Chapter 10: Edge Of Freedom

I shuddered.

'I never thought it would ever come to this...' I mentally sighed,

'... But it looks like the worst-case scenario has finally come about,' Reyes finished off as I submerged into a crowd of people.

Of course, I had planned for this though;

For the rest of my entire school day, instead of avoiding everyone, I kept myself in crowds of students, spreading my scent as wide-ranged as possible.

I stood in a group of girls talking outside of a classroom- Not that this changed anything socially, I still remained silent and invisible- I looked around at the girls; all werebeasts. I could tell because, as an arctic white wolf, my senses were superior to the Nightmares, or to any werebeasts in fact.

I scanned each of the werebeast girls: vampire, brown werewolf, weretiger, faerie, and siren.

By staying with them, their scent would rub off on me and theirs mixed with mine would be enough to confuse Marcus, who I knew would probably still be trying to track my scent despite it being everywhere.

I entertained the idea of trying to contribute to the conversation but before I could think of what to say, there...

I sensed him.

I looked past the group of girls to see Marcus and another Nightmare from his group, turn the corner into our corridor.

Though I had already sensed him, he had yet to sense me because Arctics could sense werebeasts twice as quick and three times as far away than a Nightmare could; which gave me time to move on to the next group of students.

I watched him rush over to the last group of girls I was previously with.

I watched how he managed to stifle a growl of frustration and how the girls gushed at being within a meters radius of him.

Relief grew. My plan was working.

It was like leaving him chasing after-images of me all day.

I saw, in the way his grey eyes rove, that my scent, which was now everywhere, was driving him slightly crazy and paranoid.

The next phase of my plan was for him to eventually reach the extent of paranoia to stop trusting his own senses altogether.

*******

Thankfully, by the time the school day ended, my identity was still anonymous to Marcus. My plan had gone so well that by tomorrow, Marcus would have probably gone from paranoia to not trusting his senses at all, to eventually giving up.

But that was all only luck and probability.

And since I seem to be all out of luck recently, it meant I couldn't rest easy just yet.

I was hiding in the toilets, the one place I knew Marcus wouldn't come, waiting for everyone to go home first. Suddenly I sensed 3 girls, five steps away, about to come in, giving me time to slip into one of the cubicles.

They were mid-way through a conversation I hadn't bothered to listen to, "He definitely looked at me today and it's all thanks to my miracle mascara, it really brings out my eyes!" The girl in the middle, I recognized as Trix said.

"Ooh, maybe you might just end up being the future Luna of the most powerful pack in the world!" Emma, on the left, gushed.

I caught on immediately, they were talking about Marcus, again. I didn't bother to prevent my automatic eye-roll.

"Are you sure the Nightmares would be okay with having a siren for their luna?" The girl on the right, Bells, asked.

Trix snorted, "If Marcus was on my side what could they do? Anyway, they are so full of themselves, I think the change will be good for them, it'll bring them down a few pegs, at least."

Emma spoke again, "Don't you think he's been acting strange lately, I don't know, like, more active or agitated?"

Trix pondered for a second, "Yes that's true, maybe something's bothering him, maybe one of those wolves they hate so much, those....."

"....Arctics?" Bells supplied,

"Yes them! I heard they call him the 'Arctic's Bane', maybe he'll capture it and put on a big show for us. Who knows? He could make it into a celebration and I could use that as an excuse to get closer to him."

As they squealed my stomach knotted and my mind spun as I thought of the last 'big show'.

I was going to be sick.

*************

I needed to start packing. I began folding clothes into a suitcase as my mind flashed back to Marcus;

His wild eyes-

I began throwing things into the suitcase faster.

His savage low growl-

I slammed the suitcase shut.

The hellish determination carved into all his features-

My hands began trembling defying my resolve to not be scared.

Never had the threat of death been so real!

'I need to get out of here tonight' there was nothing else I could think of, it had to be done.

It had to-

'Wait! Think! Are you sure of a way out of Nightmare territory?' Reyes questioned calmly,

'No, but-'

'Do you know if there may be Nightmares patrolling the edge of their territory, which could pose an instantaneous threat to us?'

'No-'

'Do you know what you would do when you get out?'

'N-'

'How would you survive the 'No Man's Land' of the Unknown world? How would you live as a rogue? How would you find the Arctic's territory?' She bombarded me with questions I couldn't answer, 'You. Don't. Know. If you keep acting on fear like prey, you'll only face more problems after another.'

Tears pricked my cheeks, 'But... What if I die before that... Marcus... He wants to find me and when he does...'

'running away for the sake of fear seems like the best right now but you need to stay for the sake of survival.'

Taking a deep breath I asked the most important question, 'What do we do now?'

'Tonight, we go to the edge of Nightmare territory, no more research, this time we search for it ourselves, all we need to do is wait for nightfall.'

**************

The night fell dark quickly.

When I was sure mother and father were asleep, Reyes took over.

