Part 6 (Alette's POV)

I woke up to the sound of knocking. I crawled out of Iris’s embrace and opened the door of the shelter. I stood in shock for a second and blinked my eyes to make sure I was seeing things right.

“Excuse me, can I help you?” I questioned. An odd woman was standing outside the door. She was dressed in a sickly green coat, covered in patches. She wore black clothes with so many rips that there were ragged fringes and frills all over. Her feet were covered in animal skin moccasins and a gemstone necklace adorned her neck. Her graying hair was frizzy and stuck out in all directions. She looked every part the witch from any fairytale.

“Well, hello, I'm Agatha." she said in a hoarse voice, almost as if she were recovering from a cold.

"I'm sorry, should I know you?"

"No, we've never met, but I know you." She said matter-of-factly.

I titled my head and narrowed my eyes, getting a sense of unease at her presence. It was such an odd thing to basically admit she'd been spying on me.

"Is there something I can do for you or could I get back my girlfriend?" I asked, beginning to get fed up with her just standing there.

"Oh, she's your girlfriend? Adorable! I've been waiting for you two to get together."

I put my hand on the door to close it.

"Not to sound rude or anything, but it's not even dawn yet and I have things to do tomorrow so it was nice meeting you and all but I've going to-"

She cut me off by putting a hand up to my face while with her other hand she pushed the door open a little further and smiled at Iris sleeping peacefully on our bed.

"Very pretty girl ya got there, wouldn't want anything to happen to her, eh?"

"No, now please-"

"But if anything does happen, just know my cabin is a couple miles up that stream, the direction Iris goes to feed Cinnamon. I'm a healer, you can count on me."

"Thank you?" I said, not entirely certain of her intentions.

"Of course, I'll be on my way now, goodbye dear."

And with that she turned away and swiftly walked away into the forest, making hardly a sound. I watched through the door she'd left open till her tattered black dress disappeared into the trees.

Shaking my head, I shut the door and made my way back to bed, resolving to puzzle this over in the morning. I lay down but before I could drift off to sleep Iris stirred and muttered groggily, "Who was that weird lady?"

"Some odd witch-looking woman, said she was a healer. Don't worry about it, go back to sleep."

"But she said my name, how does she know me?"

"No no, she didn't say your name, you're just tired, let's go back to sleep." I wrapped my arms around her and she lay her head on my shoulder, falling back to sleep almost instantly. I listened to her even breathing, unable to fall asleep myself.

Agatha, she said her name was. Quite a fitting name, creepy and odd, matched her demeanor very well. I couldn't get her words out of my head, "Very pretty girl ya got there, wouldn't want anything to happen to her, eh?" It was so threatening. The way she had known little facts about us and even our names was also unsettling.

I glanced back at the shut door and pulled Iris closer to me before shutting my eyes, convincing myself I was overthinking things.

~ ~ ~

The second time I awoke that morning, the sun was streaming in through the door. That's odd, I thought, I could've sworn I'd closed it.

I titled my head to look at Iris (It'd become a morning routine for me to just lay there admiring her until she woke up) and realized that she wasn't there. I shot up quickly and looked around the shelter frantically.

"Iris? Iris!?" I called out, starting to panic. She had probably just woken up early, but after seeing Agatha last night, I was a bit uneasy. Ok, a lot uneasy.

I raced out the door and ran around to the other side of the shelter. I couldn't find Iris anywhere, I searched all around the cabin we had started to build and went down to the stream, nothing. I headed back to the shelter in defeat. Maybe she had decided to go home after all. Maybe she was lying when she said she'd stay with me forever.

I was about to head back inside when I noticed Cinnamon wasn't tied to her normal spot on the tree. Oh my god, I'm so stupid! I thought, smacking myself in the head. Iris was just out feeding Cinnamon by the stream, everything's fine.

Wait, wasn't that where Agatha said her house was? Oh no, nevermind! I set off running in the direction of the grassy spot Cinnamon was fed at.

"Iris!" I stumbled into the clearing, gasping for breath after running full speed all the way. Iris whipped her head up, a look of worry and fright in her eyes at my sudden appearance.

"Woah! Is everything alright? What's happening? Are you okay?" A string of questions flowed from her lips as she continued to stare at me, her face becoming more worried at each second of my silence. I just ran up to her and hugged her tight to me, barely suppressing tears.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay…" I repeated over and over to convince myself it was true.

She looked up at me, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Nothing, nothing, just worried." I lied, pulling back and smiling at her.

"Alette, is something wrong?"

"No, I just care about you and wanted to make sure you're okay."

She looked at me quizzically, one eyebrow raised and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Alette, I care about you too but that's no reason to be sprinting through the forest yelling my name. What's wrong?"

I hung my head and said, “Agatha.”

“Agatha? Who’s Agatha?”

I pulled Iris closer to the forest and we sat down, leaning against two trees. I curled my hands in my lap and began to talk.

“I’m worried because that witch lady, Agatha, did say your name. She knows who you are somehow, she knows who I am. Hell, she knows who Cinnamon is! I think she’s been spying on us or something and I’m just scared she has it out for you and I’m afraid for you because I do care about you Iris, I care about a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever cared about someone this much since I was a child.” I looked up at her and she looked back into my eyes and smiled.

“Hey, Alette,” she said, grabbing my hand and keeping eye contact, “I care about you more than anything, more than my own mother, but nothing’s going to happen to me. You’ve got to stop worrying so much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really sweet and you make an adorable face when you’re pulling me tight to protect me, but I don’t need you losing sleep over silly fears.”

“No, Iris, you don’t get it. Agatha, you said that I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, but she said it so mysteriously and it was sinister and I just have a bad feeling about her. Please, I want you to be safe.”

“Alette, it’s ok, I’m okay, you’re overthinking this.”

I felt a weird unexplainable annoyance rise in me and without thinking I stood up suddenly and started to yell at Iris. I didn’t want to by any means, I just honestly felt like I couldn’t control myself.

“You don’t get it Iris! I want you to be safe, you can’t just disregard my worries like you don’t care!” I yelled, the annoyance slowly turning into anger. She stood up as well and faced me calmly, a look of confusion mixed with hurt adorned her face. I could only assume it was because of my sudden outburst.

“Alette, I didn’t mean it like that, I just-”

I felt a surge of pure rage inside myself and without thinking shoved Iris to the ground forcefully. She fell against the tree had been leaning on before we stood up. The sharp ridges in the bark cut into her skin leaving three gashes along her side that began to pour blood as she hit the ground and curled up in pain, gripping her side. The intense emotions vanished just as quickly as they had come, but not before I saw a mane of frizzy gray hair disappear behind the trees.