The rustlings of leaves and branches can be heard throughout the forest, followed by the sound of a man muttering to himself. A small group of branches are moved aside as a man dressed in an open dark blue button down shirt with a white sleeveless shirt underneath, khakis and hiking boots steps forward, and releases the branches. Not a tall man, but select in qualities. His hair is a light sandy brown; his eyes are a lovely shade of green and he has a very warm, inviting smile. Unfortunately he was not smiling, nor was he in a very good mood; this was because he was lost; lost in the very woods that surrounded his home on the outskirts of Glasgow.

"Great," he began to mutter again, "now where did Dom go? He was the one who wanted to go hiking and now I can't find him anywhere… in fact, where am I?"

The forest becomes silent and he begins to wonder if he'll ever find Dom, or for that matter, his way home. It suddenly occurs to him how quiet his surroundings have become, and begins to remember all the stories he used to hear about the woods when he was young. Stories of demons who ate young children and travelers who had lost their way; of faeries who enticed men deep into the forest then put them to sleep for hundreds of years.

"Don't be ridiculous Billy," he reassured himself, "there are no such things as demons and faeries! Those were just old stories people used to tell to keep the children from going into the forest and getting lost!" Billy then jumps as the silence of the forest is suddenly interrupted by loud rustlings of branches and leaves.

"I'M COMING FOR YOU LITTLE MAN!!! YOU BETTER RUN BILLY!!" growls a loud English-speaking voice.

"Hello Dom." Billy says recognizing the voice.

Dominic appears with a huge grin on his face from behind a large cluster of trees overgrown with vegetation. His short dark hair is spiked; he has deep blue eyes and unshaved stubbles of hair on his upper lip, chin and cheeks. He is wearing a red T-shirt under a khaki vest with matching cargo shorts and hiking boots as well.

"Little man?!" Billy inquired with his brow raised.

Dominic giggles, still pleased with himself from his little prank. "Aw Billy, you know I'm only foolin' ya! Don't take it so hard!"

Billy tries to look serious, but can't keep a straight face as he cracks a smile and begins to laugh. "Okay, but really, where were you? I've been looking for you for quite some time now."

"You have to come and see what I have found! Come on!!" He urged as he disappeared into the trees again. Billy, of course, followed in the same direction.

He sauntered along until he came to Dominic, who was standing by a large surface of stones. Billy stops and looks at it with him; a face of great stones that stands at the edge of a narrow valley.

"Okay, I'm here and all I see are rocks…Big rocks." Billy stated plainly.

"But look here." Dominic says as he moves several of the long strands of grass that cover the surface to reveal a carved out opening. This catches Billy's attention as his clear green eyes light up and he approaches the notch to study it further.

The opening was cut out perfectly round with ancient runes inscribed around the outer rim. He pokes his head inside to survey the interior and finds that stairs had been carved out and seemed to lead down an unlit passageway. "Wow…" He whispered under his breath.

"I'll bet you didn't even know that this was even here!" Dominic declared proudly.

"I had no idea…" Billy trailed off.

"Well?! Are we going in or not?!" Dom asked eagerly. Billy pondered on that very thought himself; whether to go in or not to. Though his instincts told him not to, his curiosity and sense of adventure teased his mind with far-fetched questions on what the interior of the cavern held. "Well…?" Dom inquired again. 'It could be an experience, but it could also be dangerous…' Billy thought to himself.

"Why not?!" He finally answers, a bit excited himself, as they both disappear into the hole.

* * *

As the two men descended the stone stairway toward the passage, a thought struck Billy's mind on how they would see once they got inside the cavern. They both reached the bottom of the steps and stared down the dark path. The sounds of ignitions filled the air around them as the metal urns that lined the walls light up with golden flames. Billy and Dominic shared the same startled expressions and slowly turn to see the other's reaction. "Let's continue on, shall we?" Billy manages to stammer out.

"Right." Dom answers hastily.

While they walk down the corridor, Billy and Dominic both look over their surroundings. The passage was made of dark stone, and it was large and rounded into a perfect circle that had running water flowing at the base. The walkway on which they strode on was a long flattened dark stone that rested on small pillars that rose from the water beneath them. The urns which lined the curved walls were suspended by metal fastenings that hung from the walls. Billy wondered if all of this was underground or if it was dug out of the hillside of a gully.

At the end of the passageway there was a circular door suspended by many smaller metal shafts. The door had more runes around the outside rim, identical to the ones around the entrance, and a large heavy handle that hung in the center. Dominic lifted the metal handle and began to pull with all his might while Billy had a closer look at the door. It didn't seem to be locked, but the lock may have been intended in the weight of the door itself. He continued on to the metal rails which held the structure in place. 'No,' he thought to himself, 'much too tight of a squeeze for either of us.'

