For the next few days, Sam jealously watches from afar while Elizabeth takes care of Darren in her father's stead as he is busy with being the leader of the village.
Each time Sam sees Elizabeth, she is smiling with a flustered face. Something that only happens rarely when they are together.
As time goes by, more and more maidens come to take care of the injured man and they would ask him about life outside the village and how it is so different from the village.
Darren would talk about his life outside the village and they would listen to him keenly. Ever since Elizabeth took care of Darren, she did not get to hang out with Sam like they used to.
Even in hunting, Sam gets invited by his peers to hunt together but he rejects their offer and prefers to hunt alone, and just as the distance between them starts to widen, Elizabeth managed to catch a glance of Sam.
And as if she had forgotten about him, Elizabeth walk towards him. For the first time, she gets out of their house and follows Sam.
"Sam! Sam, wait!"
Sam stops and looks back and sees Elizabeth's usually lovely face. A smile appears on her face as she looks at him, but that smile slowly disappears after seeing how sad Sam's expression is.
There is not a single joy on his face, he has turned blank and empty. It was not the same Sam that Elizabeth knew, he just looks at her for a brief moment and then turns away.
"Sam, wait. What happened?" this time, even when Elizabeth asked him, Sam did not stop and continued to walk towards the forest. "Sam, stop! Talk to me!"
She grabbed Sam's arm and to her surprise, he throw her hands away. Elizabeth is in shock, Sam never behaves like that in the past.
"What is going on, Sam?" she asks while completely ignorant of his feelings in the past few days. "Don't... don't talk to me anymore. You have already forgotten about me, right?" Sam said in the saddest tone that Elizabeth heard in her entire life.
"Are you seriously going to hide everything from me-"
"I love you, okay? There, you got your answer. Now is that enough?"
Elizabeth is speechless, she did not expect Sam to say those words, her heart started beating fast but before she can speak her mind, Sam cuts in.
"But I know that my love cannot be returned. Ever since that person arrived, the village had become strange. I don't know what happened but I feel that way. I don't think I belong here anymore so this might be the last time that we will see each other again. After this day, I might leave the village and find my own life."
At his words, Elizabeth could not find the words to say. The news of him leaving the village hits her differently. The moment she recovers from the shock, Sam has already gone inside the forest.
"But…."
And just as Sam told her, the next day, he left the village with the same blank look on his face. He did not even bother to tell anyone else of his plan and just left at first light.
Elizabeth watches her from her windows and before Sam disappears from the distance, he stops and looks back, it is then that Elizabeth sees that there is still life inside Sam.
Tears run down her face as Sam shed tears before finally saying his last goodbye to the village where he grew up on. "Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye, my first love." Sam said to himself.
No one even noticed that Sam disappeared. All their attention turned to Darren who had gained all their trust and now helps them hunt during the day and his addition to the hunting team made their catch abundant.
"This is amazing! I did not expect that Darren is a great hunter!"
They showered him with praises and he humbly accepts them all and shares the praises with the other hunters.
Later that night, they celebrated their bountiful catch and they put out a feast. During the celebration, Darren walks up to Elizabeth who is still worrying about Sam the entire time.
"Hey, are you not going to enjoy the feast?" Darren asks and hands her a glass of their wine but Elizabeth politely declines.
"I'm sorry, I'm not really into this kind of celebration." Darren smiles at her words and admits that he is not the type of person to celebrate himself. "I just did it to not disappoint the people around me. I don't usually celebrate myself."
After the time they have spent together, Elizabeth has grown closer to Darren. And Elizabeth did the best that she could to forget about Sam, especially now that Darren had also shown some interest in her.
To forget about everything that Elizabeth thinks at the moment, Darren offers his hand to her, "Let's dance."
At first, she hesitates but she eventually gives in, and the two dance to the music and move around the bonfire, everything is going well until something happened.
The lights from the torches and lamps start dying one after another. This put everyone in shock, Zeth and the other elders immediately grabbed the torches that are still lit.
"Grab the torches! Do not let their flames be extinguished!" he ordered. The villagers move towards the bonfire where the flame is greater and brighter.
"What is going on?!"
"What is happening?!"
None of them can explain what is happening around them, everyone is in panic. The hunters who are still able to remain calm during the situation grabbed their weapons to try and fend off the monsters that might attack them during their moment of vulnerability.
"Be ready for when something happens!" Zeth reminded as they all surround the bonfire, and as they cling on to their last hopes of survival, the flames also dispersed, and the horrifying sounds of the monsters echo throughout the village.
GROWWWLL! SCHREE!
The parents embrace their children to protect them, they tried everything they can to revive the bonfire but to no avail. As its flames completely disappear, a pair of bloodshot eyes that belongs to a reptile look down on them and a few moments later it spread its wide wings.
ROOOOARR!
Just before they are about to be attacked by the creature, a bright light appears in the sky in the shape of a cross that directly points at them. At the same moment, Elizabeth floats in their midst and her appearance starts to change.
With the presence of the blinding light, all the monsters run away and disappear back to the forest, at that moment, a new Beacon is chosen.