Poppy's POV

The unusual force drew me to the door. I stopped on the threshold, pausing to listen for Aaron. The familiar smell of his light, peaceful snore was heard.

I hands moved by itself as I turned the doorknob, not fighting my hypnotized state anymore.

I swiftly moved out.

The wind ground against my skin, my night dress doing little to keep out the biting cold. I didn't know where my feet were taking me.

I moved on towards the end of the road where the forest began.

The mellow music of the night crickets flooded the path and the moon was just a slice. It wasn't the witching hour yet, but  I felt a creepy presence around me. It was a force, rather than a person. And that presence drew me on, like the call of the wilderness .

The unseen force that was pulling me vanished as soon as it had come.

And I found myself in a clearing in the forest.

I relaxed my aching fingers, which had been unknowingly crushing the necklace in its grip.

My trance broken, I looked around trying to fathom my surroundings.

It was well past midnight and the woods were silent as death. The sky was washed in the darkest shades of witch's blue and little stars peeked at me through the canopy of the tall trees.

'Welcome home, dear' a strange voice emanated from the dark.

'Who are you?' I look around, trying to gauge the direction from which the sound came.

'I'm here.' a oversized cloak appeared in front of me.

The entire figure gleamed a faint green — almost ghostly in the midst of the deathly night.

'Did you cast a spell on me? What do you want? Please let me go. I have my family, friends. If anything happens to me...'

'Shhh' he raised a finger to his lips. The gesture shushed all my nervous ramblings.

'I know everything about you. You have no family, no friends. Your brother doesn't care whatever happens to you, does he?'

I freeze.

'Your mother is dead and your father left you all long ago and...'

'Enough!' I scream, 'I don't want to hear one more word about my private life. What do you want from me?'

'You're not a human. You're a Vešterka. The human world won't accept you. Come over to my land and you'll be safe and happy. You'll be with millions of your type.'

'What's that? A ves-ter what? You must have gotten the wrong person.' my voice was almost a high pitched whisper.

'No. You're the one I want,' he flipped back his cloak to reveal a middle aged man with wispy black beard and thin lips.

He had sharp features and he would have been almost handsome if he wasn't so scary. He seemed like one of those people who never age and go on for ever and ever.

'I'm not that.'

'You don't believe me? Come, I want to show you.' he held out his hand.

'No, I can't,' I jumped back two steps, debating whether it'd be worth it to try to turn around and run.

'No use running,' he was beside me in a jiffy, grabbing my wrist, crushing it between his fingers.

I tried to break free but he was way much stronger.

'I won't hurt you,' he hissed, 'Come with me, I'll show you something. If you don't want to go with me after that, you're free.'

I nodded, knowing that I had no other option. I'd look out for the slightest opportunity to run though.

He relaxed considerably and turned around.

'Follow me.'

I obeyed, wondering why Aaron had not come searching for me. Obviously he doesn't care if his sister is lost.

'Are you wondering why your brother didn't search for you? Well, my spell kept us hidden from the sight of plain humans. So yes, we were invisible.'

'How did you know that? I never...'

'No use thinking weird stuff in my presence. I can grasp thoughts out of the air.'

'A... Are you a mind reader?' I stammered, moving my hands to the sides of my head as if it could block him out from reading my mind, and invading the privacy of my thoughts.

'Not really, but I have a unique sense of the rise and fall in emotions and I have the experience of studying behavior for a long time — a really, really long time.'

'Why? Why do you keep people in your kingdom? Why do you isolate yourself? Why don't you live with others?'

'Why do you talk so much?' he whipped around, his eyes fuming.

It was then that I noticed the brilliant green. His eyes were a striking shade of emerald with broad streaks of brown.

He perhaps became aware of me staring at him.

'I don't entertain young girls who talk too much,' he averted my eyes. 'Let's go.'

'Why? Don't you have a child of your own?'

I couldn't keep the surprise from my voice.

'For heaven's sake just shut up! I don't want a chatterbox in my land. It makes my head ache,' he snapped.

'I talk when I'm nervous and you just made me very, very nervous,' I go on.

Maybe he'll leave the idea of taking me if I manage to irritate the hell out of him.

He didn't comment anything, so that he doesn't leave a chance for a witty Poppy's signature quip.

An awkward silence fell between us as we moved through the forest.

'If you really are a magician why can't you just make us fly? Why go on foot?'

'I've never seen a more annoying teenager before. Why the hell can't you shut up and let me focus? I need them to come near us and you're just scaring away all the wildlife.' he said, glancing around in disappointment.

'What has wildlife to do with any of these?'

'Because,' he began, but stopped mid sentence, putting a finger to his lips. I fell quiet too, trying to hear what he did.

There was a soft sound of leaves crunching and the delicate thud of footsteps. A deer or a rabbit or some other timid creature probably.

I held my breath as the bushes shifted and the animal came into full view.

My heart skipped a beat.

It was a panther, one of the deadliest of the jungle predators and it was looking straight at me.