At Dawn, in the Forest

All was not well. Dawn lay on the thin mattress in her cell panting and sweating. An agonizing pain came from her leg where they did their ‘experiment’. The pain was burning, stabbing, and pressing. She couldn’t move, any movements resulted in more pain. She tried to lay as still as possible, hoping the pain would pass. But the pain hadn’t passed for three days. And the cardiac event monitor was annoying her as well. The constant beeping gave her a headache.

Dawn remembered the first time she felt such horrible pain. She was captured for a long time, more than a year, but that she didn’t know. It was then they injected highly concentrated wolfsbane and silver. Dawn had become more rebellious and the doctors finally knew the right dosage to keep werewolves weak with the help of their two greatest weaknesses without killing them. She had cried so much during that time where they would punish her with the two substances. Overtime she grew more docile and they lowered the amount where it was uncomfortable but bearable.

Footsteps wear nearing. When the door opened to her cell Dawn thought she saw her oldest brother Caspian. “Casp? Is that you? Is that really you?” Tears rolled over her cheeks. She was saved, or so she thought. The pain was so immense that Dawn hallucinated. A laugh echoed through that depressing room and she knew it wasn’t her brother, he didn’t laugh like that. It was hollow and cold. It was Jack. “You are so adorable when you get desperate, Dr. Willow will for sure like the state you are in.” Dawn groaned. She could hear how Jack flicked with his fingers and two large men came in to put her on the gurney. She let out a scream of pain when they had put her roughly down, which let them all to chuckle.

Dawn wished them all hell. They were awful humans. They often talked how she and her kind should never been created, should never existed, that they were the greater evil who would be the doom of humans, but they were wrong. Dawn thought humans were the greater evil. Werewolves lived in harmony with nature, humans destroyed their nature. Werewolves let humans live their lives, but humans had to go search for them, break them apart and finally kill them.

In the room Dr. Willow was waiting upon their arrival. “How is subject 400185 doing, Jack?” This time Dawn was put down with more grace now the men were in front of their boss. “Her vitals look good seeing the trauma in her body.”

“Good, good, I knew my little wolf would do well,” Dr. Willow stood beside Dawn. “Why the tears, my little wolf?” The doctor tutted. “You are doing so well, you should be happy.” But the young werewolf couldn’t stop the tears. The pain was too great to conceal it, even for her. She wanted to plead, to beg for some relief. Only that would never happen. Even if they gave her something for the pain it wouldn’t be strong enough. The humans still hadn’t figured out – or didn’t want to – that werewolves needed a much higher dosage.

“I will tell you what, little wolf,” Dr. Willow touched her nose condescendingly, the horrible smell of mint and eucalyptus protruded her nose, “If your results are exceeding my expectations, and you behave like the good little wolf you are, I will let you go outside. How’s that?”

Dawn wanted nothing more than to punch the man at her bedside. She wanted to rip his hair out, pull his teeth out, break every single bone in his pathetic body. She wanted him to feel all the pain she felt during her stay there. The young werewolf knew she wouldn’t really go outside, even the fresh air was questionable. The chemical smell of this place was so dominant even the air around the building was contaminated by it. They would put her in an small closed courtyard, surrounded by high walls and where even the sky wasn’t open, but gated. Going outside was not merely enough for her desires. She wanted so much more in that moment, except she had to play into his demeaning and belittling game he played to survive. So with all the strength she had she managed to whisper, “T-thank y-you, Sir.”

“My good little wolf… All right Jack let's carry on.” The two doctors and Jack examined Dawn’s body to observe the healing process of the bones. They could see on an x-ray that her bones were indeed healing. Excitement grew in the room. Dawn was kept there for the whole afternoon as the doctors observed and prodded her body. The only thing Dawn saw as positive was that her bone indeed was growing back. There was a fear inside of her that they had truly broken her.

It took another four days before Dawn could walk on two feet again. Her leg was still sore and fragile, but it could hold some weight and therefore Dr. Willow had allowed her to go outside. The last time she had permission was a long while ago, she didn’t know the specifics, but there was a significant period of time between then and now.

Dawn had to concentrate to smell the nature that surrounded the building she resided in for now over more than 9 years. The sad fact was she didn’t know that much time had passed. It would be heartbreaking when she found out, but the thing that saddened her now the most was this courtyard. She knew if you would stand in the far right corner she could see the tips of a tree. Carefully she made her way into the corner, once there she slowly raised herself on her left foot, on her tippy toes, holding the wall for her balance, and there it was. It was the only tree she had seen a handful of times. It was a pine tree. Dawn closed her eyes and tried to smell it. The strong chemical smell made it difficult, but after a couple of seconds, she could smell it. It felt like a blessing.

Dawn opened her eyes again and checked for the guards, they were both distracted by some minor matter. They knew she didn’t stand a chance to escape, so carefully she jumped up and held onto the metal bars that caged this courtyard, pulling herself up to have a better look at the tree.

The results of her efforts were disappointing, you could only see about four branches more, nevertheless, it felt peaceful to see more of the tree. It gave her a sense of home.

Then all of a sudden Dawn was pulled down by her bad leg. She fell down hard and a groan of pain escaped from her. It was Jack and he was mad. “Dr. Willow was so generous and here you are trying to escape!” He slapped her across the face. Dawn held her tongue, she knew it wasn’t worth it to convince him otherwise. “Let’s see what Dr. Willow has to say about this.”