UNFORGETTABLE MEMORY

Maliya POV*

At an early age, I learned that our lives can be completely turned upside down in a matter of seconds. All it took was one word, one breath, or one action to destroy the life you once knew completely.

Everything happened so fast. At first, I couldn’t understand whether what was happening was a nightmare or reality. I remember arguing and walking away from my mom over a dress she had just bought for me. I was walking towards the beautiful, luscious green forest she had warned me about time and time again. I was never to go into the forest alone, under no circumstances. But a familiar voice kept calling my name, a voice that I didn’t know. I didn’t know who they were or why they were calling me.

Their voices were like a dream, and it led me to take step after step, “Maliya.” It urged, pulling me, “Maliya, Maliya, Maliya.” I pushed the green leaves away and walked into the forest. The voice went silent as I stepped away from the plants to see a large black wolf standing in the middle of the forest. Its eyes were a blazing blue, and slowly the wolf lowered his head, his snout touching the ground. Other wolves slowly moved closer, their golden eyes watching as I froze by a plant.

Never have I seen a black wolf before. My mother told me a bedtime story about the lone werewolf who wanted to be stronger, so he made a deal with the devil. Seeing one now frightened me. But the black wolf slowly nodded his head as his large paw took a step closer to me.

His eyes stared at me. Usually, when a wolf would attack, they would crouch, and their ears would be back. But this wolf was welcoming me; he wanted me to get closer. I took a step closer to the wolf, my hand out to touch his black fur. But before my hand could reach his sniffing snout, an arm wrapped around my torso. For a second, I was in the forest, and the next, I was being thrown out of it. I landed on my feet away from the forest.

My body rolled onto my stomach as I heard the growls. For a moment, my mother’s hazel eyes looked back at me, and then she shifted into her wolf. Her body turned into a large grey wolf that let out a loud and long growl. A growl that scared me to the point of wetting myself. It was a warning. Her wolf’s hair on her back was standing up, and her body was crouched for attack. Only then did I realize that the wolves in the forest were not friends. They were the bad guys that, mother warned me about. The wolves pushed forward until she was at the edge of the forest. The black wolf didn’t look fazed or frightened. Instead, he looked sad as his blue eyes looked at me and then looked back at my mother. His wolf let out a sigh as he then turned his back to my mother, and with his back turned from her, all other wolves that were once watching me were no longer attacking my mother. Her wolf had stopped growling and let out a screeching yelp. And as quickly as it started, it was all over. The yelps, the cries, and everything went silent as the wolves ran away before the warriors could arrive to assist her.

And on the ground at the edge of the forest was a grey wolf covered in blood. Grey fur was everywhere in the forest, and blood covered the plants I had touched earlier. I was closer to her missing body as the warriors arrived. And as I reached out to touch a strip of wet fur, I let out a loud wail.

My body painfully jerked awake as my eyes opened up. Placing a hand over my heart, I tried to calm my breathing. “It’s a nightmare; it’s only a nightmare.” I tried to tell my fast-beating heart. But it was more than a nightmare; it was a MEMORY. Slowly, my sweaty palm closed into a fist as I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to forget the memory; I wanted to forget the image of my dead mother’s torn flesh. I wanted to forget my uncle’s glaring eyes as he looked down at me that day. I wanted to forget his voice when he accused me of her death in front of the crowd that only knew me as a bad omen.

Warriors and pack members all cried when the doctor declared her dead. And their sadness had turned into hatred towards me. My mother always kept me in her room, so I didn’t know that the pack had judged me by my uncle’s words. My uncle said it was my fault that my mother had died. That I had shifted and called out to the black wolf to help me attack my mother.

Even though that was a lie, I didn’t fight against his word; he was the Alpha of the pack. And I knew, if I had stayed away from the forest, none of this would have ever happened.

Without my mother to protect me, my uncle and the pack agreed I was useless; I was too young to be a warrior. And people could barely stand to look at me, so I was to be placed in the cells. Some of the women spoke against this action, but my uncle’s words were final.