Trapped Between Three Fated Mates

Chapter 2: When It Comes Crashing Down

Zoe’s pov

“Uhm Dad, are you okay?” I ask carefully. Maybe all my screaming rattled him a little, or maybe he’s just teasing… trying to lighten me up?

His face was red and his jaw was clenched tightly. I could see his eyes darting to the rear view mirror every now and then, cursing every time. “They’re gaining on us, damn it!”

“Dad, what are you talking about? There’s nothing there.”

He grunts and swerves again. “You should be able to see them by now, just…”

I felt something slam into the car and I jolted in fear. “Dad?”

“Hold on sweetheart!”

Something slams into the car again and that’s when I see it, it blinks in and out of reality fast enough that I almost thought I was hallucinating.

They looked like… dogs?

“Dad,” I say again, voice trembling.

“It’ll be okay sweetie, we just need to…” the car is slammed into a tree, and this time the car goes rolling, I scream in terror, and I hear the glass breaking, snarls sounds and my father cursing..

Everything was silent once the car stopped rolling, then moments later, the door got ripped open and I’m dragged out of the upturned car by a claw that made me scream. The creature growls down at me with contempt and snaps at my face. I try to crawl away from it and its teeth sliced through my ankle, and I screamed.

What the hell was even happening right now.

“Zoe!” My dad calls, then lunges at the animal-thingy. I gasp as he rolls with it, the other two standing at its side, pounce on him too and I hear his own grunts and screams.

“Run, Zoe!”

“But Dad,” I watched in horror as the large beasts latched their teeth round his ankle.

He shakes his head and screams again. “Just go!”

I stand hesitantly and start running down the highway, pleading for someone to help me on the empty road. Behind me, I hear my father’s tortured screams as the creatures tear into his body and tears fall down my cheeks freely.

Fuck. f**k. f**k.

I hear their growls suddenly, getting closer and closer to me, but I can’t quicken my pace due to the injury on my ankle. I curse and look back, noting that they’re just a few feet away. I prepared myself to scream again when a bright light appeared out of thin air in front of me, blinding me temporarily and causing the fear to triple in my veins. I turned back without thinking, running back into the danger I was running away from moments ago when a firm hand clamped on my shoulder, abruptly tugging me backwards– into the light, as a shattering scream tumbled out of me.

~~~

One second I’m standing on the highway watching my father get shredded and the next second, I’m being pulled through a weird, blinding burst of light and then I’m standing in front of a lovely house in a picturesque neighbourhood. Shock and confusion courses through my body, doubling instantly when I see the young woman standing in front of the house.

She has blonde hair, so blonde that it was almost white and icy blue eyes, the similarities in our features sink into me, it’s like looking into an older, more wealthier reflection of myself. I gaped at her in shock, but all that was forgotten when my eyes fall on the girl standing next to her…

She was… me?

I stumble back in shock, and for a moment I’m convinced that I’m dreaming, going insane, or just hallucinating.

The woman with my facial features and the girl in my face both stare at me with perfectly blank expressions, they were decked out in elaborate but strange clothing, silk gowns that wrapped around their curvy forms perfectly, fancy jewellery, with a face that was perfectly devoid of makeup and yet smooth at the same time. They stood eerily still, still in a way that Tammy had once told me I was.

What the f**k was happening?

I spin around to walk off and hopefully find a way to get myself out of this dream, but I jolt back while cursing when I see an old man standing there, his back bent slightly and most of his face is hidden by the large, thick robe that he was wearing.

If this really is a dream, then I have to say that my mind is f*****g creative.

“This has to be a dream,” I whisper to myself. I pinch my arm twice, but I feel the pain very seriously and wince a little. “This has to be a dream.”

“Oh, but it’s not a dream Zoe,” the man croaks. I try not to scream when he begins to approach me again. “Go now child, your mother and sister are very eager to meet you.”

Mother and sister?

I glance at them one more time and then I look away shivering. The man chuckles and says again. “You’re not dreaming, child.”

“Of course it’s a f*****g dream,” I respond. “My mother and sister are dead, I was on the highway a minute ago and then…”

“This is no dream Zoe, it’s real,” he points at them. “They are very much real.”

I open my mouth to argue one more time, but the man disappears into thin air and I’m left gaping at the empty space he stood, dreading the moment I’d have to turn back and look at the people standing stiffly on the porch of this house.

The entire time their eyes remain fixed on me, their demeanour is cold enough that I can’t read their faces and somehow that makes me feel even more frightened.

Somehow standing this close makes the similarities in our features even more stark and noticeable. Not just the girl, who literally had my face, but the older woman…

I looked nothing like my father, wherever I was pale, he was very tanned. He always said I got all my features from my mother. As a child I spent most of my time wondering what my mother looked like and the woman standing in front of me fit the bill.

Could it really be? I slap the thought out of my mind.

This wasn’t some fantasy movie or some novel. s**t like this didn’t happen in real life… right?

“Hello Zoe,” the woman says finally and I force a tight smile onto my face. “My name is Estelle and this is my daughter, Chloe. it’s nice to finally see you again.”

I blink, but decide to play along. “Nice to meet you too. Listen, I don't know what’s going on…”

“I can see that, so let me break it down to you. I’m your mother, and she is your twin sister,” Estelle interrupts.

I pause, unsure of what to say. “I don’t understand…”

Chloe scoffs and folds her arms. It’s almost chilling to see such a hateful expression on my own face and it has me shivering. “Of course you don’t. It’s bad enough that I’m just finding out that I have a twin, but do you have to so slow?” She faced her mum while I was left spluttering. “Mum, you can’t be serious that this simple minded person is my twin…”

“Excuse me,” I cut her off this time. Narrowing my eyes at my supposed twin. “I’m not simple minded. I’m just expressing my confusion, don’t speak to me like you’re better than me or something.”

Her lips quirked as she sized me up and that’s when I caught sight of her teeth, her incisors were pointed, not in a way that’d be scary, but pointed enough that they’re very noticeable. Just like mine.

“You have a lot of guts for someone who was raised as a mortal.”

“Mortal?” I voice out. Estelle sighs exasperatedly then glares at her bratty daughter.

“Enough Chloe, we’re here to welcome her and make her feel at home,” she chided her. “Don’t talk to your sister that way.”

Chloe scoffs and folded her arms.

“Look, I appreciate… whatever this is. But I’d just like to go home now. My dad and I were being chased by something and I think I fell and hit my head. But I need to go back and get help for my dad,”

“Oh honey. You can’t go back,” Estelle says gently.

“Why the hell not?”

Estelle purses her lips and Chloe looks more and more amused by the moment. “See what I said? Slow minded. Having a twin this slow is very mortifying.”

“What…”

“You can’t stay in the mortal world any longer because you are not a mortal Zoe, it’s not safe for you there anymore,” Estelle tries again.

I feel anger well up in my stomach and I step away from these illusions. Either I’d hit my head really hard or that creature had venom in his teeth or something. “I need to get out of here.” I turn and try to walk away, but Estelle says again.

“There’s nowhere to go Zoe, I don’t recommend walking around town on your own, you might get snatched up by something or even worse…”

“Shut up!” I hiss and turn to face them again. They look completely unbothered and under their gaze I feel like a petulant child. “This is just a dream and I have to wake up now, stop telling me that I can’t wake up!”

“But you can’t Zoe, because this isn’t a dream,” Estelle steps closer to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “I know it’s hard to take in now, but your place is here with us. Not in the mortal world. You can’t go back. Ever.”

Her words sink in and I can feel my head start to spin. “What the f**k is happening?”