“Now I guess you’ve met all of us, Mona,” Wes says loudly, “this is our pack. We used to call it the ‘pack of players’, but now that Xavier is settled, we can’t exactly say that anymore.”
“No girls?” I question, only to see four faces shaking their heads no.
“We like to be free of all women,” Jake grinned, “love ’em and leave ’em, I always say.”
“You people are terrible,” I laugh, instantly feeling at home with these handsome men. After a second, I nearly jump in alarm at the realization that I can barely recognize myself. The old Mona would have run away by now. The old Mona would have never fallen for these wily werewolves’ tricks. It must be those strange feelings Jake was talking about.
Ray just stares at me, a forbidding expression on his face. “She needs to leave for a minute while we have our meeting,” he says, his voice rough and completely unlike Xavier’s.
“Come on,” Wes protests, “she’s not doing any harm! Let her stay-”
“No,” his voice is firm, insisting, “she isn’t part of the pack.” His words are forbidding and fierce, striking me cold. I turn, walking out of the door. Xavier sticks his head out after me, issuing a warning.
“Don’t go outside of the grounds,” he says, “it isn’t safe.” Then, Yi comes up and brushes past me into the room. Right before they shut the door, I see their faces, turned serious by something Ray said.
He’s not exactly a ray of sunshine.
How could he be a player? Maybe he’s the strong and silent type all the girls like to go for. He certainly is handsome enough… I mean, they all are. Especially Xavier, having an authority hanging over his head like a crown. Everyone in the pack seems to respect him.
Looking up, I wonder how they all live in such a big place. It is so old-fashioned, obviously not built by these handsome teens… oh, of course. They are probably fifty to a hundred years old. However, most of them don’t even look nineteen, though Jake might pass for being in his twenties.
After gazing at the beautiful artifacts for about ten minutes, I decide to head outdoors. Xavier said I couldn’t leave the grounds, but he never said I couldn’t take a walk in the grounds. After searching for a while, I find an exit, going through it to find that I am now located in the mansion’s garden. It is beautiful, alerting my senses with sweetness and beautiful colors. I circle it, but soon dismiss it to be too uninteresting. Just like the mansion; old fashioned and dreary.
The stars wink at me as I survey the area once more. A small path to the side, strewn with pine needles and leaves, catches my attention. Slowly I begin to walk it, not knowing quite where I am going.
The moat is nowhere to be found, leading me to believe that I am not outside of the mansion’s boundaries. However, when I spy the dark, forbidding trees that remind me of the forest Xavier and I traveled through, I am not so sure.
Quickly I dismiss my doubt. Of course I am still in the borders, for I haven’t passed the moat yet. Surely…
Everything is quiet now, the only whispers being the ones of the rushing wind. My hair brushes behind me, blown by its frightful gales. I squint, wondering how a wind this fierce could have just started up out of the blue. It is strong, but I hold my stance against the invisible monster.
However, my troubles only increase as a white apparition appears before me, coming out from behind the trees. The fear, the pain… it begins to pound again as I gaze in surprise upon the curious creature. It has no shape, a white ghost with the same red eyes as the men on the mural I had seen earlier. Suddenly, memories start flooding back to me, ones I can’t stand to remember.
My scream rips into the night as the creature starts flying my way, the familiar eyes delving into my soul. I definitely know those eyes. But where? When? Who?
The haunting eyes that are causing me to have a serious migraine pause, the white blob still. Then, they squint slightly, and the ghost-like form charges towards me. Escape is impossible. I am frozen, still with shock and remembrance.
My parent’s murderers…
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