Chapter 3
LJORA
Hours passed and I remained in the dark room, spent from pounding the door with all of my might.
I gave up when I realized there was no need. I was going to die here. The fact that there was nobody noticed that I was missing before the bus left showed how irrelevant I was. Even our teacher didn’t notice even though I was sure there must have been a head count.
It confirmed that even if I die now, nobody would miss me. Dami might feel bad but she’d move on. Afterall, we’ve been friends for less
than a month.
So I stayed in the dark and quiet room without making any move to free myself.
“Wake up!”
I startled awake at the shrill voice and I immediately jumped to my feet, I must have dozed off at some point and as I fumbled around in the dark room, I concluded the voice was from a dream.
“Open the door!” the shrill voice commanded again and my soul nearly tumbled out of my body. The feminine voice sounded ancient and mystic like it wasn’t natural. It sounded like it came from me, from above me, from somewhere in the room, from outside the
It was terrifying, yet calming.
“Open the door now!” the command came here and my hand fumbled around in the dark, grabbed the knob, and turned.
Th door opened.
The door that I’ve tried countless times to open opened easily.
I stepped out into the dark hallway and I stayed pressed to the wall as I tried to find my way outside. It was late in the night already and the night was probably at its darkest hour because I couldn’t see a thing, not even my hand in front of me.
But I pressed on. I fell and stumbled on things but I didn’t stop. I just need to make it outside and from there, it would be easy to find the main road.
It wasn’t easy. The outside was even darker than the inside. It wasn’t easy at all I stumbled, fell, had branches cut my skin, had strange sounds scare me, and made me run blindly in the middle of a thick forest.
Until something mystical happened.
A bright light shone on me from nowhere. I initially thought that it was froth a big bright lamp but no light could ever be this bright.
I looked up to see that it was a full moon at its brightest. The full moon just came out of nowhere even though it wasn’t supposed to come on at all. We were made to follow the appearance of the full moon at school and I knew one came out just a calendar month ago.
It wasn’t time for another one yet.
And yet, it was here. Shining directly above me, illuminating my path. I didn’t dwell on the fact that this was strange the voice that made me open the door, this sudden full moon, the presence that surrounded and shielded me like a cloak.
I just wanted to get away.
So I ran. With the full moon lighting my path and following me. It was actually following me and not static and that further confirmed that this wasn’t normal.
Maybe I was dreaming. Or maybe I died in that Quiet room and this was some sort of afterlife.
I was still running when I heard it. Aloud howl. The loudest howl I’ve ever heard. It reverberated through the entire forest and shook trees and the earth. It shook my soul too,
The howl was followed by paws hitting the ground like a tsunami was breaking through. I couldn’t see it yet but I could feel it, a big wolf running towards me. I could feel the movement, could feel it leaping through the air, tearing down trees.
I could feel it but nothing prepared me for the sheer monstrosity of its size when it leaped through the air and landed a few feet away
from me.
1/2
Chapter 3
The shock forced me to the ground. The wolf, white with golden streaks, huge like the size of a bungalow, and eyes blazing hot red advanced towards me like I was his prey.
The fear I felt was too paralyzing but not paralyzing enough to keep me on the floor. I pushed myself to my feet and started to run in the opposite direction.
Only for a similar wolf to appear from that direction. This one was black with golden streaks too and its eyes blue.
I turned to the other direction to flee but a third wolf appeared. A golden wolf with black and white streaks and eyes so green,
The three wolves cornered me in all directions. There was nowhere to run to. They advanced towards me till I was just in the middle, tiny, insignificant, useless, and a prey ready to be devoured.
So I was going to end like this? Devoured by these gigantic wolves under a strange full moon.
The wolves howled and shook their bodies in unison and the sound was so terrifyingly loud that I instinctively closed my eyes and waited for the mauling.
But that didn’t come. What came were sounds of bones cracking and stretching. I opened my eyes to see that the wolves were shifting to their human forms.
They finished shifting at the same time but my eyes were drawn to the white wolf first. When his face appeared, it belonged to Adam Hawthorne.
The wolf was Adam Hawthorne, eyes still that of his wolf, claws still out and fangs bared at me. He looked furious like he wanted to kill me right there and then.
The black wolf was Carlton Hawthorne and even though he was in the sand physical state as his brother, his face was expressionless The golden one was Braxton Hawthorne and with his claws out, fangs bared, and wolf’s eyes like his brother, he looked strangely amused, like he was privy to an inside joke that I wasn’t aware of.
The three started to approach me in unison again while I willed the ground to open up and swallow me.
They stopped when there was no space between us again and with the full moon still directly above my head, they uttered, in unison. the last word I thought I would ever hear from them.
“Mate”
