::: SEVENTEEN :::
Derek was already dress as he sat in the chair across from the bed watching me. "Good morning." He kissed me on the head before leaving the tent- Today was the big day, everything had to be in order.
When Derek arrived back in our tent I was dress and ready- I had my own plan to go through with. I watched him move around the tent organizing everything, the silence was broken by young Ben standing outside our tent. "Derek." I yelled for Ben to come inside. "Ben, come in. I didn't know you were here." Ben walked into the tent with a shy smile.
"Mother won't allow me in the fight but she said I could help at camp." That sounded like Tara.
Derek was direct with him. "Did you have a message for me?"
"Uncle Samuel says it's time to leave." Derek nodded his head and kneeled down to Ben's height.
"Will you do me a favour Ben?" He nodded his head, happy to help. "Would you do the great pleasure of looking after Chloe for me." Ben and Derek glanced up at me and I throw Derek a glare. "Don't take your eyes off her, she's a sneaky one." He gave me a pointed look before telling Ben we'll be out in a minute. Ben gave me a wave before exiting the tent.
Derek stood up walked in front of me, giving me a hard stare. "Did you really think you could keep your plan from me?" I looked down at the ground away from Derek's eyes- I couldn't believe I was stupid enough to think Derek wouldn't know, he could read my mind for god sake. Then it clicked.
"Oh God, did you...the other day...did you...bite me... only so you could find out what I was doing?" I felt like someone had knocked the air out of me as anger filled me with hurt.
Derek's eyes went wide when he realised what I had said. "Chloe. I didn't do that because I wanted to know what you were doing. I did it because I love you, how am I meant to know what's going to happen out there." He pointed outside the tent while growling.
Was Derek telling me he wasn't planning to come back, come back to me. "You're coming back." My voice croaked in the middle of the sentence and Derek stepped towards me pulling me into his arms.
"I didn't mean it like that. Of course I'll come back to you, I promise." I nodded in his shoulder while he kissed my head. "Can you promise me something?" I was shaking my head 'no' because I knew what he was going to ask. "Please for me."
"I'll stay behind and not go to the fight." I heard Derek let out a deep breath and hug me tighter.
"Thank you Chloe." He gave me a passionate kiss on the lips than the forehead before Derek led us outside where everyone else was waiting- I didn't know how the sun could be shining when there was going to be blood spilled today.
Derek went over to James and Jack, who were standing in front of their group with Rebecca hugging James side. "Chloe won't be meeting you, so you'll follow Samuel'splan." They looked surprised when they realised what plan Derek was talking about. Rebecca met my eyes before looking down at Derek's bite mark on my neck.
James was the first to recover and like our talk in the car ride to Samuel's, James gave Derek respect of his Alpha command. "Yes Sir." Looks like I'll be sitting out with Rebecca here.
I looked over James group and saw a well known face. "Dylan?" We never got back in contact with the others from the Safe house.
"It's a pleasure seeing you again Chloe, I wish it was on better reason." He said with a sad smile- Derek and Dylan shook hands.
"I didn't know you were joining us brother."
Shock run through me as i stared between the two wolves. "Brother?" Dylan and Derek smiled at me.
"This is my little brother." Dylan patted Derek on the shoulder- Dylan is like six years older and he doesn't really look like Derek in any aspect.
"I'll tell you later." Derek lightly kissed me.
"Where's Tiffany?" Dylan gave a small laugh.
"Still sleeping in our tent."
"She's not going to say goodbye to you?"
"Trust me, she said goodbye last night." I was confused at first before I realised what her goodbye would have been.
"Derek! Dylan! Its time." Travis yelled loud enough for the camp of werewolves to hear but not our enemies. Samuel stepped out of his tent with Tara and Luke, he came over to us.
Tara gave me a small smile- Guess she didn't hear the plan was out. Of course Derek saw her look at me."Tara, Chloe is staying at camp and not running around with James and Jack." Tara let out a sad sign but didn't argue. Samuel ignored Tara and spoke to the leaders of each group.
"Remember, we'll meet in the middle courtyard. James and Jack will find the control room and disable the alarms and holding cells. Derek and Luke will head to the holding cells and check rooms for anyone." They nodded in understanding and got their groups in order.
James and Jack had already left, soon Samuel and Tara's group left as well, only leaving Derek and Luke's group. "Chloe please stay here." I gave Derek a hug and nodded my head.
I was standing with Ben and Rebecca, watching Derek leave with his group. Ben was probably feeling the same as Rebecca and I- His mother,Tara and his father, Luke were both in the fight while he stayed behind with me. "You forgot Derek would know about our plan." Rebecca stood next to me with her arms over her chest- I knew that I screwed up, Rebecca didn't need to rub it in. "But...Derek isn't going to be listening into your thoughts while his to busy fighting." Rebecca and I smiled at each other as I could see a plan sparking in her eyes.
