“So how do I look?” Jillian asked. I had just finished applying her lipstick. I am in no way good at applying make-up. Jillian, on the other hand is, which is why I didn't understand her reason for letting me apply the make-up. “I want to look good when we leave this place in our dust.”
“Uh...you look amazing!” I voice cracked. It was an unfortunate way to tell that I was lying. I bit my lip out of hesitation. This had to be my worst work yet.
“Great! Give me the mirror,” she beamed.
“Mirror?" I repeated.
“Yes, Mason, the mirror in your hand,” she chuckled.
“Oh, this mirror,” I looked down at it. I ' let her see herself. “It’s broken,” I placed it behind my back. She really didn’t need to see herself right now. I don't think she need to go into shock before we've even escaped.
"No it isn't," Jillian got up and grabbed the mirror before I could protest. As soon as she saw herself, a mixture of shock and more shock fell across her face. I swear I could make the most beautiful person on earth, the ugliest thing the devil has seen.
Like we had planned, we all went to our first class. We had to make ourselves seem like we were still going about our usual routine. As soon as class ended and everyone poured out into the halls were we’re going to start making our moves. Not long after, the halls were completely deserted. Angela and I went off while the others did their jobs.
I had to find Mrs. Bellows; the Headmistress was always in her office. Angela and I walked down the corridors looking for her. We went up and down three corridors before I spotted her talking to one of the staff. She looked like she was scolding him.
“You stay here,” I ordered Angela. "I don’t want her to see you. I’m going to go down another corridor. I’ll come back after I’ve trapped Mrs. Bellows and the Headmistress.”
Angela nodded and I approached Mrs. Bellows slowly.
She turned around to look at me and the staff guy that she was scolding tiptoed away. “Yes, do you need something? Why are you not in your second class?” she asked and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Is that all she cared about?
“Mrs. Bellows my name is Mason,” I said. “M-my friend is locked in a room. She had left her notebook and went back to get it. The door closed behind her and she couldn't get out,” I lied.
“What? Who’s locked in a room?” she asked. Her heels clicked against the floor fiercely as she followed me through the corridor. “The doors of this building do not lock from the outside. You should have been able to open the door for her.” We stop in front of a random door.
I shrugged like I didn’t know what she was talking about. “I don’t see anyone in here,” Mrs. Bellows scanning the room. “Who is supposedly locked in here?”
“You!” I pushed her in and closed the door behind her.
“Hello? Mason,” Mrs. Bellows banged on the door. The door could only open from the outside, so I thought that eventually someone would come and get her out. By then we should be long gone. As I walked away from the door, my palms started to sweat. I hope nothing goes wrong.
Now it was time for me to get the Headmistress. It shouldn’t be too hard. I led her back to the room Mrs. Bellows resided in. She could hear her banging on the door.
“What is this?” the Headmistress questioned. This was the most menacing I had seen her in my few days here.
“Mrs. Bellows got locked in there,” I lied as I pointed to the door. Mr. Bellows was still banging on the door. She walked up to the door then opened it. I quickly pushed her inside and closed the door behind her. I left before I could hear them shouting at me to let them out.
All I had to do now was get back to my room and get the bags. “Angela, let’s go,” I whispered. We hurried to my room with no signs of Keegan or any vicious dogs. I felt somewhat relieved, but not completely. We still had a lot to do. Everyone had a part to do. If one person didn’t do their job then we’re all screwed.
I grabbed everyone’s makeshift bags then left with Angela in tow. “Here,” I passed her some of the things. We just have to get to the back entrance.
“Where is everyone else?” Angela whispered. "They should be out here by now."
“They’re going to come as soon as their jobs are done,” I said as we jogged down the empty corridor, making sure t make our footsteps as quiet as possible.
“Mason?” I heard a familiar voice say. Angela and I both stopped in our tracks and went still. I turned and was face-to-shoulder with Noah. Not now Noah. I liked Noah, there was no denying that but this was a life or death situation. I chose life and if I stay here then I choose death. He could mess up everything.
“Noah,” croaked. “Uh, h-how are you doing?”
“I was looking for Mrs. Bellows but I can’t seem to find her, ” he asked glancing from me to Angela. "Have you seen her?"
“Nope,” I lied. I hated that I had to lie to him but we were running out of time. “I’ll see you later Noah. We’re really late for our second class,” I said as Angela gulped.
“I’ll see you in dance, okay?” he smiled. Oh, his smiled could make girls fall at his feet. It was just something so elegant yet dangerous about him. Stop it Mason, focus.
“I’ll be there,” I waved and Angela and I continued to jog down the halls. We finally reached the kitchen which was vacant for some reason. It didn’t matter anymore because once I saw that door I was in heaven. Freedom was just a little while away now.
