CHAPTER SIX

I lie in this strange bed calmly, as their footsteps recede from the passageway, I don’t move for a very long time, everything I have heard just ringing in my head, my mind churning with the seemingly impossible they discussed. Then, I think again what if they deliberately spoke like that because despite my acting they knew I wasn’t actually asleep? Maybe they are waiting for me to make my move.

Perhaps they think by feeding me scraps of information I would trust them and tell them what they want to hear from me. Still, it doesn’t matter at all because I intend to carry out my original plan; they don’t need to know that though.

I drift off to sleep at some point and felt someone come in at some point but I was too lethargic to fight the sleep off. It was the light from the sun that woke me up and I had been awake for some minutes when something occurred to me; I didn’t experience any nightmares tonight. My sleep was deep and peaceful, frighteningly normal, that got my attention like nothing else has since all this craziness began.

I got out of bed eventually, after concluding that it may be a result of tiredness from last night’s ordeal that caused such deep sleep that even my clingy nightmares couldn’t touch me there. Truly, I don’t think I have ever been that exhausted.

After going into the bath to clean up and change I tried the door and found it open this time, definitely a test. I quietly slip down the stairs and turn towards the living room, where I find several large wolves lying around and dozing without care. What is it with the Townsends and wolves all of a sudden?

They never seemed like the animal-loving type, I mean on several occasions Frank asked for a puppy, growing up and he was flatly refused, and I once saw Shane and a neighbour’s dog getting all aggressive towards one another. I remember thinking back then that even dogs don’t like Shane.

I don’t want a repeat of yesterday, at least not yet so I pretend not to see the wolves and walk out the front door, as soon as I step out the door, I see Parrish standing with his back to me; he’s facing the direction of the rising sun, which incidentally is the same direction as my home.

Involuntarily I follow his sight and see nothing but the sun, already high up in the sky. It’s beautiful, the rising sun, so I stand there for a moment and it isn’t until a finger wipes the tears from my cheeks that I realize that I am crying, I don’t know why, can’t even explain it at the moment but there I am, crying like I don’t even know.

I raise my face and look Parrish in the eyes and I have to stifle a gasp, thankfully my reaction time is slow so I was able to recover in good time. His eyes glimmer with an inner light and there looks to be tiny silver stars swirling around in their depths. I look at him considering for a moment and turn back to the sun that is now fully lodged in the sky.

‘Why do you cry little one? He asked me, I turned further away from him and didn’t answer for a few moments. He must have thought I had no intention of responding, I feel him moving away from me when I finally whisper.

‘Most of last night left me feeling like I would not see the light of the sun again and when I came to this place where I was supposed to find safety, I realize it’s another net waiting to hold me down, I did not expect to survive the night in this place, I slept expecting to be woken roughly in an unfamiliar place, but I was exhausted, I was tired of running and if I had to die then perhaps the angel you know is better than the demon you don’t.

Then I woke up in the place that I slept only to discover that everything that happened wasn’t a nightmare, one of my numerous nightmares, rather it was real, more real than anything I have ever experienced in my short life. I miss my family and I want to see them at the same time I’m worried that I’d be leading danger straight to their door. So here I am seeing the sun today and thankful, so dang thankful that I am still alive even if for a little bit longer. I’d really hate to die without having an idea, any idea why I have to die’ I conclude and realise my voice has gone higher than the whisper with which I started.

‘This may take a while for you to believe, but you are safe here, in fact this is the safest place for you right now. At least until we determine all the necessary things. Also, you are right, going home right now would be bad for you and your family, you’d be causing them pain without meaning to’ Parrish says and with that cryptic comment opened the door to the house and went inside.

I waited a few more moments, I feel like I am still being tested, they want to see whether I am going to make a run for it and damn the consequences, I don’t trust them, I don’t trust what they say about my family but I also don’t want to unwittingly put them in danger. It may take some time and maneuvering but I will get out of this. I refuse to do anything else.

I didn’t say this to Parrish but, I absolutely refuse to die, no matter what I have to do, I will never give them, w the satisfaction of dying, even though it might be the easiest way out of all this nonsense.

I finally tear my eyes away from the risen sun and turn to follow him inside, knowing without being told that there are eyes on me. I calmly walk into the living room and see that the sleeping wolves are no longer there, instead, there are men, lying around and talking quietly, although as I walk in they go quiet.

I raise my brows at one of the men who was staring at me stonily; the air of menace he was projecting was enough to ice hot coffee. The atmosphere here seems to be one of quiet, restrained grief and it seems I may be the unwitting cause of it. I flashback to the previous night when the wolves attacked the creature that tried to steal me away from my home.

I remember that a lot of the wolves died fighting, a battle that wasn’t theirs to fight in the first place, yet they stood and fought despite the fact that they were dying in droves. Even if I pretend I have no idea they are grieving, I can’t pretend to be blind to the solemn atmosphere so, for today, I duck my head and swiftly cross the living room.

In my rush to leave the space behind, I crash into a wall of muscle, an impossible wall of pure muscle, scowling I look up and realise that I crashed into Shane, who has a shameless knowing smirk on his face.

‘Can’t get enough of me can you?’ he asks as I back up fast and my scowl returns two-fold, I am practically snarling now as I eye him and watch as he slowly, languidly eyes my body from my feet up. By the time he locks on my face, I can feel how the blood is rushing beneath my skin. My saving grace is that he can’t, I’m too dark for the effects to be visible against my skin.

Yet, he smiles as though he knows exactly how I feel, and just like that, I feel a switch in my emotions. I suddenly feel an urge so intense to kneel before him. I can’t explain it; my knees are half-way down before I growl in a deep rage. I launch myself at him and try to claw his face, but of course, his reflexes are faster than mine, still, he’s barely holding me down with the way I’m going at him.

If the situation weren’t so dire, it would have funny to see the panicked look in his eyes as he battles me for supremacy. ‘Parrish!’ he snaps as I manage to break free from him, I rush him with a flurry of moves and he has to desperately defend himself from my attacks.

I draw first blood as I am grabbed from behind and held in arms that feel like iron barricades. I calm instantly and grin at Shane, a maniacal sort of smile that has him going pale, even paler than before, and breathing hard, he takes a step away and another until he’s about six paces away from me.

‘Calm down, Luna …’ Parrish begins before he realises that I am not struggling against him, I am standing perfectly still, my breathing controlled and my face relaxed and cool, a lingering smile on my face as though we were just having a lovely chat about mundane things.

Everyone in the house seemed to fill the hallway as whispers about the altercation that just occurred is gossiped about, I spy Mr and Mrs Townsend also looking back at me from where they stand with Shane, while holding white gauze that is quickly stained red to his face.

‘Well your nose is broken again, and some other things as well’ another man says to Shane, he’s wearing round-rimmed glasses that give him the appearance of a scholar and he looks to be in his forties. He’s probably a medical practitioner of some kind, my prison warden Parrish looks at me, and the skin on his forehead wrinkles as his eyes go wide and I can see as his skin goes the colour of snow in deep winter.