"So we're back in the game?" Tori asked from behind us. I looked at Ben and he nodded his head in agreement.
"Yes, you guys have to be like ghosts, no knows you're in there and that's how it's going to stay." Rebecca said.
"Tori?" Tori held out her hand to me, I grabbed it. I saw Rebecca smile at us and Ben shout 'Good luck' before we disappeared from their sight.
Tori and I were in darkness until some lights flicked on. "Emergency lights. James and Jack must be in the control room." Looking in front of us, the hallway was white and full of doors on either side. "Where are we?" Tori looked a bit uneasy.
"Um..."
"Tori, please tell me you brought a map or had an idea where you were taking us." She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Tori..."
"Come on." Tori grabbed my arm and pulled me to the second white door on our left. Inside it looked like a hospital - Clean, white and empty. Tori opened the next door and it was the same- The next one and next one, all the rooms were the same.
I opened the next door, the only light was coming from the hallway emergency lights-The light shined a metre into the room before getting swallowed by the darkness, It smelt like something had died in there. I felt a chill run up my spine as I turned back to look at Tori who was opening another door. "Have you found anything?" She shook her head and looked up at me before her eyes grew wide at something behind me and my breath caught in my throat.
Turning around there was a woman staring at Tori and I, shielding her bloodshot eyes from the hallway lights- Her skin was a pale white almost blue, her hair was white and black while her clothes were torn, a lot like rags as she looked weak. "Are you alright?" The woman just looked at me- she moved her hands and I could see that her long nails looked more like claws. She was flexing her fingers and licking her lips but didn't say anything.
"Chloe." I looked back at Tori, her voice filled with panicked. "We need to put her back."
"She's only a woman Tori, we can't leave her here. We'd be like Dr. Davidoff and his-" I was cut off by a high pitch scream and a pain in my back from behind me. I put my hands over my ears, I felt like my ears were going to bleed out from pitched scream. I checked behind me for the woman, found the source of the scream. The woman had her hands held up in the air screaming with a smile of her lips, now she had wings that were spread out in the hallway, the wings themselves had claws on them. She stopped screaming and jumped towards me, when a ball of electricity hit her. She flew back into the dark room and we heard a loud thump and hissing.
Tori run past me and shut the door before that thing could get out. We were both breathing heavy, Tori leaning against the wall and me on the floor. "I told you... we needed... to put her... back." Tori said between gasps of air. She held her hand out for me and I took it.
"Nice electricity ball Tori." She smiled at me and we started walking down the hall not daring enough to open another door."What was that thing Tori?"
"It's Aswang."
"A what?"
"A mythical creature in Filipino folklore. The creature is a combination of vampire and witch, it's always female. The Aswang is a cannibal and also eats the dead, It stalks and eats human beings at night." That would explain the dead smell in the room. "They are capable of transforming into either a huge black dog or a black boar, but it was probably too weak to do so. Garlic bulbs, holy water, and other objects are believed to hurt the Aswang. In human form their normal, quiet, and shy. At night, they transform into the deadly beast. One key feature of the Aswang is its bloodshot eyes. The Aswang is known well and feared in the Philippines in the Middle Ages. They are meant to be rare, so I don't know how Dr. Davidoff got one." God, if he had an Aswang here, I would hate to know what else he has hidden behind these doors.
"How do you know this?"
Tori let out a sad sign. "Diane Enright. When she did come home and before she sent me to Lyle House, I would tap into her computer when I got bored and read some of her files." She stopped calling Diane her mother a long time ago.
"Why didn't you tell us this information, it could have helped us."
"It was nothing important, just mythical creatures. Everything important is on her USB stick; she carries it everywhere with her." We stopped at the end of the hallway, it led to two different ways- Left or right. "Where to know?" I looked around and found something pinned on the wall - A map.
"Right."
"And how would you know that?" Tori looked behind her and smiled when she saw the map. "Right it is." We started walking down another white corridor- I started feeling tired and dizzy but ignored it. I didn't know I was getting so unfit staying at cottage. Tori's talking broke me out of my thoughts. "Still the same plan?"
"Yep, quick and easy. No one will ever know we were here." I'd be back at the camp before Derek and he wouldn't know a thing. "We'll grab the files from all the experiments and you'll zap us back to camp." Tori nodded her head in agreement, I'm sure her thoughts were on the same line as mine- She might annoy Derek but I'm sure she wouldn't want to have an angry Derek on her back.
After walking through the maze of white hallways, we finally came to a door saying- Dr. Davidoff. We couldn't hear anything coming from the office, it was quiet like the rest of the building. Tori opened the door and stepped in the office.
The walls were filled with books. There was a set of chairs and a table in the middle of the room, near the window were plants and an oak desk with files, pens and a computer sitting on top. A couple of shelves had small and large jars filled with dead creatures in them.
