FOURTEEN
1037 Words
Smoke rushed into her nose and filled her lungs immediately.
Thick dark clouds hung in the air. It was choking, suffocating, murdering.
He opened her mouth to draw in breaths, the smoke attacked her again.
She wanted to cough, to protest the attack but her lungs wouldn’t work. Her nose was killing her.
The smoke burned her eyes as tears gathered in them. She wanted to cry, to breathe, to yell but nothing was working.
Her voice was lost too.
She clawed against her neck willing for her body to return to her, for something to work but they failed.
‘Run. Take her and run.’ A voice echoed in the dark.
With the tears still gathered in her eyes, she blinked up into the dark. A huge wolf appeared before her.
The fur as white and clear as ice. It was the Ice wolf. The purebred wolf that had only been talked about in myths.
‘Take her, please. Run, keep her safe.” She shook her head vigorously but her hands betrayed her and reached out.
The wolf placed a tiny warm thing in her hands. It was a cub. The body was wet and face slick with blood.
She looked down at it. The cub’s eyes were yet to open. It was a newborn, barely a day old.
She looked up at the wolf again, it started to retreat backwards.
‘Please, keep her safe. Elara, be safe, please.’
The cub began wailing, its voice tiny and shrill. She shook her head as she tried to rock the baby.
The smoke thickened. Her eyes burned.
She tried to breathe, smoke rushed to her lungs. Her lungs were failing.
She was collapsing. She needed to stay awake, to keep the baby safe in case the mother came back. She needed to be safe, for her sake. For the sake of the mission ahead.
Her eyes turned red, she squeezed them shut. Her head was getting fuzzy. Her head was spinning, the cloud was spinning.
It hurt. Everything hurts. She wanted to stay strong but she couldn’t move. She was falling, the baby was falling.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t survive this. This could not be happening. She’d die. She’d be dead in a minute.
She closed her eyes and darkness claimed her.
Then…
Air rushed violently into her lungs.
She jerked awake with a strangled gasp, clawing at her throat as the smoke still lingered there.
Her heart pounded against her ribs, her chest rising and falling with terror. Her eyes danced around the room immediately; she was in her room. She was safe, thank the goddess, she was safe.
The moon spilled into her room through the open curtains. Crickets chirped in the distance.
She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her palms.
Suddenly, the voice ricocheted in a distance; tiny and shrill.
She jerked her face up and glanced around. Nothing.
She could swear, for one terrifying moment, she could still hear the newborn cub crying somewhere beyond the seen.
“Pull yourself together, Elara.” She muttered to herself and slumped back into the bed. Trying her best to calm her pulse pounding in her ears.
It was the second time she was getting into a strange situation since the last one.
It has been exactly one week since coming to Amarok Hegemony and one week since the last incident. Since she heard that ringing in her ears and since she found Kael almost passed out.
“What is happening?” She muttered to herself. Tears threatened her eyes but she squeezed them shut immediately and chased them away.
She saw the Ice wolf in her dreams. It gave her a cub.
‘Run, keep her safe. Be safe, Elara.’ The desperation in the wolf’s voice still lingered in her ears. What had he meant by that?
The Ice wolf was only a myth. Why then did she see him in her dream?
She pressed the heel of her palms against her eyes.
“I am going f*****g crazy.” Her shaky voice was barely above a whisper.
Suddenly, a knock tore through the silence. Three soft laps.
Elara jerked up quickly. She remained as she listened into the quiet night.
Knock, knock, knock.
The knock came again, softer this time.
Slowly peeling the duvet off her body, she tiptoed to the door. Her hand hovered above the knob before she quickly swung the door open.
Her eyes met the dark lonely hallway. There was nobody at her door. Exhaling deeply, she placed one foot out of the room and stuck her head outside.
No one.
But she had heard the knock on her door, she was certain. She hadn’t imagined it.
She looked down. A single white paper laid on the floor.
Elara picked it up. The content of the paper stared back up at her.
Heat lined her forehead immediately, her eyes widening in damnation. It was bold and clear in red ink.
Her heart pounded against her chest, her mind was running a million miles per hour.
How was this happening? She had barely got here, what could she have done to warrant someone threatening her.
The paper burned in her hand. The words becoming clearer. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and read the words again. It was the same thing she saw for the first time.
YOU ARE NEXT!
This could not be happening. She didn’t come to Amarok to die even before she could try escaping.
Her fist instinctually curled against the paper. The tears finally escaped her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She wiped them off stubbornly as she looked up.
A figure stared back at her from the darkness.
Orange eyes, piercing gaze, huge figure.
Elara kept her gaze on him as he swaggered forward.
Kael.
Was it him that kept the paper? Why was he even threatening her? Was this some kind of sick game?
He stopped some steps away from Elara. She still didn’t move, her brows tightened in confusion and anger.
“If you don’t go back into your room right now, you will be next.” His thick voice thundered in the quiet night.
- Writer