“Come on,” I said to Angela who now had the look of happiness on her face. I opened the door slowly and was immediately blasted with heat and the smell of nature. It was wonderful. I’ve never felt so happy to smell the outdoors. Being cooped up in a building for weeks is no place for a werewolf.
“We made it!” Angela whispered/screamed.
“Not yet, we have to find the others then were home free,” I smiled as I ducked under a tree branch.
I saw Caroline and Jillian running through the door a few minutes later. They spotted us then took both mine and Angela's hand. They dragged us behind the side of the building. Less than a minute later, a big, hard looking guy came out.
All five of us stood against the wall not breathing. The slightest sound or movement could get us caught. The guard stood outside the door sniffing the air. He smelled us but couldn’t see us. There were hundreds of girls in the academy so smelling us wasn’t our problem, it was getting pass him.
“Jillian! I thought you had Keegan and his idiot sidekicks covered?” I whispered.
“I thought so too,” she looked at me like her eyes were going to pop out of her head. “What are we going to do?” she started panicking.
“We’re going to have to extend the plan a little,” I said. “Just go with whatever I do. Jillian, hold the bags.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t do something stupid Mason,” Angela whispered. "It's not worth it."
I ignored her and walked out from behind the building. I picked up a large rock, held it behind my back, and then I stood in front of the guard. I wasn’t too close where he could reach out and grab me, but close enough to hit him.
He smirked at me, “Well, who do we have here? Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Um,” I twirl a few strand of my hair. “I got lost,” I giggled. If he’s anything like Keegan then he would love to show me back to my room. "Can you take me back to my room?"
“Sure sweet thing,” he rubbed his chin and smiled wickedly. He walked up to me and squeezed the big rock behind my back. I just need him to turn around to get a good hit.
Suddenly, the back door to the building few open and Sammy came running out. Four dogs were chasing after her. Although I don’t think I could even call them dogs. They were at least six feet tall and their eyes were pitch black, void of any color other than black. They were Rottweiler but not quite normal. It was like they were some kind of beasts. Buckets of droll pooled from their mouth as they flicked their gigantic tongues out across their lower jaws.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” the guys turned his attention to Sammy and the dogs. “Where’d you come from?”
This was just what I needed. I lift the large rock above my head and lowered it down on the guy’s head. He crumpled to the ground and fell unconscious. The only thing left now were the dogs. The very big, menacing dogs that could eat us all in one bite. I can't believe they just came from the house.
“What h-happened t-to t-the meat S-Sammy?” I stuttered as I circled around her. I couldn't even fake bravery at this moment. I was having a staring contest with one of the dogs and he was winning.
“T-they a-ate it a-all,” she swallowed loudly. The dogs walked closer to us as we stepped backwards. I wanted to make a break for it, but I knew they would catch us.
Then as if our unspoken prayers were answered, someone threw a hug net over the dogs. They struggled inside it and as a result they got tangled. It wouldn’t be long until they got out. We had to go…now.
Then as if the world had a hit out on us, I could hear Keegan voice from the building. He was coming…fast. I just didn’t need this right now; nothing was going according to the plan.
“Okay, let’s go, let’s go!” I clapped my hand together. We all took off into the wood at high speed. “We’ll shift in a little while. We haven’t eaten much today so being in our wolf form will have to be a last resort.”
“Okay,” each of them said as they zipped pass me.
*
*
An hour Later…
We've been running for too long now. We had to take two breaks and still we seem to be lost. We were all getting frustrated. "You sure we going the right way Sammy?" I asked panting. A burning sensation was settling in my calves.
"Sydney said that when she came back to the academy she got to the end of the forest until they found her. She said you look for red marks."
"What red marks?!" Angela snapped. "There are no fucking red marks!"
"Yes there is, look!" Sammy pointed down at a rock with really dark red mark across it. If she hadn’t of pointed it out, I would have missed them. "See, I know what I'm doing. We just have to follow the marks then we'll be okay."
"Fine," I sighed. "Everybody shift!" I ordered.
Our bodies constricted and our bones snapped. Then, instead of five girls, we were now five wolves. Jillian’s dark brown wolf stood behind me while Sammy’s white and Angela’s gray wolf stood on my left. Caroline’s whitish-gray wolf stood to my right. My black fur bristled all over my body then I took off running with the others in tow. I remembered to keep looking down at the rocks.
We ran through the woods dodge anything in our way and making sure to see every rock with a red mark on them. Soon we couldn’t run in our wolves anymore. Our paws were hurting and my breathing was sporadic.
I figured it was time to stop when Jillian ran ahead of us and incidentally ran into a tress. She shifted back writhing in pain. Then we all shifted and ran over to her. “Ow, ow, ouch!” she cried.
Her jaw was swollen and a little blood seeped from the side of her lip. I touched her jaw and she flinched. “Open your mouth!” I ordered. She opened her mouth but I didn’t see anything too serious. “Okay let’s go, you’re going to be fine. It’s going to heal in no time.”
