Her Rejection's Revenge

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SURVIVAL MODE

Mama Juanita’s eerie prediction came true two weeks later. Another battered almost dead soul was brought to the pack, and I stared indifferently as they brought he to the dispensary where I was working. Among familiar medicines, I was able to bring my limited knowledge in the field to help cure the wounded.

But the newcomer was another level. It was a female who looked so skinny that her body looked like a skeleton. Nobody knew her name as she was barely conscious unable to give us the information. So we named her Kuromi, well I gave her that name to avoid confusion in my head about new patients.

“She’s too weak to survive,” I overheard Selim our surgeon mumble to his respected colleague Aravind the orthopedist. “Whoever did this to her wanted her dead just like Hello Kitty here,” he indicated with a nod in my direction.

Well, that was the nickname they had given me while I was unconscious, and I could hardly resent them given that they had spared my life. During my jail time in the basement, somebody had brought my fresh clothes. One of my oldest pajamas was among them, and there was a huge picture of ‘Hello Kitty’ right in the middle. I guessed that was where they got the inspiration for my nickname.

Consequently, I was returning the favor to the newcomer with the same courtesy because it felt sadistically gratifying. That was the first glint of dark that I noted in myself.

Nobody had asked for my real name, and I hadn’t provided either. Keeping my identity unknown didn’t only ensure my safety, but it also meant that I got to start over. Start from scratch. If only it were that easy – the past haunted me in the forms of endless nightmares and insomnia.

“We could give osteopathic manipulative therapy to Kuromi?” I suggested helpfully, not noticing the slip.

“Kuromi?” Doctor Selim picked up with a glint in his eyes, his grey hair shining at his temples. “Where did you get that name?”

I blushed shyly at his comment. “Well the name you gave me was created by a Japanese and she created other characters as well. One of them is Kuromi.” I provided a little reluctantly as I suddenly felt too self-conscious to give any more explanation and I started at the floor. I felt that it would show too much of me, and I shied from that.

The fact that I felt a deep connection to Kuromi as our circumstances were similar was not something I wished to share with everybody. Thankfully. Both doctors didn’t read much into my statement though, and they both offered mirthless rictus.

“Seems like we’re having a collection of them kitties, Dr. Kapadia,” Dr. Selim remarked with a touch of sarcasm.

Dr. Aravind Kapadia was more intent on the patient than resorting to gleeful mordacity. “I think you’re right, Kitty. OMT might be the best option we have right now. Nice diagnosis.” I blushed at the compliment. “We need to realign her body and restore the balance to her bones and muscles. OMT will help her entire system to function as a whole again.” His thick eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown.

“I wonder what happened to that poor soul for her to be in such a bad shape,” he mused under his breath, but I was so close that I could easily overhear the speculation. Besides, it matched mine.

The following days, we were very busy with our patient, and I was very grateful to have been given the chance to work closely with the two specialists who were knowledgeable in the field. The more I learnt, the more I wanted to be involved in the same area.

It was then that it caught me. With Braxton out of my life, I was free to pursue my dream – I could now become a doctor to help the people who needed my help. Wasn’t that my objective behind becoming a Luna, although the former role was a more glamorous one. Bringing help to rogues wasn’t something I had envisaged before, but the more I thought about it, the more right it felt.

A strange sense of calmness settled inside me as I started to discuss the options with Dr. Kapadia, and he seemed very pleased with my interest. He directed me to some colleges before asking me if I was ready to face the world again. His questions made me prioritize my options – it was for the first time in months that I felt something alive inside me again.

The college Heybridge which Dr. Kapadia had recommended was several miles away from our recluse, and attending the institution meant that I might risk exposing everyone. The doctor suggested online courses, but with the warning that it would be more difficult as it would require more dedication from me.

That wasn’t something I lacked. Being given the chance to fulfill my dream had seemed impossible only months ago. With the second chance on horizon, I was invigorated, but when I got to know the price, my heart was dejected once again.

Where would I get so much money? All my savings had been left behind in West Bronx, and even the sum I had amassed would be barely enough to cover one year of my studies. Becoming an osteopath would take at least seven years.

I was still weighing the possibilities when a pair of green eyes which stared at me with a blank stare. It was so unexpected that I leapt back in alarm, spilling the content of the syringe all over the patient Kuromi who had just woken and was looking at me like I was some kind of deity.

“Are you the Moon Goddess?” a timid hoarse voice asked, and I was even more taken aback. Whaaaat?? Where had that come from? I wiped off the liquid which had escaped from the syringe from the sheet and shook my head.

“No, no. I am…I am just helping,” I finally offered as guise of explanation, at a loss of how to introduce myself. In the past, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that I was going to be the Luna to the future Alpha Braxton Cooper. Was I so pathetic that I lost even my identity?

The girl with green hair and green eyes grabbed my hand hastily. “You look so much like her,” she whispered dazedly.

I frowned. “Do you know the Moon Goddess?”

She swallowed quickly, too quickly which caused her to cough, and she started to gasp noisily as the movements were paining her. I squeezed her hand and we waited for the coughs to subside before I administered her some painkillers.

