Slain

Oh I’m just a girl

Guess I’m some kind of freak

’Cause they all sit and stare

With their eyes

-Just A Girl, No Doubt

I find myself at Zane’s front door, my anger quickly fading and hurt taking its place. I knock on the door, not knowing what else to do. The door opens a few seconds later, Zane’s mom in the doorway.

“Jack, hello!” she says with a smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Is Zane here?” I ask quietly. Her smile morphs into a frown as she notices my uncharacteristically mild behavior.

“Yes, come on in. Is everything alright?” she asks, concerned.

I shake my head no. “My mom and I had a fight is all.”

She seems unconvinced, but doesn’t push me to tell her more. “He’s in his room.”

After giving her a grateful smile and muttering, “thank you,” I head towards Zane’s room, knocking twice loudly before shoving open the door. Zane is laying on his bed, eyes closed and hands folded on his chest. I know he’s awake, but he ignores me as I walk in and close the door behind me.

“I’ve finally done it,” I say, leaning against his wall. He doesn’t respond, but I continue anyways. “My mom kicked me out. I’m leaving the village tonight.” This catches his attention and his eyes pop open as he jerks up into a sitting position.

“What? Where are you gonna go?”

I shrug. “I don’t know yet. Anywhere but here.”

“You can’t leave,” he says worriedly, getting to his feet.

“Why not? No one wants me, my mom kicked me out, I don’t have any reason to stay here.”

Zane walks closer to me, seeming to find my reasons ridiculous. “I’m sure your mom didn’t mean it, just let her cool off. Until then, you can stay here.”

I push away from the wall in frustration. “You don’t get it, Zane! Everyone here hates me, I don’t belong here, I never have and I never will!”

He grabs me by my shoulders, giving me a shake. “Give it time, Jack. Everyone is still stuck in the past, they’ll change their minds.”

“Really? It’s been eighteen years and they haven’t changed their minds yet. How much longer do you think it’ll take?” I ask matter-of-factly, my mind already made up.

“They’ve been waiting for you to grow out of it. Now you’re old enough, they’ll see you aren’t going to change and they’ll accept it.”

I shake my head, slapping his hands off of me. “I’m tired of waiting. I’m getting out of here.”

I turn and yank his bedroom door open, rushing from his room and out of his house. Zane follows after me, trying to talk me out of it. We make it back to my house where I pull off the square panel at the bottom of the back of the house and pull out my weapons I keep hidden there.

“Jack, seriously?” Zane huffs. He grabs the knife out of my hand as I’m trying to secure it to my waist.

“Hey!” I shout, glaring up at him.

He steps out of my reach before I can snatch it back. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

I turn away from him, hurriedly strapping on the rest of my weapons while he watches in annoyance. Once I have my weapons all secured, I get to my feet and begin walking towards the town’s front gate. Zane follows on my heels.

“Are you seriously going to leave like that? You’re covered in blood, your shirt is torn open, you have don’t have any money or food, and you have nowhere to go. This is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”

“I don’t care, I need out of this place.”

We make it to the gate within minutes. I demand the keepers to let me out, which they comply without complaint as soon as I tell them I’m not coming back. As soon as the gates are open enough for me to fit, I slip through and march off into the forest, no real destination in mind. I can hear Zane walking behind me and that only serves to make me angry again.

“Go back to the village, Zane,” I call over my shoulder. He doesn’t respond. I roll my eyes and pick up my pace, going deeper into the forest than I’ve ever been. Zane continues to follow me, but I choose to ignore him from now on.

It seems that the anger I’ve been harboring against my mother over the near entirety of my existence multiplies with each step I take. How could she be so heartless towards her own flesh and blood? For as long as I can remember, she has resented me. I know it’s because of the mark I bare on my right shoulder blade, but that’s not my fault. I hate her for punishing me my whole life just like the rest of the village. She’s supposed to be the one person to accept me as I am; she’s my mother for crying out loud!

