"Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?" Sophie asked Elara as she tucked her in bed gently.

"Sure, I'll just sleep in" Elara was still feeling hurt by Sean's behavior but she acted tough in front of her friends not wanting to be pitied.

Laura let out a sigh "Well we brought you your homework" she grinned when Elara groaned and hid her head under the duvet.

"come on it's not that bad, only a few pages of homework. Some of your teachers even didn't give you any."

"When is the due date?" She asked hoping they at least had the decency to give her a week or so.

Sophie chuckled, "You have two days baby! So sleep in for now and come back to us. We'll come to check on you tomorrow after school, but if you need anything before that, we're just a call away."

"You girls are awesome! Now leave so I can rest up".

The girls hugged their friend in turn before turning the lights off and leaving quietly. Elara was grateful to have them in her life. They knew each other since kindergarten and they were more like family. Her mind drifted to Sean and she felt incredibly annoyed just as the bite in her neck started burning like hell. Pushing the thoughts of Sean and the wolf to the back of her mind, Elara was finally able to drift to sleep.

"Sean? Sean Where are you? I can't see you!" She could feel someone watching her, but she couldn't place the person. She was back in the woods, only wearing Sean's shirt, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of tall trees.

She felt a chill run through her as she looked at her trembling bare feet. Something wasn't right. She wrapped her arms around herself looking through the woods in hope of seeing Sean. He was just there with her, but he disappeared.

She took a step forward; maybe crossing the woods would lead her out of the forest. Another step is taken, and another, feeling more confident Elara quickened her pace but never reaching the trees. It seemed to her that every time she felt closer to them she would realize she's back at the starting point.

She let out a heavy sigh and was about to try again when she heard a growl.

"Sean?" she whispered knowing it wasn't him but tempting her chance. Scanning the trees, her gaze met a pair of red orbs glowing. Elara immediately took a step back never breaking eye contact with those red eyes.

Suddenly a huge black wolf leaped out of the trees and started chasing her as she ran around in circles screaming for her life.

"What the heck!?" Elara woke up with a jolt covered in sweat. Her fingers brushed her wound softly making her hiss at the contact. She slowly got up and looked at her alarm clock, it was two in the morning but she certainly couldn't go back to sleep now. She took a quick shower enjoying the hot water caressing her body and relaxing her muscles.

After putting on clean pajamas, Elara head to the kitchen and made herself a nice hot chamomile tea. She was as quiet as she could be not wanting to wake her grandpa up and worry him for nothing. Every time she closed her eyes, she would see red glowing eyes staring at her.

Maybe I do need counseling after all!

Elara went back to bed with her teacup in hand and drank it slowly in the hopes of being able to get more sleep. Just as she was about to take another sip from her tea, her eyes landed on her laptop.

"seek the guidance of the elders" her mother's words came back to her. With a swift jump, she reached for her laptop and fired it up.

"The Tiassili Elders. You can find them when you're ready, you'll know where to go." Thankfully, her mother told her what kind of elders she had to look for. She fired up her research motor and typed in 'Tiassili Elders' but only found a few irrelevant articles. There was a place in Africa, a village called Tiassale, she didn't think that was what she was looking for but clicked the link anyway out of curiosity.

After clicking on it, many articles popped up and she kept scrolling through them for another hour and was losing hope when a title caught her eye. 'The legendary feud between the Tiassili and the wolves'.

"Huh, wolves. What a coincidence." She murmured to herself rolling her eyes.

She clicked the link excitedly, only to be met with the biggest disappointment she had faced in a while. The website crashed, the screen went pitch black.

"Holy Shit! What was that about?" she tried turning her laptop on again but to no avail. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she pushed her computer aside and hid her face in her pillow to muffle the sounds of her irritated scream.

"Nice! Now I need a new computer! Thanks, mom!"

After flipping restlessly in bed a few times, Elara finally fell asleep and this time she didn't have any nightmares.

She heard a knock on her door and ignored it but the knock came again, and again.

"Elara? Are you still in bed? I'm coming in" Her grandpa sounded a little worried as he slowly pushed her door open. "Darling, are you okay?"

"Morning grandpa, I'm good I just had a bad night. Kept dreaming of that stupid wolf" she groaned into her pillow and slowly sat up "But don't worry I'm good really".

He seemed to inspect so she flashed him a smile and got up "I need a new computer so I'll probably go to town and get one".

"Want me to drive you?" he offered hopefully.

"Nahhh I'm good, I'll ride my bicycle," she said getting up and heading to the bathroom.

"Sure honey, breakfast is ready" he informed her before walking out of the room and closing the door.

Right after stuffing herself with pancakes and scrambled eggs, Elara took her bike and went into town. Her first stop was the tech shop where she could get her computer looked at.

"your laptop has been attacked with a strong virus, but it's not damaged," Marcus said as he worked on it while Elara roamed the shop out of boredom.

"Great, so I don't have to get a new one? I really need it for school."

"No, I can fix it up for you, but just a question, and I'm not trying to be prying but what site did you enter exactly?"

