S t e l l a
When Cassian and I got back to the car, he drove off without saying a word. I could feel that he was still feeling angry so I didn't say anything although I felt sorry that he had to be involved in this.
He felt sorry for me, he wanted to avenge me and although I want to return the pain they've caused me, getting Cassian involved in it is not one of my plans. I wanted my revenge to be my own.
And plus, I don't want him to know this part of me, the broken part. Although most of me was already broken.
I was still carrying the box of money which I cast aside for now.
We made a few turns and when we were able to get far enough from the house and a reasonable distance from the town, Cassian found a place to park. He parked at the side of the road that was closer to the forest and looked at me.
"Can you stay here for a bit? I just need to take a breather," he said. I looked outside momentarily to see that the sun was already setting and it could get dark very very soon.
My heart hurt with how pained and conflicted he looked. I didn't want him to feel this, this wasn't what I intended when I asked him to come here with me.
From deep within me, I felt like I had to apologize. The guilt-tripping began again and I felt myself getting smaller. I've managed to make him mad although he was generally very patient with me.
Just as I was about to open my mouth, Cassian turned to me. "Please don't say you're sorry," he said as if he could read my mind, "you shouldn't be sorry."
Instead, I gulped down my words of apology. I understand that it was probably his first time being in a situation like this, but I wanted to make him understand that for some of us, that's just how life is.
"Do you want me to go with you?" I asked instead, hoping to change the topic, to lessen the tension.
Cassian's head hang low as he thought, but then he looked back up to me and shook his head and I suppressed my disappointment. I felt like something inside of me cracked.
"I'll wait for you," was all I said, but my voice came out as weak and squeaky.
I watched as Cassian was slowly walking away and watching him do so made my chest hurt so much. My heart was beating loud and it felt like needles were pinning my hear one by one.
I could only see his back, as we walked towards the forest, but I felt a chilling fear down my spine and it felt as if he was leaving me. I haven't even noticed that my tears had already began falling, I was so afraid to see Cassian walk away.
He was one of the good things to have happened to me in a while-- no, he was the best thing that happened to me through all these years. But to see his back turned, with the thought that might leave me forever scared me.
When he wasn't visible anymore, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. I watched very intently where he had come from, hoping he would emerge.
I tried calming myself down mostly because I was shaking so much to the point of not being able to breathe properly, but because I knew that Cassian was more than capable of protecting himself if anything happened.
Well, also because I held on to Cassian's words that he will always be here for me. I hoped that for him, it wasn't just mere words, because to me, the words had been spinning over and over in my head ever since he told them to me.
However, when five minutes came and then ten and then fifteen and he wasn't here yet, I was starting to get really worried. The sun had already set and the light was dimming by the minute.
Should I go out and look for him? But he told me to stay here and I told him that I would wait for him. But then again, what if something happened to him?
Deciding that I need to check, even when I was deathly afraid and when I was an emotional wreck, I held the handle and opened the door.
When I stepped out form the car, the eerie silence of the forest made me feel even more anxious. My imaginations were getting the best of me and I began thinking of the worst.
I followed Cassian's trails earlier and I tried to pick up the scent that only belonged to him. I was successful for the most part, but as I got further into the woods, the scent was wearing out until I found myself in the middle.
At this point, I convinced myself that I was not lost and that I would just turn back and followed my path back to the road. I tried to follow my steps back, but the more I walked, the more I noticed that the scent of the forest was changing.
I knew this because I also grew up around the forest and usually the woods would have a damp smell, a mix of the moist soil and the dried up leaves that fell on the ground. But this one was different.
It was strangely... sweet. Like candy. It was enticing, as if leading me to follow the scent. Maybe it was Cassian? But no, that wasn't Cassian's scent. This was entirely different.
I tried to snap myself out of it and focus on getting back, but as if in a trance, I kept walking to an entirely different path. I started to feel a bit sleepy and the more I followed the scent, the more I lost control of myself.
At the distance, I saw a man and I felt elated because who else would be in the forest other than Cassian.
"Cassian..." I tried to scream out, but my voice came out very low and weak.
However, when the man turned around, I understood very quickly that that was not Cassian and I felt stupid for even mixing him up with my mate.
This guy was... different. He was comparably thinner than Cassian, but he still looked pretty lean. His hair was a dark and he was wearing black round eyeglasses. His skin was pale and that put emphasis on the bags under his eyes.
When he turned to me, I had noticed that his other hand was holding a hand of a little girl's. She had pretty brown curls and was wearing this puffy dark green dress.
The man looked at me from head to toe and I could feel a shiver going down my spine. There was something very eerie about him, I felt as if I shouldn't be here, in front of him.
Strangers in he woods is never a good idea.
And then he smirked. This sort of 'it's-my-lucky-day' kind of a smirk.
"It looks like the rumours are true, Zinni," the man says to the little girl and knelt down in front of her as if to fix her hair.
Zinni, who was carrying a white bunny doll with her other hand, turned to me and with a sweet smile, waved at me.
"Do you want me to call the others, mister?" she asked.
The man acted as if he was thinking at first, but then looked back to the child.
"Hmm, I don't know. What do you think, Zinni? Should we nip the bud before it starts blooming? Or is a test be simpler?" he asked her again.
When he said 'nip the bud', he momentarily looked at me and I had a pretty good idea that they were talking about me. Without saying a word, I turned away and started sprinting out of there.
