"Zaniya!! “ I screamed as I bolted up right. Complete silence answered me. Zaniya! I screamed in my head.“Zaniya” I gasped. Something sunk in. Two things sunk in. Zaniya was really gone. And so was Melanie.
No one was here to stop my tears. Melanie wasn’t on my shoulder whispering its OK. Zaniya wasn’t at my side for me to bury my head in her fur and cry. Ferrara wasn’t rubbing my hand crying with me. Annabell wasn’t crying with me or pointing out the bright side. Jake wasn’t here to hold my hand and look into my eyes. The silence was nagging at my heart, pulling it apart even more.
I finally stopped crying and took in my surroundings. I whipped the tears away and looked around me. I was surrounded by trees. I wasn’t in the clearing. I was lost
Hours had past and I was still lost. The word echoed in my now lonely mind. I had no idea where I was. Salty tears streamed down my checks and beaded off my chin, some off my nose and on my lips.
I was drowsy, feint with hunger, and lonely. I couldn’t take another second. I wanted to black out and die. Anything was better than this. Look what had happened to the mighty protector. Fallen, crying, wolfless, lost. I was lying on the ferns to save myself from falling when I saw a wolf emerge from the forest, this wolf was too small for Zaniya, but I felt a tiny shred of hope, as I saw the familiar brown and black pelt of Zack, Jake’s wolf. I felt even more dizzy thinking their names. I saw the grayish fur of Tanya, and then the tannish fur of Spaz. I saw Ferrara, Jake and Annabell follow them closely, and they were followed closely by Lislette and Stella, Annabell and Ferrara's faeries. And then I hoped to die.
* * *
I moaned as the sunlight hit my face, waking me up.
“Trinity? Trinity are you ok? “Voices that belonged to people in my unfocused eyes asked me.
“What do you mean?” I asked the blurry people.
“Anna! Jake! Come over here!” Ferrara cried as I crossed my legs.
“Trin!” They both exclaimed as they stepped into the small room, they were clearly relieved for some reason.
“Guys? How did you find me? How long has it been? Where is Zaniya, is she OK?” the questions gushed out of my lips.
“We used the wolves, a week, Culpeper. And I’m not sure if I’d use the word okay...” Jake answered all my questions in one breath like I had asked them. My eyes scanned the clearing until I saw a large furry mass that looked familiar.
“Zaniya!” I cried. Zaniya had come back to me. My heart swelled with joy. As I reached her I slid to my knees holding my arms open wide for her to jump into them, waiting for my lost wolf to come to me, but she never came.
“Having fun?” a voice I really didn't want to hear asked. Zaniya’s face flickered with pain.
“Myla?” I asked, “How?” I was furious. Myla emerged from behind a tree and looked down at me (I was still on the ground).
“Well after somebody blacked out, your pathetic chief thought it cruel to send Zaniya away alone after she had come this far with you. And he realized how right you and Zaniya were. So he tried to wake you. But somebody never woke. So he dumped you in the woods. He was extremely unhappy with what he had done. He was horrified actually. So I offered to take the worthless mutt, much against Zaniyo’s approval.” She said in a singsong voice.
“Zaniya.” I growled.
“Whatever, so he said why not. So now, you need to face it. I’m the first wolf girl.” She finished her gloat and I thought I was coming to an end. With Zaniya feeling compelled to do whatever Myla asked her because of the bond, I was doomed.
“No! No! NOO!!” I screamed, furious. I balled my hand into a fist, and threw the punch at Myla. But I ended up punching air, looking like an idiot. Oh NO! She had Zaniya’s speed and strength. I was surly doomed.
“Ahhh. I’m faster and stronger than you’ll ever be. Ha.” She laughed in my face I couldn’t take it. Just kill me now! I thought.
“Zaniya, kill.” she instructed my lost wolf. Zaniya didn’t move. I was still her first choice. I had a chance I had to take.
“Face it Myla, I’m still Zaniya’s first choice. I will get her back. I will be the first wolf girl!”
“Me? Face what? Girly, get over it! You put this on yourself! Had you still been my best friend and ditched Annabel. Ferrara, you, and I would be best friends. So it’s all Annabell’s fault!” she said.
“Annabell is a better friend than you ever were! She didn’t make me choose! I saw the real you and I didn’t like it! If that’s how you treat your friends when you’re done with them then I’m so glad I’m not your BFF anymore!” I knew I was wasting time. She was going to kill me I knew it. What was I doing? Stretching out my misery? I had no hope!
“Quit dawdling! If Zaniya won’t kill you then I will!” she confirmed my fears as she bent her spine so she could jump at me. I gulped as I heard Annabell yell.
“Spaz! Go!” Spaz was a lightning as she raced over to where I was. She sprinted to where a shocked Myla stood, and pounced. Myla was down; she shoved Spaz off and stood up, only to be knocked down again by Tanya colliding with her stomach. While she was frozen with shock, she was made unconscious by Zack. With Myla unconscious Zaniya came over and licked my face.
