I'd committed the place to memory. I knew exactly where they were. And even if I didn't, they'd find me. They were expecting me. But they certainly weren't expecting me in the capacity in which I was going. And even if they were, they were in for a ride regardless.
This ends today. It ends now.
Walking further I started to notice the trees with the strange markings again. This was it, I was approaching dark woods territory.
The etchings were barely visible, probably wearing away over the years or in their case probably decades, the bark protesting against this violation to its skin.
I've known for a long time how I act under pressure, and I've known for a shorter while how my wolf acts under pressure. Right now I wasn't acting like anyway I've acted before. I wasn't shaking with apprehension or nerves, and I didn't have a rapid heartbeat filled with determination or wild aggression.
I was just calm. Still.
But I was blazing with fury.
I could feel the ice cold flames wrap themselves around my heart, my wolf and around me.
I could even feel the darkness too, the darkness I felt just once before, the day I attacked Damon. The darkness that Damon said he's fought so hard to control.
Well today I didn't need control. I was going to fight with everything I had. And I would end this. One way or another.
Calm methodical steps led me to the hedge. The hedge that was apparently spelled to keep everyone out, except me that is. That's how I found it the first time anyway.
Again their magic failed them when it came to me, or maybe they planned it, who knows. Either way, I could still get through, and I did. I stepped through.
And one of my least favorite parts of the plan, I took a long thick strand of hair in my hand. I made sure it was from a place that could easily be concealed. Then I pulled it out, which was surprisingly really really hard to do.
When did my hair get this strong?
After settling on a couple of strands instead I painfully yanked them out and wrapped them around a flower on the hedge and then continued my journey.
The marker has been set.
After stepping through I was immediately hit with a nasty scent.
Were there rotting bodies here? The place distinctly smelt like rotting fish.
I walked further into the field, getting shrouded by more more thick trees until I reached the clearing.
It looked exactly like how I remembered it in the brief moment I saw it the first time.
Except there were no floating figures watching me.
Well, no visible floating figures.
I knew they were near.
"I'm here. You can come out."
I kept my head facing straight ahead, but my eyes scanned all around me to spot where they'd pop out of.
I got no response.
I called out again. But still nothing.
Are they trying to stand me up?
Or are they up to something?
It was getting hard to reign in my wolf, I was mad. I was angry and impatient. Where were they?
I walked further to where I'd seen them float the last time and yelled at the top of my lungs. "I'm here! I came just like you asked!" I shouted in no direction in particular. What was the meaning of this? "You better show your face you vile creature." I muttered deciding to get quiet and listen for sounds instead.
They wouldn't be walking yes, but maybe I could catch different sounds. The rattle of leaves, the whoosh of the winds as it bends around their hidden forms.
The sun was high in the sky. Even though I was greatly shaded by the thicket of trees here I could still see the rays peak through.
Or do they not like the sun? They are shadow creatures.
Angrily I turned around and punched the air. How much longer do I have to wait for them? I thought they needed me?
Are they planning something?
My mind was beginning to spin.
If they aren't here, where would they be?
If they've gone over my head...
But to do what? Ultimately they'd still need me.
Ugh! I punched the air again. But this time something was different.
My hand bounced right back.
I froze.
There was no one here.
Nothing here.
And there was certainly no matter right in the air where my fist just was.
I stretched my hand forward but there was nothing there. Like I'd just imagined it.
But I've been through too much to just overlook things.
I closed my eyes and punched the air around that spot again, but nothing.
Stop. Breathe and feel the surge.
I directed my rage and energy again and let it out in another punch.
My hand bounced back again. It felt like I had hit some sort of jelly. Some thick invisible sturdy jelly.
What is this?
This time, keeping my focus I placed both hands on where I thought this jelly was, and I held it.
I could feel it. And it wasn't just a little blob. It was huge, like a whole wall of the stuff.
What is this? Are they in here?
Keeping up with it, I tried to focus more of my energy on it to try and get through the barrier but I couldn't break it. It was literally exerting the same amount of force pushing me away as I was putting on it.
"Ahh!" I yelled again. "What is this? Where are you fuckers?!" With one last shove against the jelly barrier I let out my frustration.
I must have done something or my moonstone necklace that made contact with the jelly wall during my shove must have done something, but it started materializing before me.
I jumped back.
I quickly put my necklace into my shirt observing the bluish lilac jelly that started becoming visible before me.
And once it was done I was astounded.
It was a bubble.
A floating bubble, made out of some sort of impenetrable jelly.
But what was even more astounding was the frail figure in the ball.
My eyes widened. There was an actual person in there. It wasn't the crystal clear ball, it actually felt like I was looking through jelly but I could still make out a form.
An old lady lying there like she had no strength. Her skin pale and her completely white hair sprawled out all around her as she floated around in the bubble.
What is this?
"Fascinating."
I spun around to see the whole dumb squad assembled behind me.
All at once my anger returned.
"What is this?"
"How were you able to uncloak that?" The lead troll also known as Sarah to me, spoke up.
She was staring at me with her white eyes and her white hair, no more using disguises, looking somewhat fascinated.
So what, is that her sister that she's locked up in there?
I didn't answer her question though.
"I know you carry a moonstone, but that is not nearly enough to do that. You have so much power, so much energy." She literally looked like she was salivating. Simply delirious at the thought of her new battery source.
As inconspicuously as they tried to do it, I still caught onto them. Her minions behind her slowly started fanning out behind her, trying to encircle me.