We picked up running again, but I could see Jillian lagging behind. “Come on Jillian. We can’t slow down now,” I said breathlessly. “Run!”
“I’m trying Mason. I’m so tired. We’ve been running for hours now. It has to be past twelve o’clock now. Mason we’re not going to make it. Sammy’s aunt’s already probably gone by now.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I said. “We have to keep moving. Even if Sydney is gone, we still have to get the hell out of here. We can’t turn back Jillian.”
“If we go back and explain maybe they’ll just punish us. I could talk to Keegan. I’m sure I could talk him out of killing us. We just need to go back now while we can. Once they see that we went back willingly, they’ll give us a break.”
“Yeah right, like you talked him out of chasing us. Real help that was,” Caroline said sarcastically. “As soon as we got outside they were on our tails.”
“That’s wasn’t my fault!” Jillian shouted at Caroline.
“Oh really? It seems kind of odd how they knew exactly when and where we were going. We almost got caught back there,” Caroline accused.
“Yeah, I know, but it wasn’t my fault. He just didn’t take the bait,” Jillian defended herself.
“Shut up!” I clenched my teeth and shouted. “What is wrong with you Jillian? We go back, we die. They won’t understand. Have you forgotten what happened to us at that place? We’re dispensable to them. They have hundreds of other girls. There's only four of us. We won’t be missed,” I wiped angrily at a few tears that escaped my eyes.
“I can’t do this Mason, I just can’t. We can go back now and everything will go back to normal. Getting a mate isn’t the worst thing to happen, right?”
“Jillian, what are you saying?” Sammy asked while trying to contain her heavy breathing. “You know as well as any of us that if we get caught, we’re going to die. There’s no asking for forgiveness or them ‘just’ punishing us.”
“I’m going back,” she said panting. “I can’t do this. It was stupid for us to even try. No one can escape this.”
Jillian started running away. I was getting angry, really angry. What was all of this for? We wanted our freedom, freedom to choose who we want to love. I couldn’t believe that she was giving up on us now. This can’t be happening.
“You guys keep going. I’m going to go after her. I can change her mind. Sammy, I just hope your aunt hasn’t left yet,” I said to Sammy, Caroline, and Angela who all look exhausted. “Shift and run as far as you can. We’ll catch up.”
“You sure?” Angela asked looking a little pale.
“Yes,” I said sternly. “I can’t just leave her. Keegan has to still be on our trail. It’s not going to be long until his dogs catch up to us.”
“Just leave her,” Caroline said. “She decided to just flake out on us now. Who does that? I’m not dying because she can’t handle this.”
“I’m not asking you to. I’m going back alone. Just me. I want you all to keep going. If Jillian and I don’t make it, I want to at least have some happiness in knowing that you three got out,” I said then ran in the direction in which Jillian left.
“Jillian!” I called. “Jillian please, we have to keep going. Don’t do this now. I thought you believed in me Jillian. I thought you had faith in me,” I shouted while breathing hard. I kneeled over trying to catch my breath. My lungs were burning and my chest was throbbing, but I had to get to her before they did.
“I do believe in you,” she said while coming out from behind a tree in front of me. “I just don’t want to die Mason. I don’t want to die here,” she sobbed. “I want to be able to see my family again. I want to see my baby brother again.”
“You don’t think I want to see mine too? Jillian, you’re not the only one with family. I miss mine too. That’s why I am doing this, to see them again. You have a choice. If you stay here, they will find you. They will kill you or auction you. If you come with me, we could have a chance.
“I-I don’t know,” she look behind her then back at me. “We could get caught no matter what.”
“There always a ch—”
I was quickly cut off when we hard barking sounds. Keegan and his goons were gaining on us. Those dogs were going to rip us to shreds. If we were going to have any chance of escaping, we needed to leave now. There was no time for her to be indecisive. We needed to act fast.
“Come with me,” I held my hand out to her hastily. After a few seconds of hesitation she took my hand and we were off.
We were running so fast that the sweat that coated my skin was starting to get cold. My dress was sticking to my back and branches were scratching at my legs. I pushed Jillian ahead of me when I heard the dogs even closer behind me.
“Run…run…run!” I shouted at Jillian. “Keep going; do not look back at me.”
“Mason, the dogs are catching up,” Jillian she said panting.
“I don’t care don’t look back. Keep going,” I ordered. Jillian began tripping up and all I could do was keep telling her to keep going. No matter how many cut and bruises we get on our feet, it will be nothing compared to what we could get if we get caught. The only thing on my mind was getting her back to the others safely. At this point, I didn’t care about my life anymore; it was all about getting my friends out safely.
Jillian and I jutted pass branches, hopped over logs and dodged hanging vines. We were making our way to the others. I could even smell them, but everything change when one little gunshot went off. Neither one of us saw it coming.
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There’s a traitor among these friends. Do you know who it is? Find out in the next chapter.