She tried for months to find any information she could about the necklace, werewolves, and whatever else she could think of that would be helpful.
For the necklace, there wasn't one book in the house that mentioned it or what kind of magic came from it. Well, there was a children's book that mentioned it but she doubted it was related. She tried to find it and steal it but Sandy was determined to wear it every day and Mackenzie was not chancing the thrashing that would come if she was to rip it off of her.
She was having better luck with understanding the world that she was brought into. She would sneak into the office and steal books on a nightly base. The walls were lined with them, all about the different creatures out there in the world. She has studied about witches, vampires, shifters, hunters, and so much more. She learned that silver burned werewolves, and for weeks she tried to find one thing silver, anything silver. But even she knew that chances were slim, a werewolf house will make sure not to keep any of that around. But she was still fascinated, Harry Potter wasn't just a fantasy these creatures were real life. But even with all this reading she still didn't know how to defeat them.
During the last few months, Victor has increased her role as the training dummy. Every day for two hours she would take every hit, bite, and tackle. Apparently, at Sandy's grand half birthday, the alpha announced that at his son's twenty-first birthday anybody strong enough will take the role as Alpha, challenging not only his son but every male in the pack. The winner of the fight becoming the new Alpha.
But dealing with training sessions was all worth it because tonight all of the family will be out supporting Derrick in the fight. They will be gone for hours and will come back to find her missing.
"Alright, wait thirty minutes and then take the back door. Now run that way for about an hour and a half and from there you will find a river. Thankfully it is summer so it won't be too cold, but it is still night time so there will be a chill to it. Let the river take you for as long as you can stand it if you reach a lake then perfect. Try to cross the lake and a small little town of humans live there. From there do whatever you can to get the hell of this state." Jasmine said they were down in the basement sitting in the dark whispering to each other.
"Jasmine hurry up." They heard Michelle shout from upstairs.
"Good luck, and here's to never seeing you again," Jasmine said giving Mackenzie a hug. With her, at the tournament, they couldn't blame her for Mackenzie's escape. Nobody dies, nobody gets beaten, and finally, Mackenzie will be free.
"Thank you for everything," Mackenzie said, she let the tear fall down her cheek but for the first time in a long time, it was a tear of joy. "Bye," Mackenzie whispered as she watched Jasmine run up the stairs. She could hear them lock her basement door but she prepared for that. When she had a moment this morning she loosened the door on its hinges, so all she had to do was give it a mighty pull. She could hear the front door lock and she started to count. She counted to over 5000 before she ran up the stairs and with an easy pull the door falls to the ground. She doesn't care about the crashing noise just jumped over it to the back door. She wasn't prepared for it to be locked. Jasmine was supposed to unlock it before she left. Maybe she forgot or the parents went around and relocked all the doors. She threw her body at it but it wouldn't budge, and as she knew from past experience she wouldn't be able to take it down. It's alright though she had a plan B. She ran up the stairs into the office. Every night she would sneak into here looking for books, but tonight she was looking out the window.
The office was huge with books lining the walls, a giant desk in the middle with a desktop, and a giant chair. She ignored every thought but the window. It was big, taking up most of the wall, the view was beautiful. You could see the forest surrounding the house, the flowers blooming in the moonlight, and millions of stars in the sky. This house was truly was in the middle of nowhere.
She went over to the drawers to grab a blanket wrapping herself around it. "This is going to hurt." She said to herself before running full force at the window. Even with the blanket, she can feel the glass shear through it cutting at her arms. She dropped to the ground with a thump. She lands on her legs, feeling a snap in her ankle. Pain shoots up her leg, she bites down on the blanket holding in her scream. She knows it broken, but she isn't stopping. She quickly glanced up to see the window completely broken from the second story, but she didn't stay too long. She dropped the blanket and started running towards the forest. She favored her right side and her run turned more into a version of a deformed skip, but she reached the trees in no time. After six months of barely eating she could already feel herself growing tired but she knew she had to keep moving forward.
She had made it about an hour her pace now a slow limp she used the trees to keep her up. She heard a couple of howls behind her and she knew it was the werewolves from the tournament. It sounded like multiple howls at once so she assumed the tournament was over. She needed to get the river but she wasn't sure how much farther it is. She could hear water, but she knows she needs to keep going forward. She heard another howl but this time it is much closer, she picks up her speed again. She could feel the sweat trickle down her back and her breaths were becoming shallow. She heard a twig snap and she turned to see the wolf that has been haunting her for months. Derrick, he was covered in blood snarling at her. She backed up hitting a tree.
