by Willow Rose
A crowd had gathered in front of the quarters. They were staring at me with wide open eyes. The woman from the officer’s room had gotten dressed and was looking at me in awe. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.
I looked everywhere among them for Catalina, but to my sorrow I didn’t find her. Then I helped the people open the gates to the camp and soon they walked right out of there with the few belongings they had left. Their faces were relieved, happy, rejoicing, smiling. Some were skeptical as if they could hardly believe this was actually happening, but many of them did the same as they took the first step outside. They cried. They looked to the sky, then cried. Some fell to their knees, others hurried to get away not knowing how long it would be before other soldiers would come and force them back into slavery.
I enjoyed watching them immensely and as soon as they were all safely on their way I ran towards the east where I had heard there was another camp.
Chapter 31
The soldiers in the second camp, Vapniarka, were also sitting in small towers high above the fence and spotted me from far away as I came running towards it an hour or so later. I enjoyed listening to their yelling and panicking voices and wondered if they had heard about me and knew their time had come.
The camp was secured by triple-wired fences. Inside, there were three one-story main buildings and some other small buildings. I passed two bodies on my way, prisoners that I later learned had been disabled during their labor at the camp, then told they were free to go, but shot as soon as they went outside of the gates. I growled and barked as I passed the dead men and women, then speeded up. When I was close enough I leaped into the air and jumped the tall fence.
The soldiers wearing long coats and warm hats lifted their rifles and shot at me, but soon realized it did them no good. They backed off and began to run just like the soldiers in the camp before. I was enjoying my display of power, the fear in their eyes as they ran for their lives and I was really enjoying seeing them beg for their lives just before I ripped them open.
Once again I spared none.
When they were all dead I ran inside of the barracks and searched for Catalina thinking she had to surely be here. The prisoners stared at me wondering, then they ran for the gate. I heard them scream and tramp towards the opening, but I didn’t stop my search. Frantically I went through all the barracks, sniffing my way through hoping to catch her scent. To my regret I found nothing, not a trace. My wolf felt desperate. It wanted its mate, it needed to protect her. The barracks smelled horribly of death and disease and I hurried outside. I watched as the people ran towards the exit and out the gate and disappeared. I wondered where they would go. The land surrounding this camp was harsh and barren. The wind was freezing cold and they were hardly dressed. There was no food, no towns for hundreds of miles. They probably had no papers and knew they wouldn’t go far without them. Would they just end up getting themselves shot? They were refugees now, people on the run. Would they end up being blamed for what happened here?
I sat down on the ground with a heavy heart not knowing what to do, where to go. I thought I had done something good for those people, but now I wondered if it was that good after all? A soldier’s body was next to me, the blood was still running from his wounds. The scent was intoxicating. My wolf was getting hungry, I realized and looked at the sky. It was almost nightfall. It was time for the wolf to eat. I stared at the soldier on the ground, at his face and realized I knew him. I had known him. I gasped and pushed his hat off to better see his face. He had been a friend of my oldest brother. I backed up with a horrible feeling inside of me. I stared at all the dead soldiers lying lifeless on the ground. For the first time since I had left him, I wondered about Caspian and what he had told me. I had become numb, I thought. Killing had become easy to me. Too easy.
Feeling how the scent of the human blood was pulling me, tempting me, I got up and began to walk away from the scene. I had thought I would feel good killing this many soldiers, punishing them for what they had done to all these people, but somehow I didn’t feel good. I felt worse than ever. I felt tormented by guilt over having deprived all these soldiers of their lives.
Then I ran. Ran into the night, into the forest. My blue eyes shone my way through the forest and into the mountains where I hunted for hours and feasted, but felt no joy.
When morning came I changed back and found a cave in the mountains to hide in since I no longer had my belongings. Then despite the freezing cold I fell into a deep and heavy sleep.
In my dream I found Catalina to my great happiness. She was still in darkness, but I heard her thoughts, the soothing sound of her small still voice in my mind. She was trying to count the days since she had been taken. But her isolation, the constant darkness from being blindfolded and the fear of them coming to get her distressed her and distorted her sense of time. Hunger and thirst numbed her and let her to have illusions of people she had once known coming for her, or she would see images of animals, huge insects in the room with her, waiting for her to die so they could devour her corpse.
Then I heard the sound of the door opening and voices entering the room. I sensed Catalina’s fear and heard her gasp. Boots walked across the floor and arms picked her up and helped her on her feet. Then she was dragged out of the room. This time they didn’t bring her to the interrogation room like they had so many times before. She realized they walked past it because she counted the steps, like she had done many of the other times. She knew that there were eighty-nine steps to the interrogation room, but only fifty-three to the lavatory. Once she passed fifty-three she braced herself for what was waiting. When they passed eighty-nine she suddenly thought she had lost her count, but it passed a hundred steps, even a hundred and fifty. Suddenly she felt something she had thought she would never sense again. The wonderful feeling of fresh air on her skin. The cold and icy wind of the great outdoors. The smell of freedom. She inhaled deeply and realized she had forgotten the wonder of fresh clean air, air that didn’t smell like urine, sweat or blood.
