Chapter 38: An invitation

Since it was early morning Erik choose to walk toward the college instead of taking the old pickup truck.

He started his early walk still lost in thought. The bomb that was dropped upon him was something beyond he had ever imagined.

‘Vidar’ was the name of the spirit who possessed him. Something which was strange since he had believed all these things that were happening around him might have something to do with him turning into a werewolf or something like that. But if he believed what Heli said, then a curse was placed upon him, which was why a spirit had taken a possession over him.

The curse had twisted a part of his soul which was now being controlled by that spirit.

‘Being a werewolf would have been a less of a burden I guess.’ But where did I get this curse from?

All his thoughts would come to the same question. What was the origin of the curse? Because in any story, if you are bitten by a werewolf then you turn into a werewolf. But instead of turning into a werewolf, he got this weird curse placed upon him.

He had also noticed the drastic change in Tanha’s behaviour toward him.

After getting dressed he had walked inside the kitchen expecting Tanha to be preparing breakfast for him, but she was sitting on the dining table reading a history book. History was his grandfather’s favourite subject; in his lifetime, he had collected many books about the subject.

She raised her head and looked at him; if looks could kill, then he would be dead within the moment she looked at him.

The only thing he could see in her eyes was disgust and anger toward him. She had been behaving like this toward him since they came back from the forest. It appeared like she was barely restraining herself from attacking him.

He wanted to ask her, but didn’t dare to, the reason for her behaviour. He just walked toward the fridge got some snacks and left the house immediately.

A honk of a car broke his chain of thought, and he looked toward his right side; it was a red sports car. He looked at the driver’s seat and Hannah Ruth was seated there. Their eyes met for a moment; her eyes were widened and a variety of emotions flashed on her face.

He proceeded forward, as did she. She drove her car inside the campus, but he could still feel her eyes looking at him.

He followed his routine schedule for the rest of the day, one lecture after another. But whenever he would be sharing a class with her, he would feel her eyes constantly staring at his back.

Once the day was over, he decided to quickly walk out of the class but was stopped by a blond-haired woman.

“Hey, you are Erik, right?”

The girl had pixy cut hair and a small nose on her face. He recognized her as a member of the group that surrounds Hannah. So instead of making any comments he just nodded his head.

“Here.”

She handed him a small paper which he took deliberately, he looked inside it there was nothing except an address. At the bottom of the address there was a line:

‘Be there at 8:00 tonight.’

He looked up to ask the girl what does it meant but she was already gone.

He threw the paper into dustbin and walked back home. He already had many problems in his life; he didn’t have time to play these kind of games.

He spent rest of the day repairing the broken furniture in the living room Tanha was still seating on the dining table reading the history book.

She hadn’t talked to him yet and would often send daggers toward him. He kept working on the furniture till evening.

Even after dusk Tanha hadn’t moved from where she was seated, so he knew he wouldn’t be getting any dinner if he didn’t start cooking now.

After placing all the tools inside the garage, he took a quick shower and started cooking. He wasn’t sure whether Tanha would eat or not so he prepared for both of them.

Once he brought the dinner to the table he also arranged a plate for her. She again gave him the same look of anger but after a few tense moments she looked down at the food and started to eat.

He did the same and after eating his dinner, he started to clean the kitchen and did the dishes. At that time, his phone started to ring.

He looked at the display; it read ‘Private Number’. This triggered hundreds of doubts and questions inside his mind. But after one full ring he answered it.

“Come outside.

That was all the person said and from the voice it appeared to be a woman.

He wasn’t sure who could it be but a honking sound triggered an immediate reaction from him.

“Tanha, I am not sure who it is, but you should hide yourself.”

Tanha just looked at his face, stared for few moments and started to read the book again.

Again, the same honk was heard.

‘Shit!’

He rushed out of the house while cursing inside his mind.

The same red sport car was standing outside his house which he had seen Hannah driving this morning.

He walked closer to the car the window on the driver side the glass came down.

‘Damn!’

He could barely hold himself from shouting that word loudly. Hannah was seated behind the wheel. But that wasn’t what caused such a strong reaction from him; it was the way she had readied herself.

It was like she had spent rest of the day after college inside a beauty parlour. Her dark hairs were straight behind her back. She had applied eyeliner, dark lipstick and thick layer of makeup.

She was wearing an expensive yet very skimpy party dress.

“What time is it?”

“Huh??”

Instead of saying anything, now she turned her head toward him and looked at his face. Erik ruffled around his clothes but in rush of coming out of house he had forgotten his phone inside his house.

“Past 9, I guess.” He spoke while making his best guess.

“And?”

Now he was getting really confused with the way Hannah was behaving.

“And?” He repeated her word.

She took a deep inhale and closed her eyes it was like she was doing her best to control her Anger.