Dominic finally gives in to the handle's obstructive defense and sits at the edge of the path to stare into the flowing water. Billy walks over to where Dom had been standing before and looks up at the doors interior; seemed ordinary, other than the fact that it was impenetrable. That's when he noticed it, a tiny rectangular piece of paper with oriental characters written on it. He had seen others like it when he had visited Japan; they were sold in the shrines to ward off evil, intruders and such. He tried to snatch it down but it was far out of his reach, so he began to try and jump for it. Dominic watched this for quite some time before he couldn't stand it anymore. "Billy…what are you doing…?"

"Trying to get that scroll down." He replied as he continued in his futile attempts. "Can I help?" "Sure!" Billy said, at last standing still to catch his breath.

Dominic crouches down and cups his hands together to make a foothold. Billy carefully steps into Dom's hands and is lifted up to the scroll where he immediately snatches it off of the door's smooth surface. As he snatches the paper the door opens slowly.

Billy jumps down and they both peer into the opening. Inside is a great circular chamber lined completely with dark stone with more supported paths that circled around the interior rim of the room. Underneath them is a huge lake, and in the center loomed a large willow tree with dark leaves. Around the interior there were more torches, already lit.

Billy and Dom walked the path that surrounded the mysterious tree, inspecting it thoroughly. "This is IT?! A tree?! All of that for a tree?!" complained Dominic, a bit irritated.

"So it seems… maybe it was a sacred tree or something." Billy sighed in a disappointed tone.

"GREAT!! A SACRED TREE!! FABULOUS!!" Dominic raved. But Billy wasn't convinced that someone would go through all of the trouble of building such a secluded, secure structure only to house a tree. He looks it over a bit more, searching for anything of significance. "Well, do you want to head back to your house? It should be getting late about now." asked Dominic.

"Not just yet, Dom. Give me a few more minutes, and then we can go back." answered Billy as he disappeared behind the morbid willow. Still not satisfied with the fact of it being just a willow tree that was closed up in the tomb for what must have been hundreds of years, he continues his search.

After examining the willow for the last time, he decided to give it up. He reached out and touched it admitting defeat; but as he does it begins to tremble violently. Billy quickly withdraws his hand and begins to back step as the tremors from the willow began to break up the walls of the cavern. He runs around the side toward the entrance where Dominic is waiting impatiently and nearly runs past him as he now stands frozen staring frightfully at the tree. "Come on Dom!! Let's go!!" Billy urges, then glances over his shoulder to see what he's looking at.

A dark cryptic figure with crimson glowing eyes slowly rises from the trunk of the morbid tree, regenerating organs and skin. Billy grabs Dom's arm and rushes out of the circular doorway.

As they run the passage collapses around them; Dominic drops the scroll and it falls into the water. They try desperately to reach the cavern entrance as maniacal laughter fills the cave.

"I'm coming for you…" a smooth, womanly voice taunted.

"Dom! Now is not the time for your sick jokes!!!" snaps Billy.

"I didn't say anything!!!" Dominic panted out.

"I'll take my revenge on you, you who has sealed me!!" the voice raged on.

"Hey Billy, I think this person has mistook us for someone else!" Dom says breathlessly. Billy glances back, and then he speeds forward with a sudden burst of energy. "YOU TELL'EM!!!" he shouts back at him. Dom looks over his shoulder to see an enraged demon coming at him at full speed! Suddenly Dom and Billy are running side by side again. With the exit in view and the cavern nearly on top of them, they make a final effort of escape before they collapsed; they dove for it.

The two of them land hard outside and the cavern closes in behind them. Dominic and Billy sit up against the large stone surface and catch their breath. "Do you think it made it out alive?" Billy heaved.

"I don't think anything could have survived that." Dom answered.

"You mean anything but me, don't you?" the voice mocked from above them. "Aw no! Not again!!" Billy stammered, still winded.

They looked upward to see their pursuer, who was seemingly hanging in midair. She was a tall woman with long dark auburn hair, deep blood-red eyes, and lightly tanned skin. Tattooed to her left hand were gothic-looking chains that started at her fingertips and linked halfway up her arm. She wore a loose-fitting tunic made of black material that had small brown leather straps wrapped around her upper arms and midriff; tight black pants that connected between her two largest toes and three more leather straps around her upper right leg.

She smiled demonically down at them with abnormally large canines, then grasped the air and formed a massive black scythe. "Now I shall have my revenge!!" she growled, coming down on them. Billy and Dom didn't wait around; they sped off again into the woods.