When Tori had enough looking around the place, she went over to the desk and sat down starting the computer. Walking around, I went over to the table in the middle of the room- There were photos and notes, of creatures I had never seen or heard of - Wendigo, púca, Kitsune, Berserker, Selkie and Leshy. Of course there were the photos of ones I knew - Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Demons, Shaman and Sorcerers. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Tori and I looked up at her, she almost had her nose pressed against the computer screen.
I went over to the computer and there were file names-Tori, Simon, Diane Enright and Kit Bae. My stomach gave a funny twist at seeing their names been together before I could read more of the file Tori was swearing. "Shit, we're related." Tori sat back in the chair dazed. Reading the file, it did indeed say that Tori and Simon were siblings and Kit was her father. I was surprised but I couldn't help thinking how dumb I was for not noticing.
I looked back at Tori and she hadn't moved. "Tori, you need to push that information away until we get out of here, we still have a job to do." Tori looked at me, taking a deep breath in and out before sitting straight in the chair again. She closed the file and started strolling down the list of files. "Wasn't the computer locked?" She nodded her head and pointed to the picture on Dr. Davidoff's desk with the word- Alexandra written under the picture of the young girl.
"I don't know Davidoff was that stupid and he calls himself a Doctor." Tori let out a small laugh before getting on with business. "You know it would be a lot easier to just take the hard drive out of the computer and take that, there are a million flies here that we could use." I smiled at Tori and nodded my head- I don't know why she didn't be this smart all the time. "Um...Chloe." Tori had opened up Rae's file and beside her name in big letters was the word – FAIL.
We were quiet for a moment before Tori spoke again, while shutting the computer down. "I'll take the hard drive out now and we'll head back before anyone notices."
"Too late." Said a male's voice from behind us. Looking up from the computer, Dylan was standing in the door way. "Derek is going to kill you." He said looking at me. "Get the hard drive and let's get out."
"How did you know were here?" Everyone was meant to be outside fighting- focused else where.
"James saw you in one of the cameras and sent me." Of course, Jake and James were in the control room. "Tiffany isn't with you?"
"No, just the two of us." I saw him relax before he put his guard back up.
"I don't know how you got in here by you need to leave the way you came in."
"Tori zapped us here." Dylan raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. I started to have the dizzy spells again, so I leaned up against the desk for support.
"Chloe are you alright? You don't look to well." Dylan took a curious step towards looking over me for injures. "I think you need to seat down." He was looking at stomach.
"I'm fine, you don't nee-" Everything went black before I could finish my sentence, I felt like I was felling but strong arms caught me before there was an impact - I couldn't see anything but I could hear.
"Oh shit, Chloe?" Tori sounded like she was going to have a panic attack. I felt the pain in my back and stomach, someone was putting pressure on me.
"She's been stabbed, clean shot through her."
"The Aswang."
"Aswang? How the hell did you run into one of them? You know what don't worry about it now, we need to get Chloe back to camp." The arms pulled me closer to a warm body, it felt like we were moving. "Grab the hard drive Tori."
"Is she going to be alright?" Tori's voice was fading out, it was getting harder to hear.
"She's bleeding a lot." Dylan's chest rumbled while he spoke. "If we don't stop it." He didn't continue, we knew what would happen if the bleeding wasn't stopped.
"Why didn't she feel the pain?"
"Adrenaline, she's probably numb." I hadn't noticed it before but he was right- I couldn't feel much of anything, I could already feel my brain shutting down.
I wish Derek was here, even if he was yelling at me I wouldn't care.
I woke up at times seeing blurry images of people running around - Everything was green with tents and trees, I knew we were back at camp. Another time, I saw Rebecca's sad eyes looking down at me before I was been moved into a tent with a bright light- I blacked out again.
This time I woke up to shouting, a voice I knew all too well. "Tori I said she wasn't going and I asked you to keep her safe." It came out as a loud growl, it was coming from a few meters away from me. When I managed to opened my eyes I saw a green roof and Tara's face, she was watching Derek and Tori argue- She was a mess with blood and dirt but she didn't have any cuts.
Tara cut into the argument. "Derek, maybe you should leave and calm down."
Her voice was calm but it started a panic in me. "No." My voice hurt coming out of my dry throat, making my eyes water. Tara's head snapped down to looked at me and Derek was beside me in a flash- He gave me a sad smile and pushed some of my damp hair away from my face.
"I'm here, I'm not going anywhere." He sounded vulnerable, it made me scan his body for anything wrong - He looked like Tara, messy but healthy. "You're going to be fine." I wasn't sure if he was saying it to himself or me, or even if it was the truth.
I could feel the pain in every inch of my body, my mind screamed for it to stop as my breathing became deeper and my eye became heavy, I was soon felling into a world of no pain, just darkness.
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PUBLISHED: 06/10/2010
REVISED: 26/05/2013