The void I was in was scary, no, it was terrifying. It was all black surrounding me and then the burning fire came rushing at me, and it burnt me to a crisp every time. The heat from it was like hell, but it was heat mixed a prickling sensation.
This scene replayed over and over again until I realized I could move. I opened my eyes, sat up, and looked around the room. I was in a bed, covered up and a bucket of water by my side. The same was done for Allie, who was still asleep on the other side of the room.
I got up and walked around but the prickling in my leg made me stop. I remembered the marks and looked at both of them. The claw marks were still there, and they began to scab over. The bite marks on my leg were healing thought, the scab not very noticeable.
"Allie, Allie," I called over. "Cherry face!"
I was losing patience because I was scared and my mom would kill us because of how late we've been out. I limped over and began to shake her awake.
"Wha? Was' happin?" she slurred.
"We almost died, now we need to get out of here." I said. "You were scratched by a werewolf."
She instantly woke up after that, and we ran out the door and got to the end of the hall, away from the double doors. We were at the ladder going up and I made her go first so I could look out. When she was at the top, I heard voices coming towards me and climbed up the latter, and I thought one of them saw me before I was completely out. It didn't matter, we were out. Once back on top, I slammed the hatch shut and we ran down the hill.
"Allie, call mom. It's late," I said.
"K," she said, pulling her phone out. Seconds later, she looked at me with a scared look on her face. "She'll be here on five minutes."
Once my mom was parked by the diner, she was beyond pissed to see us. After lecturing us about how she thought we'd be home and everything, but when she gave us a chance to expain, Allie lied like a rug.
"We fell asleep. The teacher was pointing out constilations to us and we fsort of, kinda, maybe dozed off. We didn't hear the phone go off and as soon as we woke up we called you. We're sorry," she explained.
"You two aren't off the hook. You're grounded. Have be in the house by eight, do all the chores for two weeks, and if your grades aren't up by the time your punishment is over, it'll be all over again," she threatened.
"Eh, it's fair." I said, then conversation dropped. I knew she was still mad at us, but when two kids get attacked by werewolves the last thing on their mind is getting home on time.
Once we walked in through the door, she made up go to our room and took Allie's phone away. It didn't matter, but she was upset about it. We went into my room and I looked at Allie's marks. They were scabbing over, but it was still bad.
"Ow, careful, it hurts," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"Well what do you expect?" I hissed back. "You have to cover it,"
"I know. What about you?" she asked.
"I don't know, I was bit on the leg and scratched across my stomach," I said, irritated. "It hurts to walk, and my stomach isn't bad."
"Great. So we could turn into werewolves anytime and then what? We lose control, maybe kill a few people and then we're on the run for the rest of our lives, just great!" she said, freaking out.
"Look, legend has it that if you're bitten or scratched by a werewolf, you become one. Whether we will or not is up for debate, but we can't freak out." I explained, and then smiled. "If we do then it'll be so cool!"
"I know!"
Then we both looked at each other, sighed, and lied down on the floor.
"We have got to stop forgetting the point with things like this," she said, yawning. "it'll get us killed one day,"
"You don't say," I yawned back. "let's just, sleep."
I grabbed my blanket and pillows and crawled next to her, slowly drifting to sleep.
~ ~ ~
In the morning, my mom let us miss half the day because of how late we were out last night. We thanked her and ate breakfast together, and then were off to school.
We were still quiet, not daring to ask each other about last night, and if it was some drug induced dream. We went around and handed in the work for the classes we missed and picked up the assignments, and then decided to walk around to take our minds off it.
We were walking around when I noticed something that was out of place. It was one of the guys that we saw at the park, the blond one. He stood there, waving in a creepy way that made me wonder if he was trying to say something bad.
"Cherry, look," I said, grabbing her arm. I pointed at him and her jaw dropped.
"What the hell? Why is he here?" she whispered.
"I don't know. Let me know if you see the other one, I don't think this is good." I said back.
