Chapter 3
A Cry for Pride
“Destiny can eat shit and die.
If I can't achieve something, I will cry for pride.”
~ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D~
Fifty long lonely years had passed since the Black Night, and never once did he step out of his restraints. He was not able to. After the incident, the witches thought it would be in everyone’s best interest to seal away the remnants of energy where a supernatural massacre had occurred. However, when this happened, he too was sealed away; forever trapped as some lone spirit haunting the fragments of his past.
But now he was free…
Slowly, he reached the outskirts of the forest and with his keen vision, he noted the streets ahead. Only one step separated him from liberty.
Would he really be able to take it?
Again, he watched the world in front of him. It was like looking into a magical mirror. On one side there was the world he longed for that changed with every passing minute—and on the other side was him—stuck in an unchanging realm with nothing but the company of his solitude.
He tried a countless amount of times to break through the constraints that bound him to the forest. The place that once was his home, but was now just a piece of his horrid past. It was no longer a home. He had lost sight of that the moment his pack was slaughtered byt the hunters, who turned the forest into a grave.
Hesitantly, he lifted his foot, as if afraid that he would do it wrong, and quickly slammed it down on the other side.
It was ecstasy. A feeling he had not felt in fifty years. A simple motion, yet it made everything right. The breeze tickled his body, as if welcoming him to the world that had taunted him for so long.
‘It worked!’ and just like that freedom had been delivered to him.
The day was just starting, and he smirked to himself as if he and the sun shared an inside joke. He gave no mind to the passing car that sped before him, and he should have, since he was completely naked.
Nevertheless, his joy was beyond his own reasoning as he just gave in and morphed back to his true form. With a powerful leap, he crossed the road before him and ran into the unfamiliar forest that he had been unable to enter for so long.
Though, before he completely let himself go, he turned one final time to stare back at the woods that had harbored him. His prison, his family’s grave and the place he once called home. As painful as it was to have been forced to endure such a torment, he could not find himself to loathe the forest, and as he looked back into its gloomy density of trees, he imagined how it used to be. A time long lost to the wages of war and hatred.
A whimper started to form in his throat when his mind tricked him. Seeing a snow white wolf, running around in a playful manner alongside another dark black one, was all he could take. He could never truly face the memories of his sister and father, for he had survived unlike them. Somehow, he felt guilty that he had not found Paradise along with his brethren.
Running was the only peace he ever really had. It was what allowed him to truly feel free, and as he did this, his mind was able to push past his painful memories to formulate his next move.
‘Get clothes; reach the city where that witch lives and then we’ll see from there.’ Determined, he felt invincible as if nothing could stop him.
‘For my family I will find peace before reaching Paradise…’
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She was running late again. Every Tuesday was the same. She would get up make breakfast and then right before the first bite the call came.
‘Every damn Tuesday, why every Tuesday…?’ She thought in frustration as she drove furiously down the empty road.
It was really early almost around six a.m., but given the hour drive before her, she was late.
Sighing at her current situation, she decided to ignore the mission beforehand and focus more on the new city she was about to relocate to.
The Hillsides were a quiet place to live in and very peaceful, nothing ever really happened. The forest around you was always the best tranquilizer, but now she was going to live in a city again, which meant no forests and no tranquility.
‘Let’s see how it goes.’ She tried to make the best of things while letting the car take its own pace down the sloped road, occasionally hitting the breaks when needed.
Suddenly, something caught her eye.
Through the corners, she could make out a young man standing on the side of the road—completely naked! She could clearly see his dark black hair shining under the glow of the sunrise, but then it was all she could see. A black raven stream of hair—no—of fur. She was in too much of a shock to even realize that she he had not been looking at the road anymore.
Suddenly, she turned roughly and yelped before it was too late. She had crashed right into a tree. Luckily for her, the airbags kicked in and nothing but a slight headache happened to her. Feeling a bit dizzy, she stepped out of the car, took out her cell phone, and dialed a very familiar number.
“Yeah, it’s me…Claire…um well, I have a bit of a predicament…” and as soon as Claire started telling the person her situation, loud yells and screams started to emerge from the phone.
She apologized repeatedly and promised to never let it occur again, but it was futile. The help was refused.