My heart was beating fast and I kept looking back to see if I had gotten far enough from the strange man and little child. Although they were no longer in sight, I kept running.
Cassian, oh gosh Cassian, did he do something to Cassian?
No, please no, I hope Cassian is fine.
Unfortunately, my stamina was reaching its peak and my breaths were getting shorter and shorter. I could feel my legs getting tired from the run and them wanting to stop, but I kept running.
When I couldn't anymore, my legs gave up on me and I ended up falling on the damp ground. I looked back and felt relieved that the man wasn't able to follow me.
I should have gotten far enough by now and it doesn't seem like anyone in particular was coming after me.
Deciding that I needed to rest before getting back up, I looked for a tree that was covered well enough with other vegetations and sat under as I regained strength.
Cassian was still in my mind and I was praying with all of my heart that he was safe and that he'd come save me because I was so scared.
I hope he wasn't mad at me to the point of abandoning me, he wouldn't do that right? He wouldn't be like all of them, he wouldn't make me believe him, make me place my trust and hope in him just for him to leave me on the side of the road.
Because if he did, that would hurt me so much. I wouldn't know how to cope, I don't think that I will be able to handle the pain.
Finally, I was able to catch my breath and I looked around me before standing up.
"Who are you hiding from?" a voice beside my ear ask.
My eyes widen as I looked at my side and saw the man from earlier was already beside me. I let out a scream and got away from him, but I only ended up falling to the ground.
As he stood above me with that smirk on his face and although I would have wanted to get up and run away, I couldn't. I was paralyzed with fear.
"What's wrong? What's with that look on your face?" he asks amusedly and laughed. He was clearly the only one having fun in this whole set up.
"P-please get away from me," I say and gulped. Finally, I was able to move away a bit, although I was still on the floor. As I did this, I kept my eyes on him. I watched as his playful smirk was quickly replaced with a bored look.
"Something's weird, if you're the fourth warrior, why do you have no wolf?"
I was going to get up but when I heard his question, I stopped. He knew who I was.
He knew that I was possibly this fourth warrior that everyone is talking about and that I had no wolf.
"Wh-what?" was all I managed to let out.
"Well this is interesting, it seems you're..." he smiled, a knowing smile that somehow seemed dangerous, "human."
"Who are you?!"
"Oh shush, honey," he held a finger up and looked around for a while, his face filled with concentration until he looked back at me, "you don't need to know who I am. You're going to die soon anyways, but it seems Alpha Cassian is looking for you. My Strays are coming now, let's see who will get to you first, your mate or my Strays," he says.
I swallowed hard once again.
Strays?
Aren't those the creatures that the three Lunas talked to me about? The ones who had been terrorizing many packs for two years now?
And they were coming for me now. And who knows how many there are? I can't possibly escape them if they're in wolf form, I would be dead.
"I promise, I won't interfere," the man said again as he turned his back on me, seeming disinterested now and was walking away.
When he wasn't in sight, I finally got back up and started running and screaming for Cassian's name. I needed to find him before the Strays found me. I needed him.
My voice was echoing throughout the forest and with cries of desperation, I hoped it would have reached him.
I must've been running for minutes when I fear loud and heavy footsteps from afar. They were a lot, I could tell and I was starting to lose hope. My sweat was dripping profusely and my heart was beating at it its max.
My whole body was sore from tiredness and from the tension and fear that I was feeling.
I thrown off of my feet when the ground beneath me shook at impact. Impact of several Strays jumping and now surrounding me.
I now understood why they were called Strays. Although they were the same as the werewolves I have seen so far, even I could tell the differences.
Their eyes were red and their canines were dripping with saliva. Their fur were a mix of colours, but I could notice the visible cuts and bleedings from all over. Some of them had deformations that made them all the more intimidating.
As I stood there petrified, more and more Strays kept appearing. If at first there were only ten, they would be around twenty now and they kept coming.
At this point, I was already crying and although I racked my brain for solutions on how I could escape, seeing the increasing numbers of enemies, no solutions ever came.
There was no escaping this. There was no running from this. This is where I end.
A Stray walked slowly towards me while all the others waited, watching. As if they knew that it would only take one of them to get rid of me.
He growled at me and with his left claw, pinned me down the ground.
One of the claws was right on my throat, blocking the airway. I put both of my hands and tried fighting it off of me, but it was no use.
My vision was getting blurry, but I did my best. I tried taking deep breaths although it hurt because my neck and my chest was now bleeding.
'Elpída,' a voice says. A voice that was strangely familiar, but unknown. I had no time to think about what it was because all I knew is that I was dying.
My eyes were closing and my breath was becoming slower and slower under the claws of the Stray, but suddenly the weight that held me down was gone.
I thought that it was because I was numb to the pain now and I could no longer feel the pain, but my heart swelled when I saw Cassian.
He pushed off the rogue that attacked me and quickly came by my side, but I was feeling that it was too late. My whole body was tired.
Cassian was talking to me, probably begging me to keep my eyes open, to say something, I don't know. I couldn't hear him anymore.
His face was clearly distressed, he was crying and was desperately saying something, however that didn't last long because Strays had shifted their attention on him and were now attacking him.
My vision was so blurry now, I could only make out his figure fighting off the enemies.
'Eli, I'm here,' the voice said again, but I didn't care.
My body was feeling hot and painful, the pain becoming more excruciating than the previous ones.
I see, this must be how death feels like.
'You did so well,' the voice said again.