At Dawn, in the Forest

Dawn couldn’t pay attention to her surroundings. She had no clue what was going on or who had just taken her. The only thing she knew was that she could trust these people to take her away, that much she did know. It was what her instinct told her, to trust these people, and her instinct was the only thing that kept her alive during her stay here. It was her instinct that gave warning signs about the people she interacted with. It was her instinct that told her when she needed to behave in order to survive. So, this time it was no different and Dawn dared to rely on these people.

The pain, which she had temporarily forgotten, shot right back and it was hard not to scream out of pain. Dawn bit hard on her lower lip as her wheelchair hobbled over the broken concrete ground. When she was tilted in a jeep she couldn’t contain herself anymore. A loud shrill of agony escaped, shortly followed by vomit.

“Fucking hell,” The guy cursed lowly, not wanting to upset the girl he was helping. He yelled out for somebody and soon the woman from before appeared. She got the message and got some wipes from the passenger compartment in the front. Quickly it was cleaned up and Dawn overheard the woman saying, “We are done searching, she was the last one, we can go whenever everything and everyone is ready.” The guy nodded his head and closed the door.

When he entered the car by the driver’s seat Dawn had a hard time keeping her eyes open. The adrenaline had left her body and the pain had amplified. The last thing she registered was the other cars leaving and the car she was in starting and then everything turned black.

Dawn woke up to a familiar sound, the sound of a heart monitor constantly beeping. Beep. Beep. Beep. For a moment she thought she had dreamt everything. That none of it was true. That Jack didn’t die. That she hadn’t escaped. That she hadn’t vomited all over herself. However, without even opening her eyes, she knew she had escaped. The pain was gone. Well. Almost gone.

Slowly Dawn opened her eyes and was met by a room that was familiar to those in a hospital. But it mostly reminded her of the room. It mostly contained hospital equipment and tools plus four hospital beds and one exam table. It was a typical hospital wing of a pack, still, Dawn wanted to leave this place sooner rather than later.

She lay there in silence (with the exception of the beeping heart monitor). Dawn had no idea how long it was. The longer she was there in that room the more anxious she got. Was she safe? Did she heal? Was this even real? It felt too good to be true. She had to do something. Just as she was ready to get up a woman entered the room that looked like a hospital room but shared more characteristics with the room but wasn’t the room.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Dawn just looked at her. “Your body needs rest, a lot of it. You, my dear,” Dawn cringed at that, “went through a lot of trauma, according to all the lab results and the x-rays. But I guess they don’t even tell the full story.” The last bit the woman said more to herself.

Dawn didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t know this woman, she didn’t know what her personality was and so she kept quiet. Besides she wore a doctor’s coat and Dawn didn’t have the best experience with doctors. Therefore she remained careful and observed. The mystery woman continued, “When they brought you in it became clear to us they had removed parts of your bones in both your legs, your right femur and your left tibia, and your right arm, your humerus. Also, there were still amounts of wolfsbane and silver in your system.” Dawn didn’t care which bone they took and which one they left alone. She didn’t want to hear this, she had experienced this already once, she didn’t need to experience it another time. “Also we have come across some big and thick scars which is, of course, surprising. If you are able to I want to go over these scars so I can make sure…” The woman continued talking. And talking, and more talking. Dawn tuned her out. Until the same big guy that rescued her entered the room. He didn’t lay his eyes on Dawn when he came in, he walked straight to the mystery doctor woman.

“Is she awake y-”

“You,” Dawn started to say. Both the guy and the woman looked at her, surprised. “You, you killed Jack.” She said calmly, but she was anything but calm. Seeing him, made her irritated, furious even.

The guy looked taken aback. “Jack? Who’s Jack?”

Dawn sighed and repeated. “You killed Jack.”

“I don’t know who you are talking about. I don’t know any Jack.” He crossed his arms. His muscles protruded, showing the strength they held.

