Felix

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As soon as I woke up, I started to work. I wanted to please my dad, but the thought of the witch he had spoken about also scared me. Such a powerful and deadly and vicious creature. I had never really been that interested in my dad's work and the thought of that he actually was a killer had always disturbed me.

But this witch, this monster, she deserved to die. And I wanted it to happen as soon as possible. If things progressed with Zoe the way I wanted, I would have to introduce her to my dad and his work. I wanted the witch gone before that so Zoe wouldn't risk getting hurt, or worse, killed.

I sat down and found Irena Silver's address. With internet and such, it went pretty easily. Once I had done that, I started doing some more research on the Forest Path coven.

They were a kind of young coven. Only about four hundred years old, which meant that their priestess most likely had never changed, or maximum once. It seemed like they had been a very small and powerless coven until about one hundred years ago, when they started gaining power quite rapidly.

Dad had said that the earliest sign of the witch had been from seventy years ago. This suggested that she had killed for the first time one hundred years ago.

That had always been something I couldn't wrap my head around. Witches' ages. I wondered how this witch would look, considering that she would be over a hundred years old most likely. According to Dad, they all looked like young, beautiful women because they put spells on themselves. How would they look without the spells? Wrinkly and gross, most likely.

While I tried to find out more to see if I could discover the witch's identity, my cellphone rang. I looked at the caller ID and sighed before answering.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Don't you just yeah me! I've been waiting for you to call for forever and finally gave up on waiting!" Alex almost screamed the words at me.

"Why? What is it?"

"Really? Really?! How did it go?" she asked and my mind was blank.

"Go with what?"

"Zoe, you idiot! How did it go?"

"Right," I said, and it came back to me. I had completely forgotten that Alex had been there yesterday. All I had thought about regarding yesterday was just Zoe.

"So you remember? Tell me then!"

"Sorry, I just forgot that you were there."

"Damn, does she make you forget even about me?"

"I'm meeting her for dinner again today," I continued, without giving any attention to Alex's comment. "And she'll stay. She explained why she lied before and, well, I wish she hadn't lied, but she was doing what she thought was right."

"What was her explanation?"

I paused.

"It doesn't matter," I said finally, after deciding that the truth wasn't my truth to tell. "You don't need to know. But it was one that made sense, okay?"

"Meaning?"

"It's complicated, and it's up to her who she wants to share it with."

"Fine," Alex sighed. "But you sure you're not being used or fooled by her or so?"

"Of course! She wouldn't do that!" I half yelled as a response. A rational part of me was well aware that Alex only meant well and that her question was justified. But it seemed like I just couldn't ever stay rational about anything regarding Zoe. All my emotions were ten times more intense when it came to her and the need to protect her, defend her, was extremely strong.

"Take it easy! I didn't mean anything bad. I just care about you and it was miserable watching you the past week."

"She won't leave again."

"Okay," she said, but there is a hint of disbelief in her voice that annoyed the crap out of me.

"I'm seeing her again tonight," I told her in a defiant voice.

"Ah cool. If all things go well, maybe you can properly introduce me to her sometime soon."

"Yeah. Maybe." In that moment, I really didn't want to. I didn't want to put Zoe through whatever stupid line of questioning Alex would bring. Or have Alex being rude in any shape or form to her.

Alex let out a long sigh. Sensing my mood, no doubt. "I only worry about you, Felix. You're my best friend and I don't want you hurt. I'm sure she's an amazing person, but she could be the best person in the whole world and I would still worry. Okay?"

"She is the best person in the whole world."

Alex laughed. "Okay. That just makes me want to meet her even more. Come on! Can't I meet her for drinks or something tomorrow?"

"I don't know..."

"Please! I promise to be on my best behavior! Please, please, please."

I laughed a little. Alex really could be stubborn when she wanted to. And whiny. And as quick as my anger had come before, as quickly did it disappear as soon as Alex's tone in talking about Zoe became friendly.

"Okay, okay. I'll ask her about it tonight."

"Great! I'll call tomorrow to ask what she said, so no getting out of it! And I also want all the details about tonight tomorrow! Okay, bye!"

And before I could protest or change my mind or anything, she hung up. I did also immediately start regretting my decision. Alex never meant any harm, but she had a tendency to be too to the point. I didn't want Zoe to end up in a situation where she felt she had to talk about her disease. She carried so much pain because of it and I wanted to help her heal from it, but I also wanted to protect her from that pain.

I gave my dad the information about Irena Silver, and he started packing his things at once. He would leave as soon as dawn broke the next day and would be one step closer to getting his hands on that horrible witch.

It had already become quite late, so, as soon as that was done, I got into my car and drove towards Zoe's hotel. I had a million thoughts in my mind about what I wanted to do with her, things that might make her smile and be happy. I couldn't wait to see her smile again.

She was already outside the hotel waiting when I arrived, but my heart sank at the sight of her.

She smiled as my car drove into the parking lot. And as I stepped outside, we both walked towards one another. But it was clear that something was upsetting her.

The smile was forced, and her eyes were puffy, as if she had cried. Anger flared up, and I wanted nothing more than to find out what had upset her. I wanted to take all of her sadness away and punish whoever it was that had made her cry.

Something of my emotions must have shown on my face, because she faltered and came to a stop before she reached me.

I tried to calm my anger, but I couldn't.

"What's wrong?" she asked as I stopped in front of her.

"Are you okay? What has happened?" I asked, in not an as comforting voice as I had hoped. Rather, I sounded quite the opposite, I sounded harsh.

"I... I'm fine," she said and forced that smile back on her lips, which only made my anger more intense.

I grabbed hold of her wrist. I needed to be in contact with her somehow and hoped it would calm me a bit. But it didn't. Not at all.

"Don't lie. It looks like you've been crying," I continued and took a step closer to her.

"It doesn't matter. It's nothing you can do anything about." She looked off to the side.

"Just tell me!"

I had yelled, and she took a step back, pulled her arm out of my grasp, her eyes wide open. I couldn't believe I had actually yelled at her. It was probably one of my first times every yelling at anyone and it had been towards my beautiful and innocent Zoe.

"I'm sorry," I quickly said.

"It's okay," she mumbled and gave me a weak smile, but I shook my head.

"No, it's not. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to yell. But... Please tell me what has happened. You look so upset. Please rely on me."

She looked down towards the ground. I cursed myself in my head. If I were her, I wouldn't want to tell me. Not with how I had just acted. It would make more sense if she decided to go back into the hotel, but I couldn't have that. I needed her to trust me with her issues, trust me to help her through anything she might be going through.

Unsure how to convey that with words, I stretched my hand forward to hers. I didn't take it though, but let it be right by hers, waited and let her decide what to do next. After a moment she took my hand before meeting my eyes with eyes glistening from unshedded tears.

"Earlier today I thought, just for a moment I thought that I maybe had found a cure," she finally said.

Without thinking about anything else, I pulled her towards me. Wrapped my arms around her. One around her waist and one on her back.

"Felix, let go! It's dangerous," she protested and tried to get out of my hug, but that just made me hold on tighter.

"I'm not touching your skin, am I," I pointed out. "Just let me hug you."

She was stiff in my arms for a while longer before I could feel her muscles relax and she leaned her head towards my chest.

"I'm so sorry, Zoe," I said. "I'll help you find a cure. I'll do anything it takes. I promise that one day you won't have to worry at all while I hug you."

We stood like that for a while more before I let go. Of course, she took a big step away as soon as I did, but I caught her hand and held it as I led her to the car.