Three
1540 Words
Sometime before midnight, Lotus decided she'd had enough of the festival and that little trip down memory lane had left her with mixed feelings she didn't want to unpack in the square.
Trying to find Prithia or her friends was an impossible task. The wolves had spread out heavily and if she ventured in there she would suffocate. So Lotus started on her way home by herself.
Thankfully, the lamps in the street had been left on and though they had been dimmed, visibility wasn't so poor. Using a finger, she bumped up her glasses and picked her way through the deserted streets. Her soft footsteps echoing loudly on the cobbled path.
The sleeve of the gown slipped again but she just let it be. No one was there to see her bony shoulders anyway.
Nights in the village was chilly and soon a thin layer of fog began encroaching the path like smoky white snakes. It drifted from the stony shores of the Narrow Sea each night.
Lotus trembled from the chill as she walked on. Something about the night fogs made her uneasy, even more so now that everyone was at the festi—
A distant skidding noise interrupted her thoughts, like a rock skipping on the ground.
Not stopping or turning, Lotus continued on, consoling herself with the fact that she was approaching the street where the cottage was.
Once she was indoors she'd take a breath because no one could follow her. Another perk of living with a part witch. The cottage had been bewitched to let only the occupants in. Not even friends were allowed, except mates and Prithia hadn't found hers yet at the age of seventeen. She would soon Lotus hoped, so she could live alone because a mate wasn't in the cards for her, ever.
Another skidding noise pulled her from her distracting thoughts. It sounded much closer, and somehow ominous.
It was probably nothing, she thought. Maybe just the birds or mischievous pups.
Lotus carried on, not wanting to give whomever was pranking her the satisfaction. But her pace quickened, though not enough to show she was spooked.
Wasn't everyone at the festival?
The village wasn't known to be haunted by ghosts.
The skidding noise sounded again so close, Lotus could feel the presence of another behind her. She whipped around swiftly and found no one.
Thin wisps of fog wound around her legs and spread forward. It was not hard to see through it and see nothing.
Lotus blinked and exhaled quietly. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. Her paranoia always shot through the roof whenever she left the cottage at night. Even if she went to get meat.
Should she have put an effort in searching for her roommate and begging her to escort her home? Prithia would do it no questions asked.
It was too late to go back to the square.
Just keep walking if anything happens run like hell.
As she made to turn, a spot on the ground caught her eye. It was darker than the rest of the path. It seemed to be a flat black rock, like the ones that could skip on rivers
Tentatively, she picked it up and turned it over.
Carved onto it in a jagged manner was her name. Spelt wrong.
Lorus.
She snickered softly. So she was being pranked.
Tossing the rock away, she turned back and continued her walk. As she turned the corner into the cottage's street, she halted.
Veiled thinly by the fog were three skulking shadows. By their size it was easy to tell they were matured werewolves and not pups.
Lotus could trick herself into thinking she was imagining them because why would they be waiting for her?
Nothing of a sort ever happened to her and she painstakingly made sure she went unseen by others.
But the growling that reached her ears made her go rigid. It was filled with menace.
"Hello?" She ventured, trying to maintain a steady voice. "The festival is that way."
"Lotus." Her name floated in the fog, both a threat and a promise of pain.
Her heart started pounding in her ears. Fear crawled up her spine.
What could they possibly want?
Her eyes darted frantically around for an escape route as a thousand thoughts flooded her head.
Should she go back? Lotus knew she couldn't outrun the wolves and quickly squashed the idea.
Maybe she could squeeze in-between houses? They could never go through it. Only question was, could she make a run for the nearest house? She was in the path under the lamps, in a gown and she wasn't the best runner.
With each second she contemplated on what to do, the shadows stalked closer. Eyes glowing like amber pits in the fog. Their deep growling rumbled her bones and her heart pounded faster. Fangs flashed under the dim lights, dripping with saliva.
Lotus took a small hesitant step back. The thing in her was stirring, rousing awake for the second time that day. This time was different though.
Anger was easily chased away.
Fear not so much. And the thing responded efficiently to fear, that would mean she was being threatened.
Lotus backed another step. Willing the thing inside her to go back to sleep.
The fear of it revealing itself was greater than the fear the werewolves posed.
Calm. Calm.
But the thing was almost fully awake. She could feel its icy hold on her mind. Its cold tendrils slithering through her, pushing against the surface of her skin, tainting her veins with its blackness.
She could hear the crunch of stone under heavy paws, and the malevolent scrape of claws. Their hoarse breathing rang in her stomach, tightening it.
Lotus took another step, turned and burst into a run.
She didn't get very far.
A large shadow leapt over her in one clean swoop and she was face to face with a maw full of flesh tearing fangs. Without missing a beat she turned the other way but another wolf waited for her.
Everywhere she looked, a wolf stalked. They circled her like prey.
Beneath the gown she felt the inevitable rise of bristles from her skin. Tips of claws began stretching from in-between her knuckles.
No.
No.
No.
Calm. Calm.
But her mind was beginning to warp. The thing was awake.
Calm. Calm. No threat.
Her hammering heart said otherwise. The fear seizing her breath betrayed her.
So she fought the icy hold on her mind. She pushed the talons digging into her mind, she tried to blink away the sharp glitching shadows in her vision.
Everything was becoming clearer, sharper, like the world was letting her in on its secret. A secret she didn't want.
The rhythm of the festival rumbled under her feet, drumming at the back of her mind.
No.
No.
"Please," she struggled to say, "stay back."
"Stay back?" One of the wolves—she was too disoriented to know which—laughed.
"The wee thing means to scare us."
Lotus was buckling under the strain. She held herself up by gripping her knees and wheezing.
"Run. Please. Go."
But it only made the wolves laugh harder.
"Oh look boys, the wee thing means to transform."
"I heard her wolf was weak and pathetic."
"No bigger than a pup, I heard."
Their voices were blending into one. A mixture of amusement and malevolence.
Sweat poured down Lotus' face and soaked her gown. Her glasses slipped off her nose and clattered to the ground.
Everything was blending into one, a hazy blur of voices, spiraling houses and glistening fur.
But one thing was startlingly clear. Hunger.
She had never felt hunger like this.
It gnawed at her stomach and drove her to her knees.
"Is it supposed to hurt when transforming?"
"It looks about to die. Might we put it out of its misery then?"
The rhythm under her knees beat steadily. Lotus could feel threads of her sanity slipping away into the fog. Her skin had covered with bristles of dull gray fur but her human form still remained. Her claws barely dug into the ground, short and blunt.
"No," she hissed through clenched teeth.
The thing was furious, unleashing a slice of icy fury into her chest. A pain greater than anything pierced into her heart and for a moment she thought it had stopped. All her strength winded out of her in a low whoosh as she felt her body hit the ground.
"Take the arms, I'll have the wee thing's head."
Laying on her side, weakened and shivering with a warm liquid running down her chin, Lotus felt the last of her being wither away.
She couldn't fight anymore. The wolves closed in on her.
She was truly sorry for what was about to happen.
Regret edged its way past her fear. Her life would be over by the morning. Once they discovered their dead bodies and the thing prowling about.
Her eyes stung with heavy tears.
Right before the thing in her emerged, through the blurry haze and half-lidded eyes, Lotus saw a flash of silver, quick as lightning.
It reminded her of something.
Then the world went black.
- Writer
