14 – It is but a game

Lydia:

Just what has my world come to?

As I sit on the cold steel floor of a 2 meter square cage that had imprisoned me for...who knows how long...Honestly, I'd stopped counting the days.

I stared out into the small open area in this thick forest. Barely letting in any moonlight or sunlight with each passing day. The only light coming from the raging bonfire that was set alight every night by these...people.

To be honest I wasn't sure, they may seem human now, but that doesn't always mean they are...

I had just curled into a small ball in the centre of the cage when the door creaked open and before me stopped a somewhat tall but skinny masculine figure. Dressed completely in black, from his hoodie, to his shirt, jeans, trainers, belts and wristbands.

His hood shadowing his hair, and revealing the porcelain wolf mask that hid his face. He paused for a brief second before latching onto my arm and yanking me up.

Dragged, reluctantly, to the larger cage that I could never take my eyes off since I woke up here. It had always sat empty to my left, much larger than the other cages that had been positioned into a circle. A total of five smaller cages, all staring at this larger one.

He threw open the door and threw me in, slamming it shut and locking it behind. With a snigger he skipped away, back to the fire where the rest of them lingered. Four altogether, all wearing black wit white porcelain wolf masks. But there was a fifth, but he was a rarely showed up. Unlike the others he would always arrive in a red hoodie, his mask black...and unlike the others that taunt those imprisoned in these cages he would just...stare...

Tonight was one of those unfortunate nights that he was stood opposite the cage, staring at the steel bars. His arms crossed, showing no signs of emotion as the others jumped, leapt and danced around the fire as though performing a ritual.

I pushed myself to my feet and looked around the cage to see four others in here with me. All skinny, practically starved, their clothes torn and hair scruffy. Shaking with fear, some muttering prayers to themselves and rocking back and forth for some form of comfort.

"I'm sure it'll be fine..." I say, offering a comforting smile to those that looked at me, but I feel I more said those words to comfort myself, more than them.

"Fine...Do you have any idea what's about to happen?" One snarled, causing me to jump slightly. "Five teenagers every few months go missing, and are found dead in various forests across the country. Starved, sickly, and torn to shreds...That's what will happen to us..."

My heart sank, and to think that it hadn't even been that long since the last problems we faced we're dealt with, now serial killers?

"I don't want to die..." Another pleaded, tears in her eyes, and she stood shaking, he head in her hands.

"We're not going to die." I say, with some confidence...I mean I've seen worse, if these guys are human, then they shouldn't be anywhere near as much trouble.

"How can you say that...we're as good as dead." The previous speaker growled at me once again. And to be honest she was really getting on my nerves at this point.

"Because I've faced some...difficult situations before." I reply back, with a small smirk. But as she's about to respond she pauses and jumps back. I freeze for a second before spinning around to see one of these... 'wolves' stood, leaning on the bars. He seemed to be the one that had moved me to this cage, just going on height and shape of course.

"Hello kiddos." He chuckled, a German accent rippling off his mask.

"Who are you? What do-" I begin before another one arrives at the bars, kicking them so hard they began to vibrate for a few seconds.

"We're going to play a game." He speaks again, shifting slightly on the spot.

"What?" One of the prisoners asks, in a rather harsh and confident tone.

"A game. You know, how they work right. It'll be like tag. You see, we'll be it, and you all have to run away. The road at the end of the forest is...the safe zone." He adds, pointing through the bars into the forest, as we follow his gaze.

"And what happens if you catch us?" The prisoner interrogates further.

"Simple. We kill you. But you should already know that, since you know you were just talking about our acts."

"How did you-"

"Hear that?" He chuckles, his friend joining in. "Keen hearing. Just a little something I picked up."

Although I couldn't see his face, I felt his smile and cold eyes on me...and now I wasn't quite so sure what to make of these guys.

"So you ready to start running?"

"What if we don't want to?" Another prisoner asks, the one who just so happened to be crying before.

"Then we'll kill you in the cage where you stand. Your choice, run. Or die. Don't worry though, we'll give a..." He begins looking to his friend for an answer.

"A minute head start." Echoed a voice from the distance, these black figures turning to their red hooded 'master' who evidently, was the one who had spoken.

"A minute head start. Aren't you lucky. Better run fast though." And with another giggle, he and his friend backed way from the cage, and nodded to the cage.

We all looked to other side of the cage to see the door slowly lifting.

"Run real fast!" A female voice resonated from behind, followed by laughter. I took the chance to creep under the still raising gate and began running. I glanced back to see the other following my example, and leaving the cage early, all splitting off in different directions.

My heart pounding in my chest with each landing step. The adrenaline pumping through my veins as I looked around to see my fellow captives on either side, lagging behind somewhat but keeping fairly constant pace.

I didn't know how long this stretch was, and I knew they wouldn't make it short, but I figured we were all making good time. With every step I hoped to see the road that would let me be free, but I hadn't realised just how short a minute actually was...nor that my hope these were standard humans was failing.

A scream pieced my right ear, my head flicking that way to barely catch a glimpse of blood spraying onto the nearby trees, and a strange black furred shape in that direction.

Another two screams echoed from a distance, too far for them to be in my view, and my breathing quicken from pure fear. They weren't human, if they were they wouldn't have caught up that fast...

I turned to my left to see my only other captive speeding up, tears flying behind him, before he took a look behind him. Large brown wolf leapt through the air, clawing into his chest and biting into his throat. As he screamed I turned back forwards and tried to shut out all the sounds.

These people...they can't be werewolves...they don't just turn into wolves right...

I focus forwards and in the far distance I see the faintness of street lights and the grey of a tarmacked road. I wanted to smile but the sound of approaching footstep behind me prevented it. I turned around to see a black wolf chasing, and looking back to the streetlights I decide to take a small risk.

I flick my body around, taking a deep breath as the wolf leapt for my throat, and I let out a scream. The wolf went flying backwards, landing with an uncomfortable thud, and after a few seconds of it lying perfectly still I turn, ready to run to the road. But something brown appeared before me for a brief second before everything simply went black...

Author Note: I apologize for my absence, I've just been so busy with stuff that I haven't really had time to do this, but it makes me really happy to see people are weirdly liking it, though I feel it may change from this point onwards purely because of how this chapter went, yes expect to see these characters more later on.

But thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy!