Before the Phantom Chapter 2 (I really need better titles)

Before the Phantom Chapter 2 (I really need better titles)

Chapter Two

Before Antoinette could make a sound, a hand clamped over her mouth and drug her struggling out of the tent. Once out, she was released. She turned around and saw that her captor was Gustav.

“What are you doing?!” he demanded. “Why were you in there?! Never go back in there!”

Antoinette shrank back from him. “…But that person was crying…”

Gustav gazed past her towards the tent. “You would cry too if you spent your life in a cage,” he murmured.

“Why is he locked up?!” she demanded. “No human deserves to be locked in a cage like an animal! That’s horrible!”

“He’s not human!” he said loudly, turning to face her fully. “He’s a monster; a demon! He is extremely dangerous and will not hesitate to kill anyone normal!”

Antoinette frowned in confusion. “What do you mean ‘normal’?” she asked.

Gustav stooped down so that he was eye-level with her. “He isn’t normal,” he said darkly. “…He is like a corpse that is risen from the grave…His body is dead, yet he still lives!”

Antoinette stared at him gravely. “…Don’t lie to me just to scare me away from this tent…” she said. Surely he was lying. He had to be! No one could possibly be like that! …Could they?

“I’m no lying,” he said seriously. He reached out and took hold of her shoulders. “You must promise to never go back inside that tent!”

“…I won’t,” she promised. She did pity the man in the cage, but if he was locked away, surely it was for a good reason.

Gustav let go of her and nodded as he stood straight again. “Good,” he said. “Now I think it’s time for you to go home.”