Their traded family

Part two: Past; 16. Dead

Alana's P.O.V

The room was louder than I'd heard in years, my ears ringing as I waited for everyone to settle and hear my story.

I should be nervous, I believe, and perhaps if my emotions hadn't been tortured out of me, if they hadn't been sucked dry until I was a body with no soul, then I would've been. I've never shared it with anyone, not the entire thing, anyway.

While sitting with my sister in the medical wing earlier today, I imagined myself in this very moment, with what was meant to be my family, all their eyes on me, and wondered what would happen if I gave them selective truths. If I kept the worst of it between myself, Wilson, Julian, and the hundreds of males who started it all, but as I looked at Dalia's pale face, as I looked at Hope's shock, at the way she looked at me like I'd betrayed her, which I guess I had, I felt like I owed it to them to share everything.

"Ali?" I stared ahead, wondering if I would still be accepted back into their lives so easily after they knew about all I'd done to survive. I couldn't help but mistrust their intentions even now, though. Apart from that forsaken building, no one had taken me in so fast, and even then, it was only because it benefited them. My return didn't benefit anyone in this room in the slightest.

It was too easy.

"Ali?" My sister called for the second time, and I realised that it was me she'd been calling. No one had called me that since the last time I'd seen her seventeen years ago. Her voice was strained and plain sad, as if the mere act of speaking to me devastated her. I cleared my throat, taking a quick look around the room. Hope's mom was still glaring at me, but Owen's head lowered in a reassuring nod, and that mixed with my sister's small smile, was the only sign I needed to begin.

***

It was finally warm again, which meant Didi and I would go outside and I could scare her with my bugs again.

I loved when it was warm, even if my birthday was after the summer and I loved my birthday.

"Ali, no!" Mama scolded as I bent down.

"Mama!" I whined in protest. It wasn't fair that the first time I went out after the cold, she wasn't allowing me to play.

"After lunch, baby, okay?" I nodded at dada as he flashed me a smile, my own mimicking his.

He and Ed were carrying two big baskets of food, and I'd managed to convince mama to bring mine and Didi's favourite candy, too. We were going to have a picnic right on top of the grass, although mama said we'll never have one again after what I did last time.

"What's so funny, kid?" My big brother asked as I giggled at the memory.

"Remember when I fed the bugs!" I giggled again, my mama groaning.

"Do not do that again!" She said playfully, but sadly, I knew she wasn't joking. I didn't want to be grounded again like last time, and I didn't want us to stop having picnics together, so I would listen, though I stuck my tongue out anyway.

Dada and Ed rolled out a large blanket and Didi and I immediately sprawled across each end of it, taking up all the room. We did it every time mama tried to put sheets on the beds, too.

After mama bribed us to get up while dada tickled us until we couldn't breathe, we finally made space for the food, our parents and big brother sitting around us as we talked and ate until my tummy hurt.

"My tummy hurts," I groaned out loud, letting mama and Didi know. Dada and Ed were talking about something boring, but they seemed interested enough in it to ignore me.

"Maybe if you hadn't eaten that much chocolate, you would've been fine." Mama quirked up her brow and I rolled my eyes, pointing at my older sister.

"She ate more!" Didi pushed my shoulder, then crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I did not!" She protested. "Tell her I didn't, mama!"

"But I counted them!" I explained to mama.

Before she could reply, however, wolves started coming from everywhere, running so fast their furs looked like they were peeling off of their bodies. I giggled at the sight of them.

I loved watching the wolfies run. Dada always told me that one day I'd run just like that, and he promised to teach me how to go faster than Ed, if only I promised to not tell him dada said that. I'd kept our secret, but I forgot how many years I had left until then.

"Dada, how many years until I get a wolfie?" I turned to dada, but he was no longer sitting on the blanket.

"Morgan, get the girls!" He screamed, my lip jutting out. I hated it when he yelled. He never did it at home, but when he did he was so loud it made my ears hurt. "Morgan?" His voice shook a little. Both his and my backs were to mama, and we spun around at the same time, only to see Ed had grabbed her by the shoulders and was pushing her.

"Ed," Didi gasped, and it was only then that I saw my mama had tears leaking out of her eyes. I glared at my brother as I ran for mama, hearing dada's screams too late. Before he could warn me, I was in front of her, wiping her tears with my fingers.

"It's okay, mama, don't cry!" I was only five, but I was smart. I knew mommies and daddies shouldn't cry. They were meant to comfort their pups because they were bigger and stronger.

"Edward Finley," dada growled in that scary tone he never used with us, "step away from your mother!" My brother smiled and whistled. At his action, two wolves, no longer wolfies because those were good and didn't hurt my family, attacked dada, while two grabbed me and Didi.

"No! Let my sister go, you i***t!" Didi tried to help me, but the wolf growled in warning, and I knew she couldn't help me. Momma and dada couldn't, either. "Let her go, please!" My sister begged as I sobbed, my knees, bare under the shorts I'd made mamma buy me, scraped against rocks. Snot trickled down my face and my body hurt because my heart was scared and when it was scared it beat really really fast until I could feel it jumping in my chest.

"Didi?" I whimpered, knowing she couldn't do anything to help me but wanting her anyway. "I'm sorry I lied about the chocolate," she shook her head.

"I don't care. You can have all of it, okay?" I smiled, despite how much my legs hurt. The wolf who was holding me down had his paw against my shoulder and was digging his claws in until my legs were sinking into the grass. But there were rocks in the grass, too, and they didn't like me very much if they were all cutting me.

