Josh's blank face stared up at her, unseeing and unnaturally pale. With a surprised yelp, she dropped the sheet and leap back. She stared at the form in her bed, horrified. The whole world seemed like a vacuum. She could have sworn she screamed but she couldn't hear it; she thought she hit something when she jumped back but felt nothing. Nothing...then a loud, high-pitched whine as her senses rushed back to her in a violent, screaming blow. Her elbow throbbed dully where she had smashed into the corner of her nightstand. It took her a second to realize that the hysterical screams were coming from her own mouth.
She went back to the bed and uncovered the desecrated corpse that lay there. Fighting the bile she felt rising in her throat and ignoring the lurching of her stomach, Sylvie assessed the damage that had been done. There were bloody marks all over his body… wolf marks. Initially, she couldn't be sure if he had bled to death – there was so much blood – or if there had been a decisive moment when he ceased to live during the violent onslaught. She noticed a vicious-looking gash stretching across his jugular. It was a massive bite resembling a botched decapitation. It gaped at her darkly, the uneven, ragged edges crusted over with blood. It was clear that this was the one. The lethal bite.
She studied his other wounds, sick in her heart, as it became apparent that most of these wounds were not intended to be fatal, but only to maim. Closing his eyelids, she hoped he hadn't been alive when these wounds were inflicted. Whoever had done this didn't simply want to kill him; they wanted to mangle him as well.
And she knew who that someone was. She only knew of one who was foolish enough to kill a human, this human, in cold blood. The battle lines had long been drawn and now, one had been crossed.
Sylvie tenderly touched Josh's temple, a silent goodbye and a belated apology. She covered him with the sheet again. She'd have to deal with the body later.
It had occurred to her, in flashes of guilt towards what she was doing, that her actions were recklessly endangering the pack. It had never once occurred to her that her double life was also threatening the lives of the humans she loved. And now, here was evidence of her mistake, an oversight realized too late. Josh was dead, and though she hadn't been the one whose jaws clamped around his throat, it was entirely her fault.
Spurred by her rage, Sylvie stormed out of the room. Halfway down the stairs she saw Gabriella and Gisela loitering on the landing below her, looking a little too pleased with themselves. She stopped in front of them, standing on a higher step to add more emphasis to her already imposing frame. She drew herself up tall, standing perfectly straight, her face an expression of punishing hardness. She wanted it clear to these two that she demanded answers. If anyone was exposing their underbelly, it would be those two; not her.
"Do you like our little present?" Gisela cackled.
"Now you have him to share your bed for always," her twin added.
"I always knew you were stupid but I never would have believed you capable of murder," Sylvie spat, disgusted that they knew about her and Josh and guilty that they had found out.
"You must not have shown him what you're capable of doing," Gabriella continued.
"Because he seemed surprised to see what we could do."
The twins climbed the steps, whispering some of the more sordid details of their attack, until they flanked the lone female.
"We almost thought we had the wrong meat boy…" Gisela cooed in Sylvie's left ear.
"…until he called out your name," added her twin from Sylvie's right.
Sylvie whipped her head towards Gabriella, shocked by this bit of information.
"You're lying. Why would he say that?" she hissed.
"Because Ophelia told her what you were," came the reply from behind her head.
"But don't worry… "
"… he took your secret to the grave!"
The two giggled like maniacs at their pun as they raced down the stairs to the landing, out of Sylvie's reach.
"Where did you find him?!" Sylvie demanded, blinking back the sudden tears that prickled her eyes.
"Oh, it wasn't hard," Gabriella replied loftily.
"He's spent the past two nights in the bar near his apartment building."
"Apparently he was taking the break-up pretty hard. But really…"
"It wasn't anything to lose your head over!" they crowed in unison.
This sent the twins into another set of giggles. Furious and hurt, Sylvie leapt from the stair to the landing with a feral snarl that was rarely ever heard from her. Shock stunned the twins into silence. Sylvie slammed both girls back against the railing and held them there, a hand clenching around each of their throats.
"Enough! I want straight answers! How did you find him?! Who killed him?!"
The twins looked genuinely frightened. Sylvie never looked like this, let alone behaved like this before. They weren't sure what she was capable of in this state.
"We followed you!" Gabriella whimpered.
"Ophelia did it!" Gisella blurted out at the same time.
"Where is she now?" Sylvie growled dangerously.
The twins glanced at each other nervously.
"Tell me!"
"The forest."
"She's expecting you."
Sylvie's eyes narrowed, "I'll deal with you two later." She turned and disappeared from sight. Within moments, the front door slammed shut.
"If there is a later," Gabriella muttered. Gisela nodded in agreement.
Because of the commotion, neither were aware of the fact that the spies were actually the spied. Someone else had heard the whole thing.
Sylvie exploded from the house at a flat-out run. She wasn't consciously aware of what she planned to do next. Her feet ran on their own accord and she found herself in the middle of the forest in record time.
Her sense of smell, though not nearly as strong in her human form, was still acute enough to detect that Ophelia was nearby. However, the clearing seemed completely empty.
"Ophelia!" she called out into the emptiness. "Where are you?"
Silence.
"You've gone too far this time!"
She stood in the clearing, looking around her for any sign of movement, any indication of where Ophelia might be hiding. Everything seemed still. Then…laughter. It started off as barely audible, then crescendoed into a maniacal howling. Somewhere…everywhere. It seemed to echo at her from all sides. Suppressing her initial panic, Sylvie listened intently, pinpointing the source of the sound, somewhere off to her side, slightly behind her. The laughter suddenly stopped, replaced by a lilting sing-song voice.
"He is dead and gone, lady,/He is dead and gone;/At his head a grass green turf,/At his heels a stone."
She turned, following the voice, listening. It floated from the shadows, moving around her.
"And will he not come again?/And will he not come again?/No, no, he is dead,/Go to thy death-bed,/He never will come again."
Finally, Ophelia stepped into the moonlight. Immediately, Sylvie sensed that something was not right.
"He is gone, he is gone,/And we cast away moan: God ha' mercy on his soul!" she recited, a deranged grin on her face.
Something was definitely not right. Ophelia looked like she was out of her mind, her eyes oddly bright, her walk a little too swaggering.
"So, finally Sylvie comes out to play," she smirked.
"Ophelia," Sylvie began, trying to be patient. "You've gone too far. This is stupid, even for you."
The other female scoffed. "You're one to talk. How many meat-boys know our secret? How many have you told?"
"You knew that he was an innocent!" Sylvie snapped. "You weren't trying to protect the pack when you killed him!"
"How would you know what I was trying to do?" Ophelia sneered.
"This goes beyond what you're implying. By killing a human, you've endangered the pack. By bringing him back here, you've risked giving away our location. You've risked everything that I did and more!"
"Well, look who's talking like she's Queen Bitch."
Ophelia began circling the other female. Sylvie was forced to turn as well, just to keep her back from being exposed to her opponent. There was no logic to Ophelia now; she didn't want to get caught unaware.
Ophelia seemed satisfied with her game for the moment. But there was no way to predict when she'd get bored and decide to 'play' something else.
"This needs to stop!" Sylvie said sternly, still keeping the other female in her sights.
"Stop?" Ophelia asked, the single word chased by a chilling laugh. "I haven't even started."