Somehow or another Billy and Dominic had gotten separated, and the demon was chasing after Billy. He raced toward his house, trying not to lose the trail or his footing.

Billy's lungs burned as he carried the weight of his aching legs, and became clumsy on where he stepped. He could see his home and began to pick up a bit more speed when he fell and landed in a small cluster of undergrowth. Billy lay very still in his covering hoping that he wasn't found by his pursuer. The forest became silent and he could hear her making her way through the trees and overgrown brush at high speed. Billy held his breath as she drew nearer to his finding spot. She stopped and landed on the ground with both of her feet only inches from him, her eyes searching the surrounding area.

"Come now," she gloated, "do you really think I will not find you? Do you even know whom of which you have enraged? I am the merciless slayer of everything that stands in my way! I am death herself, Maura!" Billy tried to silence his heavy breathing while he listened to her mad ranting. 'Maura', the name of his hunter echoed throughout his mind. Her short pointed ears perked up and she grinned malevolently. Maura then leapt into the air and disappeared in the shadows of the trees.

Billy lay motionless a few moments more, fully catching his breath. Then when he was sure she had gone he jumped up from his cover and attempted to reach his home. He made it only a few feet before he found himself being held up over the ground in a strong vice-like grip. Maura laughed evilly as she held him up to her eyelevel. At this height, Billy's legs dangled free in the air; more than a foot above the ground.

"I told you that I would find you, and now I have you!" She boasted.

"You knew I was there the whole time, didn't you?! How did you find me?!" Billy demanded.

Maura smiled proudly, "Your own thoughts gave you away, I heard them as clearly as you her me now."

"You read my mind?!" Billy stammered.

"Yes, it's one of my many capabilities. Now my captured prey, I'll make your death a quick one…"

"Wait! Read my mind, that will show you that you are mistaken!" Maura glared at him with her soulless blood-colored eyes, she hated making mistakes and never admitted that she had ever made one.

"Fine." She stated coldly, and then stared deep into his green eyes. She listened to every conversation, and saw everything he had ever seen, but there was no trace of even a sealing spell. Maura then came to the shrine she was in and saw him touch the tree, she felt the flood of fear that filled him as he and Dominic made their escape.

Maura set Billy back down on the ground gently; her eyes were downcast, she couldn't bear to look him in the face. "I apologize, I would have killed you. There was no reason for my rage directed toward you and your companion."

"Oh, no harm done I guess. You were angry for being sealed, right?" 'He's so kind, why is he so kind?' she thought to herself.

Back at Billy's house, Dominic is getting very worried wondering what happened to Billy and if he was caught by the demon. The sun has nearly set and he considers calling the police. He looks toward the woods again and sees Billy walking toward him with Maura following him. "Billy!! Watch out! Behind you!" he shouts running at them. Billy and Maura stop and watch Dom charge up to them madly.

"Dom, this is Maura, she doesn't want to kill us anymore." Billy stated calmly. Dominic's mouth drew ajar when he heard this.

"Um, ok…that's, uh, great…I guess…where is she going to go now?" Billy and Dom both looked up at her for an answer.

"I have nowhere to go, I wasn't supposed to be put to sleep; so I don't know if my comrades are looking for me or if they've given me up."

"Then stay here until you find something out." Billy offered. Dominic glanced at him with a stunned expression; he didn't like that idea at all.

"I can stay with you?" she inquired, a bit confused. Billy looked to Dominic, who flared his eyes in silent protest.

"I feel like it's partially my fault, you know, waking you up and all. So yes, you can stay here if you want."

"Thank you, Billy." A small grateful smile lifted on her face.

Having a fondness of heights, Maura claimed the vacant attic room as hers. A large circular window gave her view to the outside, the floors where wooden and the walls where painted a very pale grey. Billy made his way up the stairs, his arms full with a large sleeping bag and many lanterns with small candles; he placed them on the floor in front of her. "Are you sure you don't want one of the guestrooms? They're larger and have, well, furniture."

Maura looked over at him from the window; "no, I like the view of the outside world from here. This is to my liking, thank you."

"Alright Maura, we'll be downstairs then." He said as he went back down the stairwell. She went back to the window, dusk had fallen and she could see the cities lights in the near distance.

Maura had been pondering on his thoughts and memories that she had seen from before; when she read them she had felt every emotion that he had ever experienced. Such feelings of love and sorrow where intended to be sacred and never seen by others, but she had seen them and had gone through them along with him. Maura had began to feel an unusual closeness to Billy, and she wasn't about to let anything happen to the one who released her.