Chapter 1

“You believe in those rumours?” Kiera said. She is facing her friend, Thalia who has immensely succumbed to this rumour that has been spreading across the town. It was said in those rumours that a non-human exists in their town to get its hands-on teenagers.

The wind is gusting across the playground that Kiera and Thalia were in.

“But what if it’s true? Don’t you find our town sketchy?” Thalia said. Her expression was as curious as a cat. Slowly giving interest in things she barely knew about.

“Come on! Really, Tally? A werewolf turning teenagers into one? That’s just ridiculous.” Kiera said. Fog covered half of the playground, like smoke making it harder for someone to breathe. Kiera is continuing her little speech about how it is not true that there is no werewolf roaming around Scorch Hills and turns teenagers whose life is a mess.

Maybe Kiera didn’t have trouble breathing but Thalia is surely close to collapsing. “Kier, I-I can’t b-b-breathe,” Thalia said with one of her arms in her throat trying her best to gasp a little air until she just vanished with God knows how. Kiera barely heard what Thalia was trying to say. Darkness covered the playground along with thunderstorms that are not visible to the naked eye.

“Tally,” Kiera said. She was terrified. Once in her life, she has never felt more terrified aside from her Mother slapping her face right and left reminding her how much of a failure she is.

“Tally, Where are you? This isn’t funny!” She looked for Thalia everywhere in the playground. Down the monkey bars where they used to play when they were young. Inside the slide even if she knew Tally could never fit in because of her body composure, but she still searched for her friend. Kiera felt that the air she’s getting is getting thinner by the second, she thought that it’s because of the fog. Getting out of the playground was her plan but she isn’t going anywhere without Thalia with her.

“It’s not funny, Thalia! I’m scared, okay? Come out!” she embraced herself, she felt the cold shivering down her spine occupying most of her body’s warmth not leaving anything for her to feel. She thought about how the fog was so thick even though it's the only summer in Scorch Hills and how unusual it is to hear thunderstorms without anything to see up in the wide sky.

“You won’t find her, Kiera…” she heard a loud growl. Slowly, she took steps backwards trying not to make a sound. She thinks of how insane it is that the rumours that have been spreading were true. And moreover, she’s confused about how does that thing know her name.

“I can hear your heartbeat, are you terrified? I can’t really tell.”

The fog was clearing little by little and a figure of an inhuman being was visible. Kiera can feel her body tingling with fear, her shoulder shuddering. She clasped herself with her arms tighter to calm down, now is not a good time to have a panic attack.

When the fog finally cleared up, a red glowing eye in between two tall trees that were covered in darkness was visible to Keira’s eyes.

A woman between the trees suddenly emerged, her hair was as black as the sky darkness, her eyes were glowing red,

Kiera blinked thrice to see if what she’s seeing is not a hallucination or some sort of trick that Thalia does. She could have sworn that what she saw earlier was not human, maybe her eyes were playing tricks at her? She cannot wrap her head around what was in front of her. This woman is dangerous, that she can tell.

“Stay back or I’m going to call the cops!” Kiera said. The woman laughed hysterically, “Cops? Dear, have you seen the cops in this town?” She said and threw a lifeless body in her front smeared with blood. Kiera gasped when she realized that it was the body of a deputy that patrols near the playground.

“W-who are you?” asked Kiera. The woman stopped walking. Keira can finally see her face, it was heart-shaped, her skin was as pale as death, and her stares were like blades that can pierce the flesh of a human body. She’s got blood all over her arms, her mouth, her face.

“I am the one who can give you power,” Kiera’s eyebrow scrunched, the word power echoed through her brain, it was like a trigger of some memory she had. “Power,” Kiera repeated. The word was like a song flowing in her brain, making her submit.

“Aren’t you tired of your mother abusing you every time she’s drunk?” Yeah, Keira is tired of that. All the slaps and spanks she had taken just because her Mother sees her as a failure every time she’s drunk. She can’t move a muscle in her body. If earlier she was terrified now she feels like the woman was sympathizing with her, offering her help that no one did.

“I actually am,” Kiera said. The woman was behind her in a split second. A cold breeze was sent to Kiera’s spine when a claw embarked on her neck, slowly paving its way down to her shoulders.  

“Do you want to be free of that?” asked the woman whispering behind her ears. Kiera can feel sultry in the woman’s breath.

Keira thought that her way of living was beyond help, she didn’t know that someone would come up to her and offer her freedom in the most sense where she was terrified but then have been given reassurance that she could tear her wretched life apart and create a new one.

“Yes,” the woman leered. Kiera wasn’t compelled, it is just her deepest desire. She wasn’t asked to submit to her, it was her true nature that made her abide by her words, deepening their meaning down to her roots.

“Huh, like an open book,”

Minute by minute the siren of the cop’s car in Scorch Hills was nearing their location, looking for a 16-year-old teenage girl whose last appearance was seen in the playground. But all that Keira was hearing right at that moment was not the siren, but rather the breath of the woman offering her salvation. A chance to the new life she had always dreamt of ever since she was a child. The event was as quick as a gator penetrating its prey, slick as an eagle towing its food, and they were gone, not even her screams were heard even if it reverberated across Scorch Hills.

“There’s no one here, kid,” said Deputy Gillins. The cop turned his attention to another teenager inside the car wrapped around by a blanket. “Kid, are you sure this was the last place you’ve seen your friend?”

“Yes, I mean- it’s where you found me, right?” Thalia said. “Kid, we found you crawling alongside the forest, and that’s at least 70 kilometres away from this playground,” With nothing to respond, Thalia was stunned because she could have sworn that she and Kiera were together in the playground. How could she have to crawl down the forest?

“Could at least check again? I swear we were together!”

“Kid, your friend hasn’t been missing for 48 hours. The searching unit will go look for her immediately once her parents report her missing. I’m gonna go and drive you home. Curfew at 9,” That’s the problem Thalia thought. Kiera’s mother wouldn’t even bother listing her child as missing, in fact, her Mother would celebrate if she is.