Chapter 4

    Lucy POV

    

    Anna accompanied me to my room, and we had a great conversation until we heard the chirping of the night. I felt the nervousness beneath every sound, every word she spilled to my startled ears. And this night, she told me the professors had stopped tutoring and the college board had closed the school for a while because of bullying jackals.

    

    “So, the school board won’t open the school until the jackals stop the bullying?” I had asked her then.

    

    “It seemed so,” Anna had replied with a face filled with woebegone look.

    

    “What can we do to stop the jackals in their tracks?”

    

    “Many humans had lost their lives when trying to stop them.” Anna sighed, and whispered in my ear, “Only werewolves can solve these problems, but it seemed jackals were many more than them.”

    

    “Is there wolf among us?” I had raised my eyebrows then, can’t believe what I just heard.

    

    At that moment, Anna motioned me to lower my voice, and then whispered once more, “Jackals hate the word wolf, and they can attack anyone mentioning it. It seemed they didn’t want any werewolf in this college. Let’s stop here for tonight.” She laid flat on my bed. “I have locked the door, don’t dare to open it. And don’t forget to off the light before you sleep. Goodnight.”

    

    “This is strange,” I had muttered those words in my mouth like prayers.

    

    After hours that night, I was still on the sofa drinking coffee. I looked at Anna snoring, but her eyes were staring at me. At first, I thought she disguised, but after waving my hands over her eyes which blinked not, did I knew she had slept off. She was like my granny, who never closed her whole eyes while sleeping. I closed her eyes, and I watched it open again by itself.

    

    Anna’s words replayed themselves in my head as I sat back on the sofa holding the coffee cup, and I realized this was why my granny begged Sheena to always protect me. I remembered back then when granny said, “if not because her mother wants her to school, I would never allow her to join the college even if she wants to.”

    

    I felt the lovely truth behind granny’s word she had spilled from her pure heart in the presence of Sheena with poignant tears.

    

    Sadness swirled smoothly in my soul, but I refused to let a drop of a tear because it might burn things. Although I want to cry, I hate to cry in people’s presence, especially now that Anna’s eyes were staring at me. She should have slept in her room, I thought, but I remembered she told me jackals broke into her room when she wasn’t at home.

    

    And I remembered she said she was feeling anxiety because Leslie wasn’t with her. Her voice stung me as she mentioned Leslie at that moment. It reminded me of the soft voices that spoke in my mind when I was sitting beside him in the sitting room.

    

    Could this be true? Or is my mind making this up by itself? This hasn’t happened to me before, and I know for sure that I wasn’t daydreaming at that scary moment. His voice carried power, sweetness, and an alluring tone that scared my whole body, as if I already know the voice before.

    

    Mere looking at this situation, it seemed Leslie wasn’t an ordinary person, and that may be the reason Anna felt anxiety because of his absence.

    

    Memories flashed through my head, the drama that happened after she opened the door for me. I remembered the blood on Leslie's arm, the wound, the uneasy on Anna’s face, and the rat he mentioned, which makes me realize he lied.

    

    What about the broken glass in Anna’s room? Why did Jackals break it? Leslie and Anna were hiding something from me. Something dangerous, I guessed.

    

    Not long after I emptied my coffee cup, Leslie’s voice echoed in my mind. It stung me. Back then, his voice was soft and alluring, but now it sounded hard and sour. I thought my mind make it until it bubbles in my mind one more time, “Have you slept, Lucy? Please wake up, jump out of the window with Anna. Jackals were at the door.”

    

    At that moment, I looked puzzled, and then a loud knock came from the door. Anna rose as if she was stung by a scorpion. She raised her eyebrows and held her hair, looking at the door and then at me, whispering, “Who’s there?”

    

    And then I heard Leslie speaking in my mind again, “Please, flee for your life. Lucy, they’re the one knocking.”

    

    “Just tell me, who’s there, what’s happening?” Anna shakes my head as if to bring me back from the strange voice speaking to me.

    

    I want to say let’s run, but failed as the jackals broke the door. They were schoolboys, and they had tied Leslie’s hands and mouth. His body was dripping blood.

    

    A boy, who seemed to be their boss, stepped in and said, “show me the girl?”

    

    Two boys bowed before him and then pointed their hands at me.

    

    Anna blocked their boss’s way as she hurried to spread her arms in my front, saying, “she knew nothing about this. She is a new student. I’m the one you should punish or kill if you want to. I’m the one that saves Leslie when he was dying in the wood. Please, she’s innocent.”

    

    Their boss pushed Anna away. “Get the hell out of my way.” His eyes changed colors. One was blue, the other one was yellow. It flashed like goats’ eyes flicking in the night. “How dare you attack my men? You caused my queen to slap me when she knew I failed to train my guys well. I trained them well. You are the one, the fool, that stops them with your spiritual powers. Did you think you are the only new witch in this campus? And yea, you shall pay for your deeds.” A boy gave him a black powder wrapped in the white paper. He pushed Leslie forward and forced him to kneel, facing me.

    

    Their boss asked him if he knows me. Leslie looked at me. I could see the pain in his eyes. Could he be one? Could he be the one who has the power to speak into my mind? He signed and remains silent for a long time, and then the boss pounced his face, Leslie fell and blood crawled from his mouth. Anna screamed, and then the boss pulled him up and then gave him the black powder, commanding him to pour it on my body.

    

    Leslie’s eyes looks blurred as tears dripped from them. Poignant tears like blood which makes me feel somehow. I don’t know why, because it’s already pulling tears out of my eyes. And the lilt of his voice came into my mind again, and then I fully know that he was the one speaking into my mind, “I told you to run away with Anna. My queen, the jackals had bound me when I want to stop them from walking into this house.” His tear fell on his blood. “But you don’t know my love.”

    

    He yelled the word ‘no’ and then dropped the powder and Sheena appeared beside me and fire danced in her hands, flowing tingling sparks out.

    

    “Boss, she has appeared again,” a boy yelled

    

    “I see,” the boss said, and phased into jackal form.

    

    I stepped back when the boys shifted into jackals form, too. Their devilish teeth made me hold my chest from freezing with pangs of fear. And in one, they all darted out after being hit with a spark of fire that glows from Sheena's hand.

    

    Anna pushed me to her side saying, “can you see the person attacking them?”

    

    Sheena looked at me and motioned me not to tell her the truth, and then disappeared after she smiled at Leslie.

    

    I was lost with words to say, nodding. I turned to Anna. “Did you see the person?”

    

    “We gonna talk about this later. Leslie is dying.” Anna hurried to Leslie, who has already collapsed on the floor. She carries him to my bed, and then rushed in and out, doing everything to save his life.

    

    Here, I can only watch. I can only cry.