I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 16

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I was really busy, and I stopped making an extra chapter every day. Also, this chapter is dedicated to my school BFFL, thedevildoglone.

Chapter 16

I hear a familiar voice saying, "Bree!"

I wrest my eyes from the view of the sunset. I've been sitting here for hours, and it's finally dawning on me that this isn't some sort of strange dream. It's real. Which means that voice....

"Bree!" Alexa repeats. I realize she's not physically there, but speaking in my head. It just feels so different when I'm the one in my body--in our body, I remind myself.

"It's not only your body, you know!" Alexa says, irritated.

Note to self: Alexa can hear your thoughts while you're hibernating, so don't think anything bad about her.

"I heard that, too," Alexa says, annoyed.

Instead of getting mad, I focus my energy on her thoughts in my head. Suddenly, my feet (bare, I realize, only now) leave the soft, warm earth and I'm looking out on a forest. Sabrina is standing near me, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Bree, you're...different," she decides. Her voice sounds strange, like she's saying it through a microphone. Not truly through my ears.

"Um..." says Alexa through our lips.

"Let me control the body," I tell her. "Go hibernate."

She agrees.

My mind switches from second-person to first person. It's a strange, unsettling feeling, like when you're on a roller coaster and suddenly it goes straight down, and you feel like your stomach was left at the top. I shake my head, clearing it, and then manage, "What d'you mean?"

Tell her! Alexa urges.

About us? I reply. Will she think I'm lying?

I'm not sure, she says uncertainly. Just...tell her!

Fine.

"Uh..." I say, testing out my words in my mind--our mind--before saying, "the--the reason...."

Her gaze is piercing, never leaving my face, expectant and patient. It's unnerving. I finally see why she's a leader. Her regal features are even more prominent in the noon sun, her gaze is steady, and she holds herself with a confidence I'd never be able to manage.

"The reason," I continue, plowing on, "is that I'm not the only one in this body."

Not my choice of wording, Alexa says.

I thought you were hibernating! I reply angrily.

Fine, she grumbles.

I hear her presence leave my mind, and for a second, I get caught up in the fact that my mind is now completely my own. Ecstasy fills me.

"What do you mean?" Sabrina demands, interrupting my internal discussing and looking baffled and suspicious.

"I have a wolf conscience. Her name's Alexa. She was just acting for me. I was...hibernating."

"That makes no sense! She was acting for you? Impossible? And what's hibernating?"

"Uh, well, she sort of tells me to hibernate into the back of our mind and then she works the mind while my side of the mind takes a break."

Still looking flustered, Sabrina says in a low, serious voice, "This hasn't happened for centuries. Since...." Her voice trails off. She looks lost in thought, staring off into the distance. I look behind me and see Amari running towards us, seeing me, a grin spreading across her face.

"Since what?" I say.

"We'll talk later," Sabrina says decisively, looking at Amari's running figure. "Your friend wants to say hi."

"But--"

"Bree!" I'm wrapped in a hug. I've never known Amari to be so happy before, but then I realize that she has no family besides her brother, Marcus. Maybe she had a sister at one point. Her strong arms wrap around my ribs, almost crushing them.

"Amari," I gasp, coughing.

"Sorry," she says, her ivory-colored cheeks flushing. Her piercing green eyes return to their usual gaze, but I see something under them. I can't quite wrap my mind around it, but I don't need to, because in a second she tells me. "Bree, I'm the Beta," she says, looking proud.

"What?" I ask.

"I'm the--"

"I know, I heard you. It's just...wow!"

"Yeah," she agrees. She fingers her thin, straight, jet-black hair. Then she pulls a hairband I haven't noticed before and ties her hair into a pony. She looks so good it makes my chest hurt. I wish I looked that good. Even her faint dusting of freckles, which I haven't noticed earlier, manage to make her look even better. She grins, and I see a row of perfect, dazzling white teeth.

"We need to move," says Sabrina. "We've been here too long. And Amari, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" asks Amari.

"Later. It's...." she looks at me, then says more firmly, "Later."

"Gee, thanks," I mutter. "Sure the warm welcome."

"But I said hi before!"

"I--uh--"

"Right," she says, "Alexa."

"Who?" asks Amari.

"Never mind. We'll talk about that later." Then Sabrina shouts, in a much louder voice, "WE'LL BE RUNNING IN TEN MINUTES! GATHER YOUR POSSESSIONS AND SECURE YOUR CHILDREN!"

"Where're we going?" I ask.

"To a base," she replies.

"What base?"

"You'll see."

Then a body, pale and white, comes bounding out of the hills. It slams into me, and before I can register what's happening, my head slams against something hard, a girl from the pack screams, and my vision goes dark.