She was pushed into what she believed was a car, then it began moving. Like the first time they had transported her she tried hard to take note of all the sounds. I heard the gate open, voices talking outside the car, someone salute the people in the car. She was wondering who was with her, since she felt like someone was watching her. Then she felt a gloved hand on her knee. She froze and gasped. She knew that touch. It could only be Officer Alexandru. The hand touched her leg, caressed it, and then climbed up under her dress. She cried for him to leave her alone. Then someone slapped her across the face and she landed on the seat and didn’t get up.
“I’ll have my way with you, soon,” Alexandru said.
“Where are we going?” Catalina said crying. “Where are you taking me?”
He never answered. Catalina heard other cars in the road, even yelling from people in the streets, voices and lots of noise and she wondered if she was in a big city, maybe Bucharest? But even if the car stopped at one point and Alexandru left the car before he came back, this wasn’t their destination.
The car drove off and now there were two people sitting in the back with her. She fought hard to keep her body from trembling.
“Is this her?” she heard a deep voice ask.
“It is,” Alexandru replied. “We have softened her up for you, General. She should be easy to break.”
“We’ll see about that,” the voice said.
The car continued while Catalina held back her tears. She had a feeling this was only going to get worse from now on.
They must have driven into the countryside since all the noise soon disappeared and all she heard was the voices and laughter of the two officers in the car. Not a human voice outside, not even a carriage. She had no idea of time, but it didn’t take long before the car slowed down and soon stopped. Hands were on her body again and she was pulled outside. Gravel crunched underneath the soldier’s boots, then stairs and a door that creaked opened. The cool air on her skin was gone
. She was indoors again.
“Put her in here,” the deep voice from the car said.
Catalina tried to fight it, but was thrown into a room even smaller than the one she had spent days, maybe even weeks in. The floor was cold and hard. Even if her hands were tied up behind her back, she could feel her way around the room. She had done it the other place and she was doing it now. That was how she knew it was smaller. She sighed, then laid her head on the cold stone floor. The despair, the hopelessness drained her and made her want to surrender to the sweet illusion of death. She was on the verge of giving up. She had been their prisoner for so long now and still didn’t understand what they wanted from her, why they were keeping her.
She woke up to the sound of footsteps. She braced herself for more pain and humiliation, but this time all the men did was to remove her bandage and untie her hands so she could move them. Then they left her again and locked the door behind them. She blinked her eyes in the darkness, but even if there wasn’t much light in the small room it felt too bright for her eyes. She closed them, then waited a few seconds before she opened them again. A dark stone wall was in front of her, unclear and blurry. She blinked again and again and soon she was able to see it clearly. Then she turned her head and looked at the end wall. There was a small window under the ceiling that let in a small ray of daylight. Her eyes hurt but she walked towards it anyway. She wasn’t tall enough to reach it, but still she felt the power of hope rise inside her young body. She put her palm on the wall and felt it. Right out there, she thought. Right on the other side was freedom. It’s right there.
Her hand touched the wall and felt it stone by stone, like was she scanning it, but in reality she was just so thrilled to be able to see something, anything that she wanted to see everything, she wanted to study this room, every inch of it and count every stone if that was what it took to keep her sane. As she touched the wall she came across something. Something that had been carved into the stone. It was letters, letters forming a word. She looked down and I saw it in my dream as her eyes laid upon it.
It said Sami.
Chapter 32
I woke with a start gasping for air.
“Sami,” I whispered. It had said my name on that wall.
I was shivering with cold and my hands felt numb. My heart was beating fast now and I felt the adrenalin rush through my veins. I knew where she was. I knew exactly where my name was carved like that. It was in the cellar of my childhood home, where I had played so often with my older brothers.
I got up on my feet and tried to keep calm. Could it be? Could they have brought her to my father’s property? I gasped again at the realization of things. Wouldn’t that mean that ... ? I didn’t dare finish the thought. What had they done to my family? What had they done to my mother?
The mere thought of them having hurt my family forced the change to come and my wolf appeared. I embraced the warmth of being a wolf and enjoyed the speed of the animal as I sprinted across the country towards my father’s property to the west.
I travelled for days through the mountains, only stopping to drink water or hunt for animals. I kept my anger intact so I could remain the wolf throughout the entire journey and didn’t have to endure the discomfort of changing back and becoming the weak and slow human. As the wolf I could travel hundreds of miles a day and after hunting I could continue most of the night as well. I didn’t need to rest, I was too angry, too furious to sleep. So in two and a half days I was back close to Bucharest. I ran through the forests and found that my father’s property had been taken over by soldiers who were guarding the entrance. I feared my family was still in the castle and maybe the soldiers would kill them if they knew I was coming, so it had to be a surprise attack and I feared they would somehow be alarmed if I killed the soldiers at the front gate. Luckily I knew many ways to get in even if they had put up a fence surrounding the entire area and forest. I found a secluded spot where I knew no one would see me and then jumped the fence like it was the easiest thing in the world. My hind legs had grown strong from all the running. No fence was high enough to keep me out.
