Chapter 3 : Friend or foe

MAXINE. I thought I knew pain. I watched my mother die right before my eyes when I was young, attacked by something neither of us had seen coming. Watching her plead for help and knowing I couldn’t offer her anything was the most excruciating thing I have ever experienced. It was physical, not just emotional. Everything inside me was crushed. I could almost feel my bones cracking. The look in her eyes, her voice… it was my torture. But at the same time, that pain had been my company for ten years now, a familiar presence, nothing to be afraid of. But none of that compares to the pain I’m going through right now. The Werewolf’s mouth closes over my neck, its breath casting a scorching hot clamp over my skin. I open my mouth to scream, to cry out, but no sound comes out. Its teeth pierce through my skin, penetrating deep into my muscles and sending my nerves on fire. An inferno. That’s what it is. It’s hot-white flames consuming my body from the spot it bit to every single cell in my body. I can feel my eyes rolling back into my skull. I can feel my blood seeping out of me, as though it’s rushing to escape my body before the worst. “I’m going to die,” I think to myself, my heart sinking as I think of Livia. If I die, then she will too. The Werewolf would come after her next— “Get away from her!” A male voice echoes in the forest. The Werewolf lets me go, dropping me to the ground like a discarded meal. It lets out a rumbling roar, which is drowned by a set of heavy footsteps and before I can snap out of the painful haze, a huge man sweeps in and rams into the Werewolf. They disappear into the bushes, the twigs snapping. The man is grunting, growling under his breath. I can see his shadow moving, slanted on the ground. He wraps his arm around the Werewolf’s throat, and it howls into the full moon as though calling for others. I can’t be here when shit hits the fan. I need to leave. I push myself off the ground, but I land back down, swallowed by even more pain. The bitten spot is throbbing now, sending wave after wave of nausea into my body until I can’t lift myself for even an inch. My vision is slowly turning black. The pain is disappearing, but not because of relief. I’m becoming numb. “Help me,” I try to call out, but the sound that came out of my mouth was barely audible. My eyes are closing. My breath is stuck in my throat. The only thing keeping me conscious is Livia, but the heat of the Werewolf’s poisonous bite is melting away every ounce of energy I have…. The chaos between the man and the Werewolf ensues. I don’t know what’s happening anymore. All I know is that the Werewolf ends up running away, whimpering, while the man remains standing, breathing hard. At last, he turns to me. And the last thing I see is his bright golden eyes before darkness envelops me. * * * “I will be back soon,” my mother says. “I’ll just get your towel from the car. I did tell you not to take a dip into the lake.” The memory flashes in my mind, as fresh as ever, vivid as though it only happened yesterday. The last day of my Mom. How many times have I imagined the very same scenario? Dreamed of it? I can’t count anymore. But it’s always been a welcome scene. Heartbreaking, yes. But if it means seeing Mom again…. The day started well, and I remember perfectly. I was eight, and it was summer. My stepfather Paul was at work, and Mom and I were bored out of our minds at home, getting beaten by the summer heat. She packed some stuff and told me we were going to the lake, just for a swim. And I was more than happy to do it. So much so that I jumped straight into the water as soon as we arrived. But this was a mistake. “Don’t go,” I say as the memory plays out, when I know that what I actually said was, “Be back soon, Mommy. I’m cold.” I stand there, waiting like I did that day, shivering in my spot and watching her disappear into the woods. I hear her scream after a couple of moments, and I run to the source, only to find her bloody and mauled next to the car, still clutching the towel she was supposed to give me. There was a monster running into the woods, a strange-looking Werewolf that looked more like a Human, with a distinctly mangled face. “Hide,” she says, her last word to me. And I do as she says, even now, even though I want to change things. Even though I know that in this memory, I can make things happen differently. I take a deep breath, willing myself to go back. But something strange is happening. The scene in front of me is losing its color, turning more and more muted until there’s only white. A stark white brightness that makes me flinch. And flinching snaps me out of the dream. I wake up with a gasp, my chest expanding as I take my first breath. The lights didn’t disappear. In fact, they’re looming over me in the form of white light fixtures on the ceiling. I sit up, slowly, realizing that I’m lying down on a steel bed with a hard mattress and an even harder pillow. There are white sheets covering me from the neck below, and a bag of fluid is attached through a needle in my arm. There’s a machine beeping in the corner, showing flashes of statistics that don’t look familiar at all. But this is not what shocks me. The fact that I’m behind a glass wall is what shocks me. “What’s going on?” I blurt out, my voice sounding scratchy. “Where am I? Why am I here?” The people from the other side of the glass wall, who were just busy stacking papers and looking through microscopes look up at me. One of them, a tall woman with a strange red lab coat, waves off the others and steps forward. She approaches the glass wall and presses something on the panel at the side. Suddenly, the space I’m in gets filled with the sound of low conversation and glass clinking. Something about this feels strange. Why do the sounds seem… amplified? “What’s happening here?” I ask again, my voice louder this time. “Where is Livia?” The woman in red frowns, but she just clears her throat and says, “I’m pleased that you are finally awake, Maxine Kane.” “Me too,” I say absently, shaking my head. “Who are you? What hospital is this? Can I please call my guardian? Where’s the other patient?” “Slow down,” she says calmly. “We will get there. Please, just lie back and relax. There is a glass of water next to you, and you can—” “I don’t want to take a drink,” I hiss at her, jumping off the bed and landing on the cold tiled floor. For some reason, the anger pumping in my veins feels intense. I feel like breaking the glass wall and wrapping my hands around her throat. “I want to know what happened, and you will tell me. Now.” I put my hand on the glass, but it doesn’t budge. It’s not just ordinary glass. It’s made of something stronger. I get close to the woman, almost face to face if it weren’t for the wall between us. The urge to break it to hurt her gets stronger, but then I see that her eyes are very light brown. Almost yellow. “Are you a Werewolf?” I demand, facing the others. I can't believe they can't see this. “Are you seeing this? She has Werewolf eyes. Why is she here? Where am I? Why is no one stopping her?” The woman seems gobsmacked, but she composes herself quickly. “Believe me, Miss Kane. I am where I’m supposed to be. Now if you just take a deep breath and calm down—” “I am not calming down!” I scream, slamming my fist against the wall. It’s uncharacteristic for me to get this visibly upset, violently angry, but I like it right now. It feels right. The rage doesn't feel shallow. It's something inside me, something I'm truly capable of now. I don't know why, but it's fueling me just enough not to have a breakdown. “Let me out of here!” “That would not be possible.” She glances at the other people on the other side and turns to face me. “I’m Ambassador Katherine Finnegan. I am… the bridge between two species, Werewolf and Human, and I am the speaker for both sides when they inevitably cross. I am in the right place, and so are you.”