Chapter 6 (I escaped)

I was running. In the wild I was all alone. I could not see but I know I was being followed. I could hear voices, reaching near me, catching up to my pace.

You will like it baby. *Endless laughter*

I could not see the faces, not a single soul, but I was running on an infinite path like my life depended on it. I could feel my heart come up to my throat. I huffed, I was tired, but I did not stop.

Those voices followed me no matter where I ran to, no matter which path I took, it lingered around until I tripped on a log of wood and fell.

That’s when I woke up. I was still breathing hard, my heart still throbbing forcefully against my chest, my hands still shaking in fear. But I was all alone. Nothing that could possibly harm me was around, but that still wasn’t assuring, I was petrified.

After a lot of debate, I walked out of the tent and went to sit near the fireplace. It was all silent. The other werewolves had still not come back.

“You can’t sleep,” I jumped hearing the voice.

“Oh! You.”

“Yeah.” Ethan approached and sat beside me.

“You didn’t go back?”

“Nah, there’s nothing too good about howling and roaring in the forest. I’d rather get some rest.”

I didn’t speak back.

“You?”

“Hm?”

“Your back, has it healed?”

“Not yet, it’ll heal near the sunrise hour.”

“But these types of wounds should only take few minutes.”

“Yeah I know. But that’s in the normal case. I’m extraordinary.” I laughed it off hiding a heavy disappointed in my heart.

“Your wolf? I mean I know it comes out rarely, but still you should be able to heal fast.”

“Yeah, she and I are not so in good terms. I don’t know much about her but I can still firmly say that, she likes to abandon me, you know like give me my space.”

“That might be because you’re looking at it all wrong.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not your wolf that abandoned you but you who deserted it. If you think you are always left alone and that your wolf does the same to you and so you stop wanting it, it will eventually think that it has no importance in your life and won’t be with you too. ”

I was confused but somewhere I did get his point. I had been so used to being treated as an extra, as the one with no importance that I felt I was always the problem.

I did not say anything neither did he add any words to that.

“You know, I was beaten daily at my adoptive parents’ house.” I started talking. “My adoptive father had anger issues, so he would always come back home late and enter in my room; that was basically like an abandoned and isolated small basement and hit me with his belt. Those wounds took days to heal and the scars, they’re still there, imprinted on my body.”

Ethan felt heavy hearing her story.

“At first I thought that, he hit me because I must have done something wrong or offended him in some way. I used to apologize as he used to continuously hit me. Later as I grew up I realized, it was not my fault, it was never my fault. He treated me that way because he had anger issues, not because I needed to be punished. But taking in everything quietly became my habit. I behaved the way I always did, I silently allowed him to vent his anger on me even though I had fathomed that I did not deserve it. It became a habit to be weak and vulnerable.”

“What about the other members in the house? Did they not stand up for you?”

A sarcastic laugh escaped my mouth, “they were all pretenders, and no one was in any better position than me. He used to lash out at them too, but not as often as he would torment me. So, they all spoke softly in front of him and ordered me around when he was not in the house. When I escaped that hellhole, I was glad for the first time that I was just an adopted member of the family. No one would really care if I was gone. I know that they would notice and feel my absence since the main target had left, but they wouldn’t invest themselves in trying to find me. The day I ran, I was proud of myself.”

“I am proud of you too.”

Ethan’s voice, his words and he himself, it was all my solace.

A lot had happened that night, I nearly lost myself in the hands of some a**h****, I shouted at Hannah which was the first time for me, I shared my past with Ethan which was also the first time for me and I realized that maybe, it is not always that others abandoned me, maybe I am making someone feel low too, maybe I am unknowingly abandoning the ones around me too.

With each days passing by, Ethan and I got closer. No, not physically but emotionally. He became my solace, a shoulder where I could always without any hesitation rest my head on. Hannah and I got a lot closer over that period of time too. The next morning of that dreadful night I told her the truth about that night and my past. She was the second person who now knew my secret. She felt at fault for the way she behaved and I was in no better position. We both asked for forgiveness turn wise and she cried as I tried all the ways to console her until we ended up laughing at ourselves. She was now my family, my only family.

During weekends, she used to fly back to her country and one time in the video call, she introduced her whole family to me. I wouldn’t lie, it was exhausting having to see so many new faces all at once, she had a large family after all, but I also wouldn’t deny that, at that moment, I felt the warmth of a family.

“So Zayla, are you going to confess your feeling to Ethan today?” Hannah asked me, as I was still getting ready for the prom.