Broken Nightmare

Chapter 9

Right away, Nathan bowed his head in shame and moved so he was more directly in this "pack leader's" path. "Yes, sir. My apologizes."

I took this opportunity and slipped behind the virile man still slightly blocking my way. Barely tugging on the handle, the door slid gracefully open and I was able to squeeze myself out the door and into the pouring rain, wrapping itself in a thick layer of fog.

I push the hair from my face and race blindly through the fog, hoping to locate some sort of a trail so I can get away without nearly killing myself. I hear someone behind me and I push myself harder to run faster. My lungs threatened to explode in my chest, as my flip-flops break and abandon my feet, but I still run. Running as the sharp, unadorned branches snatch at my jacket and rip it right off me. Running for my life, even if I don't know it's probably not necessary.

The cold rock under me bit into my rear and thighs. Without my jacket, I was pretty sure my arms would freeze off my body, and my feet felt numb from the cold and needles that were eating away at them. However, that was nothing compared to the confusion and emptiness circling inside me.

I had to have been out here for a few hours; the rain letting up about an hour or two ago. Still, although I was the most drenched I have ever been in my entire life, and knew I could get pneumonia or hypothermia or something, I had no urge to go back to that house full of Werewolves, or Shape Shifters, or whatever they call themselves.

I didn't even know what to say when I got back there. 'Hey, sorry, but I just had to abandon you and run away like a two-year-old because I have mommy issues.'

Yeah, they would probably ship me off to the New Mexico house if I said anything close to that. The truth is, I don't know why my mother could not at least warn me instead of just leaving and having me deal with this all at once with some strangers that abducted me and my best friend at the scene of some fire my best friend just happened to set.

Maybe she thought I wasn't worth it. She didn't need my drama along with her own. Now that I look at that, I don't blame her. I know I am probably the worst person to have around, and if she didn't really care about us, I didn't want her here.

But then again, I just lied to myself. I did want her here, loving or not.

Tears came flooding out of my eyes again, but I didn't try to hold them in anymore, just let them flow freely down my face. All the events and the stress of my new life was starting to catch up to me and I allowed all the tears that wanted to escape flow freely down my cheeks.

I continued beating myself up when I heard footsteps in the pine needles coming towards me and decided to push the pause button on my self-loathing. I didn't turn around to see who it was, though. I can't. If it was someone from our group, I know I wouldn't be able to face them yet. And if it's a stranger, I definitely do not want them seeing me like this.

"Elana?" A British accent made my name sound exotic as it rolled off her tongue,

Hyene.

I still didn't turn around, just studied the trees in front of me. "How did you find me?"

I heard her take a few more steps towards me and realized how close she really is. "How are you doing?"

Dodging a question with a question. Not knowing how to answer her question, I stayed silent. To be honest, I didn't understand how I was doing.

Sighing, Hyene took a seat by me on my rock. "Look, I know how it feels to be abandoned. I was in your place, and I want you to know that we are all here just to help you."