“Get to the school yourself! A vampire was killed and we need you to cover up the evidence now!” and with that the man on the other side of the line, who seemed to be her superior, slammed the phone.
Claire sighed in a tired manner as she just shrugged off everything she was told.
“I just hope no one takes my stuff.” She said to herself slightly annoyed.
Not wanting to waste any more time, she scanned the area to see if anyone was nearby, mainly to see if there were any wolves around. When she was certain she was alone, Claire took in a deep breath and instantly transformed.
She grew smaller in size as she spread her wings and took flight. Blending in was the easiest part as any person who would notice her would only see a common city hummingbird.
It was the perfect disguise.
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The city was noisy and clustered. A lot had changed since fifty years, and everywhere he looked, the people seemed as if the Black Night never even happened.
Instinctively, he remembered the famous American tale that was quite popular back then. The old story of Rip van Winkle, and for the first time, he felt like he understood the poor old man.
Oakhurst was not the most amazing city, but even in the past, it was growing and changing. The last time he saw the town; he was just a little pup. Also, since he had much more than fifty years walking on the face of the earth, the changes were drastic. The houses seemed almost unreal, as if they were toys made of some plastic material. All of them were uniformly aligned, following a horizontal sequence, and they seemed closer to each other, as if they were one in the same.
At least getting the clothes was easy enough. Apparently, if the humans believed you were injured and alone they would give you all the facilities.
He tried to blend in the best way possible, and it seemed to be working. The clothes, which he had managed to get, were simple enough. A casual plain white V-neck shirt along with a pair of khaki cargo pants. Foot wear was the most unbearable to him.
‘Why would humans enjoy wearing these horrible things?’ He thought to himself as he felt his toes very restrained.
Still, it was something he could get used to, but it would take him some time.
“Oh my goodness! Stop, please! Help, someone help me!” In an instant, a cry caught his attention. Looking up and away from his feet, he noticed a group of people up ahead.
Apparently, one of the humans was calling out to the others, or so he thought. Upon closer observation, he noticed people surrounding a crying lady.
Something had happened to make her cry, but what? Looking past her, he noticed another one of the humans fleeing the scene, making it obvious for him who the culprit was.
Immediately, he remembered what would have happened if a pack member attacked his or her fellow kin. Almost instinctively, he snarled and ran inhumanly towards the fleeing man. With one leap, he managed to easily land on him. He had grabbed his back roughly with his palms, surprising the man and causing him to lose his balance.
In an animalistic manner, he crouched on top of the thief’s back, as he curiously eyed the object in his victim’s hand. The man never stopped his cries and complaints of the heavy boy. It was a pink pouch of some leathery texture, and as he grabbed it to get a better look, someone approached him.
“Oh my god, thank you so very much!” It was the crying woman from before. Her eyes looked relieved, as her face lit up when she saw him holding the object.
She was an older looking woman, but obviously not older than he was, even if her appearance said otherwise. Her eyes were so soft and tender that they seemed incapable of a scowl. She looked at him happily, as she went to take the object out of his hands. He did not fight her, but instead, he curiously watched.
“Get the fuck off uh me!” The man yelled in anger.
“It’s ok sir, we can take it from here, and thank you for your courageous gesture.” This time, a uniformed person had approached him, and that’s when he realized that almost every other human had stopped to view what had happened.
It made him uneasy, but he just acted naturally. He said nothing as he stood from the man he had pinned down. While doing this, he shook the police officer’s hand and turned to listen to what the woman had to say.
“I’m so grateful that you would go out of your way to get my purse back.” Apparently, the weird object was called a purse.
“Yes, well no one else seemed to do anything about it.” He spoke, and for the first time, he heard the sound of his own human voice in fifty years.
The woman smiled, but his words seemed to annoy some of the observing people, making them go back to their own business.
“Um…what’s your name?” She asked sweetly.
“Exsavior.”
“Oh, what an exotic name, I’m Lily, pleased to meet you, Exsavior.” She said with a smile.
Exsavior nodded in acceptance, not knowing what else to say.
There seemed to be a short silence making its way between them, so Lily immediately spoke to break it.
“Listen; could you do me one more thing?” When Exsavior nodded, she continued.