We kept walking around and every so often looking over our shoulder to make sure we weren't being followed by him. More times than not he was, and he was looking at us. I really thought about skipping class with her but decided against it, since we were already in trouble.
I went to class and we promised to stay away and run if both of them showed up. They weren't even students here, so how come they weren't asked any questions? I shoved the thought away and took my seat, hoping that I would be able to focus. Ten minutes later I found out it was a miserable failure.
Quit thinking about them! Why would they even be here? I asked myself. You were caught peeking at a ritual, it's only natural that you can't just walk away and hope for the best. So what, they're going to kill us since it didn't happen last night? The thought made me shudder. That wouldn't happen, there's no reason. Is there?
I didn't know how bad I looked until the teacher called on me. Panicked, I looked up and kept shaking my leg.
"Ms. Malone, do you need to go to the office?" he asked. "You look sick."
Say no, say no, say no!
"Um, yes sir." Damn!
I gathered by stuff and almost ran out of the room, trying to stay calm. I was about to leave the building when I saw him leaning against the wall, looking at me.
"What do you want?" I spat, trying not to sound shaky.
"You were peeping at the ritual, got caught, and you and your cherry friend have been scratched or bit." he said. "The legends are true, and you two are the next ones this year."
His hair fell over one eye and I wanted to hack it off with scissors. So, we were going to werewolves?
"And?" I asked.
"And, once you're a pack member, you're like family. You made a choice and now you're paying the consequences." he went on. "You and your friend have to learn the ropes. Come by the hill after school and we'll be there."
I hesitated before saying anything. Was he being serious?
"Fine. But at least give me your name."
"Roy." he said before walking out the door.
I stood there for a few minutes, trying to understand what just happened. Go to hill with Allie, that much I made sense of. Suddenly the pounding headache came rushing back with a vengeance and I fell to the floor, trying not to scream. It felt like there was a burning sensation in my temples, while everything else felt like it was growing and there wasn't much room.
Closing my eyes and clutching my head, I wondered if this was how dying people felt. I didn't make a sound when I felt someone pick me up, just stayed quiet and went limp.
"It's with all newbies. The headaches, the body aching, it'll be over in a few days," he said, putting my arm around his shoulder. "The least that I can do is try to make it bearable."
Just let me die, I pleaded. I don't care if I go to hell, just make it stop!
I didn't notice he walked me to a bench on the other side, or that I was laying down. It hurt like hell and it wasn't going away. Slowly it subsided and I opened my eyes, and looked up at him staring down at me. I just noticed his eyes were like a golden brown color, like champagne.
"Feeling better?"
"A little. Why'd you do that? We aren't even friends."
"It's pack code. We always help a pack member, no matter what."
"Nice code."
I sat up after that, feeling awkward that I was laying on him. He raised his eyebrows and looked forward.
"The pack is weird, and don't listen to anyone who isn't the alpha. They like to mess around with newbies," he explained. "oh, and there aren't many girls either. Hope you like dealing with guys."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked.
"No, but we should go. I think you're class is out soon, and I'm not supposed to be noticed by the faculty."
"Creepy you know that. Let's go. We can get Allie and your friend and go now." I said.
"His name is Alec." he pointed out as we stood up.
We found Allie and Alec talking together around the school gate. She looked at me apologeticley before seeing who I was with and her apologetic look turned into a smirk. I returned it and tried not to laugh.
"Alec, you explain everything?" he asked.
"Yeah, and this place sucks! I'm glad we don't go this kind of garbage place," he complained. "So, they gonna skip and go now?"
"No, we're gonna stay here and manipulate the Earth. Yes we're going!"
I looked at Allie in awe. She never was that sarcastic, usually it was the stupid humor we were used to, but tis was different. Was she already starting to change?
"K, let's go." said Roy, as we began to walk out of the school, and to the hell that awaited us.
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Sorry if the chapter sucks, I've been debating how it should go after they get caught, it's been hard to decide, and this is how it turned out. Oh, and if you get the 'Malone as a last name' bit, I just have a fasanation with ghosts, murderous or lost.