Animal Instinct

by Noelle N

It wasn't until sometime in the evening that I finally got off my shift. After hanging up my apron, I couldn't help but chance a glance at the sidewalk outside the café. Jed wasn't there, as usual, and I knew he was giving me the space I had told him I needed. But a part of me couldn't help but wish that he were here.

  Shaking that thought aside, I stretched and pulled out the elastic band that held my blonde hair back from my face. It had been a long, exhausting day but then I'd only come into work sometime around noon. Lorraine had been there for the whole day. After locking up, the both of us lugged the trash out to the back, only to realise that the bins had already been cleared.

  "Damn it." Lorraine sighed, dragging a hand through her hair as she kept the other wrapped firmly around the bag. "Okay, there's a dumpsite just some way off from here. Are you up for lugging garbage around for a while more?"

  "Beyond thrilled," I deadpanned, with a wry grin. She began walking, and I matched her pace. "So where's this dumpsite?"

  "Just past the intersection. It won't be five minutes, tops."

  She was right. It didn't take long for us to get there. Once we crossed the road, the dumpsite loomed ahead, black trash bags scattered across a tiny plot of land. It was in the open air, so the place didn't exactly reek that badly, but Lorraine with her heightened senses was clearly bearing the brunt of it.

  "The garbage disposal comes in the morning," she explained, scrunching her nose with an expression of utter disgust on her face. "That's what the road's for. You follow this road for some miles, pass a couple of territories belonging to other packs, and you'll reach the city."

  "Do normal people – humans, do they actually come into these part of the woods?"

  "Hardly. It's a forested area, for one, and people so accustomed to the city don't usually like coming to places like these. Plus – security's tight. People don't get through that easily. Sometimes, the occasional hiker comes traipsing through these parts, but we usually turn them around and send them back wherever we came from."

  "How'd you do that?" I asked, hardly able to stop my curiosity. She set the bag down and I set mine beside hers.

  "We tell them that this is private property – which isn't so far from the truth; and that usually sends them away. People don't like to question much, plus there are signs along the road that keep them out."

  "So you're saying that all these private property signs, they're set up because werewolves are within the vicinity?"

  "Not all of them. It's – " She stopped suddenly, her posture going rigid as her eyes widened. "Oh, no," she breathed, her fingers reaching for my wrist as she pulled me close to her. "No, no, no."

  I felt my breath lodge in my throat, the fear radiating from her in waves that I caught on quickly. "What's happening?"

  "Luna," she stated flatly, her eyes still fixed on the road ahead to make sure that no one was in our path. "I'm going to shift and you're going to run. Head for home. No matter what happens, don't look back."

  "Mind-link Jed," I whispered, my fingers automatically slipping into the satchel strapped over my shoulder. "He'll know what to do."

  "Already have," she returned grimly, "all clear." She tugged me forward and gave me a firm shove. "Now run."

  "Lorraine – "

  "Run."

  Her voice sounded distorted. And just as I began to sprint forward, I caught a flash of brown fur surging up and then overtaking me. I knew without a doubt that it was Lorraine, and she never slowed her pace, instead ramming straight into a larger wolf that seemed to jump at me from out of nowhere.

  I almost stumbled at the frightening yelp that seemed to come from her, and when I chanced a glance backwards, I felt the oxygen kick right out of my lungs when I saw that the other wolf had its jaws locked around her back. Lorraine was struggling futilely, legs thrashing every which way and I didn't even think.

  "Lorraine!" Dragging the knife out from my bag, I was hurtling over and sinking it into hind leg of the other wolf, feeling the metal slice deep into flesh as the wolf dropped Lorraine with a agonised yelp. Lorraine dropped to the ground and I pulled her up by the scruff of her neck, yanking the knife from the other wolf in one swift action. "Come on! Let's go!"

  She nudged me forward and I spun on my heels, stumbling for a bit before righting my balance and continuing to run. But we didn't get far. I caught the flash of fur in my peripheral vision before another wolf was ramming straight into Lorraine. Then my knees buckled when I felt something pounce on my back, the wolf's claws digging into my jacket as I stumbled to the ground.