“I was hoping that maybe you could accompany me home. I feel a little bit jumpy after that incident, and it would mean a lot if you joined me. My house isn’t far just a few blocks down.” She said.
Exsavior thought about it for a minute. In reality, he had no clue as to where he was going or how to find the witch, so just as his father had taught him, he accepted her request.
A wary wolf in a big city can only survive by going from human to human. That was the way of his pack, and he was taught to always be available for lending a hand. In return, he would receive hospitality or at least that’s how it worked fifty years back.
‘Thank god that hasn’t changed.’ He thought to himself.
The way to Lily’s house was not far as she had said, but it was a good enough distance for her to talk all the way there. He did not mind it much as long as he could keep quiet.
“You know you’re really going to love my son. You too are very similar, both having that dark black hair—only his is cut shorter—and that smoldering look that could melt the heart of any girl.” Lily was obviously very proud of her son.
“How old are you Exsavior?” She asked curiously.
Exsavior paused before answering, he knew that his real age would come as a shocker to her, so he just started to subtract some of the years off the fifty he had in the forest.
“Seventeen…” He said in hopes that she would believe it.
“Oh, you’re the same age as my son, but he’ll be eighteen soon and you can’t imagine how excited he is.” And there she went again, babbling on about her son and her life.
Exsavior sighed when he managed to dodge another question. Apparently, he was no good with numbers, so he just remembered the age his father told him to tell the humans. Almost smiling to himself, he remembered the musings he and his kin would have with the made up stories.
In his time, Exsavior and his friends and pack members would always joke around, creating eccentric stories of fictional characters that were supposed to be themselves just for amusement. Of course, they were not allowed to actually use them in a real situation. The stories and lies needed to be plausible.
Luckily enough, his archaic lie seemed to still work.
“Oh, we’re here!” said Lily, breaking Exsavior out of his musings.
A weight seemed to have been lifted when she said those words. He was just so eager to get away from her. Keeping up the façade was harder than he thought.
Unfortunately, the weight came crashing down on him again when Lily opened the door and spoke, “Come on in.”
Exsavior sighed and obeyed. Where else did he have to go anyways?
“Mom, finally you're home, what the hell happened?” Her son was the first person that greeted them.
“Oh David, thank god you haven’t left for school yet. I’d like you to meet Exsavior,” and just like that he was put on the spot once more.
Exsavior stood before David, and strangely enough they were very similar. Exsavior had the darkest black hair with bangs that almost covered his eyes; it was a perfectly un-tame head of hair. Whereas, David had the same color hair but cut short just as Lily had said. It was combed backwards in a neatly fashion.
Their eyes were what Exsavior found the most eerie. His were brown in human form and David had blue eyes, but the weird part was that the pupils were shaped differently, similarly to his own.
Both boys seemed fit but Exsavior was slightly taller.
“Um, nice to meet you man, I’m David.” He said a bit suspiciously as he shook Exsavior’s hand.
For some strange reason, a testosterone filled tension fell upon them.
Exsavior picked up on it easily, but he doubted that David had.
“Exsavior was the one who saved me today.” and just like that all attention was taken off Exsavior.
David turned to face his mother in shock. “Saved you from what?” He asked in dread.
“Oh, it was nothing—some guy tried to take my purse, but Exsavior pinned him down and recovered it.” Lily said smiling, as she went to put her things down on the counter.
“Mom, this is serious; you could have been hurt.” David said as he followed after his mother.
There he was alone in an unfamiliar town, inside the house of some strange humans.
‘How the hell did this happen?’ He thought to himself.
He was about to sit down, when all of a sudden, he picked up a familiar presence. In suspicion, he turned to face the door. The bell rang, and almost ominously, he approached it.
“Exsavior, can you please get the door?” Lily seemed to be the trusting kind and that was obviously why David was so worried about her.
‘Trust can get you killed…’ He thought as he slowly turned the knob. When he flung the door open, an awkward silence fell over the room.
It was her.
“Um hi, who are you?” Said the girl, unsure of whom he was. It was the same witch from the forest who had set him free.
Half of him wanted to rip her apart since she would never see it coming, but the other side of him opted against it. Her eyes stared at him, and it only took her a few seconds to let him know that she knew who he was. They squinted with an invisible threat behind them.