“You saved me,” she was saying. “I saw you in my dreams. You saved me,” she was saying repeatedly, and I dismissed her babblings as a sort of delirium. She was under severe sedatives which would be the reason for the hallucinations. Kuromi fell again in another deep slumber, and I rushed to inform the doctors about her condition.

They both confirmed my theory – Kuromi was on the way to becoming better. That meant that I got so busy that I didn’t have the time to look for a solution to my problem. Financial problem. I couldn’t take a student loan as the others, as they would need my papers. I had no rich relative who could help me in my predicament, neither did I have a loved one to support me anymore.

But I refused to give up. The lack of money was just a setback to my plan, but I would find a way through it soon. For the moment, I concentrated on curing Kuromi who awoke again, but I was not near her. The others told me she was blabbering the same nonsense about seeing the Moon Goddess.

“I am no deity,” I said in a brittle voice as I entered the cabin where she was being held. Several people in the room turned to look at me with a frown, some probably finding it strange that I could actually speak.

Kuromi was perched against a pillow, her forehead bandaged, and lips swollen with fierce looking incisions. One of her eyes bore a very vivid purple which was nothing like mine. Her face was much worse than mine had been, but that was what ruffled me. Nope. What caused my aggravation was the unmistakable hero worship look in her emerald green eyes.

I sucked in a deep breath as the pain caught me again and I braced myself for a long moment waiting for it to abate. That was a look I was familiar with. Beatrice Larson used to have the same exact soppy expression around me

My heart hardened as I battled against the demons haunting me, sweats beading my forehead as I struggled to remain calm in that room. That girl had already gone through so much and I wasn’t going to add up to her misery. But I wasn’t playing rat to the pied piper of Hamelin again.

“I want to thank you for saving me. My name is Miriam Sullivan and I…”

“Save it!” I snapped nastily, making some people glare at me in open animosity, but I ignored them. “I am not even a doctor. You should thank Dr. Kapadia here,” I indicated the specialist with my hand without even sparing the latter a glance. I smiled, but it felt like I had swallowed concrete. “I’m afraid the drugs must have some heavy side effects,” I said dispassionately before leaving the room.

It hadn’t been that bad, I reassured myself as I barged inside the small room allocated to me. Mama Juanita was wrong. I was no one’s hero, but I was a hell of a survivor. I was not giving up.

With an impulsive reaction, I grabbed my mobile phone from my backpack and pressed the on button. It hadn’t been activated since the night I had absconded. Continuous beeps rained from the device, and I stared at it like it was a weapon which would become alive and kill me anytime.

When it didn’t, I picked the cold material up and checked my messages without actually reading them. Some from my schoolmates and buddies from the nursing course, but most missed calls and texts were from Zen.

I didn’t give myself time to think about it. I dialed her number. It felt so damned good to know that somebody in that sh*tty world cared enough to worry about me that I lost my senses.

“Zel??” she cried over the phone as soon as she picked up. “I thought you were dead. How are you, my baby?”

I clenched my jaw against the feelings which assuaged me, the burning in my heart increasing as I fought tears. I thought that I had cried all the tears left in my body. My silence seemed to communicate so much because she kept on rambling for several seconds before I cut her off.

“I need money,” I informed curtly.

“Of course,” she immediately replied. “How much?”

When I mentioned the amount, she remained silent for a long time. “Are you in some kind of trouble?” she finally asked, and I didn’t answer her back. “I don’t have that much money. I could take a loan for you if you want.”

I had no means of repaying the money back without a proper job, and with the looks of things, I would hardly be able to get one without exposing myself.

“I could ask Dad,” she ventured but we both knew how my father would react to the news. He hated both Zendaya even more passionately. I asked the only question which was bothering me.

“Are they looking for me?”

The heavy silence which followed was enough for me. I didn’t even react to the pain this time. “What I heard from Zi was that they were given the chance to leave the pack, but they chose to stay back. I don’t know more I’m afraid.”

I snickered although Zendaya could not see me. She sighed in response. “Look, I know what happened to you was bad. I don’t doubt your innocence for a second, Zel. But Brax and Bee have poisoned everyone’s mind and returning back to the pack is not an option anymore. Stay put wherever you’re hiding for a few months. Then, you can come to stay with me and we...”

“What’s in a few months?” I interrupted rudely.

Her hesitation was enough to fuel my doubts. “That m*therf*cker is getting married to that b*tch?” I asked furiously. “Have I guessed right?”

How dared they? How dared they get on with their lives like nothing had happened while my whole life was screwed? Anger like nothing I’d known before coursed through me, and the bitter taste of defeat filled my mouth.

“Zel. In a few months, Braxton will move on and will forget about wanting to hunt you down. You can join me, and we can start over. Zel? Zelda? Tell me that you’re okay. That you’re not going to do something stupid?”

That was when I discovered that my soul was tainted. There was something dark inside me now, a kind of thirst which was left unsatisfied until I settled my debts. I was no longer the gullible helpful Zelda Settlemire born to the Ocean Howl pack. I wanted blood as payback.