I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 59

This chapter is dedicated to my uncle, who read the first chapter and really liked it. If he ever gets up to this chapter (I hope he does, but I know it's slightly--maybe not slightly, okay?--overwhelming with all of these chapters) then he'll see my notice.

Also, please see his website, WhoDoYou. It's awesome! (You can look at reviews of services and contact the services from the website. Sort of like Angie's List, I guess, but with a way cooler name! xD)

Chapter 59

For once, I'm not the wild, shaggy black wolf that I've come to like so much. To try to make a friendlier approach, I've changed to a petite, dark brown wolf with fur the same color as my hair, shorter, less wicked-looking claws, and teeth that are more blunt.

My paws thud heavily against the ground. It seems so long ago that it was raining; the sun is shining blindingly, as if trying to prove to me that its rainy days where it was obscured by dark gray rain clouds are now over.

The first thing I hear is the rustling of leaves. My head snaps towards the sound, my senses going on high alert, my nostrils dilating. I hear something whiz towards me, and I leap to the side just in time. Something white streaks past me.

I look behind me, and see an arrow--made out of ice--imbedded in a tree. I morph, my heart pounding, as I think of the fact that I just missed death by an inch.

"I haven't come to hurt you," I say, holding up my hands as a sign of surrender and looking up at the branches of all of the nearby trees, blood roaring in my ears.

Something rustles, and then a girl leaps from a branch and lands silently on the balls of her feet. She has dark black hair and skin so white that it looks like part of the snow resting on the ground wherever she steps. She's holding a bow at her side, which is made out of ice. Her clothes are, too; her shirt and pants are both made out of some strange, white, icy material that glitter with ice crystals. Her feet are bare. She looks me over once, her piercing blue irises studying me in a way that is both cold and calculating.

"Um--hi," I say, my eyes on her bow.

She throws her bow into the air, and it dissolves into vapor. She holds her palm face-up towards the sky, and the snow from where she's stepped flies towards her hand, hardening and growing bigger, swirling into a large mass of ice shards, and then all coming together with a small, blinding white flash. She's holding a sword made out of dry ice in her hand. She aims it at my chest.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I say, backing up grabbing the arrow out of the tree and throwing it away, "I haven't come to hurt you."

"No one sensible crosses my path," she snarls. "Anyone who does--I kill them."

"Listen, Danielle--"

"My name isn't Danielle," she says. Her voice sounds strange, sort of...choked. "It's Makayla."

"No, it's Danielle," I insist. "Listen, Danielle--"

"Makayla," she corrects in an irritated mutter.

I continue as if I hadn't heard her side comment, "--we need your help," I continue. "The vampires--they're growing in numbers."

"I know. What do I care? Maybe they'll destroy my father and my sister."

"Danielle, you can't think like that."

"He didn't care about my mother," she says bitterly. "I deserve to. It's what he deserves. And it's Makayla. I'm not sticking with the name that my dad thought of--never, never in a million--"

"That's the name that your sister wants you to come back with," I blurt.

"My sister," she growls, "is...well, I don't have one."