Dawn sat up, she was getting annoyed by the denial. The mystery woman tried to stop her, but Dawn couldn’t feel the discomfort, she couldn’t feel the pain. This pain was nothing to her. “You gave Jack an easy death. You killed him. But he was mine to kill.” Slowly Dawn turned angry. It was the principal, she was tortured by Jack so she got to torture Jack back and this guy ruined that for her. Maybe also because it was the only emotion she knew so well, that was the only one she had witnessed over the last nine years. “You only strangled him. He deserved more.”

“Oh, I see-”

“Finally, you see. Again, he was mine to kill and you took it from me!” Dawn sat further up, ready to get off the bed. The other two in the room didn’t want that and tried everything to prevent such action.

“Please stay on the bed… Sweetheart it was never-”

A shiver ran over Dawn’s spine, an impulse she tried hard to cover by raising her voice. “Don’t call me that!”

The guy raised his hands in surrender, trying to calm the girl in front of him. “All right, let’s all calm down. I promise I won’t call you that. Let’s start over, shall we… Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Max and this here is Harper. How may we call you?”

Dawn was taken aback. Her needs were never taken into account. Well, never over the last decade or so. It felt strange. And then she came to the issue of her name. She wasn’t called by it for such a long time, she had temporarily forgotten it. It was always sweetheart, dear, subject 400185 or my little wolf. Dawn focused on her memories and when her mother flashed through her mind she knew again. She could still remember how her mother thought of her every morning because – and this was according to Rue – her daughter held the beauty of dawn and every time she saw the sun come up she would think of her.

“Dawn.” She said slowly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dawn. Do you perhaps know your last name as well?” Again the girl searched through her mind, this time more frantically. She became anxious, she didn’t know.

“No.”

“Your age?” Dawn furrowed a brow. Her age. From a certain point, it didn’t matter to the doctors anymore what age she was and didn’t keep up with it anymore. Or rather, they didn’t feel the need to inform her. She did know around what year she was captured. “What year is it?”

“It’s 2022,” Harper replied.

Dawn couldn’t believe it, no, that couldn’t be true. It was not true. She refused to believe it. This could not be happening. Without thinking she got up from the bed, stripped out the IV, and pulled off the sensors of the heart monitor. She was in search of a calendar. She needed confirmation, well she hoped it wasn’t true. She was trying to find evidence that disproved the fact it was 2022. Sure she had noticed she was there, in that hell hole, for a long while, but it couldn’t be this long, right?

Frantically she walked through hallways she didn’t know. Unconsciously, she tried to go right two times and then a left. It wasn’t possible but during her search, she came upon a big mirror, and what she saw she could not believe.

Dawn didn’t recognize the girl or rather the young woman that stood in front of her. Her brown hair was long, her skin pale, her body frail and skinny. It was nothing compared to the last time she saw her reflection. According to her calculations, the last time she saw herself in a mirror was nine years ago. It was after her mother had told her over and over she needed to take a shower. Dawn didn’t see the point as she was going to explore the forest further and would get dirty again. But she did it anyway. After that, she was busy in front of a mirror to gather her hair into a ponytail. Her hair was already short, but not short enough for her, so she kept it up at all times. And her skin was more tanned by being outside all the time. And she had muscles and fat, she was a strong girl. Dawn was proud her physique became more similar to that of her brothers. But all of that was now gone.

Dawn didn’t need a calendar anymore. Her reflection said enough. A single tear made its way down. She quickly recovered though, Dawn didn’t want to show any signs of weakness, with a body like hers she at least had to show some mental strength.

Shortly after Max and Harper had found Dawn. “Dawn, stay where you are and don’t move. We have no idea if your bone in your left leg has healed yet. So your cast cannot break,” Harper warned. Dawn looked down and only noticed then the thick, white cast on her leg. She remained put and Max hoisted her up in his arms, way more gentle than Jack.

Back in the hospital room Harper and Max tried to get more information out of Dawn, but all was in vain. She was too shocked and remained silent. Her emotions roared behind her eyes, but she did not know or dare to express them. So she did the very thing she knew so well to do, staying quiet.

In silence, she tried to process that she had missed her teenage years. She was now twenty-two.