His Unidentified & Untouchable Mate

Things I Remember (3)

Zahraa POV

[11 Years Ago]

I woke, jerking up from the dog bed I’d been offered in my handler’s room. As I always did, I looked first to her for direction – but she wasn’t there.

She never left me without chaining me up. Never. Yet, my legs were free, and the room was notably empty.

I stood carefully – it was unwise to do anything they didn’t want me to. Getting up and moving around without my handler’s permission could get me beaten. No, would get me beaten. I’d long since lost the urge to run. There was no point in trying. I’d been found in various stages of escape – climbing down from windows, hiding in broom closets, even attempting to hide in a body bag in hopes they’d carry me out like they did the people that didn’t survive their torture.

So, instead, I made my handler’s bed and gathered her empty beer bottles, dumping them in her trash can, then tying it off and emptying it. I picked up her laundry, and opened her curtains to let the light in.

But I noticed something odd.

Her window looked out over the dusty lot where her and all of Them parked Their cars.

It was empty.

It was never empty.

I was aware that They had a lot of enthralled humans working for Them – people with glassy eyes that didn’t really see or hear you. Those humans never left – but there was always someone here to watch them. More handlers.

I paced in the room. I was afraid to try the doorknob – even just that much would get me beaten. My handler in particular liked to fill the bathtub and dip my head in it a few times until my lungs burned and I coughed up water for the next hour. It left no bruises, no scars, but it hurt like nothing else.

So, I sat on my bed and held my knees to my chest, breathing rapidly and shallowly. There was fear in my day-to-day life, sure. It was filled with nothing but horror – but there were rules. There were things I could do to avoid pain, to avoid their attention. I only got one meal a day, sure, but sometimes my handler would slip me some peanut butter crackers if I did my job well and without complaints.

If I left, I definitely wouldn’t get any crackers.

So, I watched the sun rise to its apex, then fall, coloring the skies in deep purples and oranges, and all the colors in between.

I’d never been left alone this long. I was starving, and I didn’t know what to do. In the lower levels of the complex, I could hear chaos. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the earth itself seemed to shake, and screams echoed throughout the night.

I needed to leave.

Still, when I stood in front of the door, the idea of touching that doorknob terrified me. What if my handler was here? I’d never get crackers again. Worse yet, I might get beaten again.

I ran to the window again, just to verify that no cars had arrived, then, before I could put extra thought into it, I ran to the door and twisted the knob, bursting free.

The floor was silent, save for the odd tremor. Despite the lack of witnesses, I crept as silently as I could to the stairwell and looked down it. The building had four floors and a basement – I was on the third. There were other bedrooms of low-ranking Thems above, and I certainly didn’t want to go up there. Below, everything was dark.

I could see in the dark, but not in the same way I saw in the light. Everything was dull, like the colors had been suppressed. It was like walking through a different world.

But getting caught here was just as frightening, so I pushed forward, descending the stair and taking them two at a time. The second floor looked as though something terrible had happened. There were bodies strewn around – the enthralled humans. I recognized some of them, but more than anything, I recognized their uniform. They always wore scrubs, because they were always coming in contact with death and dismemberment.

They were torn apart. There were throats ripped out, stomachs torn open, limbs that looked like ground meat. I saw movement from my peripheral vision and turned to it. The cord had come loose from the florescent lights above, and in it, a human arm was tangled.

If I were the same girl that had entered this place, I might’ve vomited. But I wasn’t. I hugged my arms to my chest and continued on, hesitating at the next stairwell.

There was movement below – there were screams, the resounding sound of retreating footfalls… and something else.

Growling, snarling, howling.

The noise made me freeze in place. Werewolves had come through here before – I was kept pretty far away from the ‘merchandise,’ unless someone needed punishment without leaving evidence, but I had seen them come in.

Special collars with silver spikes inlaid that would press against their throats if they struggled too hard. Chains, five times thicker than the one that held my leg when my handler was absent, restrained their arms. Their ankles were chained to a large iron ball they had to carry with them to move. All that, and they were still regarded as highly, highly dangerous.

I swallowed and turned on my heel, retreating back through the bloody hallway. I didn’t know the full layout of this place, and I’d never been this far on the second floor, but I shifted, knowing I was faster as a leopard than I was as a person.

I scooted to a stop just as I got to a place where the building had crumbled. The floor drooped off onto nothing but crumbled concrete. Beyond the pile of stone, I saw what I couldn’t from my handler’s window.

Black vans had pulled up to the building, and through the concrete rubble, slaves marched to freedom. Chains fell away from them, collars were removed. There were a few of the thralls handcuffed and being loaded into a van.

