Happy Birthday Olivia

I could hear the sounds of their jaws ripping into some flesh and I gripped my mother harder, pushing against her skin. 

“Mum, I'm scared. Please. Are we safe?”

My boyfriend, Liam, was at my side, and he gave me a quick squeeze, shaking his head. My mother went quiet, and I stalled my breathing, hoping that if we breathed quieter, we wouldn't be found. It was wishful thinking, and I guess that somewhere deep down, I knew it, but it wasn't till we heard wood splintering before I realized. 

I said a prayer to the moon goddess, hoping that I had heard wrong, but my boyfriend tore open the back door and crawled into the rainy darkness.

“Babe. Please, Let's go. Once you're out, we'll get your mum and dad, we need to get to the bunker. We'll be safe. You heard the distress signal, didn't you? We need to get up.”

“Olivia. Please listen to him. The longer we are here, the faster they will find us. They will hurt you. I love you too much to let you stay here. Leave right now.”

I could hear the wolves tearing through our belongings, and I agreed, turning to Liam.

“Okay, okay. I'll come now. When I'm out, you'll get mum and dad, right?”

“Right,” responded Liam, helping me out of the house. 

As though my bones knew I didn't want to leave my parents, they creaked, and I bit on my lower lip to stop myself from crying out. Soon, I was out, and I held out my hand to my mum. 

“Mum?.”

“I'm sorry, Olivia. The house has fallen against us, we can't move.”

Confused, I turned my head around, tears already pooling in my eyes. 

“What do you mean you can't move? No! Mum, no!” I turned to Liam, the only sane one in all this, and I asked a question I already knew the answer to. “Can we go back in? I'll go in alone if I have to. Please, Liam!”

Just as I asked that, my mother turned to me and began to yell even as the wolves devoured my father's body. “Olivia, leave! Immediately! Liam please, get her out of here! Please!” 

I listened as she scream even when Liam pulled me away from her body, amidst my protests. Half of the town was running to the old underground bunker, little kids, parents and all. While I could see that, I couldn't remember what had led to a rush so great. I tried to think back to last week, when we had seen a wounded wolf and stopped to help him. He had asked one of the members of the royal guard to behead him. 

He was so sick, that man. I remembered it like it was yesterday. He was so close to death that killing him was a mercy, a kindness, so he didn't suffer. 

We had been warned earlier today, but we had dismissed it as some of Jared's paranoia. How foolish we had been. 

Jared and I were among the last of the townspeople to come into the bunker, and I picked up one of the torches that were strung along the wall, so I could see ahead of me. 

The first thing I saw was that all of us in the bunker were younger, able bodied. A few older people had made it, and a few entire families. Otherwise though, it seemed as though the White Water pack had just been attacked into extinction.

It rained as though the moon goddess herself was angry, enraged with us, and even from the many feet below the earth in the bunker, we could almost feel the direct hits from the rain. 

I felt Liam's hand slip away from my waist and I swiveled around immediately to look for him, needing the familiar pressure of his hand against my waist. For a minute, my fear seemed to have brought the wolf into the bunker, and I panicked. 

He was just saying hello to the little children, reassuring them of the safety here in the bunker. 

I wished that someone would do that. Show up at my front, tell me it would be okay. But that was my job right now, for others. I needed to tell the little kids that they would be okay. I joined Liam to execute his task, handing out warm blankets to everyone who wanted them, so they could at least be covered in all of this mess.

Someone began to howl a mourning song, and it became a symphony, all of us who had just lost someone to the attack howling the song until it grew to a crescendo. 

It was a song all of us knew - all of us had dealt with losses before - and even the little kids joined in to sing it, although some had no idea what was going on. 

It didn't seem real. The rain continued to pelt the cover and the room got colder and colder, people snuggling into blankets here and there, but it didn't seem real. I waited for my mother to show up. The strong dependable one, to drop in and hold me to her chest, tell me it would be okay. But she wasn't here, and she wasn't ever going to be here again. 

How did we come to this? I was at dinner, having a pre-birthday feast. I’ll be turning 18 tomorrow, but right in that instant, I already felt like I was 100 years old and I could not live anymore. 

I finally let myself crouch to the ground, leaving Liam and the remaining adults to take care of the rest. I was not of any use to anyone in this state, honestly. 

Liam saw me on the floor and came to me with two blankets, wrapping one around my feet and then pulling the other around my body. He sat down on the paneled wood floor beside me, and he hugged me, letting me sob into him. 

The night remained long, and I sat there with Liam, unable to shut my eyes, unable to fall asleep. The realization hit me hard as I was drifting to sleep. This was all I had left now. Him, Liam, our bond. I was an only child, and I had just lost the only people who could give me a sibling that would have felt right.

I slept pitifully and woke up to a gentle tap against my shoulder. It was finally safe to leave, and Liam offered me a hand and a weak smile. “Happy birthday, Olivia.”