Bones and limbs morphed and reconstructed themselves into Arctic wolf form as painlessly as a simple stretch.

As always I hopped out of the window with a bag of clothes held in my mouth, to change into, which I placed in the usual corner street before darting into the woods.

Faster. Through trees and snow. Stopping and crouching at every sound of life; sensing and avoiding the werebeasts that prowled the wood.

I kept running until I sensed a particularly still werewolf a distance behind me. I moved with caution but the wolf seemed not to be closing the distance between us but following me at a steady pace.

A gut feeling told me to move faster so I did. I ran deeper into the forest. The deeper I went, the faster the wolf behind me began to move to close the distance between us. Soon a particularly large Nightmare wolf came up beside me;

As I guessed; Marcus.

I ignored him spotting an out-of-place marking on a tree just ahead- it looked like a letter 'A', painted in blood red. And maybe it was desperation or wishful thinking but it looked almost like an.... arrow?-

Marcus nudged his head into my side, holding back the full extent of his strength, I could tell, as he tried to redirect me into another direction. But I continued on my path into the depth of the woods.

And again, another red, arrow-like, 'A'. The further I went in my path the more the aggression and growls emanated off Marcus.

'He's clearly agitated,' Reyes stated.

'Yes,' I agreed, 'Is it time to run yet?'

'What did I tell you? That's fear talking,' Reyes snapped, 'Use him as your compass, the closer we get to the edge of Nightmare territory, the more agitated he'd become. So we'll know we're on the right path!'

'If you say so...'

I turned a right and Marcus suddenly went quiet, the growling suddenly subsiding.

I realized Reyes was right, 'I'm going the wrong way!'

I paused for a second, long enough to confuse Marcus, but quick enough to stop him from realizing what I was going to do before I did it. Then I dodged past him, sprinting left, as fast as I could, following the signs of red 'A' markings, knowing the angry, alpha-to-be Nightmare would catch up soon!

I suddenly halted at the sight of a clearing straight ahead that I had never seen before.

I saw four big Nightmares prowling left and right, in a straight line; Jaws slightly hanging, and heads turning sharply to either side.

There were no more trees or bushes.

This was the edge of the woods.

'The edge of Nightmare territory. '

Satisfaction and relief flowed through me in waves.

Finally.

It smelt like freedom-

No, that was the smell of rushing water a little distance away.

What could it be? A pond? A stream? A-

CRASH!!!

A great force collided into me, the impact had me soaring in the air for a split second then I came crashing down into the dirt.

After my body had stopped skidding across the soil, my eyes flew open again to the sight of Marcus looking cautiously at the patrolling Nightmares who had halted for a second at the sound of me hitting the floor but I had landed behind the last of the bushes, too hidden for them to notice.

But when Marcus' eyes turned back to me, they were savage and vicious, enough to paralyze me for a second until a growl erupted from the back of his throat;

Not like the others, this was with the full force of an Alpha and, despite me not being in his pack, it was enough to make me cower.

'Now it's time to run!'

With fear-pumped adrenaline coursing through my veins, I ran. I had found my means of escape but now the question was whether I'd actually get to live to escape.

I could hear his pounding feet chasing after me, and every few times, he appeared in front of me scaring me into running the other way.

After a while it became strange; As a Nightmare, he would have easily been able to catch up to me and attack me ages ago but instead, when I made a random turn, he only sometimes appeared in front of me, forcing me to have to run in the opposite direction, almost as if he was purposely guiding me to a certain direction.

But by the time I could piece together my thoughts, I found myself back to where I began, facing the dim streets and sleeping houses, outside of the woods...

I turned to Marcus' wolf form who gave me one last lingering look that I couldn't read then he turned around stalked back into the woods.

'what was that?' I asked Reyes

'I guess he just wanted us out of his woods, I think it was something like a-'

'warning' I finished 'but it doesn't matter because tomorrow I would no longer be trapped in Nightmare territory. Tomorrow will be my escape!'

Satisfaction bubbled in me because there was no longer a reason to fear, I was a day away from freedom.

I turned the corner to the street I usually left my bag of clothes to change.

**************

As I came out of the corner, back out of the street, having regained human form, fully clothed and ready to go home for the last time, I felt unstoppable, fearless, free and no one could get in my way of freedom-

That's when suddenly, my feet stopped moving, my body stilled, as though paralyzed and the air became thin; too thin to breathe...

And my mind was soon to realize why.

Because all I could see was brutal, deadly steel, and incomprehensible, chilling silver.

A metallic taste filled my mouth. Blood; I was biting my lip so hard, that blood pooled; Begging me to wake up from whatever Satan-sent dream this was.

But I knew I'd made a mistake. Not the reversible kind, not the kind that people just wake up from.

I knew it when I looked up at those steel silver eyes that now nailed me down in a way that said it all;

That I'd been caught and I was-

Memories of the massacre from 12 years ago replayed themselves in my mind.

A word crept in from the shadows and spread through my brain with exponential speed.

-Dead.