Good, I want you guys spread out.
I stepped back, completely having forgotten about the jelly thing, hitting the bubble again.
I pointed at the thing.
"What is this?"
She smiled.
"Your new home."
What?
I tried not to let my emotions show.
What did she mean my new home?
Inside that thing?
"That wasn't what we discussed." Even though I had no plan on following through with what we had discussed, I was still in shock. And I had to play along. "you said my life source had to sustain you so I had to be okay as well."
"And you will be. In there."
"But look at her, she's practically catatonic. I don't want to be like that!"
And then I paused.
And I turned back to look at the bubble.
The confinement. Where they wanted to place me.
Where someone already lay.
"Wait, this is- this is the white wolf you've been draining all these years?"
"Yes, indeed she is. A very rare commodity these days. Which is why we need to devise a way to keep you alive longer. This one's fading real fast."
My claws and canines came out almost instantaneously when I saw them try to surround me again.
Sarah faltered. I saw her eyes flicker for a moment to her arm. Her arm that still hadn't healed.
She seemed uncertain.
Yes. This was ending today.
"I'm not even a white wolf."
"Yes, but you're a special breed, half white wolf half golden. Who knows, maybe that will help you hold up longer." She smiled at me.
I growled at her minion number one who had gotten too close into my five meter radius. She instantly stilled and hissed at me.
Sarah spoke up again. She and her minions floating a bit higher now, out of the reach of my hands. "you're rare, almost as rare if not even more than her." She said gesturing to the bubble beside me.
And then the bubble started to morph. Swiveling around the form of the old woman.
Swiveling around the form of the not-so-old lady, I realized, when I caught a short glimpse of her face.
I stumbled back.
When she was done doing whatever she was doing to the bubble she smiled. Because she knew what she was doing. She was distracting me.
But I didn't even care about her anymore.
I was frozen, staring at the woman. The woman who was still seemingly unconscious, fading fast and almost lifeless.
The woman I would be replacing.
The woman who sent me back when I almost died.
The woman whose picture lies in my drawer with her brown long wavy hair, her hair that was not white because of age or even for the fact that she'd been overused or drained. Her white hair that was so in her wolf state. In her white wolf state.
I'd stared at this face a million times in my worn out picture. I'd stared at this face even in the mirror.
I knew her.
I know her.
It's her. It's really her.
"Only fitting that you've come to replace your mother isn't it. Generational blood is always the strongest." Sarah cackled.
She was distracting me. Trying to throw me off. "One wolf supplying an entire tribe for so long and now she's wearing out."
Trying to rile me up and mess me up.
And it was working. Working very well.
All this time.
They've had her. She's been here. They orchestrated the attack on my pack not only to get rid of all their opponents but to kidnap a white wolf in the process.
They took her, they destroyed everything. Right from the get go they've manipulated everything to work for them.
I kept my eyes on the bubble, watching her unmoving form.
I could feel them approach me but I didn't move or stir.
They had her all this time. Draining her, every single day and now she's fading. They made me think I'd lost everyone and all this time they had her.
My mum.
Amara.
I know she kept this from me during our little negotiation just to use it against me.
To throw me off, mess me up and rile me up.
Well it worked.
I've officially lost it.
As soon as I felt minion number 1 in my radius again, I let the cold fire squeeze around my heart.
Before anyone could register it I leapt up and caught the wretched thing by her neck. I ripped into her jugular ignoring and somewhat even reveling in the burning sensation her blood left on my skin and tore her head clean off. More of the foul fishy smell lingering on me. I stuck my hand in her chest and also ripped her heart out for good measure before landing back in the ground. Her head falling and rolling a couple of feet away from us, her body falling limp straight down and her heart still in my hand. I looked at it, the greying fleshy glob with clear fluid and some dark pus around it beating one last time before it stopped. It was attached to another piece of flesh that was all burning my hand a bit like acid, maybe a part of her lung that followed as well? Who cares.
I dropped it to the ground.
The others that had approached me earlier were frozen in place. They looked cautious and scared. Sarah looked looked astounded and angry. But she also looked weary.
Good.
You wanted me mad. Well here I am.
Before they had the time to regroup and figure out why plans had changed and what was going on I grabbed minion number 2 at which point they all shadowed themselves. Disappearing from the scene.
Like I'd figured they'd do at some point.
But for the one in my grasp, it was too late. I couldn't see her, but I could feel her all around my hands as I dismembered and disemboweled her, at which point she became visible again, and I took her head off. Her body beginning to melt like the other one. Leaving behind the foul fish odor.
They don't vanish.
They just disappear. They cloak themselves to become invisible. They're all probably still here.
And if everything worked, then they all are definitely still here.
All at once I was attacked by the fouls stench of the rotting fish again before claws and fangs attacked me from all directions. With so many on me at once and me not really being able to see them I just clawed at whoever I could. I don't know if I was actually successful in killing anymore but I fought back with all I had.
I heard a choking sound above me as one fell to the ground, now uncloaked, writhing and holding her neck as dark fluid gushed out.
Others were still attacking me from all sides, cuts and bruises on my body healing as quickly as they're placed on me.
I used everything within me to ignore the assault of the others on me and focus on the one I could see now, and ripped her apart, making sure I crushed her heart in my fist.
I heard hissing all around me, all madder now at what I'd done.
Three down. And if my math was right, I'd have like nine more to go.
I was going to end this today. Even if it killed me.