A short followup to the previous part.
"Lights? What kind of lights?"
"What the hell do hypnotic lights look like?"
"You're being too literal—don't worry about it!" Grimm and Leera had been going over the story she would tell her parents, and anyone else curious enough to ask. "When you tell your ma and pa 'I saw strange, hypnotic lights in the woods,' nobody is going to ask what they looked like," Grimm was saying. "People like to fill in those blanks themselves, it makes for a better story."
"It's not supposed to be a story, it's supposed to be the truth," said Leera, growing frustrated. "How am I supposed to convince them what happened if I don't know the details?"
"There's no difference between a story and 'the truth,'" said Grimm, trying to assuage the girl's worries. "Truths are just the stories we all agree on. And trust me, the more vague you are with the details, the more convincing you'll be."
Leera had her head in her hands. "This is so stupid," she muttered. "How did you even find me, anyway? If you thought the Red-Eyed Woman took me, why'd you come to Bonwick?"
Grimm chuckled. "Trade secrets, I'm afraid. Can't go into the specifics. Now, let's go over it again—"
"No," Leera cut him off. "It makes no sense; if you're monster hunters, or exorcists, or… whatever you call yourselves, why did you go looking for me in Bonwick and not the woods behind Lebther? That's where she lives, isn't it?"
Grimm sighed; he'd hoped he wouldn't have to tell the girl much. "Listen," he began, "in this line of work, sometimes you have to trust your instincts. Sometimes the situation doesn't… smell like spirits. We mapped out the nearest villages, the ones with the most trade and travel between them, narrowed down the possibilities—"
"And why," said Leera, sitting upright in realization, "do you want me to lie about where I was? Oh stars, my parents wouldn't pay you if they knew I'd just run off down the road, would they? If I was never in any danger, especially nothing to do with ghosts or monsters.
She stared at Grimm, studying his reaction as he tried to formulate a response. "Oh, stars," she swore again, with more emphasis this time, before he could reply, "you know the Red-Eyed Woman is a crock of nonsense, don't you? You're just taking advantage of my parents and their stupid superstitions."
Grimm frowned. "That's a very… specific interpretation of our intentions," he said, "and not the most generous."
"But I'm right, ain't I?"
"Alright, fine. There's no forest spirit stealing foolish young women," Grimm admitted. "But there was a village full of people who thought there was. For those people, that was the truth of it. If you want to go back and give them the real truth, all you'll accomplish is getting people riled up, angry, and hurt. You hurt your parents when you left—do you want to hurt them again when you come back?"
Leera screwed up her face, chewing her lip like she was trying to come up with a rebuttal. Then she threw up her hands. "Alright, fine, whatever," she sighed. "I was hypnotized by strange lights in the woods one night while I was watching the stars. The next thing I remember I was being saved by the two heroic monster slayers: Creep and Ghoulish."
Grimm smiled, and relaxed a little. "Good enough."
