Prologue
It’s a gloomy evening; the moon is obscured behind grey clouds that cast an ominous aura as I cross the quad heading to my dorm room. My senses on high alert, my pace quickens, the hairs on the back of my neck prickle, and I have a feeling I’m being watched.
I hug my laptop and diary hard to my chest. With the end in sight, I keep my eyes on the door, while my other senses scan around me. Rain starts to pepper my sensitive flesh, and the cold breeze carries a scent in the air that feels familiar, bleach and gun powder. I could never forget that smell.
My memories try to surface from the horror of 6 years ago, but I can’t afford to be distracted. Walking a little faster as I enter the building. My room is on the 4th floor, but I’m not heading to my room tonight or ever again because I need to escape, I need to run, I need to survive.
The Hunters are here, they have found me again, and I’ll die before I let them catch me. I move quickly, making a straight line to the storage room on the ground floor and opened a box I stashed when I started attending West-falls Academy. Inside there’s a backpack with my emergency belongings, you know, just in case I need a quick escape, plus a change of clothes.
I take my shorts and sandals off and swap them for runners’ tights and a hoodie. I fasten my long black hair into a messy bun and pull the hood up to try to disguise myself. I grab the pack shove my laptop and diary inside and dig around for my set of daggers once I have them I swing the pack onto my back while heading for the back exit of the building aware that the hunters aren’t stupid, they would have men watching all points of the building but besides the way I came in, it’s my only other way out closest to my escape route. I stop in front of the door to compose myself.
“I can do this; I’ve escaped them before, I can do it again. I will not die today.”
Anxiety sinks its claws into me, and I breathe to calm both my nerves and my heart, hoping against hope that the adrenaline and my stubbornness to die will carry me through. I tighten my hold on the daggers, unsheathing them and holding one in each hand. I close my eyes and give myself a moment of calm, knowing that I won’t get another anytime soon.
Feeling a little braver now that I have a semblance of control, I push the door open enough to slip out and hide behind the hedge that grows on both sides of the door. I use my power to call to my wolf eyesight to try to see the Hunters, but they are either out of my line of sight or well-hidden. Fuck. I shift my power to my nose and sniff the air, and that familiar scent still clings to the humid autumn night. I try to turn my head to see where the smell is coming from, but the breeze makes it almost impossible to get an accurate direction.
Double fuck. I switch back to my wolf sight and prepare to leg it to the other side of the campus. I’m naturally fast, and with the element of surprise, I should be able to make it to my car and hightail it out of here in one piece.
“Wish me luck”, I say to no one in particular. I activate my muscles and move into “run like your ass is on fire” starting position. I breathe out with each breath and count down.
Breathe “3”, breathe “2”, breathe “1”,
I open my eyes, game face on, wolf sigh active stubbornness to die still present. I hear my mother’s voice, ‘Run, Selene,' so I do! I sprint down the tiled pathway toward the car park. I pump as much energy into my legs as I possibly can while repeating my mantra in my head, the same words my mum spoke before she died, her last words to me,
‘Run, Selene. Run as fast as you can, and don’t stop running. I feel something coming towards me, and my senses notice the shift through the air. I pivot and make a sharp turn, stumbling. I catch myself before I can fall and weave around a tree, and my wolf sight picks up a bullet hole in the bark.
Mother fuckers...
I pump my arms and legs harder, trying to crisscross around the trees to make myself a harder target to shoot, but another bullet comes towards me, and it lands in the dirt just behind my foot.
“Not today, Satan.” I exhale.
I keep running, and I can see the car park coming closer. I can use the cars as shields from the bullets. I’m a panting, sweating mess of adrenaline and fear, but I don’t stop running, and I don’t look back either. I finally reach the car park, but the bullets haven’t stopped firing, and each one has missed. That makes me feel a little smug and victorious, but that victory is short-lived as I run towards a black SUV that can shield me, but before I can think of my mistake, I feel searing hot pain shooting through my upper arm. I dart around the car and sink low enough that I’m completely covered.
I’m 6 rows away from my car. I check my upper arm and see some blood and a red gash. The wound feels like someone is pouring acid into it, but I can’t focus on the pain now.
I pull my hoodie up to my belly button, rip the hem of my t-shirt and try to bandage my arm as best as I can.
" OK, think Selene think", I grip my head on either side.
I need to reach my car, but also be smart and unpredictable so that the sniper can’t anticipate my direction. I can’t tell where the snipers are precisely, but from what I can smell and the trajectory of the bullets, they must be on top of the building, but I should be out of range. So how did the bullet reach me?
There must be multiple snipers! fucking perfect!
Realisation hits. I can’t stay here, I’m a sitting duck. I need to move, keeping low, I sprint to the nearest car, no shots follow.
Huh, that’s a plus.
I don’t buy into that false sense of security; I catch my breath while constantly swapping between my wolf hearing and wolf smell to try and decipher which direction the shots are coming from and how I can best avoid their trajectory. “5 rows left”,
I whisper.
“Breathe, Selene, 1 row at a time, no rush.” I jerk at the sound of a bullet connecting with metal.
fuck! fuck! fuck! That was close.