“Oh, Zaniya!” I whispered, pressing my face in her fur.
“Trin! You’ll never guess what I found in my spell book!” AnnabelI asked, I was in no mood for one of her jokes, I looked up at her with sad eyes.
“A spell to get you Zaniya back!”
“No way! Really? How?!” I was so excited
“Ok! We need three witches, you, Ferrara, and I. The wolf seeker, that’s you. And the wolf holder, that’s Myla.”
“That’s great! Let’s do it now!”
“Here is the thing. Myla has to say it too…” I groaned. This was going to be harder than I thought.
“Oh come on its not that bad!” Jake said. I glared at him with my now gray eyes burning with grief, “Yea its bad.” he whispered
“Mhmm.” I mumbled
“Come on here is the spell.” Annabell said shoving her spell book in my face. “Wolf changing spell. Bottom left corner. Simple huh?” My depressing gray eyes directed themselves to the spell. Simple my butt. I couldn’t do this spell! I was new at this! I could hardly make fire! Most of the time I couldn’t!
“Oh I forgot! Ferrara, toss me my bag!” Now with Ferrara and Annabell the slightest of movements have great force. So when she gently tossed my bag I was sent to the ground from the impact of force.
“Sorry.” She mumbled. I unzipped the front pocket and pulled out two things, my pocket knife, and shocker.
“Which one?” I asked holding them both up.
“Shocker. As much as I regret it, we need her.” Annabell said. As on rare occasions she was right, we did need her.
“But if she’s dead…” I trailed off, lost in happy thought.
“Trinity!” Ferrara expressed, quite loudly too. She interrupted the happiest thought I’d had in a while. I crossed my arms. She crossed hers too. Myla groaned again and twitched her right leg.
“This will be the most fun I’d had in a week!” I whispered in Myla's ear. I turned my shocker on and jabbed her mouth and held it there. Smiling a demented, mental smile, that would have normally scared the crap out of me. But I didn’t care, I was having fun.
I didn’t take the shocker off until Jake grabbed my hand and pulled it off. His green eyes filled with worry. I glared. He looked even more worried. My sad, gray eyes were glowing, not a happy glow, but a mental glow. My vision blurred to auras, they were all immensely worried. I could tell Zaniya was extremely upset by what her leaving did to me, I felt bad for them. I felt great! My senses had a sharper more painful edge to them. I was better. I was still depressed; of course, I wouldn’t stop until I had Zaniya back. But I knew the truth, I was going insane. My life was officially over.
* * *
“That brat has to go! She’s been like this for a month! I’ve got the Insane Asylum’s number on the fridge. I’ve had it! She has to go! She’s upsetting Brandon with her depressed attitude!”
“Lilly, dearest, give Trinity time, she needs her friends to come home and she’ll be fine. And Brandon is eighteen. He should be able to stay alive until Annabell and Ferrara get back from their journey.”
“Don’t know why they didn’t take the brat with them! Then I’d be rid of her! And I bet you Brandon would be glad as well! No doubt that her father is somewhere out there just waiting for me to kick the girl out so that he can come and take her. That blasted man and his wolf haven’t even come to visit his children once since Brandy…….. Died!”
“Just have patience.” my grandfather warned her.
“Humph.” I always knew my mother didn’t like me, but I’m surprised that she was close to calling the Asylum about me! No doubt they would have said to bring the girl in.
I could have been a vampire for the way I looked. My lips were dead pale, my eyes a depressing shade of gray. My skin hand lost all color; I was now a pasty white. I hadn’t smiled in months, not even on my fourteenth birthday. My voice had lost all emotion, except pain and sadness. I sounded dead; my life was sad, dark and depressing. And the thought of the father I haven’t seen in seven years made it worse. I was the essence of melancholy, extreme melancholy.
My grandfather had said I needed my friends, and so right he was. Those were the people I needed to see the most. But they were off tracking down Myla, and getting the stuff we needed for the spell. Jake was the only person I would talk to. But I think I was starting to depress him. He still could get a twitch of the corner of my mouth. But no one except Zaniya and the missing Melanie could make me smile.
I should be in the Insane Asylum. I was insane and depressed anyway. The only people who would miss me would be my grandfather and Jake. But two people weren’t much. My mother would have said the little brat had it coming, and Brandon would love to use my room as a paint ball gun storage room, to come and gawk stupidly at his giant assortment, and to trash my walls where I had carefully painted Zaniya when she had still been here. I would stare at that picture for hours. After all, wolfen, mystical wolfey bonds don’t exist right, and neither did magic. But the people who told me that were wrong. I was made up of complete magic. I was a believer. I needed to get out of here, but I had no idea how.
The rain pounded hard outside my window, using the ground like drums. I stared out my foggy widow. I didn’t even flinch when the loud thunder shook the house and made Brandon scream. I inhaled the scent deeply, it had been much more fun using Zaniya’s senses. I put my head on my single thin pillow, and closed my eyes until I would wake up to another sad depressing day, in my life.