Chapter 37: - FROM: What if

Levi's POV:

As soon as Ariana disappeared behind the doors of the diner, Levi's facade of assurance was gone. His arms still rested by his side. But they were balled up into fists. His eyes went to the people inside the diner, the ones who were eating and minding their own business. None of them looked at Ariana nor at him wrong.

Weird, yes, but not wrong. Meaning, none of them were the one who had lockpicked their door.

Just thinking about it made Levi's wrath and urgency flare up. Picking their door during the day would have been something else. The sky would have been clear. There would be no sense of immenine danger- other than him of course- and even then, someone would have seen them and talked about it with Boyd- who'd come to him.

Or not.

Their relationship had been strained at best ever since the self-appointed cheriff did nothing about the man in yellow. And he knew Levi's temper and temperament regarding Ariana being put in danger or even being peeked at.

But even if they had picked the lock during the day, before they went to their hiding hole, Levi always made sure to lock the doors and windows. Even inspecting to make sure there were no debris that were blocking the locks.

So, it meant one thing- no, two things.

Either the monsters have decided they need a new hobby due to his traps setting them off, so they learned lockpicking.

Or-

Someone had done it for them.

But that still doesn't explain the fact that the monsters would have still thorn into the one helping them even if it made no sense.

Levi had so many questions based on his theories.

If the monsters knew how to lockpick, then what about all the other houses. The families that were in the town and the colony house? Why weren't day in danger? Why weren't all of them dead?

Was there a new rule that they decided to add to their sick game that Levi didn't know yet? Did his trap annoy them too much? But even then, how did they knew about the trapdoor leading to one of their hideouts?

Did someone told them? But who?!

Levi's eyes went to the people going through their morning. No hint of shame, guilt, or surprise in anyone so far.

The monsters knowing about the basement under the gas station mean that most- if not- all of the hiding places he has under ground are also compromised. Which led to the same question-

How did they know- Levi froze, his eyes stopping one of the houses next to the diner.

The stormceiler-

He turned to look at the other houses- all of them-

All of them had- they all had trapdoors just like in the stormceilar.

"Shit…" Levi cursed, body tense.

He forgot about them.

He forgot about the possible underground caves that might be under the whole town. How?! When-

Images of the two older people came to his mind- Ariana's parents.

The shooting. It happened around the same time that he had discovered them. Levi scrunched his eyes- thinking of the events- forcing himself to remember a day that he would rather forget. The events-

Boyd- after Levi suspected of something underneath the town- Boyd hadn't made it back. He…

Levi remembered his son coming to him- asking for help- to go and find him. And he had remembered saying no. Because of Ariana. Right…

It was around the same time that he had proposed to her, hoping that she'd push away instead of saying yes- Levi's face relaxed at the beautiful memory. Their promise. But Levi pushed through the memory.

It was the day right after that… Ariana lost her parents and so did Levi. Levi frowned… Something wasn't adding up- no, it was perfectly adding up. If- it was a big if- the monsters lived underneath the town the whole time, then…

Levi opened his eyes and new determination grew inside him. None of the holes were safe.

None of them, not even the ones he himself secretly dug up and no one knew about it. Immediately, he ran towards the forest. If Levi was correct, he really hoped not, then the monsters were really sick of his traps. And so, last night, they had come to make an example of them.

Meaning the traps were working. Which still brought him back to the same questions.

Did they knew how to lockpick or did they bewitch and tricked someone- just like they did with Abby- and open their door for them?

Either Levi could go straight to Boyd and argue with a man whose wife he killed and largely because of it- won't believe him. Or Levi could do something to prepare for tonight. Levi choose the second option.

He needed to renew the traps that were already made and make new ones. Because Levi needed to see the answer to his question and no way would he trust Ariana's safety with the town or the colony house nor the underground holes-

His feet moved before he had finished the thought. Not realizing that the one responsible for letting the monsters in their home had waited for him to exit the town to go eat breakfast.

