TWENTY-FOUR HOURS EARLIER…
Sheer terror shot through Raven as the snarling angry beast of night bolted toward her. She didn't even have time to scream as she turned to run. Sharp teeth nipped her arm, breaking skin and sending a surge of blood squirting across the log as she kept moving. Raven set off into a full out sprint shooting through the trees and jumping over uprooted brush along the way.
Deep audible pants sounded behind her; the beast was fast, too fast. Raven rounded a corner in a zig-zagging motion. She wasn't going to be able to outrun this thing. Her best hope was to make catching her as difficult as possible.
Her efforts proved futile when the massive creature leapt several feet in the air, clearing her head and landing right in front of a shocked Raven. The wolf barked again. Over and over.
Raven's surprised it didn't leap into another attack, eating her then and there. She didn't stay to debate as she took off in another direction. Every time she tried to make a sharp turn, the beast would jump out from behind a tree or a bush, forcing her to run deeper into the woods.
It seemed as though it were herding her somewhere. But that had to be impossible. It had to be all in her head.
Her theory didn't seem so far fetched however when she ran into a dead end. She came to an encirclement of trees, the overgrown brush of thorns and twisted and broken branches impassable between the massive trunks.
Her eyes scanned the area frantically for a way forward, but she saw none. Her only choice was to turn back. But as she spun around, Raven not so surprisingly came face to face with the growling, salivating wolf that had been chasing her.
Tears streamed as she backed away, hands rising carefully in surrender again.
"Please," Raven pled with the wolf, as though it could understand.
Suddenly, four figures emerged from behind the beast. Slowly they approached Raven, the wolf paying them no mind as they passed.
Three of the four faces, Raven recognized.
Echo, Gaia, and Lincoln. The fourth was a girl of average height, average build, tanned skin, and a head of dark shoulder-length midnight locks pulled back into a half updo. She wore dark, intimidating eye makeup.
Raven's eyes shot to the two people most likely to save her, Lincoln and Gaia.
"Please," Raven cried. "Please get me out of here."
No one responded. Echo's glare burned with the familiar hatred that always flickered there. Gaia and Lincoln had their heads tilted to one side, confusion on their brow as they stared at Raven intently, as if trying to solve a puzzle. The fourth girl, the one with dark hair and heavy eye makeup, also looked intensely curious as she stared at Raven.
Why are they all looking at me like that?
Raven's breath caught in her throat when the wolf stepped closer. Then, something incredulous happened. Something so impossible it defied all the laws of physics. Defied all the facts of life Raven had always held dear.
The black wolf with piercing golden orbs began to whine as its body began to distort and twist. Its fur rescinded into its skin as it somehow grew taller and stretched into the outline of a human figure.
The other four standing around the beast didn't even spare a glance in the direction of the miraculous event. Raven, however, stared on in horror, unable to look away as the snout sunk into a human head, black fuzz transforming into long dark brown locks instead.
The face shifting into someone more and more familiar by the second, a face Raven hoped to never see without Anya by her side, a face she feared to ever be alone with, especially out this deep in the woods.
Raven collapsed to the ground as the human version of Luna emerged from the transformation. Raven sat back on her elbows, that was all the energy she could muster as she stared in amazement. How was this possible?
This all had to be some sort of nightmare. Where did the beast go? Surely Luna couldn't have morphed from that thing? Could she?
Luna approached Raven, smiling wickedly, her bare feet kicking up dirt carelessly with every stride. She came to a stop just in front of Raven's feet, standing there in all her naked glory, not the least bit modest.
The others didn't seem to care about her nudity either. They still couldn't tear their eyes from Raven. Why were they still looking at her like that?
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Luna's haunting sing-song tone held malice with every syllable, cruel amusement leaking into it. "You smell… interesting now. Very interesting."
The other grounders finally moved, all of them circling around Raven, moving closer. They seemed to be sniffing the air. They looked so confused, so puzzled.
Raven couldn't smell anything except the forest and the moisture in the air. That dampness that filtered through the wind just before rain would fall.
Raven's gaze quickly flashed to Lincoln and Gaia again in a silent plea for help. But their expressions never once shifted. They looked just as curious and unreachable as they had before.
Luna moved closer again, stepping between Raven's legs as she knelt between them, bringing her face close to the mechanic's and stroking Raven's chin with one finger.
"Why is Anya not here to protect you, I wonder? It's awfully cruel of her to leave her scent in you, then leave you unguarded." Luna rose to her feet again, looking down her nose at Raven as her expression turned sinister. "Anya never was good at taking care of her pets. Perhaps it's time she learned her lesson."
Raven swallowed hard as Luna moved away again. She could try to run, not that it did any good before, but it was better than nothing. She looked at the group, a sense of defeat overwhelming her as she realized any attempt to get away would prove futile. It wasn't as if anyone could outrun five adrenaline junkies, especially if one of them was some weird shapeshifting dog.
That's when Luna turned around again, an evil gleam in her eye as she charged Raven. It all happened so unbelievably fast. Luna cried out, face to the sky, teeth-baring before the miraculous event transpired a second time before Raven, paralyzing her in place as she watched Luna's teeth elongate into a full mouth of fangs. Her face extended into a snout, the rest of her body following in a violent blur of twisted and snapping painful afflictions.
It took only seconds before Raven was met with the beast again. This time there was no playing, no herding mentality, that monster was hungry and headed straight for Raven.
Raven scrambled and tried to crawl away as massive paws pounced toward her, but it was too late. Luna had already latched onto her leg, fangs sinking into flesh deeply, the pain excruciating. Raven shrieked in agony as she's sure Luna hit bone and wasn't about to let go.
Luna started to drag her away. On reflex, Raven cocked her other leg back then launched it into the dark wolf's snarling fur-ridden face. The beast whined on impact, clearly not expecting the retaliation.
Raven tried hopelessly to crawl away again, her bloody hand latching to the base of a tree trunk before slipping back to the ground. She rolled to her back again, letting out another scream of agony.
It was no use. She was immobilized.
Luna circled Raven animatedly, vicious growls and barks ringing out before Luna decided to lunge again, this time with more violence and aggression than before, clearly furious with Raven's attack.
Long sharp claws landed on Raven's chest, digging, sinking into soft tissue, every swipe like razors as they sliced and sliced Raven deep. She let out another loud wail of extreme agony, the pain blinding her—the sting and burn of the abrasions unlike anything she'd ever experienced.
She shrieked to the stormy sky above, willing any gods in existence to save her from this plight. Save her from the agonizing knives that shredded her like butter and tore flesh from bone. She just wanted it all to end. And she didn't care if death was that end either.
It wasn't long before Raven started to cough and choke, a thick warm liquid rose in her throat, out of control. The metallic flavour of the syrupy substance engulfed her before blood began to spit and sputter, the liquid gushing past injured lips as she struggled to breathe. It was then Luna decided to stop using Raven as a scratching post and howled long and loud into the air.
When Raven felt teeth sink into her leg a second time, she hardly registered the new waves of pain as Luna started to drag her through the trees.
Her body shuddered uncontrollably as she watched the sky roll by overhead. Darkness threatened the edges of her vision before taking over completely, fading her world to black.