I landed on the soil of my father’s property and then ran through the dense forest that I had known all of my life and soon found my way to the castle. I stopped on a hill and looked at the many cars in the driveway of the main building. There were at least ten soldiers with dogs, maybe even more. They were heavily armed with rifles.
I decided to wait till nightfall while I watched the guards and cars from a distance, preparing myself for what and who was waiting for me down there. As I did I spotted Alexandru walk out of the building. I hid between trees while studying him as he walked down the stairs, the soldiers saluting him, then walked into a car and drove away. I watched his car as it drove towards the exit, then went through the gate and disappeared. An hour or so later it came back. This time two men stepped out of the car. One was Officer Alexandru, the other was huge. He was much taller and bigger and appeared to be of higher rank than Alexandru. The soldiers all humbled themselves before him as did Alexandru. He yelled at the soldiers to hold the door for the big man in the long black coat and big hat. Once through the door I saw him take off his coat and hand it to someone. He had many stripes and medals on the jacket underneath. This was without a doubt a very important man. What was he doing here? I wondered. And why had they brought Catalina here, why this place of all places? Why my childhood home? As I was wondering the man turned and I got a good look at his face. His eyes were almost purple, the skin and eyebrows fair like an albino. His face was rough and he wore several deep scars across the left chin. At that second I stared into his eyes with my enhanced sight, I was suddenly certain that he was staring right back at me. It made me jump backwards while my heart beat faster. Had he seen me? Was that even possible from this distance? With a smile the man turned and disappeared into the castle.
It didn’t take long before I picked up Catalina’s scent and was assured that she was still in there. It was fresh and very strong. I didn’t however seem to smell my parents or anyone else from my family. They were all old smells mixed with those of the soldiers and especially Alexandru’s that I knew a little too well.
There was only one thing that really worried me as I waited.
The strong scent of another wolf.
Chapter 33
As night came I prepared myself for my attack. I knew this place like the back of my hand and knew a way to enter without being seen through the basement. I wasn’t worried about the guards outside but I was concerned that if they were warned inside that they might hurt Catalina. So my attack had to be subtle and discrete. The guards patrolling outside had dogs and they would pick up my scent immediately if I came too close or if I didn’t consider the wind direction. So I sneaked up from the south west part of my father’s property. Coming out of the woods I ran across the fields towards the back of the castle. A soldier was lighting a cigarette and the fire glowed in the darkness. As I approached him his dog became alert. It lifted its head and ears and stared in my direction. I stopped immediately hoping that I didn’t have to kill it. Luckily the soldier didn’t notice. He pulled its leash and dragged it to the other side of the main building.
Now I had my chance to reach the small wooden door leading to the basement before the next soldier walked around the corner. I ran as fast as I could while hearing boots stepping in the gravel approaching the corner of the building. Then I leaped soundlessly towards it and as he turned the corner I hid in the small dent where the wooden door was hidden deep behind bushes that had grown wild and covered the entire entrance. I held my breath as the footsteps came closer. I could hear the dog sniffing and soon I spotted the boots of the soldier standing close to my face. The dog was close to me now and I knew it sensed me. Luckily its owner wasn’t aware of the dog’s behavior and the same instant the dog began to growl someone called the soldier from the other side of the building and he dragged it away from me and disappeared.
I exhaled and caught my
breath. Careful not to make a noise I pushed the bushes aside and found the door. With my snout I pushed it open and slid through it into the house of my childhood that had become the fort of the enemy.
I put my snout on the cold stone floor and immediately caught Catalina’s scent. It was fresh and so close. In my dream she was locked in what used to be a storage room where my mother would store dried food and where I used to hide from my father’s disciplinary spanking with his belt. I remembered specifically having hidden there for hours behind the big bags of flour when he wanted to spank me for taking my horse and riding into town even when he had forbidden me. That day I carved my name into the stone wall while waiting for him to calm down with the knife that my father had given me. It had made me proud to see it afterwards. I liked the idea of leaving a mark, of marking my territory. That was when I for the first time thought about my future and about life. That was when I decided I wasn’t going to waste it. I wanted to become somebody. I wanted to leave a mark, an impact on this earth. Back then I guess I already knew I was destined for something bigger than the life I had then. I had somehow known and that made my brothers furious thinking I thought I was better than them.
As I ran through the hallway towards the storage room Catalina’s scent grew stronger and fresher it was almost intoxicating. I knew then that being close to her was somehow my destiny that looking for her had somehow provided me with something, it had made me grow up.