The Purebreds

Chapter Three

I moaned as my head throbbed painfully. Well that was smooth. Cuffs, or what I assumed to be cuffs, dug into my wrists and ankles, holding them together; though I could still stretch them a little wider than a shoulder-width apart. Ropes wrapped around my stomach securing me to the cold hard chair that was propped against the wall in a corner, facing the door.  

Opening my eyes to what appeared to be a well-kept basement I stretched my cramped neck and back as best I could, confirming that I was indeed cuffed. The basement was empty except for a pile of blankets in the left corner that made for a make-shift bed and a bowl of water. Well, that’s just dandy; too bad I was chained to the flippin’ chair. Above the make-shift bed were two basement windows.

Good, I wasn’t out for long; it was still only late afternoon, according to the sun. Jiggling my fingers and bouncing my feet I tried to restore some blood and feeling to them. Well, clearly operation distract-the-creepy-stalkers didn’t turn out so well. But at least they hadn’t killed me... yet. So maybe, I could at least get some answers from these buffoons, before they knocked me out for good.

Hearing the scuffle of shoes, I straightened in my seat and glared in the direction of the noise. The door opened bringing in the dark silhouette of a man, as light poured in through the doorway. Squinting against the sunlight, I continued to glare at the figure as he closed the door behind him, cutting off my view of what seemed to be a forest.

He stood there. Yes, that’s right, he just stood there. No gloating, taunting, comments, pleasantries, nothing. After a few minutes, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“So you kidnap a young girl, tie her up, or chain her rather, and then dump her in your basement JUST to stare at her...” I paused, “Well, firstly I have you say full marks for efficiency though you fail epically in the creativity department. And secondly, you are aware that there are magazines out there that you could stare at? And from what I’ve heard, they are a lot more pleasant to stare at. Though I guess if that’s not your thing, I could, perhaps, recommend a few decent action movies, where there’s actually a legit point behind the kidnapping?”

He chuckled derisively, “You Hunters always did have quite a mouth. Well, I’m glad that despite everything, you’ve still retained your spirit; at least you still have your pride.”

I blinked. Well that was unexpected.

“Um... thank you?” I trailed off, continuing when it became apparent he wasn’t going to say anything else, “So, exactly why am I here? And how do you know who I am?!”

He laughed again, humourlessly.

“You don’t honestly think I’m dumb enough to fall for your innocent act do you? Or are you really that stupid?” he sneered.

I quickly replaced my surprise with a cold glare.

“Look, I don’t know what you damn problem is, but this isn’t an act. So, I’ll ask you again. Why am I here? And how do you know who I am?” I replied coldly.

“And again, I’ll say that you’re fucking delusional if you think I’m going to fall for the act. Look, I can do this all day.”

“And what makes you think I can’t?” I challenged, “Besides, it’s not like I have anything better to do... and by the looks of things, you seem to have plenty of free time too. You must be pretty low down in the ranks, huh? Not much better than myself, really, if you have enough time to do this all day...”

For the first time since he entered, the guy glared at me and had I not been so peeved myself, I probably would have flinched at the look of pure hatred on his face.

“You are damn lucky I can’t kill you right now.” he snarled, before storming out with a bang.

I growled back at the closed door, before taking a deep breath. If the buffoon was anything to judge by, these people, assuming he wasn’t the only one, hated my guts. I hadn’t a clue why, but that was irrelevant at this point. Because these people, whoever the hell they were, clearly weren’t the murderers I’d been looking for. Mum’s death was not the work of anything with any patience or talent for capturing; and these people had a talent for capturing and holding. So, if they weren’t my killers, why the hell was I here? Mum and I always kept to ourselves, so it was unlikely we’d made enemies. And we only ever made it by, so I definitely wasn’t here for a ransom and I clearly wasn’t here as a slave of any kind seeing as I wasn’t being put to any use. So that left only one other possibility; this was simply some big ass misunderstanding, and they had the wrong person. I mean there were plenty of Hunters around, it’s not exactly an uncommon surname, and my looks were pretty generic so they probably just mistook me for some other poor soul.

I nodded to myself firmly. Right! Now, I just needed to convince the next buffoon that came through the door, that I wasn’t who they were after.

-------------------------------------------------------

I was dozing off in my chair when the door opened. Jerking myself awake, I was greeted by another silhouette, this time a girl’s, outlined by the setting sun. Shaking the grogginess, I watched her coolly, trying to measure her reaction to me, when my spine snapped. Biting back a cry, I clenched my teeth together as my bones slowly snapped, my sockets slowly popped, and my transformation began. Squeezing my eyes shut, I felt a few tears escaped as I refused to cry out in pure pain. I could feel my tail growing, as my muscles readjusted themselves to my developing bones. I shook my head in displeasure, as my face began to change, opening my mouth as it morphed into a jaw, allowing my teeth to elongate.

In between the pain, I was vaguely aware of someone untying me from the chair, allowing to slump off the chair onto the hard ground. Well thank the lord for small mercies.

When the transformation finally ended, I lay on the ground panting heavily with my eyes squeezed tight. Finally regaining my breath, I opened my eyes just in time to catch the flicker of sympathy in the woman’s eyes, before they turned hard and glowed with hatred. Huh, so they weren’t as heartless as they seemed. And I guess the hatred was generic...

Hold on, sympathy?! Hatred?! What happened to the usual screaming of pure terror when people saw wild animals? What happened to fainting?! What happened to super natural induced freak outs?! I gave her a hard look.

Who the hell were these people?!

Sheathing the knife she used to cut my ropes, she dumped a skinned rabbit in front of me before strutting out and closing the door with a bang. Someone needed to work on their hospitality skills...

Rolling off my side onto my belly, I stood up, careful not to tangle my legs up in my chains, and stretched out my muscles. Wriggling free of my sweat pants, keeping my sweat shirt on so I wouldn’t be completely naked when I changed back. Then, padding cautiously over to my dinner, I dug into the rabbits finally acknowledging my hunger.

When I finished, I padded carefully over to the water bowl and sniffed. Well, it was no running river water, but at least it wasn’t drugged. Lapping at the water greedily, I managed to quench my thirst before collapsing on the blankets with my stomach still growling in hunger. Shifting around till I was comfortable, I lay there and watched the door with my tail twitching.

It was going to be a long night.