"Just let me go." She cried. He growls at her before lunging at her he goes for her face but she throws her arm out in front, his teeth grabbing hold of her left arm. She screams falling to the ground with him on top of her. She tries to pull against him, but his teeth sink further into her arm. Her right arm grabs at the ground trying to find anything to hit him with. She finally feels something other than dirt, a jagged rock. She brought it up smashing it onto the top of Derrick's head. He let go with a whine and backed up shaking his head out. She turned over trying to crawl away. She made it about a foot away before she felt knives cutting into the crevice of her neck. Derrick had his paw holding her down, biting down hard tasting the blood gush out her. She screamed before dropping her head into the dirt and puddle of blood started to pour around her. Her vision was becoming blurry, black spots covering her view. She just wanted it to be over. She took a deep breath of relief when he finally let go and took his weight off of her, but she could barely stay awake the pain being too much for her to handle.
"Fuck," Derrick said, he has turned back to human form and was staring at the girl in front of him. "Fucken hell," Derrick said again, sending a kick to Mackenzie, she whines but it was a soft one. "It is just not my night," Derrick said mostly talking to himself. "First Gage beats me as alpha, and now my bitch that I was going to fuck tonight is dead. Fuck this." Derrick said sending another kick to her. This time she doesn't whine, she just lays there silent. Derrick looks her over one more time before shrugging his shoulders and walking away. He understood that it was far enough away from his parent's property that nobody would ask or bother them about it. No need to clean up or hide the body. They did have to fix that window tomorrow before anybody could ask questions about that. "Fuck my life sucks," Derrick said before morphing back into a wolf and running back to the house.
Mackenzie just laid there for an hour going in and out of consciousness. She brought up her right arm, trying to place it under her. She needed to get up before somebody found her. She could barely feel her left arm, but she was determined to keep moving. She pushes against the ground, she makes it about an inch before she falls flat. Her head splashing in a puddle of blood, she spits out not wanting to swallow any of her blood. She lays for a moment, watching the tears fall down and splash little droplets into the puddle. She takes a deep breath and pushes again with her arm, she makes it about a foot before a scream echoes in the air. It takes her a second to realize it was coming from her. The pain was scouring across her body. She felt like millions of little knives were cutting her from the inside out. She screamed again, curling into herself in pain. She felt a snap on her left arm and then the right. Next came her back, everything was breaking inside of her. She didn't understand what was happening, she felt like she was on fire.
"Stop please." She said before everything went black.
She opened her eyes to find a giant paw under her. She tried to step away from it but the paw followed. She felt different, no pain anymore. She didn't have time to worry about what was going on, she stood up, well on all fours and took off. She was a lot faster than she was earlier, she could smell the river right away and realized earlier she was going the wrong way. She started sprinting the other way towards the river. She still had to get to the river. She heard a growl behind her, she keeps moving forward not turning this time. This time Derrick won't catch her.
The growl comes again and this time it is on her right side, she can see from the side that it wasn't Derrick, but a giant black wolf. She wasn't sure if the wolf was trying to play with her or attack her. But all she knew was that she had to keep running. She veers left running through the trees. The wolf follows but he is following behind, he howls at her but she just picks up her pace again.
She could feel the air going in and out of her chest. Her breaths becoming shorter and shorter, but she had to keep going had to keep running. She could feel the dirt underneath her, the trees brushing against her side, and she can hear the echo of footsteps behind her.
She just needed to go faster, she can't go back, she won't. At least not after the last few months she has had.
She can no longer feel the presence of the wolf, she turns her head slightly to not see the wolf anymore but regrets it immediately. She didn't see the cliff in the dark. She tries to stop but with how fast she was going she can't help but fly off the cliff. The river thirty feet below her. She falls splashing in the water, her paws trying to doggy paddle but it was too confusing, she needed to be human again. It was cold, her whole body shivering, the current becoming too much for. Human is all she can think. She can swim if she is human. She shivers one more time before she sees her normal hand in front of her. She starts to swim with the current, able to stay on top of it now. She doesn't want to swim to the edge just yet, afraid that the family or the wolf will come back. She needed to keep to the river until she reached the lake. Even with the hiccups, she had to stick to the plan. She had to survive.
She was growing tired and the cold was becoming too much she kept moving. She was lucky enough to find a floating log, she pulled herself up clinging to it. She didn't know how long she was on the log for but finally, she saw a lake in sight, it was smaller than what Jasmine described but it was her destination. She let go of the log swimming to the right to reach land. She pulled herself up the sand, nothing but trees in sight. It was still dark but the air was humid, warming her up from the river. She needed to rest, and during the day she needed to find clothes and the town. She crawled up to the dry part of the sand, pushing the sand up from a pillow and resting her head.
"Just an hour or two of rest," Mackenzie said to herself, sleep consuming her fast.