Five

Alex Heartman

"Help!" Alex's mother screamed. 

"Momma!" Alex yelled and tears welled up in his eyes. He was scared shitless.

"Mom?" Alex whispered when he saw a shivering woman coiled up in the corner of a dark room he had been trapped in.

He took slow and conscious steps towards her as his six-year-old self held tightly to Mr piggy, his teddy bear.

When he got close to her, he realized a tad too late that it wasn't his mother. The woman raised her head and she was frighteningly faceless.

Alex's heart skipped a beat and his legs turned to jelly.

He let out a strangled scream as he tried to retreat quickly but she clutched his wrist and pulled him toward her. Instead of falling into her embrace, he fell into an endless pit.

His throat hurt from all the screaming; his muscles sour from the swinging of his hands as he lost his grip on piggy as fell deeper into the dark hole. Just when he felt there was never going to be an end to this torment, he felt himself drowning as if he had fallen into a deep ocean.

He knew how to swim as a boy but there was no fight left in him. When these dreams first started, he'd kept struggling but he had soon learned just how futile it was.

So he let himself be consumed by the water.

Giving up fighting off an inevitable end, he shut his eyes in resigned finality. He saw a woman descending into the ocean after him with her arms stretched out to reach and pull him out.

He couldn't distinguish her features as the water did a great job at making it impossible to. He felt hope bubble in him as he stretched his hand to meet hers but that hope was soon snuffed out of him when he was pulled deeper into the ocean by a force so strong he could no longer hold in the little air he had.

He drowned.

He always did.

He was doomed to this end.

Alexander snapped his eyes open with much difficulty. His chest heaved as he frantically nursed his neck to relieve his parched throat with a pounding heart.

It had been years now and he still hadn't gotten used to this torment, he could never.

"Come in," He said even before the person on the other side of the door knocked.

He had heard Hendrix' approaching footsteps from the hallway. Hendrix pulled the door open and gave a curt bow.

"Good morning, sire," He said with a small smile, gracing his lips.

When he noticed Alex's stressed, dismayed face his face fell and his smile was replaced with a frown.

 

He took slow meaningful steps forward, asking, "Those dreams again?"  The older man inquired not really expecting a reply.

He knew how much the boy suffered from those dreams.

Alex let his head drop into his palm as he ran his hand through his curls in frustration

"You'll be fine," Hendrix said.

There used to be a time Alex believed him when he'd say that but now, it seemed all the bit false.

He still remembered what had led to them–the nightmares.

Hendrix, his father's beta, turned Alex's personal assistant, had warned him against telling his mom what had happened that night, what he had seen. But he was just a boy who was terrified so he told his mother and she called him crazy. She told his dad and the old man suggested appointments with a psychiatrist.

He had begged his mother to believe him but she wouldn't. He was sent to the psychiatrist every day after school and it had messed with his head.

Alex swore never to forget.

'That's what happens when you let people in.' His wolf muttered.

His own mother had betrayed him and sent him to a place where the psychiatrist was in desperate need of mental help herself.

He missed out on his whole childhood because of what happened. He withdrew from everyone and built a strong wall around his emotions that not even he could penetrate.

He locked himself up in his room where he let the darkness consume him. Preferring its concealing nature to that of light which was more than capable of revealing the demon he truly was.

He had been doomed to suffer and die from the age of ten. He was only a child misguided by the thrill of a possible adventure.

"How may I help you, Hendrix?" Alex asked tiredly.

The old man took a good look at him. He could never know what the boy was really thinking.

"Your parents, sire. They left for their trip very early this morning."

They had gone without telling him a word. It was funny cause Alex felt nothing but relief.

"Okay," Alex said dismissively.

Yesterday, he had heard a giggle when he was meditating in the woods and it kept ringing in his head. Hendrix had confirmed it to be mere villagers haunting but he had a strong feeling there was more to it.

                         ••••••••••

Alex got ready quite early and began his day.

He had to check the carriages to be sure things were going well with them.

The people bowed at him as he made his way to the pack house, but he paid no heed. Ignoring them was better than building a relationship with them that wouldn't last anyway.

The carriages were in perfect shape. Alex was impressed to see how full to the brim they all were. The farmers had all done great jobs, trading would be good this season. This made him consider increasing their wages.

He was going to.

He was still examining the carriages when he saw a silhouette of a man standing far inside the woods. Looking right at him.

Alex was certain that if not for his sharp eyes, he'd have felt he imagined it but he could hear clearly the man's heartbeat. Alex puckered his forehead, feeling his skin tingle.

The man disappeared and Alex decided to feed his curiosity by going to check the spot out. On reaching there, Alex blinked rapidly at the empty woods.

How did that happen?

He knew for sure, he wasn't imagining things so he mind-linked Gerald, the captain of the warriors.

While he awaited Gerald, he walked briskly through the woods trying to find the mystery man.

"Alex!" Max half-yelled, making him stop dead in his tracks Alex did and saw a thread trap just in front of him. Now he was certain he saw a person there.

"Sire," Gerald said with a bow on arrival as he and about five others awaited instructions.

"There was a man here a few minutes ago. Check the area. Catch him and bring him to me."

He instructed.

"Yes, Sire," They all chorused before shifting shapes and dashing into the woods.