Wolf Girl (Book 4)

Chapter 9: Carys

Carys' POV

I woke up feeling completely unable to move. I can barely even move my eyes. I manage to look up and see that Ingrid has me in her arms. I can't even scream, I'm so weak. She carries my lifeless body through the city, the sun is slowly going down, there's not many people around. No one really notices that anything's wrong. Slowly but eventually my strength builds back up. I manage to roll myself out of Ingrid's once strong arms and land on the floor. She crouches down next to me and strokes my face.

"I want to help." She's completely deluded if she thinks this is helping me. "And, I want you to show me." I slowly bring myself to my feet. She looks at the big city around her. "I want to know why this human life has you so wrapped up in it."

"Get away from me." I try to run but after the first step I start to fall. She catches me and starts carrying me again. I'm almost unconscious. She takes me to the pier where we get into a boat. I try my hardest to scramble away but I'm useless. My heart is pounding and my head is spinning, my arms and legs feel like jelly, and I have this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. She figures out how to row the small paddle boat. And we start drifting out.

"I know you saw my letter," she says, sitting me up against the edge of the boat. "I meant every word of it. I want you," she takes my hand.

"I'm with Jana, I love her." An angry look comes across her face. She drops my hand and continues paddling until I can barely see the city lights anymore, only the orange glow of the sun. "Just take me back to the hospital. They'll help you, they know about us now." She doesn't say a word.

"Carys!" I hear Jana's voice, my adrenaline starts pumping and I sit up to look around, in the distance I see a tiny dot, another boat. It's Jana and Rhydian.

"Let her go!" My brother shouts.

Ingrid stands up, making the boat rock, I yank her down. I'm not risking drowning, not when I'm this close to making it out of this boat alive.

"How did they know?" She yells at me.

"Because they're my pack," I try to scream back at her. I push her back and lean on the edge of the boat. "Jana! I'm here." They get closer. I feel Ingrid's hand press on the back of my head. She pushes my face under the water, holding my hands behind my back. She pulls me back out for a moment.

"I didn't want it to end like this. We could have been happy!" She shoves me back in. The water is ice cold. The choppy water pushes against my face. The more I struggle the dizzier I get, my lungs burn for air, blood pounds behind my eyes. I have nothing left in me, I let the darkness engulf me, say goodbye to my fears, my love, my pack, and I give in.

A cold breeze crosses my skin, then it's joined by a warm hand on my face, then a kiss on my forehead. I open my eyes and see the fiery red hair I thought I'd never see again.

"Did I die?" I whisper.

"Carys!" Jana touches my face with both hands. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't wake up," she kisses my dry lips. I find the strength to sit up.

"I was drowning?" I say to my beautiful girlfriend. I look over to my other side and see my parents. I hug them immediately.

"She tried- she tried to kill you," my mother cries. She keeps hugging me. "I'm so glad you're safe, we've been worried sick."

"What happened?"

"We got to your boat, Rhydian hit Ingrid over the head and knocked her out, you were hanging over the edge of the boat, you had no heartbeat, you weren't breathing. We pulled you on to our boat and we paddled like mad, I called an ambulance and by the time we got to the pier it was already there. They resuscitated you and brought you back to the hospital."

"So, I died? For like a few minutes?"

"About 10 minutes actually," my dad says. "You were on life support for 3 days, and in a coma for 9. I'm so happy to see you," he kisses my head.

"Where's Rhydian?" I ask searching around, I see him sitting in an armchair in the dark corner. He looks completely broken. "Rhydian," he gets up, walks over to me and hugs me, crying.

"I killed her," he whispers. I hug him tight and I don't let go.

"You did it for me. And I'm so grateful. It's okay, I'm fine."

"I missed you," he pulls away and looks at me.

"I'm right here." Suddenly Matei and Emilia cross my mind. "Emilia. Is she okay?" I ask Jana. She shakes her head.

"Her cancer's spread, pretty much everywhere. She's had surgery. They took her leg."

"Oh my God. Take me to her. Please Jana." She looks at my parents who nod, even though they don't want me going anywhere.

"You have to use this though, you have to build your strength up again though." She brings over a wheelchair.

"Fine," I let my parents help me into it. Jana and I go out into the hall, where Maddy, Tom and Shannon are sitting. "Hi." They all look up at me and rush over to me, fussing over me, asking questions, telling me they love me.

"Thank you guys for being here, I'm doing okay, and I love you all too. I have to go and see Emilia. But please don't go anywhere." They all nod and let us go. The journey feels long, even though it's only really down a few halls. Emilia's been moved to a private room. Matei is sitting next to her holding her hand. He stands when he sees me.

"Carys, you're okay," he seems genuinely happy to see me.

"Yeah, I am. It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too. Emilia?" He touches her arm and quietly tries to wake her up. "Carys is here." I see her eyes open, Matei adjusts her bed so she's sitting up.

"Hi," her voice is hoarse.

"Emilia, how are you feeling?"

"I've been better," she laughs, but it's followed by a few coughs. "The cancer's in my lungs. Enough about me, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine but, I wanna know about you."

"I'm doing okay, today's actually a better day. I haven't been sick once. But the chemo has started to make my hair come out," she casually pulls out a small chunk of her beautiful locks. "A tumour has grown in my chest, they're going to cut it out tomorrow, and I'm going to keep having chemo after that."

"What are your chances?" I ask.

"They're actually pretty good," she coughs some more and I see a little bit of blood come up. She sees my face when I notice. "That happens a lot. Apparently it's normal." I wheel myself closer to her bed and take her hand that isn't bloody. Matei wipes the blood from her mouth and her hand. It's funny how last time I saw her, she was mad at him for babying her, but now she doesn't really have a choice.

"You're so strong," I look down and see the empty space where her other leg should be. "Did it hurt?"

"Not like you'd think. But yeah. I just feel like I'm not me anymore."

I look her in the eye, and squeeze her hand, "Your body is not you, your soul is you, and they can't cut away your soul," I kiss her hand. A single tear rolls down her cheek which Matei promptly wipes away.

"We should let her get some sleep." Jana says.

"Okay, goodnight Emilia, and good luck for tomorrow. Night Matei."

"Thank you," she says.

"Night guys," Jana says, wheeling me out of the room. My heart breaks for that little girl.