He didn't slow until the bottled tree was in front of him- and just like he remembered. It was massive, and it looked old. It's branches strung with dozens of glass and plastic bottles that clinked and clanked, making up a bizarre song that the wind sung.

Now that he was looking at them- there were things inside it- paper. A note maybe? The first time, he didn't bother. But now, he was curious. Looking around, he found a fallen long stick that he tried to bring one of the bottles down-

But missing by a few inches…

"I hate this…" Levi muttered. He tried jumping and swinging the stick-

It hit his target, the bottle swinging around for a bit but not unstuck from the tree branch. "You've got to be kidding me."

It took ten minutes.

Ten minutes of jumping and trying to climb the tree- just to look at the contents of one bottle- only for the written things inside to be gibberish.

With those minutes wasted, Levi jumped down from the branch that he was on and looked to the hole of the tree. Then inside it.

The inside of the tree- as expected was hollow, same dirt that was around the tree was inside it. He stuck most of his upper body in it and looked up-

Nothing unexpected. The top of it was somewhat closed. Once again, he looked down, half of him still inside the tree. It was deep enough that should someone be stuck out in the woods, they could get inside the hollow tree, and then just curl into themselves at the bottom and no one would see them.

He took a couple of steps back- yep- Levi thought to himself. Unless someone stuck their body inside the hollow tree, they wouldn't see the person curled up inside. Meaning, if Levi could get himself a cardboard and some glue, he could put dirt and leaves and twigs on the glued cardboard. That would become a good enough cover to trick people- and monsters. Especially in the night.

With a decent plan in mind, Levi returned back to his old traps, resetting them. And made new ones around the old ones. Just in case if the monsters were still using the same path. One thing that he had discovered, they had learned enough to not repeatedly use the same paths when they enter the town.

And due to them learning that- Levi had, in turn, changed his traps' location every few days just to annoy them some more.

By the time he had began working on the new traps with his trusted mace by his side, it was time for launch. So, he returned to the town, quietly talking and eating with Ariana. When he cupped her cheeks and kissed her forehead, she had brought his hands to her lips and kissed the palms of his hands.

He melted at her show of love and he wished- hoped that this nightmare would end one day so he could have a life with her. A family. Without spending every night in terror and fear of a painful death by creatures that only came up in stories and fantasies.

He pushed the thought to the side, whispered each other their 'love yous' and Levi returned to set up some final traps around the hollow tree.

By the time he was done, the sky was on the verge of turning orange. His heart beat in unease for a moment. He had spend too much time outside- it was time to go back home- an image of the love of his life- Ariana shyly smiling at him.

He shook his head and looked to the sky again.

It was orange, meaning that she had already figured out that he had lost his sense of time in the forest and should have returned to the gas station-

He hurried- weirdly feeling some sense of dread and unease. He knew it would be her first time being outside- during the night. And while she would listen to his every word and do as he would- Levi didn't know if she would say yes to that.

By the time he returned to the gas station, hand on the knob- he frowned. It wasn't locked.

Turning the knob and entering the house, it was empty. So sense of warm or sign of her coming back. "Ariana?" He called out just to make sure. Nothing.

His eyes widened, going to the sky outside-

"Did she wait in the diner?" He worriedly thought outloud, immediately darting to her work place, the orange slowly disappearing- fading it dark blue as the sun was slowly dipping into the horizon.

"Ariana!" He knocked- pummeled the door- nothing. It was locked.

"Ariana! Are you in there?!" He tried his best to be calm, yet his voice was still loud. But nothing. Not even a peep from inside.

The sense of dread was spreading throughout his body.

"ARIANA!" He ran to the street, shouting her name, looking left and right, as he took her path home. There was no one outside. "ARIANA! WHERE ARE YOU-" A few window covers were opened wide enough to see what was going on from the houses around them. But that's not why Levi's voice disappeared.