Zane suddenly grabs my arm, jerking me out of my anger and forcing me to stop walking. I turn to yell at him, but he cuts me off by shushing me, looking around the dimming forest. Now that he’s brought my attention to it, I notice the sound of something moving through the trees to our right. I pull my arm out of his hold and unsheath my long bladed knives. The movement grows closer until suddenly, it stops. I tense up, spreading my legs to shoulder width and bending my knees, ready to launch myself forward. Zane takes a similar stance to my left, squinting into the foliage.

A low growl sounds as two silver eyes appear in the shadows. They slowly move closer until a medium sized black and grey wolf creeps into the light. We size each other up, both trying to decide our best method of attack. I take a step back, hoping to draw him farther into the light. I know he’s not alone; werewolves rarely travel alone.

The wolf lifts his lip in a snarl, taking my movements as a sign of weakness, exactly as I had hoped he would. He crouches and lunges toward me, now confident in his chance of winning.

I leap to the side, slicing my blades through the air towards his throat. He rolls to the side just enough so that I miss his throat and catch his shoulder instead, but it’s enough. He lets out a howl of pain as the silver blade burns his flesh. White steam rises from the wound as blood begins to mat his fur. I rush after him as he lands on his feet, stumbling a bit from his weakened shoulder.

He takes off running. I chase after him, my anger and hurt from earlier clouding my judgement. Zane runs after me, calling for me to stop, but I continue chasing the wolf. Before I realize what’s happening, I chase the wolf into a clearing and am suddenly surrounded by wolves. I freeze, Zane right beside me. The wolves slowly creep towards us, blocking any way of escape. They snarl and snap their teeth as they near us. .

“We’re not getting out of this,” Zane mutters. I crouch in response, determined not to go down without a fight.

The wolves all lunge at us at once. I swing my blades through the air, slicing through a few wolves, but there are too many for it to make a difference. It’s mere seconds before I’m on the ground, teeth buried deep in my skin pinning me down. I wait for the killing strike, but it never comes.

A man with deep brown eyes and dark hair comes into my lines of sight, standing over me with an unreadable expression on his face. “Bring them in,” he instructs.

The wolves with their teeth sunk deep into my arms and legs begin to tug and jerk on them, causing me to grit my teeth and groan in pain. They flip me onto my stomach and I feel hands grab my wrists, crossing them behind my back before binding them with rough, thick rope. Once my hands are tightly bound, I’m pulled to my feet, dizzy from blood loss. Black spots dance in my vision and I sway on my feet. Someone mutters something, but my ears are ringing now and I can’t make out what he said.

Arms swiftly pick me up, adding to my disorientation as they begin walking rather quickly towards what I assume will be my end.

I wake up in a foul smelling room laying on a rough, lumpy cot. I notice the breathing and rustling of living creatures around me, automatically putting me on high alert. Sitting up abruptly, I blink against the dim light of a torch mounted on a stone wall a few feet away. My head throbs, but I ignore it, taking in my surroundings. I’m in a damp stone cell. Metal bars surround me on three sides, cells with a single man in each on either side of me. Zane is nowhere in sight, making me worry.

What if I got him killed?

I don’t have time to worry about that as voices draw my attention towards what looks like an entrance. Two men walk towards me, one I recognize as the brown eyed man I saw just before I passed out. They come to a halt at my cell, calmly peering in at me in silence. Finally, the one I don’t recognize sticks a key into the lock and pulls open the cell door. Brown eyes walks in, never once taking his eyes off of me.

“Get up,” he demands gruffly.

I remain where I am, staring at him. “What do you want with me?”

“Get up,” he repeats, now annoyed.

“What do you want with me?” I repeat slowly.

Instead of responding, he walks over to me, grabbing my upper arm and jerking me to my feet. I don’t struggle as he pulls me out of my cell and up a steep stone staircase, knowing it won’t do me any good.

