Merrill winded at her protestations.  Looking away from her, to the darkness of the wilderness that beckoned, he swallowed.  [i]I wish I could tell you why, even as I wish that I could stay,[/i] he thought to himself.

But he could not.  Such was the nature of the “gift” he had been given.  And Merrill cursed that gift.  He cursed it with every single thing that he had.  Every single fibre of his being......wishing that there was another way.

Swallowing again, he kept looking away from her as he replied.

[b]”I wish I could explain Callie, but just trust me when I say that it is for the best.....”[/b]

[i]I want to stay.[/i]  Now he brought his eyes to meet hers.  [i]I have been alone now for so long that to find company, even if only fleeting.....it has been more of a balm to my soul than you could ever know.[/i]  But he did not speak the words.  He saw Callie, lying there, dead before him, bloodstained knife in his hands as he gazed down at her, his heart shattered.

[i]If there is anything.....anything at all I can do to stop this from coming to pass I will.  This time I must cheat fate.  I MUST cheat fate.[/i]

The smile on his face was resigned, his eyes haunted.

[b]”It is the only way Callie.  You will find your destiny and you will learn to control it.  This.....this is outwith my ability to do.  I’m sorry.”[/b]

Turning, he disappeared into the brush before she had chance to answer him.....

[CENTER]***[/CENTER]

[i]That I had the power to just dissipate here in the blackness, to be no more, to not think or feel, I would.  I would take it again and again and again as I allowed the blackness of oblivion to swallow me.[/i]

Merrill was lost in his thought as he pushed through the undergrowth.  In his right hand he had already gathered provisions from the wilderness.  Mushrooms, leaves that he knew to be edible.  It wasn’t going to be a kings feast by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be enough to tide them over.  One thing that Merrill had learned to do, and learned to do well, was hunt and forage.  It was the one thing that had kept him alive in all of the lonely years he had spent by himself.  When you only had yourself to account for, and nowhere to turn to, one quickly learned to become self-sufficient.

It was easy enough to do, to find enough provisions for the both of them.  And at this precise moment, Merrill was hunched over a small brook that was in the heart of the forest.  In the water was a skein that he was filling up.  They would survive the night, if nothing else.  

It was something, at the very least.

When the voice echoed from behind him, feminine yet venomous, Merrill immediately knew his mistake.  He had become complacent in their flight from the demon that he had blinded himself to the other dangers out there.

[b]”It has been too long Merrill,”[/b] the voice spoke as a dark form detached from the shadows behind him.

Closing his eyes in disgust and horror, Merrill turned slowly to see the figure of the one he knew stood before him.  He said one word, and one word only.

[b]”Dulcimae.”[/b]

The face of his killer stared back at him.

[CENTER]***[/CENTER]

Merrill was not the only one who had paid a heavy price for his insttention.  So caught up in the events that had unfolded, Callie had not noticed the slight movement from behind one of the oak trees.  A dark, long form slithered out from the undergrowth.  

Sliding it’s way towards her, the shadowy form came closer to her from behind.  

Closer, ever closer.......

Reaching the back of her foot, it slid under the folds of her clothing and began to climb up her leg, a sudden wet and slimy sensation against her skin......