Chapter 6 : Home sick home

MAXINE. “No,” I whisper to myself, but the thing that comes out of my mouth is a growl. A deep voice that doesn’t belong to me. The cry of a monster. Paul staggers back, his face now paper-white. He scrambles to get up the stairs to save himself and escape me, and I would have let him go. Hell, even with all the suffering he had given me, I want to let him go. But the new instincts inside me are screaming to harm him. That’s when I find myself launching myself at him, flexing the claws that I suddenly have. I can see Paul’s throat moving as he swallows. I can smell his sweat, slick with fear and anxiety, and a deep primitive part of me loves it. A part of me that never existed before. “Back off or I’m going to have to call them,” Paul threatens, holding up his phone. “Don’t make me do it, Maxine. Don’t make me call them.” “That’s what you wanted!” I want to scream at him, but the only thing that comes out of my mouth is a roar. It’s so loud that it rattled the windows, bouncing on the walls. And of course, that means the guards outside heard all of it. The first thing I hear are the tires squeaking on the pavement as they all rush to the front of the house. The neighbors are all drawing their curtains open, trying to peek. Somehow I knew what was going to happen before the guards could even bring the door down with a barrel. The door swings off its hinges and half a dozen men come rushing in. One of them doesn’t hesitate, tackling me to the floor before I can even make a single move. I try to struggle, my new strength pushing me higher than my limits. The man is struggling to pin me down, and I can see everything happening around us. Paul is being taken away, and the rest of the men are fumbling with things. Restraints, made of the brightest silver I have ever seen. A single gigantic syringe full of milky iridescent liquid…. “Is everything ready?” a familiar woman’s voice swims through my consciousness. I look up to see Ambassador Finnegan entering my house, her golden eyes landing on me. Once again, there’s that sympathy. That look that tells me she feels sorry for me, which is strange coming from a Werewolf. She walks closer to me, her high-heeled boots thudding on the floor. She crouches in front of me. “I’m sorry I need to do this, Maxine Kane. Wolfsbane would help you… be more in control.” “Don’t you fucking touch me.” I buck my body and almost drive the rest of the men off me. “I will fucking kill you!” Ambassador Finnegan sighs like my words disappoint her, then she nods at the men. “No!” I scream, but then the men all crowd on top of me. Slowly, I feel the tip of the needle sinking into my neck. The liquid gets pushed into me, burning as it enters my bloodstream. I gasp for air but I feel myself shrinking. The fur on my skin tingles as it recedes, and my breathing becomes steadier. More Human. “With all my heart, truly, I apologize.” Ambassador Finnegan touches my forehead as my vision grows increasingly dark. “It really is nothing personal.” She pauses, looking at the men. “Bind her up and take her to the truck. We shall be at the Unclaimed Camp first thing in the morning.” Her voice starts to fade as my consciousness slips, but I still manage to hear the last exchange between her and one of the men. “What do I tag her with, Ambassador?” “I’m afraid she has to be labeled Level Four Unstable.” * * * Sleeping for most of the travel to the Unclaimed Camp is probably the best for me, because as soon as I wake up, I’m filled with rage. Anger so deep that I don’t even notice I’m bound to a metal chair with leather straps until I try to move. I’m surrounded by nothing but darkness. I can feel some people in the room with me, but no one is making a sound. That fuels my anger even more. My new strength disgusts me, but I try to summon it as I struggle. I need to get out of here. I don’t belong here and everyone knows that. However, the strength is not present now. The energy and the spark of power is gone. Not only do I feel Human, I feel less. I feel weak. Powerless. I open my mouth to at least scream, but I realize that some kind of plastic contraption is bound against my mouth. They really tied me down like a pig. Once I regain that strength, I will— “You’re finally awake.” The voice of Ambassador Finnegan rings in my ear. Lights suddenly spark in the darkness, and that’s when I notice that I’m in an office complete with a desk, as well as another woman sitting behind said desk. They’re both looking at me, but while the Ambassador has sympathy in her eyes, the other one has nothing but contempt. She has snowy blonde hair and piercing yellow eyes, which tells me she’s a different kind of Werewolf. “I apologize for using Wolfsbane on you,” Ambassador Finnegan says. “But you see, we need to stabilize you before we introduce you to the rest of the tenants in the Camp. It would be—” “I don’t know why you feel the need to say sorry when she’s just a lowly Human-born Werewolf,” the other woman spits out, sneering. “Welcome to the Unclaimed Camp, Maxine Kane. And if I were you and I wanted to live, I would wipe that scowl out of my mouth before someone else does it for me.” “Fuck you,” I mutter, but I don’t think any of them heard me. “This is Amarantha Fox, the Overseer of the facility,” Ambassador Finnegan says, casting an awkward look at Amarantha. “She is in charge of everything in the Unclaimed Camp. From your schedules to your meals down to the dirt in the corner of your quarters, she supervises it all.” I don’t say anything. Because I can’t, and that’s intentional. However, it seems to really rub Amarantha the wrong way. For some reason, my lack of response is viewed as a personal attack, because she shoots to her feet and marches towards me. “You heard that?” she whispers, leaning really close to me until I can smell her funky, coppery breath. “I am on top of everything. And if you exercise your Unstable bullshit here, best believe I will crush you.” I meet her eyes lazily. I let her see all the defiance and disgust that I feel. It seems that it gets to her too, because she grabs my mouthpiece and snatches it right out of my mouth, scraping the side of my lips. I immediately feel blood flowing down to my chin. “Amarantha,” Ambassador Finnegan starts to say, but Amarantha raises a hand to stop her. “I think we’re all done here,” Amarantha says. “You can go, Ambassador. I’ll take it from here.” With that, Ambassador Finnegan nods curtly. She gives me a strange look as she passes by me, but it turns sharper the moment she gets to the door. And just like that, I’m alone with this devil incarnate. Amarantha smiles at me, grabbing the leather straps and ripping them off me. I fall to the floor, my knees suddenly refusing to work. I try to get up on my own but whatever that Wolfsbane thing did is much more severe than I thought. My vision has a white cast and my joints are jelly. “Get up,” she urges me, planting the tip of her boot against my side like she’s threatening to kick me. “If you expect to live here, you at least learn to get on your feet.” “I’m trying.” I grit my teeth. “Funny you seem to think I want to live here. I would rather die.” Silence follows my words. I use the edge of her desk to prop myself up, and finally, I’m face to face with her. She’s staring at me with an almost blank expression. I think she’s going to punch me again, but then she just turns around and faces the door. “Follow me.” She heads out. I inhale in a mix of relief in contempt, doing as she says and following her out of the room… or cottage, as it appears. Separated from everything, her office stands in the middle of high-rise apartments that seem to reach for the sky. Most of the windows are lit. The grounds yawn before me, a wide terrain full of smaller buildings and establishments that are all in the same gray color. No label. Nothing distinct. Nothing notable. Except perhaps the people walking around in gray jumpsuits, looking dejected and defeated. All with yellowish brown eyes. Varying degrees of thinness and starvation. I don’t know what I was expecting when I heard the word “camp.” But this is definitely not it. This is a prison. “Welcome home, Maxine Kane,” Amarantha whispers in my ear. “From now on, all that attitude, all that fake braveness will be squashed out. And I will be happy to wring that ferocity out of you… until you’re just like them.”