We walk down several stone hallways. I take note of every window and branching hallway we pass, trying to come up with an escape plan. It’s not long before we come to a pair of heavy double doors. As we approach the doors, I decide to call brown eyed Fluffy. It seems fitting with his oh-so-sweet personality and ability to turn into a dog. Fluffy pulls one of the doors open before pushing me inside.

The room has a high arcing stone ceiling with windows that stretch from floor to ceiling spread in increments around the room, allowing natural light to flood in. A long, thick table runs down the center of the room with matching chairs neatly surrounding it. Standing at the far window is a rather large man. His back is to us as he looks out the window at a beautiful view of what I assume to be the wolf pack territory.

Fluffy leads me toward the man, stopping several feet behind him. “Alpha,” he says in a formal tone. The man standing before us at the window slowly turns to face us, his dark eyes immediately locking with mine. I hold his gaze, knowing that high ranking wolves take eye contact as a challenge. An amused smile spreads across his face, deepening the lines around his mouth and eyes.

“So you’re a female slayer, huh?” he asks, stepping closer to me. The sinking sun glints off of his graying black hair and casts shadows on his face that makes him look older than I originally thought.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I snap in response. My body is tense, completely on edge being held prisoner in enemy territory.

He chuckles lowly. “Oh yeah, you’re a slayer alright. How is this possible?” He studies my face in wonder while I scowl back.

“Well you see, a man and a woman loved each other very much, so-”

“Not what he meant,” Fluffy growls from beside me, giving me a rough shake.

I turn my scowl over to him. “Ow, cool it Fluffy, I was joking.”

He lets out a low growl of distaste at his new name. The alpha smirks at my nickname, seeming to find it amusing. I decide then that he will be Scruffy. Scruffy and Fluffy, my two new enemies.

“You come from the southwest slayer settlement, correct?” Scruffy asks, walking towards the table in the center of the room. He turns his back on me, which means he doesn’t see me as a threat. That offends me.

“You tell me,” I hiss, irritated by his relaxed demeanor. I thought werewolves were uptight and cranky; especially alphas.

He chuckles at my response, turning back to face me. “I already know the answer, I was simply asking for confirmation.”

I narrow my eyes and wrinkle my nose. “What a waste of oxygen.”

“Watch your mouth, cat,” Fluffy snarls. Now, he acts more like I thought werewolves would.

Scruffy sighs. “Take her back to her cell; she’s obviously not going to cooperate.”

“You’re smarter than you look, Scruffy,” I say in a last attempt to get a reaction from him. He just smiles at me as Fluffy drags me out of the room and back down the hallway.

I count the windows we pass, preparing to make my escape. When we approach the tenth window on my right, I stomp my foot on Fluffy’s toes and spin into him, slamming my knee into his stomach and my fist into his nose. His grip loosens on me enough to slip away. I turn and sprint towards the window, turning sideways and slamming shoulder first through the glass. I go sailing through the air and I only then realize we were on the second floor. Seconds later, I hit the ground feet first and roll forward to lessen the impact. I roll seamlessly to my feet and takeoff at a sprint towards the treeline a mile or so away.

Shouting and feet pounding on the earth echo behind me. My heart thuds in my chest as my adrenaline courses through my veins, pushing me to go faster. I reach the treeline within minutes and push myself harder once I’m in the cover of the trees. The sound of feet and panting sounds from either side of me now and I realize they’re already surrounding me.

A hard, fuzzy body crashes into my side, taking me roughly to the ground and successfully knocking the air from my lungs. The wolf scrambles around on top of me, clamping its powerful jaws loosely around my throat in warning. If I make the wrong move, he’ll tear my throat out.

I lay as still as possible beneath the wolf while trying to regain my breath. Wolves surround us, snarling and snapping their teeth angrily. Fluffy appears above me, his expression dark with anger. “You’re making things much harder on yourself.” I bite my tongue, not wanting to chance getting my throat torn out for a snide comment. Stupid wolves.