Blood…

Up ahead of him, by the side of the house that had belonged to a family who had a twin, there was blood on the gravel and what looked like vomited-

Blood drained from Levi's face as every piece fitted together, his body locking up in horror, his heart dropped in his guts, lungs stopped pumping air- traitors. There were traitors in the town. And what was worse… They had attacked and taken the one person he cared about.

The mace fell from his hand as he walked up to the sight. There were multiple drops of blood.

One that looked like she had fallen down. There were also drops and the largest patch of blood was by the vomite…

Pieces of carrots, olives, and… pasta. The exact thing that they ate together during lunch.

For however long, Levi stood over the sight, his body and mind stuck as it overflowed with thoughts of an injured- no, a dead Ariana. He couldn't move. Couldn't breath. Couldn't even think, as his empty gaze stuck to the gravel and patches of blood as the sky darkened.

Levi felt like he was reading his own death sentence, his end.

In a world that Ariana no longer existed- what was the point to even breath- then instinct- survival instinct crashed it all and made his heart pump blood, his lung air. Life reentered his body as he gasped, breathing, and the worst case scenarios stopped for a moment.

'Maybe she isn't dead-' his heart beat stronger at that thought and… Levi didn't know how to explain it. But he felt it. She wasn't.

She was somewhere, alone, injured, and who knows in what else kind of condition. And the only trail, the only lead was in front of him. His eyes focused on the blood. He looked a little further away-

She was attacked, injured- the thoughts made him- not now. If she was attacked and injured, it means she was dragged away- his eyes caught another drop of blood a few feet away- on the street. A couple of another feet, there was another patch, all leading towards- outside the town and towards the colony house!

He felt the lack of mace in his hands and turned- it had fallen without him knowing. Running to it, Levi grabbed it before running towards where the trail had pointed, hoping that he was right-

"ARIANA!" He yelled out of desperation, hoping that she could hear him if she had somehow escaped from her attacker or attackers.

"ARIA-"

SKREEEEEEEEE

The monsters- Levi's eyes went to the sky- for the first time in longer than Levi could remember- before the night had even began- the smiling ugly monsters screeched to let them- let him know that their game had began.

The monsters shrieked.

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AN: Yoyo, hope you all are enjoying my return.

I know this story has very small amount of readers. And I'm fine with that. I'm not asking for a review or every single powerstones. But I would really appreciate it if you rated the latest 2 chapters of this story for me please. I could really use some encouragement for reasons below:

I know the chapters aren't daily and the uploads are random. That's cause I've been taking my time with this story and not forcing myself to write so I wouldn't fall into a writers block. Also I've also decided to stop including AI into my writing.

Transparency and little of real author note here: What that means is that what you are READING has no AI. It's all typed by me. I'm not even gonna use it for correcting grammar anymore. So, if you see mistakes, just be grammar police or ignroe it. Might fix it or not. But I still use AI when I get stuck on how to describe things. So, I give my chapter to AI, tell it what I want, and have it write a paragraph or two for me. I read those and I hate it. But it also means I can use it as reference to write what I mean.

Example for this chapter: I was stuck in how to describe Levi processing that his only reason to live- Ariana- was attacked. I put it in AI, AI wrote me the following:

The mace lay in the gravel where his hand had let it go. He didn't remember dropping it.

For a moment, Levi didn't move at all. Couldn't. His whole body had turned to something cold and hollow, standing over the small ruin on the ground like a man reading his own death sentence.

Then instinct dragged him down into a crouch, and the panic sharpened into something colder and more useful.

Read it.

The blood told a story if he made himself look. A splash where she'd gone down to her knees — palms, he guessed, from the smear of it. A wider patch where she'd been hit again. The vomit beside it, half-digested, carrots and olives and pasta. The exact thing he'd fed her with his own hands three hours ago, laughing when she'd force-fed him back.

What I took and wrote in the story: