The Gateway to Hell

The early morning sun was hotter than ever and the terrain was hard, but Amaira never stopped running even after already reaching deep into the woods of Roma City.

Sharp rocks, broken twigs, and thorny plants bruised the skin of her already aching feet, but physical pain wasn't the reason for the tears that were flowing like a river from her eyes.

The built-up guilt, confusion, and anger from what she did to Jenna were eating away at her from the inside.

Amaira never intended to run; when her mother arrived, she would somehow explain what happened to Jenna. She was sure her mother would know that she would never purposely do such a cruel thing regardless of how annoying Jenna is, but then she heard, from her own mother's mouth the accusation capable of ruining her life completely.

Amaira wiped the blood that was flowing slowly from one of her nostrils before relentlessly cursing at herself for being idiotic, naive, and actually thinking that the woman who gave birth to her would listen to her side first before dishing out accusations.

'The police won't believe my side of the story, they already think I'm out of my mind!'

Amaira knew her chances, it was her word against Jenna and her mother's, and to her, she trying to kill Jenna is a lot more believable than her trying to kill a vampire that somehow ended up being Jenna.

She couldn't even understand what happened, how was she supposed to explain it to the police?

'This is all so fucked up,' she internally complained.

Her attention was diverted from her thoughts and dodging low-hanging limbs when she felt wetness flowing from her ear down to her neck. Amaira slowed the movement of her bare legs and with two fingers she touched the moisture.

'Is this blood?' Amaira thought looking at her fingers in horror.

Her legs kept moving forward, but her eyes were on her fingers so she didn't see the tree root that tripped her. She fell face-first to the ground and with a pained groan, she managed to get herself on all fours, but just as she was about to stand, nausea took her, forcing her back down.

Amaira breathed heavily as her insides churned, holding back the tears that were leaking from her eyes like a faucet wetting the dry leaves below her, but with that clear, salty liquid, there was blood.

Amaira felt something rise in her throat, it was choking her, constricting her breathing! She held her throat as she squirmed amongst the grime and leaves, silently praying that the pain would end, but there was no redemption for her.

Dogs barked in the distance and the crunching of leaves under heavy boots was loud, indicating that the police officers were near and with them were the nosy neighbors that were approaching from the adjacent end armed with stones, home rifles, and other various objects to enact retribution onto Amaira.

Though being told countlessly by the police to not get involved, they were encouraged by ringleader Natalia to take part in the search and get justice for Jenna as well as herself for the beating she got the other day.

Convincing everyone wasn't hard since each person had their own bone to pick with Amaira, but while most only wanted Amaira locked up behind bars once and for all, there were some including Natalia and her friends who wanted her out of their lives completely.

Not wanting to dirty their hands, they hired professional hitmen disguised as residents of the community that would get the job done without fail.

Amongst the mob of people were two men and a woman dressed in hoods, one of the men had an expression of genuine amusement and the other a stoic expression, but the woman kept her head lowered as both men conversed.

"The killing intent is very strong here." Oliver looked at his brother, "These people wish to kill Amaira."

The smile never left Elias' lips as he went on to say, "She's in transition, she'll die regardless."

Oliver narrowed his eyes at him, "What are you planning, brother?"

"I don't want to jinx it so I won't say anything." He looked at the quiet woman latched on to Oliver's arm and chuckled before looking ahead, "Tell your woman she doesn't have to be so terrified of me, I have no intention of hurting her in any way."

"I do not have the ability to sway fear, Elias."

Their conversation was interrupted by a woman's high-pitched scream. By the foot of a tree, there was a pool of blood and a piece of bloody pink fabric amidst stained leaves on the ground.

Natalia was the first to step forward and took up the piece of fabric, she smirked before turning to show the people what was found. "Mrs. Hendrix said Amaira was wearing a pink nightgown, this is a piece of it which means we're close."

Muttering followed and the level of fear increased tenfold at the sight of the blood soaking the root of the oak tree.

"So much blood."

"A wild animal must've gotten her."

"The woods aren't safe, we shouldn't be here."

"The blood leads further into the woods, Amaira must still be alive," Natalia tried to convince them, but a vast number of people were already leaving without even looking back.

"That blood most likely leads to the home of the wild animal that attacked her, there's no way I'm following that trail," one elderly man commented and many hummed in agreement before scurrying away back to the entrance of the woods.

Natalia's face twisted as she spat, "What a bunch of cowards."

Their numbers were a lot fewer than before, but Natalia proceeded nonetheless, wild animal or not, she was not going to give up on finding Amaira until she sees her corpse.

They followed the trail of blood and it led them to the darkest part of the woods that was nicknamed by hunters 'The Gateway to Hell.'