AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Just a couple of hours,” he answers, crouching down before me. “Water?”
Grateful, I take the glass and swallow a sip. “Thank you. I didn’t expect you’d have things like this.”
“Home comforts?” he asks.
“Yes. I mean, you’re a monster,” I offer. “And you live in a deep, dark cave hidden in the mountains of the Black Falls. I didn’t exactly imagine you’d have paintings, pillows, and glasses to drink from.”
“How else would I live?” Omen laughs. “I might be a monster, but we’re not so different, pretty girl. I need to eat and sleep like everyone else.”
“I suppose so,” I say, draining the glass. “Did you steal it all?”
“I’ve acquired my homely comforts over many years. I have no need to steal from the living, when those who are dead leave what they have behind.”
“And did you—” I purse my lips, then lick them. “Did you kill those people?”
Omen regards me curiously. “You truly know nothing of my kind, do you?” he asks. “I do not kill. I am a creature of prophecy and dark truths. My purpose is to foretell what is to come, and to procreate. No more and no less.”
I can’t prevent the easy smile from spreading my lips. “Well, you’ve managed to find a warm body to deposit your eggs. So, when do you foretell my future?”
“It doesn’t work quite like that, I’m afraid. But I did foresee your coming.”
“You did?” I ask, my brows furrowing.
“Think.”
My frown deepens.Think? On what?
Omen reaches out and lays the flat of his palm against my forehead.
And suddenly I’m taken back in time, to earlier in the evening. I’m walking through the forest with my camera bag, and a glint of silver catches my eye. And then I’m returned to the present and Omen removes his hand.
“Oh my God!” I gasp. “The locket.” I reach for the pendant nestled between my breasts. “You planted it, didn’t you? As a marker? So that I’d follow the narrow path.”
“Smart girl.”
“I have a name, too, you know,” I remark. “It’s Penelope, but most people just call me Penny.”
“Well, Penny,” says Omen, testing out my name for size. “My gift is unpredictable. I am but the means by which the truth of life reveals itself—like the paper upon which a letter is written. I foresaw that you were coming to the Falls, though I did not know why. I saw that you were beautiful, with a fine body. And I knew the true reason for your coming must be that you were my fated mate. So, I hung my locket for you to find—to tempt you toward my cave.”
I gently pry the locket open with trembling fingers. “And this photo?” I query. “Who—”
“Who do you think?” says Omen.
“It’s … you?”
“I am not the only monster that was once a man, Penny. Many of us have been cursed to this life through no fault or choice of our own. I was once a young man with hopes and dreams before this fate befell me.”
“What was your name before? When you looked like this?” I say, running my fingers over the old sepia portrait.
Omen’s dark brow furrows now.
“You don’t remember?”
“My old life feels distant and hard to grasp, like a dream fading in the morning light.”
There’s a tug on my heart, and I reach out to grasp his hand. “It’s all right,” I say. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I was called Nathanial,” he says. “Nathanial Jacobson. I was the son of the town blacksmith.”