"Why?"

"Well, it's not a common virus that's all... it's actually pretty rare..."

"It wasn't porn Marcus" she burst in laughter "I was just doing research about some old legends and as soon as I clicked the link, the screen went pitch black"

Marcus laughed shaking his head, "Anyway, it might take a while, and if you still need to do your research, how about you go to the public library? They have an entire aisle on old legends. It might be resourceful."

Elara thought about it and grinned "Actually, I think it's a great idea, Marcus, I owe you. Thanks!" she ran out of the tech shop and crossed the street making her way to the library. Marcus was a few years older than her, graduated from MIT but for some reason came back to Pine Hill. She found it very odd as he had so many more opportunities in Cambridge. When Elara asked him why he was back he just said 'this town just pulled me back in' and he wouldn't say anything else. He opened his own tech shop and kept to himself, the only person who he actually spent time with was Elara. She just liked to pop in unannounced and just annoy him till he kicks her out.

Pushing the front door open, Elara greeted the librarian before wandering between the racks until she found what she was looking for.

"Legends and more" she read with a smile "Well, here goes nothing".

Searching through old pages for a few hours, she was starting to feel hungry and exhausted. The problem was she didn't know what to search for. Finally, she decided to go home and maybe come back the next day as her eyes were giving her a hard time focusing on the writing. She picked up her bag from the floor and put back every book she used in place. Putting the last and heaviest book back in place, she saw a book that looked different from the others.

It had no title on the cover "Hmmm interesting". Elara opened it and saw the title inside 'Witches of Africa'. Her eyes popped out of her sockets as she remembered the article of last night. Without giving it many thoughts, she took the book and had the librarian check it out for her.

"Okay Elara, this is a very old and very precious book" Barbara eyed her carefully "I don't even know why the interest in such..."

"I'm just into that phase where I would like to read about witches around the world. That's it" Elara smiled hoping Barbara, the lady in front of her believed her.

"Well, I can't tell you not to read it, but... maybe refrain from doing so before bedtime. Also, don't lose it, and don't believe in it."

"Sure yeah... as I told you it's just out of curiosity" she bit her lower lip fidgeting in place waiting for Barbara to finally give her the book. When she did, Elara stuffed it in her backpack and hurried back to the tech shop.

"Is it done?"

"No! This is so weird El! Just as I had it working again, it took me to the page you were viewing and it crashed again."

"Oh... and what are we going to do?"

"You are going to go home, and I'm going to work on it till it works. Or get damaged altogether. But anyway I will lend you a computer for your schoolwork, how is that?"

"I guess it's... yeah sure why not." She took the computer and left the shop giddily. She wanted nothing but to get home, eat something and start reading but something was nagging at her. She felt something like an electric shock go through her wound and closed her eyes trying to shut the pain down. But all she could see was Sean.

She got on her bike and made her way to his house. She never went to his house before, but since she liked him so much, she knew he lived on the outskirt of the woods not far from where they held the bone fire party. Reaching her destination, she parked her bicycle and hesitantly made her way to the front door. It was so quiet as if no one was home but she knocked anyway.

A middle-aged woman, probably Sean's mom opened the door with a frown on her face, and before saying anything, she looked at Elara's bandaged neck.

"Who are you?" she snarled at Elara who took a step back. He surely got his charms from his mother.

"I'm sorry to bother you Mrs Smith, I'm here to see Sean?"

Sean's mom looked at her skeptically and was about to rudely shut the door in her face when a glaring Sean opened it and stepped out of the house. He grabbed Elara's hand and dragged her away from the house. He seemed angry and frustrated.

"What the hell are you doing here Elara?"

"I came to see you obviously you jerk" she pushed him away "Why are you telling people you weren't with me? I was worried sick about you!"

"I'm perfectly fine, you should worry about yourself! A mountain lion attack isn't to be taken lightly."

"Seriously? If you're so worried about me why did you tell me to stop calling? Why didn't you check on me? Why did you lie about being with me?"

Sean's breathing hitched and he towered over Elara trying to intimidate her "I said I wasn't with you because we're not together, and who I flirt with is no one's business. Now leave me the fuck alone or I swear to god I will ruin your perfect reputation at school."

Elara burst into laughter "So you're not only a coward but you're also threatening a girl you just kissed a few days ago... wow! You're such an arrogant bastard!"

Sean growled and closed the distance between them. Elara wasn't backing out, she didn't want to. Not until she saw her mother standing next to Sean.

"Run Elara, leave before you make things worse". She heard her mom's words and looked at Sean confused, wasn't he seeing her mother? Wasn't he hearing her? She took a step back only to hit a tree behind her.

"So now you're scared huh?" he took another step toward her and she could swear his eyes turned darker.

"Sean!" they both looked back at the house and saw a man standing next to Sean's mother. Elara had never seen him before, but standing there, he screamed authority and power. She took the chance and ran to her bike while Sean was distracted, not wasting another second in this weird place she went home.