I need to run to the next car, which is on my left, but instead of moving closer to the front of the hatchback I’m hiding behind, I decide to run from where I am; the distance is further, but I also don’t want to give my hiding spot away by moving closer to my next reprieve.
“Fuck it.” I breathe out as I put my weight on my tiptoes and sprint for the red sedan in the next row, pow pow pow! 3 shots, 3 different directions, same target; the red sedan.
“Damn it”, I hiss.
Another near miss.
I don’t stay behind the sedan long. I need to get out of here, and the snipers don’t seem to be fooled by my attempts, so I send a quick prayer to the Moon Goddess and run like my ass is on fire to the 3rd row, where the truck can hide me hopefully better than the sedan can. Again, I don’t give myself time to think or panic; I can’t afford to. A mistake right now is quite literally life or death, and since I choose life, I use everything in my arsenal; my speed, senses and survival instinct to hopefully carry me through.
“2 more rows”
I pant heavily into the night. I catch my breath quickly, and then I again roll the dice on my life and say fuck it while I run from the 3rd row directly to the 1st and round the back of an SUV; I count the shots 3 again. There must only be 3 snipers, I mean its three too many, but at least it’s doable. I look at my small, half-beaten-up hatchback, and I notice that all four tyres are flat.
“Ugh! Really?” I go to throw my arms up indejection but I quickly remember I’m hiding before I do something stupid and get shot.
This situation is not ideal, I look at the SUV I’m using a shield, I’m not overly attached to my car but I was hoping it would be my getaway ride, plans change though, especially when bullets are raining down on me, making me feel like those stupid ducks at a carnival, except if they hit a target they don’t get a prize, they get my life.
I sheathe my daggers and throw them back into the pack, rummaging around looking for my Swiss army knife. I flick the small blade out and jam it into the door handle to access the keyhole, then insert the small blade and bobby pin, and I try to unlock the car.
“Come on, come on, come on”, I hear a distinctive click and sigh in relief. I open the door just enough for me to slip into the driver's seat, I dump my pack and knife onto the passenger seat and crouch down to rip the cover off the fuse box and play around with the wires,
“Please, Moon Goddess, if you can hear me, let this work.” I pray as my fingers fumble around trying to connect the right wires to get the car started. The rear window shatters; it looks like the snipers know I’m in the car. I don’t know if it was the prayer or just dumb luck, but the SUV roars to life. Before I can celebrate, I put my foot on the clutch, shift the car into 1st and high tail it out of that car park. I swerve to avoid cars on the road and try to take some side streets to confuse any Hunters that may be following me. I see signs to a freeway, and without a second thought, I take it and let my gut lead the way. I will eventually have to ditch the car, but that’s a thought for later.
As my body goes into autopilot, driving down the freeway, I can’t help but think of how the Hunters will keep chasing me and won’t give up until they kill me like they killed my parents. I don’t know why they are so hell-bent on finishing the job or why I’m important to hunt down, but I do know that I won’t break the promise I made to my mother! I will survive. So that is what I plan on doing.
After driving for 6 hours, I’m exhausted, hungry, and the car is almost out of petrol, but it doesn’t matter; I’ll need to ditch the car soon anyway.
Surely the owner has reported it stolen to the police, and I don’t have enough money for fuel and food. With that in mind, I take the next exit and find the nearest town. I abandon the car in an empty parking lot bordering on a clearing and make sure to keep my face covered from any CCTV cameras nearby. Taking in my surroundings, I choose to walk towards the tree line.
I take out my phone and check the maps to see where the closest bus station is. My bullet wound has been stinging the entire way, especially once the adrenaline wore off. I take my makeshift bandage off and assess the wound. Something this small should have healed by now, so I can only guess that the bullet was either Silver or doused in wolfsbane. There isn’t much I can do except wait for my rapid healing to overcome the poison.
At least it stopped bleeding.
I sigh, keeping to the cover the trees provide, and make my way to the bus shelter. Once I’m near enough I walk into an alleyway abandon my hoodie in the trash and keep walking towards the bus stop, Dawn is approaching and the reprieve the darkness offered is wearing off, I purchase my ticket to my next stop slowly making my way to Madison, while I wait for the bus, I email my transfer letter to the new Academy I’ll be attending.
Arcane Academy, I’ve done my research, it’s in a small town, and the Academy sits on a ton of acreage surrounded by trees, which will be convenient when I wolf out. Once done, I walk up to the vending machine, shove a five-dollar note in and purchase something to eat and drink. Sitting down, I eat my oat bar in 2 bites and finish the water just as quickly.
It’s not the first time I’ve had to start over, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. As long as the Hunters survive, I will always be in danger, but for now, my next miracle will be arriving in Madison before the next full moon in 2 days. I release a long sigh that I didn’t know I was holding and send thanks to the Moon Goddess for my survival.
I board the bus and sit in the closest seat available to the door. Once the bus takes off, I relax all my muscles, tipping my head back against the headrest and close my eyes, drifting off into a light sleep.
