A FRIEND
1413 Words
AUDREY
I was not allowed to leave the house after that day. My parents scolded me so much after that day, but I still found a way to sneak out of the house whenever they were distracted. I usually go to the riverbank because that is the only place I find peace. I kept thinking about that woman that died because of me. I had gone to the clan's library, collected all the books I could find on werewolves, and hid them under my pillow to read at night when everyone was asleep.
Lately, I felt like someone had been following me, but each time I looked back, there was no one there. Sometimes when I am awake reading about werewolves, I think I hear howls and growls, they sound so real that I always peep from my window to see if anyone is there in the woods, but no one is there. My mother said it was from my subconsciousness. Sometimes, I wake up from nightmares of wolves chasing me when I sleep.
I needed someone to explain more about the werewolves to me, but I couldn't meet anyone in the village. No one would explain that to me, not even my mother. My marriage day to Prince Anthony was fast approaching, and my parents were already buying accessories for me to take to my husband's house. I hated to think about my husband, a man I had never seen before. I hated that I was chief Orlando's daughter and that everyone hoped I would make things better for them. Each night, before I went to bed, I always prayed to God to bring my knight in shiny armor to whisk me away, and somehow, I believed it would happen.
I hid the books I had taken from the library under my dress and sneaked out from the window, heading for the river. I couldn't even tell my best friend, Penelope, that I was going to the river alone because she would tell her mother, and her mother would tell her father, who would spit everything to my father at the bar, where men gather and drink to stupor.
Once I got to the river, I sat down by one of the rocks and opened the next book I was reading about werewolves. All these books described them as monsters and how they terrorized men before men found out their weaknesses.
"They are not as monstrous as those books describe them," someone said behind me.
I jumped a little and turned to see a young man I had never seen before standing there in a blood-soaked cloak. He smiled at me, but it faded once he fell to his knees.
"Oh, my God, what happened to you?" I asked, rushing over to him and placing my hand over his. He was clutching his side, and I figured that was where he was wounded.
"I will be fine. I need to stop bleeding," he said.
"What sh... should I do?"
"Just hold on to this, the pressure will stop the blood."
"Okay." I dropped the book and pressed onto his side. After a while, he was no longer bleeding, and his color started to return to his face. "What happened to you?" I asked.
"I fell into a trap in the forest."
"A trap? An animal trap?" He nodded. "How... I mean, were you not looking? How did you fall into an animal trap?" He just shrugged. He was handsome, and his arms were solid and sturdy.
Could he be my knight in shiny armor? The one I prayed for?
He sat on the grass, and I sat beside him, looking at him. "Who are you? I don't think I have seen you around here before."
"I am a trader. I don't usually stay here." I nodded. "My name is Malik, and yours?"
"I am Audrey Merek."
"Orlando Merek's daughter, I see." He nodded and looked straight into the river. "I heard you are getting married to the prince of Ashdown."
I scoffed. "Like that is something to be happy about." I picked up the book and dusted the dirt from it. "I just hate that I have to be the sacrificial lamb."
"Sacrificial lamb?"
"Yes. Everyone in the village is happy for me, the girls want to be me, and mothers wish their daughters were me. Everyone else is happy on my behalf, but I am the saddest. I wish someone could just come and take me away from here before that day."
"It's so sad that humans don't have mates..."
"Pardon?" I arched an eyebrow at him. Malik was handsome and manly, but his face was quite boyish. He is the most attractive boy I have ever met.
Malik looked sharply at me and blinked twice as if he had just remembered something. "Yes. You must have read a lot about werewolves to know that each werewolf has a mate."
"No, these books don't talk about those things; they talk about how malevolent werewolves are, they are seen as evil creatures cursed by God."
"Those books are lying."
I looked at him with interest. "Werewolves are none of those things these books described. We—they have mates and live like humans most of the time until the full moon or when they need to fight. They don't look for anyone's troubles."
"So, you said the historians lied here?"
"They wrote things in favor of humans. It was not really how it started. Humans wrote these things to keep the enmity between the werewolves and humans."
"How did you know so much about the werewolves when you are human?"
Malik chuckled. "Every old man of this clan knows the truth about werewolves; they just don't want to tell you the truth."
I was beginning to get confused."How old are you?" I asked. His words and ways were mature, but his face was boyish. He looked at me and smiled.
"I am twenty-one." He was a year older than I was, yet he knew so much. "Can I go with you?" I asked. My question surprised even me. I don't know where I wanted to follow him to, but I just wanted to disappear from the village before my marriage day.
"To where?"
"I want to travel with you. You speak like one who has traveled far and wide and has a lot of knowledge. I want to run away from here."
"Audrey, you can't come with me; your people will hunt me down."
"Well, no one will know if we sneak away in disguise."
I tried to convince Malik to take me away with him, but he won't yield, but before we parted ways, he promised to meet me by the river every day until I was married. I trusted him and went home happy. That night, I slept peacefully.
Malik and I met by the river bank daily and talked for hours. Malik would always hide when we heard footsteps. I marveled at how fast he was when he needed to hide. We talked about many things, and he also told me a lot about werewolves. I enjoyed listening to those stories, wishing I could get a love like theirs. I shared my werewolf nightmares with him, and he understood me. We talked a lot about my marriage, too, and the arrangements. I told him when it would start and when I would be taken to Ashdown. I got so used to Malik that I was always eager for our meetings and always feel sad when the time to go back home comes. Sometimes, Malik walks me home, and we talk more by my window.
But two days before my marriage, Malik disappeared. I waited for him at our meeting place, but he never showed up. I was worried, but I didn't have any address of his or any way of contacting him. The next day, a day before my marriage, I couldn't go out because preparations were going on. I stood by my window the whole day, but he didn't show up, I stood by my window the entire night, yet he didn't show up. At the brink of dawn, I wept silently and wrote him a letter that would never get to him.
I told him that I wanted him to take me away and that I wished we were werewolves so that we would become mates and live happily forever. Then I lay my head to sleep.
- Writer
