CHAPTER 3
905 Words
**MARA'S POV**
I didn't stop running until I hit the main entrance doors. I shoved them open and stumbled outside, cold air hitting my face.. I bent forward, hands on my knees, trying to breathe. My heart was going so fast it hurt.
A wolf.
Ethan was a wolf.
Ethan, who I had been dating for eight months. Ethan, who had held my hand at my mother's funeral and then stopped calling the very next day.
He was a wolf all this while?
I straightened up and looked around but there was no road.
I turned around slowly. In every direction there was nothing I recognized. No car park. No bus stop. No station. No road leading anywhere. Just open grounds stretching out and a dark treeline at the far edge of it and silence beyond that.
Wait. Now that I think about it, I didn't remember traveling here.
I stood there and tried to think back carefully. I could remember my flat. I could remember calling the number, packing my bag, locking the door behind me and then I was in that corridor with my suitcase.
There was nothing in between. No train, taxi or even journey. Just my flat and then here, like someone had cut out the middle and joined the two ends together.
I stood outside until the cold got through my shirt.
This definitely wasn't normal.
Then I rushed back inside.
I found the registration office. Knocked and pushed the door open. The same woman from earlier looked up from her desk without any surprise. It was almost like she had been expecting me back.
"I need to know how to leave," I said, going straight to the point.
She gestured at the chair opposite her. "Sit down."
"I don't want to sit down. I want to know how to leave."
"Miss Sutton." She folded her hands on the desk. "Please sit down."
I sat.
"Enrollment at Cresthaven is binding for one academic year," she explained. "You arrived today. One year ends in June. At that point, if you choose to leave, you will be free to go."
"I didn't agree to that," I stood up. "The letter didn't say..."
"The letter contained the enrollment terms. Accepting the scholarship constituted agreement."
"I want to speak to the principal. This is a mistake, I'm a human. I'm not supposed to be here, I want to go home."
“Trust me dear, the principal is fully aware you're here. So… your enrollment stands."
I looked at her. "Can I at least call someone?"
I stopped myself before she answered.
There was nobody to call. My mother was gone. I never had a father in the first place. No family too. The friends I had made in my last city had faded after I stopped reaching out. There was nobody waiting for me to come home because there was no home to go back to.
The woman behind the desk watched me figure that. She didn't say anything and just waited patiently.
I sat back.
"One year?," I muttered.
"Yes, one year," she confirmed. "The door will be open in June."
I nodded, stood up and walked out.
Walking down the corridor felt different now, knowing that anybody here could instantly kill me and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Could I really survive the year? Could I even survive a day?
I looked at the students moving around me and thought about red eyes from before. That was probably some kind of vampire, right?
I mean, since werewolves existed, vampires wouldn't be far off. Maybe she wanted to suck my blood.
Oh God. This was a nightmare. I quickly made my way back to the room.
Petra was sitting on her bed when I pushed the door open. She looked up and relief instantly washed over her face.
"Are you okay?" She asked, jumping down from the bed. The sheer courage and reflexes told me she also wasn't normal.
I pushed the door close with a soft click. "I'm trapped, but I'm okay for now."
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
"One year," I said, dropping onto my bed. "And I'll be out of here."
Petra went quiet. "I should have told you before we even left the room. I'm sorry."
"Did you know?" I asked. "About the enrollment?"
"Everyone knows, but it's just for humans, not us."
I crashed on my bed, hands behind my head. "Talk about partiality."
I stared at the ceiling. Twelve months in a school full of creatures I didn't understand.
"Okay. It can't be that hard." I said quietly. Mostly to myself. "All I have to do is to survive, then I leave and I never think about this place again."
Petra looked at me. "It might not be that simple."
I let out a long sigh. "I know."
The room was quiet for a moment. Outside the window the grounds were going dark, the last of the daylight fading out slowly.
Then Petra sat up straighter. "Okay. There are things you need to know about this place. Things that will make the next year easier if you understand them now." She pulled her legs up onto the bed and looked at me seriously. "First thing. The students here are not..."
The door suddenly opened without warning and the face I'd rather not see at the moment, stood looming at the doorway.
- Writer