"All of it?" My sister nodded before a sob tore from her lips.

I followed her line of sight as Ed came over and grabbed her chin between his fingers, squeezing until she looked up at him.

"This is all because of you, do you hear me? Do you see mom and dad - I want you to watch them very closely; if you look away, Alana will die, and then that will be your fault too! Do you understand?" My sister nodded as I thought over his words. Mama said that to die meant that you could never see your family again.

I wanted to see my family!

Even though Ed told only Didi, I didn't dare look away from where he'd warned, because I didn't want her to die. I didn't want to die.

"Didi, are mama and dada gonna die?" I asked, but she didn't answer, just let her tears fall. "Will it hurt?"

"Watch!" Our brother, whom I didn't like anymore, I didnt want to be his friend anymore if he would make me die, warned again, and my sister nodded.

Mama and Dada were crying, too. Tears soaked their faces as they wiggled like worms in the hold of two naked males each. Usually, mama said that when men and women shift into their wolfies, that they rip their clothes and have to find new ones. If the males went to find new clothes, they would let mama and dada go and we would run home, so we just had to wait.

I was still really scared, though. I wanted a hug. Why couldn't mama come and give me a hug? Why were her hands tied, she hadn't done anything wrong!

My parents both had pieces of fabric in their mouths, not allowing them to talk. They could only make funny sounds now, and drool leaked down their mouths and onto their clothes.

Ed stood next to the four bad men holding mama and dada, his hand making a gesture before the bad guys pulled out two knives and put them to mama and dada's throats.

Dali and I both gasped, and my heart started to hurt. They couldn't hurt them with those knives!

"Mama and dada are good, I promise!" I yelled. "They're not the bad guys!" My stupid brother laughed. "Eddie, help them, please!" Knives were bad and dangerous. They were only for adults to make food with, not do this.

"Mom and dad may not be the bad guys, Ali, but I am. And you know why? Because Dalia made me one." I looked at Didi. She was shaking but she was still looking where Ed had told her to, not daring to look away because she didn't want me to die.

She hadn't done anything. She played with me and yelled at the ones who bullied me, she was the best sister!

"Mama!" She screamed, my gaze snapping to our mama, my mind not thinking anymore as the knife dug deeper into her throat, drawing blood. Mama didn't let out a sound, and I wondered why because I knew that it hurt. Dada was going crazy, muffling weird noises and fighting to free his hands, but he was moving so slowly and acting weird, not able to keep his balance on his own.

"Watch," Ed reminded Didi, and if I could open my mouth, I would tell him that he was a bully, that we wouldn't share our chocolate with him anymore, and that she hadn't stopped looking, but I was frozen in fear.

Knives made mammies and daddies die, and I wanted to see mine again!

I looked back at mama, at the blood staining the grass before her, as the bully made one quick move, and mama's head fell to the side, her eyes open wide.

Didi and dada both screamed, their voices so loud it sent the birds flying away. My ears rang, hearing them over and over again, but my eyes wouldn't leave mama's wide ones. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. Couldn't do anything as vomit crawled out my throat and filled my mouth, making me choke violently as I could finally cry and then I was screaming and shaking just like Didi, forcing my eyes closed.

"Mama, no!" I screamed, running out of the wolf's hold and straight to her body. It was so gross. There was a huge puddle of blood. Usually I liked puddles, they were fun to play in although they were messy, but I liked them when they were made of water. This one was all blood that stared at me just like my mama.

She wasn't blinking. I crawled to her body, hugging and shaking her.

"Mama, wake up!" I begged, "please, please, mama! You're a wolfie and a mommy, you're strong and strong people wake up!" I chanted.

No matter what I said, her head was separated from her body, and I knew, I just knew that this was the last time I saw her.

Rough hands grabbed me, yanking me back to my bleeding knees and forcing my face straight ahead, where dada was crying, his back bowed like a rainbow as the sound of his sobs pierced the silence.

"P-please," Didi whispered, closing her eyes and keeping them shut.

"Open. Your. Eyes." Ed demanded, so I did too, so Didi didn't have to watch dada alone.

But we didn't have to watch long before the other bully grabbed his knife and dug it into dada until he bled, too. And I knew that he was also going to die. I smiled at him, wanting him to remember me with a smile because he had said once that he didn't like to see me cry.

He'd promised to teach me how to be the fastest, but as the mean dude cut his head off his body like his friend did with mama, I knew he wouldn't fulfil his promise. Maybe if I had been a wolfie, then I could've cut the bad guys with my teeth and then Didi and I would see them again.

"Mama! Dada!" She screamed, the bully finally releasing her and she crawled to our parents, hugging dada first.

I couldn't move again. Everything hurt. My heart no longer beat fast, now it felt like it was hard for it to do so. So so hard.

Who was going to tell me to brush my teeth now? Who was going to give me chocolate and read me a bedtime story? Who would I cuddle with?

I cried so hard that my throat hurt, too, but I didn't stop. I cried and wailed and screamed that it just wasn't fair. Eventually, after Didi had hugged them both, she came to hug me.

But before she could, we were forced apart by two other bullies, and they took us away from the fighting between wolves. Maybe if they hadn't, someone would've helped us.

A/N

Hi, Treasures! Make sure you join my F-a-c-e-b-o-o-k group Teddy's Treasures for extra content and discussions! This scene was so difficult to write from the mind of a child, oh my god.