Eclipse

3.

Suspicion

I wandered the forest aimlessly for days, without neither food nor trees, and it felt like I was hallucinating, or just plain delirious. It was a miracle that I hadn't bled to death. Somewhere along the way my wolf had collapsed, and I'd shifted back into my naked human form. It felt like an eternity before I finally broke through the trees. The sharps spears of sunlight pierced my skin and eyes, driving my knees to the ground and my face into the mud. I inhaled the damp smell of dirt that mingled with my blood, and then everything blurred and then everything went black.

⤜◯⤛

I woke up the sound of beeping machinery. I left my eyes closed and took in my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was. Something was positioned over my mouth, making my breath sound raspy, like Darth Vader or something... a mask? Despite the smell of plastic, I could still detect the disinfectant that filled the air, and the machinery next to me beeped at an unusually fast rate. A hospital, obviously.

I forced my eyelids to peel back to see a plain white ceiling that hurt my eyes.

"Oh, you're awake!" I turned abruptly with an audible crack in my neck that made me wince, to see a young doctor with short brown hair and hazel eyes.

"What...?" I began, unable to finish.

The doctor smiled sympathetically. "A young man found you near the woods and called for an ambulance. Could I please have your name please?"

"Megan Vaughn." The words tasted foreign on my tongue. You aren't Megan Vaughn. Megan Vaughn died a long time ago.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-four." You sure? You seem awfully cowardly for a twenty-four year old.

"Thank you, I'll leave you to get some sleep."

"Wait!" I called out through the mask, sitting up as well as I could. "What happened?"

She smiled sadly. "You were beaten up badly, Megan. You'll need to stay here for at least the week, but I can tell that you'll heal fast." Well aren't you clever.

"Oh." I slumped back into pillows as reality hit me. This really wasn't a figment of my imagination, and I really was rogue wolf.

"I'll just leave you to get some rest, 'kay?" Before she left, though, she removes the oxygen mask. I obviously didn't need that anymore.

I forced a small smile as the doctor left the room, but it disappeared instantly. I just wanted to scream into my pillow. Before I could close my eyes, the door opened again, and a slim man in an oversized shirt and running shorts walked in.

"They told me you finally woke up," he said, sitting beside me. His dark brown hair stood up in unnaturally gravity-defying spikes and his bloodshot eyes were tired with purple bags.

"Finally?"

"You've been out cold for two days."

I mulled over this before arriving at the most obvious question. "Who are you?"

"Kieran Chambers. I found you by the woods. You feeling fine?"

I shrugged indifferently and looked away. What sort of question is that?. "I've felt better." What am I doing, talking to a stranger?

"Do you... want to talk about why you were unconscious and lying in the dirt?" There was something in his voice that put me on edge. He seemed too curious, or maybe I was just being paranoid.