see over the empty wasteland, I admitted that the scene in front of me was dramatic. The wind and the sea roared so loudly that they blocked most of the other noises, except for the hoarse shrieks of seabirds. Not even a single stream of moonlight made the way clear, as if the moon itself was too afraid to land it's light on such a mournful place. It looked like a place where people were... banished upon... It was like a remote place in a Greek Mythology or Norse Saga.

The noise of the sea and the roaring wind was so loud, that one had to shout to make themselves clear. I never thought that the Atlantic Ocean would be so treacherous. I started to walk. My feet were sinking in the sand, but I still managed to walk. After a while, I was near the water's shore with which aligned a tall-looking hill, on which my grandma's house loomed in the mist.

Be all right Grandma, I thought miserably. Please be safe.

As I advanced, the sand stretched out into a dreamlike blankness in all directions, and then, on crossing over the tideline with shells and dry seaweed crunching and crackling underfoot, and then I reached the water's edge. The sea roared and growled deafeningly!

I noticed that the clouds near the ocean were so low now, that the moved like a sea fret, shrouding the far hills and the mountains of mainland. This concealing veil emboldened me. It seemed like I was trapped in an enclosed world, sheilded by mist and by the raucous music of the weather. No one could see or hear me, that was for sure.

The water waves hit my feet, almost wetting my socks, but I was too quick in action to let the water wet my feet from the inside. There was no time, so I began to race toward the hill on which the house stood, completely concealed with the fog and the heavy draping mist. Sure that if someone would shout or scream in this area from a few blocks away, I would not hear it, but my heart skipped a beat when a loud, horrifying and an awful roar came from the other end of the nothingness in front of me.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and my hands started to tremble. The roar pierced the night again, and this time, it was a LOT louder.

"Graaaaaraaarrr! Screeeeee!"

My bottom lip started to tremble and a shivering hand reached inside the bag, the fingers coiling around the gun which I had purchased from the old store at the town for safety. It was just a random shotgun, but it was worth a try. I could not take any chances of being killed. It still had a life ahead of me.

I pulled out the shotgun and dropped it in my jacket's pocket.

"GRAAAAAAARRR! SCREEEEEEE!"

Once again, the shriek and the moan of the creature blasted the former quiteness of the ocean's coast, more loud than the deafening sounds of the roaring ocean and the whistling wind.
I noticed that the creature's sounds were coming from my left side, and the house stood on my right side, as I told you before, it was visible as a giant black shadow.

I prepared myself and took off to the right side, running furiously with all my might towards the hill. The cool and clammy air swirled past my face and made my hair fly like a scarf behind me. The savage roar of the wind and the ocean growing and snarling and frothing rapidly were no match for the massive screams of the beast behind me. Uh-oh. They sounded more close now!

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PRAY FOR HANNAH. READ THE NEXT CHAPTER TO FIND OUT THAT WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN SHE IS TRAPPED IN A DIRE SITUATION? WILL SHE BE ABLE TO ESCAPE THE UNKNOWN CREATURE BEHIND HER OR WILL SHE BE... OH WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT WORDS COME NEXT. ANYWAYS, VOTE, COMMENT, AND FOLLOW ME TO KNOW ABOUT THE LATEST UPDATES OF
     "The Curse of the Werewolves".