They weren’t here, but it didn’t matter. Everything They had built was in ruins, and Their ‘merchandise’ was now walking free.

I stood in awe of it, cowering in a shadow and hoping they couldn’t see me. They were all I knew. They were bad, I think I knew that somehow, but They had firm rules. If I followed the rules, They wouldn’t hurt me.

I was still trying to figure out if I wanted to surrender or run when my choice was stolen from me.

“Hey, over here!” someone yelled.

I turned to face them – it was a man, dressed oddly in nothing but basketball shorts that hung very lowly from his hips, and work boots that looked like they’d been pulled on without socks. He was calling to a woman who was fully dressed, and pointing at me.

“I’ve got something over here.”

“What’s that? A leopard?” she asked, drawing nearer.

I shrank into the shadows, pressing myself against the wall. “It’s not like any kind of leopard I’ve ever seen,” he snorted. “It’s got a collar on. Do you think…?”

They were getting closer and closer, both hunching, putting their hands out to catch me like I was a wild animal. “Catch it. We’ll figure it out later.”

I cast a look behind me, trying to gauge the distance between me and the floor, and wondering if I would survive the fall. He took that chance to dive forward.

He made contact, grabbing me successfully. Pain lanced through me, and I squirmed and cried out, my claws connecting with his arm. The pain from my claw must’ve snapped him out of the shock, because he jerked away, dropping me in the process. I scrambled over the edge, falling on the rocks and crying out again as my skin broke, and my blood marred the stone.

From somewhere in the distance, I heard someone call, “Prepare a taser!”

I’d been tased before, and I didn’t want to experience that pain again. I scrambled, whining as I did, wondering where I could escape to.

“Stop!” A boy shouted as he ran out, dodging the hands of the others. He climbed up clumsily, then rushed, tripping over rocks as he went, coming to stand between me and the big, hulking man that was coming after me. “You’re only scaring it!”

I tried backing up and when I’d put enough space between us, turned and bolted. He was on me in a moment, his arms wrapped around me. We cried in unison, and he released me. My ears were ringing too much to hear what was shouted at him – but the immediate shock of a taser connecting with my side was unmistakable. The pain knocked my feet out from under me.

I was gasping – there was too much going on all at one time, and I didn’t know what to do, or how to handle it. It sounded like his voice was coming from underwater when he yelled, “Stop! Leave her to me.”

“Rowan, you have to be careful – you saw what she can do,” the big one warned.

“It left no lasting harm,” the boy said. He held his chin high, his shoulders squared. “She’s scared – haven’t you considered it could be a fear response?” He paused for a moment, holding the big one’s stare, then crouched in front of me. “Come on. Let’s go, beautiful girl.”

It was hard to get my feet under me. I shook with the labor, getting my front legs straightened out before heaving myself up on the back legs. While I worked, someone else approached – another boy.

A meaner boy. He had a chain, and a leash. Two things I hated – two things I would not allow to touch me. I would not be made a slave again.

“Is this the one?” He asked the big one. The other confirmed easily enough, backing away as if leaving me to this teenager. “Move aside, Rowan. This isn’t exactly your department.” He pushed the other boy – Rowan? – aside, and he fell.

I ran. I bolted, but I barely made it a few feet before I was grabbed again, experiencing another searing bout of pain ran through me.

He yelled and dropped me. I couldn’t get my feet under me in time – I felt a boot connect with my ribs.

“Damn you idiots,” Rowan spat. My vision was swimming too much to make sense of the noises I was hearing – the smack of flesh on flesh, loose gravel tumbling, growling and shouting.

All I knew for certain was that Rowan was fighting for me. I didn’t know why, but he was the only one that had in my entire known existence.

“Leave. Her. Alone!” he yelled, and my vision cleared in time for me to see him punch the other boy straight in the jaw.

He snarled, pushed himself up and shifted. I knew we were screwed then – or we could be.

I shifted, and reached – not with hands, but with something inside of me. The golden energy lifted the rocks and rubble, forming a shelter for the two of us. I grew vines in the soft earth below and formed them in a web that held our shelter together, so I could rest. The energy gathered above us, giving us light.

He turned slowly, his eyes connecting with mine. I realized that he looked almost as scared as I was – but that fear melted away, and he took command of the situation once more.

I’d been nothing but scared since I woke this morning, but here, in this space that I’d created, and allowed him into, I felt safer. There was no proof that he wouldn’t hurt me, but his eyes were soft, and for some reason, I felt like maybe I could trust him.

Like going with him would be going where I was meant to be.