Chapter ten

" Firstly, I would like to introduce myself to you." The old man said. 

"My name is Old McDonald" The old man said. 

I almost laughed out but I managed to suppress my laughter. 

Why would his name be Old McDonald? Like that name in children rhymes. 

 🎶Old McDonald had a farm e i e i o🎶

The thought of it made me laugh in my head after such a long time of suffering. 

"Anything wrong?" Old MacDonald asked. 

"No. Nothing at all." I replied. 

I looked at his appearance and noticed he was dressed casually and clean, unlike Old Magritte who was very filthy.

But I felt there was definitely something off about him. 

Why wasn't he wearing shoes and what mark was that on his neck. 

I tried not to focus on the mark so much so he wouldn't notice. 

He suddenly pulled up his collar and the mark was covered. 

I remember that I had seen a mark like that but just couldn't place a finger on where I had seen it before. 

Now that it had been covered, it's better I get my mind off it. 

"What is your own name?" Old McDonald asked me. 

"Oh. My name is Peggy." I replied. 

"That's a wonderful name." Old McDonald said. 

"Thank you sir." I replied. 

"Are you sure you won't be eating anything?" Old McDonald asked me. 

"No, I don't really feel like eating anything sir." I answered.

"Okay, I'll tell you about 'She'." Old McDonald said. 

"The one you know as a demon used to be a child in this very town." He started. 

"That little girl used to be one of those things that brought a smile to everyone's face, so happy and jolly at all times and hardly had any negative feelings. Her name was Suzy and she always kept her little wooden doll which was made for her by her best friend, Jack." Old McDonald said. 

"So what happened to her?" I asked. 

"Her parents were attacked by angry demons who she said wanted her to stop spreading joy around. She asked for help but nobody believed her story. Nobody had believed that there were demons living in this town at that time." Old McDonald explained. 

"Then what did she do next? What happened to her parents later on and what happened to her?" I asked, with all attention fixed on his words. 

"Suzy sold her soul to Lucifer to save her parents. That was her deal with the demons as a little girl." Old McDonald said. 

"And her parents got well again?" I asked. 

"I beg to differ. Old McDonald said. 

"Suzy's parents got well but died a mysterious death at night. Even little Suzy's body was hanging from the wood of their ceiling." Old McDonald said. 

"What had happened to her?" I asked. 

"Nobody knows. But Jack had said he witnessed it all when he had ran from his home at night to meet Suzy. Jack said that she killed her parents and hung herself to death." Old McDonald replied. 

I remained there, seated an listening to her story in awe. 

"Even jack was not to be seen again after that day he told everyone what he said he had seen happen. All this happened some decades ago." Old McDonald said. 

"Wow... So she had passed through such a thing as a human?" I asked, completely amazed at the story I just heard. 

"Yes. But now she is a demon working for Lucifer." Old McDonald added. 

I sighed and got up to leave. 

"Thank you sir." I said. 

"But now I have to go. Goodbye." I added and turned to start my walk back. 

I looked behind me but the road was no longer there. Instead there were trees and bushes covered there. 

I looked around, thinking that I had probably passed somewhere else and not that side. 

I looked around but there were nothing but trees and bushes everywhere. 

"Um sir? Where is the footpath again? I think I must have misplaced it." I said stupidly.  

I looked to the area where the hut had been and it was no longer there. 

What is going on? Am I hallucinating? 

"I had just told you the story behind 'She'. Wouldn't you at least eat something to show appreciation for what I had done for you?" Old McDonald asked. 

Eat to show appreciation? Never had I been told such a thing. 

What is up with him? Why does he want me to eat so badly? This is like the third time he has asked me since I followed him here. 

"Please sir, show me the way out. I really don't want to eat anything." I requested politely. 

His face suddenly formed a terrifying frown at me. 

"How dare you not to eat?! After all the information I've given to you, you think you can leave here without eating?!" He yelled. 

He formed a strange fruit from inside his hand and shoved it at me. 

I pushed his hand away and he looked even more furious. 

"Eat it! No one says no to me! No one! I command you to eat it!" He shouted. 

I began to freak out. This is definitely no ordinary man. 

I have to get away from him somehow. But how could I run when I won't even know where I was headed to? 

"So you have decided not to eat? That doesn't matter now. I can still eat you alive." He said. 

Eat me alive? Was the fruit Old McDonald giving me poisoned? 

No wonder he kept insisting I ate something.

Right before my eyes, Old McDonald started to change form. 

He wasn't an ordinary old man. I knew there was something wrong somewhere but I let my curiosity to blind me and I went on to follow him here. 

And what he changed into, made it clear what he meant when he said he would eat me alive. 

He was changing into a beast and stricken with fear, I felt as if my feet were stuck to the ground. 

I stood there frozen and watched as he transformed. 

Sharp claw like objects forced itself out of his back as he transformed. His eye balls changed to some sort of parallel lines and he also grew out an enormous wolf like jaw and had long fangs that was very clear to the eyes. 

He became bigger in size and some parts of his body was covered in fur while the other parts looked like it was peeled off and his inner flesh was visible. 

My heart kept beating faster and faster and I could hardly feel any part of my body. 

When he completed his transformation he looked like half wolf as well as half tiger because of some stripes on his long and heavy looking tail. 

It was after he finished his transformation and gave me a ferocious glare that I finally found feeling in my legs and started to run.   

I ran as fast as one could in bushes and strived not to get caught. 

Why can't such things stop happening to me?! Why does it keep happening to me?! 

I ran and ran with all my might. 

I had to get out of this forest but how? The footpath was home and I could hardly tell if I was running straight or not. 

The beast caught up with me just as I feared and I stopped running. 

I didn't stop because I wanted to. I stopped because the beast had jumped in front of me, blocking my way. 

"There is no way you can get away from me! I can track you to any corner of his forest! I am a hundred times faster than you! And only I know the exit." The beast growled. 

"But I think I will have fun with my victim first before finally eating it." He added and laughed hysterically. 

I got even more scared and I ran the other way, not caring if it was where I had ran from or somewhere else. 

All I knew was that I just had to get away from that monster. 

I heard his laughter behind me and found that he wasn't even chasing after me. 

Then it finally hit me. 

That mark I had seen on his neck. I now remember where I had seen it from. 

There is no mistaking this. 

I remember when I had first come here with my husband. A strange man had come to our house. 

He class that the land my husband had used to build a house belonged to his family. 

That strange man had shown us the mark he had made on a large tree which was right next to I and my husband's house. 

That mark was also on his neck. 

But my husband chased him away, saying that a mark didn't prove anything and that we ourselves could just make a mark on someone else's tree and that didn't mean it was ours. 

After that day I never saw the strange man again. 

Is this his way of getting revenge? So this man was actually a beast?

I figured there was no use running since it seemed that the beast knew every area of the forest and had a hundred percent chance of finding me wherever I go.