  My cheek collided against the gravel, the impact so hard-hitting that I lost focus for a moment. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was Lorraine's wolf form thrashing amidst a blur of wolves. I twisted and slashed my knife right up at the wolf on top of me, but a hand shot out and latched tightly around my wrist, squeezing so hard that my grip loosened, the knife clattering onto the ground.

  Then Diego's familiar face came into view, a cold smirk stretching across his face as he wrapped his other hand around my throat. My vision began to blur, black spots dotting the surroundings as I futilely tried to pry his hand away from my throat. But it was too late, and all I heard before I blacked out was his ominous words, so quiet I could barely hear it.

  "Should've never left Titan borders, kid."

  08

  BEAST

  The room was frighteningly dark.

  Not the kind of dim that I was used to seeing back at Jed's house. No, this was – different, the kind that terrified adults and kids alike because it was the kind of darkness my eyes could never get used to. It all came back in flashes. Heading out with Lorraine and getting attacked by werewolves. I hadn't even known that we'd crossed Titan border until Diego had told me so. And Lorraine –

  Lorraine.

  I could still hear her muffled yelps ringing in my ears and I swallowed heavily, pushing aside the worst-case scenarios that plagued my mind and hoping against hope that she was safe. Slowly pushing myself up into sitting position, I gingerly felt around my throat, wincing when my fingers touched raw bruises.

  Diego really wasn't one to let up even if his opponent showed any signs of weakness. And I shivered just thinking about how many more people around here who were just like him. It was a good thing that Bianca wasn't here too – she was just as merciless as he was, perhaps even more so.

  Unsteadily, I climbed to my feet and crossed the room, placing my palms flat against the door. There was a faint light from outside streaming through, and I held my breath and listened closely.

  Nothing.

  Carefully, I reached down for the knob and twisted. To my surprise, it gave easily and the door opened with a creak. No way. My heart began to race and all my senses were on alert. There was no way it could be that easy.

  But it was.

  No guards outside my door and no one down the hallway. But I knew that it was all just a façade, the real danger lay ahead and the easy access out of my room was just tempting me to walk right into its trap.

  So I turned around, scanning the room for any other means of escape. The window was far too high and small for me to squeeze out through, and that was all the remotest chance I had. And there were no windows I could see along the hallway. I was still calculating the odds of getting captured and locked up for good if I were to venture out into the hallway, when the sudden patter of feet made me look up.

  Diego paused in his tracks when he saw me, before his eyes narrowed in evident displeasure. "Let's go."

  "Where're we going?"

  He ignored me and spun on his heels, leading me down the hallway. I knew better than to escape from him. After having been caught – twice – by him, I'd be stupid not to have learnt my lesson. So I followed him, keeping my arms wrapped protectively around my frame and bracing myself for any unexpected attack on his part. He led me down narrow, winding pathways and it didn't escape my notice that there were guards posted in front of certain doors. Even if I'd tried to escape on my own earlier, t
here was no way I could get past them.

  Finally, after a confusing route that made my head spin just trying to map out the path we took here, Diego came to a pause in front of a large door. He twisted the knob and looked in. "She's here," I heard him say to someone inside.

  There was a muffled reply and Diego pushed the door open wider, sidestepping to let me pass. I froze at the sight of the room, its interior simple but well-furnished. There was a long table stretched across the room and, at the very end, sat a familiar man that made a shiver of dread race down my spine.

  It was the same man I saw that day when I attended the Hearing. He was the man with Bianca, the man with black eyes, the man who kept me locked up and would've continued to have done so had not Jed rescued me in time. He was eating calmly, but set his fork and knife down when he saw me hovering by the doorway.

  "Quinn Reilly." The way he said my name was positively chilling and I fought to stay calm. Because something about him, everything about him, really, sent my heart racing with panic and desperation. "It's good to have you back here with us."