“Oh Isabel, this is Exsavior. I’d tell you how we met, but it’s a long story and you guys have to get going now.” Lily said, as she pushed an objecting David out the door towards Isabel.
“I’m sure it’s an interesting story,” said Isabel, eyeing Exsavior menacingly.
Exsavior, not being able to control his laughter, smirked at Isabel. He knew she was nervous and that gave him an edge.
“Ok, why are you guys taking so long?” Someone else approached them.
Instantly, Exsavior forgot everything that had been going on. His eyes became fixated. Her beautiful brown locks of hair and her green emerald eyes—it was the same girl he had met before the witch. He could easily recognize her scent of moon flowers that somehow became imprinted in her skin—her flawless perfect porcelain skin. She mesmerized him with her simple stride until her eyes fell on him.
Naturally, she had no idea who he was, and it took everything in him not to tell her. How could he? Where would he even begin to describe who he was and how she made him feel?
“Who’s this?” She asked addressing him as ‘this.’
He was about to speak and introduce himself, but was robbed of the chance.
“This is Exsavior, Mia, and I’ll tell you how we met later. Now, you all have to get to school.” Again Lily butted in, and before Exsavior could get a word out to Mia, Isabel smirked at him and spoke.
“Yes, we have to leave. You guys go wait in the car. I’d like to ask Exsavior something.”
Lily was about to object, but Exsavior spoke.
“I would like to speak to you alone as well, and I’m glad to have met you, Mia.” Instantly, Mia looked at him when he addressed her. It was as if he tried to tell her everything with his stare.
“Likewise.” Mia said unsure of what else to say.
“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Said Lily, as Exsavior stepped outside and followed Isabel to the front yard. Meanwhile, David and Mia just sat in the car, trying their best to listen in.
“What’s your game?” Isabel said a bit loudly.
Exsavior looked at her weird.
“Don’t worry; talk all you want. They can’t hear us.” She said, understanding his confusion.
“Another witch thing, I presume.” He said in wonder.
“Yes, another witch thing, now talk or I’ll do my other witch thing. Remember, the same one from last night.” She said impatiently.
Exsavior smirked defiantly.
“I’ll call your bluff. You can’t do it not in front of them, and I’m stronger now that I’m free. Besides, if you wanted to kill me, you would have the other night. So I think the question is; what is your game?” He countered, devilishly.
Isabel glared at him, but Exsavior knew he had her there. “You’ll find out soon why, but like I said before you tried to kill me. You’re in danger and so am I.”
He acted as if he was thinking about what she had just said. “So you want us to work together.” Exsavior stated rather than asked.
“Yes.” She said forcedly.
“I can take care of myself. Besides, I don’t have any interest in starting a war with the Order. Unless you haven’t noticed they outnumber us.” He said condescendingly.
“Well you’re going to have to care, whether you like it or not. Another Black Night is about to go down, so this is not just about the Covenant, which is how the ‘Order’ goes by nowadays.” Her statment made him stoic.
Exsavior’s smirk died instantly. “What are you talking about?” He said, not being able to fully digest the information.
Isabel sighed, but before she could say anything, the sound of the car horn interrupted them.
“Isa, we’re going to be late. Hurry up!” Mia pressured.
Exsavior looked at her again in an obvious fixation, but only obvious to Isabel.
Narrowing her eyes, she spoke. “Ok, I’ll be right there.” She said back to her, and as she started to make her way to the car, she spoke to Exsavior once more.
“All you need to know is that someone is planning another uprising.” She paused and looked back at Mia and then shifted back to him. Her face bared an all-knowing smirk, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Oh, and if you came here for her, your out of luck. I won’t let you get anywhere near her.” She said firmly.
Once again, Exsavior just smirked at her threat. “I didn’t. Wolves cry for their pride remember.” He said defiantly.
Isabel did not react negatively to this, instead she spoke, “Well, maybe we can merge both of ours to fight this impending doom.” and with that, she got inside the car and left with the rest of her friends.
‘Yeah, my cry for pride…’ He thought in reminisce as he watched the humans leave him to his thoughts.
The Cry for Pride was something that empowered the wolves when they’ve been bested—just another one of the moon children’s abilities.