  When I faltered, Diego pushed me roughly into the room and slammed the door shut behind me. I whirled around, my hand clamping around the knob as I tried to get out, but it was tightly shut. I turned, steeling myself as I met the man's gaze squarely. "What do you want?"

  His lips twisted up in a slow smile and he carefully sliced a piece of meat with his knife, speared it with his fork before bringing it to his lips. He chewed in a deliberately slow manner that I was sure was meant to instil fear into me. Because the longer I spent in his presence, the more nerve-wrecking it was.

  I swallowed and tried to put on the most nonchalant expression I could possibly muster. "Should I come back when you're done eating?"

  He chuckled and set his fork down, the sound of metal clattering against porcelain jarring in the silence. "You're frightened," he pointed out, looking rather amused when my jaw tightened. "But you have no reason to fear me. I don't make it a point to chew on Jedediah's playthings," He spat out Jed's name like it was the most distasteful thing on earth.

  Even though the way he said it made me shudder, I couldn't help but feel relieved by the turn of events. One problem down, many more to go. I looked at him. "You're keeping me here as bait."

  "You're rather astute for a human. And yes, you're bait. Were it not for your affinity to Jedediah, I would've had my guards snap your neck before you can even blink. But, as it stands, he'll come for you, no matter what or how long it takes."

  I felt my heart clench at the thought of Jed, but took a deep breath and held his gaze boldly. "Who are you?"

  "He didn't tell you about me?" He shook his head and laughed, a kind of eerily haunting sound that made me wish desperately to unhear it. "That's a shame. My name is Mattheus. But I'm a terrible host and getting rather ahead of myself here. Are you hungry?"

  I kept silent.

  He simply shrugged. "I'm sure the guards will help you if you need some food later. Just stay within the vicinity and we'll get along fine. I'd hate to send my pack out to track you down in the middle of the night. Werewolves can get rather vicious when they're not properly reined in, you know," he added, with a hint of a threat behind his words. He picked up his fork again and dismissed me. "Diego will see you out."

  The door opened with a click and Diego was behind me in an instant. He latched his fingers around my arm and dragged me out, letting the door swing shut behind us. The moment we were outside the room, I wrenched away from him. "Get away from me!"

  He dropped my arm with a bored expression. "With pleasure," he sneered and strode off without so much as a backward glance.

  That left me alone. I glanced around, noting the long hallways and nondescript doors along every corner. There was no easy way to get out of here. But I had free rein around this place, hadn't I? And I was going to try to find a way out, even if it took me longer than was necessary. And even if I couldn't, there was no harm memorising this place so I could get out easily when help came.

  Ignoring the guards around, I methodically made my way through the building, taking note of paintings and specific pieces of furniture along the way to familiarise myself with my surroundings. Opening doors to see if they were exits and closing them when they weren't. It was like finding a way out of the labyrinth. You had to start somewhere. If you made a wrong turn, you backtracked. If you chose the correct path, you just kept going.

  Eventually, I managed to locate several exits. There was the main door, heavily guarded and absolutely no chance of escape there. The back gate, which seemed to have the same number of guards as the front one. The side exits were less guarded, but to get through, you needed to scale down a spiral staircase or trek across the yard to get to the side gate.

  Then there was one exit that seemed marginally easier than the others. It was along the side of the building, guarded by four men. But even if the gate was narrow, it led out to the road and all roads led somewhere. That was my best bet.

  Bracing my hands on the windowsill, I stared at the gate for awhile longer. There was no way I could break out of here now, with four guards to face all at once. But, maybe, when there was a shift change or when there were less of them – I could.

  With that resolution in mind, I turned away and continued to wander down the hallway. Mind-links would be so helpful right now, and for the hundredth or so time that day, I couldn't help but wish that I'd at least set things right with Jed before getting captured. Actually, that was the reason why I was captured. Because if things were fine and Jed and I had been – well, whatever we were prior to this; then I'd be near him.

  And when I was with him, I was safe.

  Approaching another door, I opened it. Peered in, only to see that there was an empty bed inside. I shut it and continued, opening three other doors and finding nothing useful until I came to the final one down the quiet hallway. This one was different, and I immediately began to feel anxious when I saw the sign plastered across the door, which ran 'no entry' in dark red font.

  My first instinct was to turn around and leave the door alone. But my second thought was the suspicion that it could lead somewhere. Maybe a secret passage that not many people knew about. Bracing myself, I cast another wary glance down the hallway – it was empty – before turning the knob slowly.

  There was a low, winding path leading in and everything was dark, save for the faint lamp flickering in the corner. This – probably wasn't it. I bit my lip, backtracking, and I was just about to pull the door shut again when a sudden noise startled me.

  It was – it sounded like a cry.

  Was it?

  Curiosity getting the better of me, I quickly stepped inside, letting the door fall shut behind me before I lost my nerve and backed out again. There was an odd smell around the place, I couldn't quite lay a finger on it, but everything about this place was so deathly quiet and gloomy that it made me nervous.

  The path was narrow and winding, but I stuck close to the wall and kept walking, until I came to a flight of stairs that dipped downwards. This time I paused, self-preservation getting the better of me once again because this was already starting out like a scene of a horror movie and I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going.

  But the same cry sounded out from below and this time it was unmistakable: definitely a woman. Maybe – Lorraine?

  Anxiety flooded through me in seconds and I headed down the stairs. If my suspicions were right and it was Lorraine, then I needed to get to her. Get to her and get the both of us out of here. The stairs bottomed out into a wider room, so expansive that it seemed like some sort of grand hall, but with a low ceiling that made the place seem frighteningly claustrophobic.

  The first thing I saw in the middle of the room was a bed.

  A low lamp hanging from the ceiling seemed to bathe the room in an otherworldly sort of glow, casting light on the shadows and illuminating the darkest corners until the whole place was undulated with waves and shades of light. And
it was remotely pleasant at first, until the stench of the room hit me, so strong I found myself wanting to gag.

  Because the place reeked of blood.

  Nevermind that there were scented candles on the dresser nearby. The stench of blood was unmistakable and impossible to scrub out. And I was certain that the longer I stayed here, the more I too would reek of it. I scanned the place quickly, and it wasn't until my eyes began to adjust to the faint lighting in the room that I realised exactly what kind of nightmare lay within.

  It was the body hanging limply in the corner that caught my eye first, one hand dragged up like it was controlled by an invisible puppeteer, hooked by a handcuff to a railing while the head was hanging forward, at such a disjointed angle that I knew without a doubt that the woman was dead. It was the body sprawled diagonally across hers, and this woman had startlingly red hair that lay bedraggled across her stripped frame, eyes vacant, staring, and lacerations every which way across her pale skin. It was another, and another, and another, all stripped naked amidst the chains and whips and bondage equipment – and she too was dead, so was she, and was that a girl barely twelve, and another woman my age lying in a pool of her own blood, dead, dead, all dead.

  There were monsters from fairytales that your parents told you about, and then there were the imagined monsters you had nightmares about. But these were the monsters that haunted our world.

  This time, I really retched. Doubling over, I braced one hand on the wall and heaved again and again. But my stomach was empty and all that escaped me was painful, agonising coughs until I was nothing but a shaking, quivering mess. Through a fog of tears, I pulled myself together – get out of here, my head screamed, get out, now – and pressed the back of my palm to my lips to keep from sobbing aloud. I was just about to leave when another feminine cry stopped me.

  I paused, scanning the room and forcing my eyes not to linger on the dead bodies. "H-hello?" I stammered shakily.

  A scuffling sound near the back of the room. I swallowed heavily and braced myself, taking a firm step closer. Then another, and another, until I had nervously picked my way across the room. The bed wasn't just a bed, I realised, when I neared it. It was a bondage bed. And bondage was just a game you played in bed.