Night of the Alphas

Chapter 9

When I snapped out of my daze, I was in the middle of the street, standing in a pool of blood. All of my muscles were sore and I felt like I was about to pass out. My eyesight was blurry for the first few seconds, but when it came into focus, I felt like I was in some sort of nightmare. Three bodies surrounded me, and I recognised them as the AFM members that were beating up the couple. What is this? I looked down at the bodies. Two of them had bruises wrapped around their throats. Strangle marks. I was about to wipe some sweat off my forehead, but then I saw that my hands were slick with blood. A sick feeling crept into me. I did this.

I turned my head, looking for my friends. I found them kneeling over by the building, surrounding something. I walked towards them slowly, my joints aching with each step. When I got there, I saw that they were surrounding the couple. When the girl saw me, she squealed and her eyelids started fluttering. The boy wrapped his arm around her. "It's okay, I'm here." He glared at me. Charity looked at him, her ears laying flat. "Hey, don't look at her like that. She saved your life."

She went back to bandaging their wounds. I sat next to Zane. "What happened?" I croaked.

He turned his head to look at me. He had a huge, painful-looking black eye. Before he said anything, I lightly touched his eye. He flinched. "What was that for?" Zane asked, covering his eye."

"Where did you get that?" I asked worriedly.

"What do you mean, where did I get it? Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You punched me in the eye! How can you forget that?"

I gulped. "I did this?"

He tilted his head, confused. "...Yeah."

My stomach turned. "I don't feel good..."

Zaria sat down next to me and patted me on the back. "You okay?"

"No. I just want to know what happened to me."

Zaria blinked. "You mean you don't remember making those morons eat the pavement?"

"No! I just want a straight answer!"

"It was scary," Miranda interjected. She looked down and brushed some dirt off her pants. "Your eyes turned black. You didn't grow claws, but you growled like a wolf. You bit them and scratched them and eventually strangled them." She sighed. "Zane tried to help you, but you just bashed him in the face."

"Alright, you're done," Charity said cheerfully to the couple. "Just make sure to clean your wounds regularly. And stay safe!" She waved them goodbye as they rounded the corner. They didn't take their eyes off of me the entire time. As soon as they were out of earshot, she turned to me, her face grim. "Neither of your parents are Alphas, right?"

I tilted my head. "No. Why?"

She shook her head slowly.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. I just don't understand... Never mind."

"Oh." I peeked around the corner of the building to make sure that I hadn't been hallucinating. Sure enough, the bloody scene was still there. I felt a fresh wave of nausea crash into me. It wasn't really seeing the mess that made me sick. It was knowing that I was the cause of it.

Zane put his arm around me. "You look sick."

"I'm fine. I feel fine." Immediately after I said that, I knew I was not fine. I pulled away from him and stumbled over to the nearest dumpster. I wanted to throw up, but I couldn't. I felt so sick and exhausted and sore. All I wanted to do was go home. I wanted to go to Lebanon and hug my mom forever. I wanted to tell everyone I was sorry for running off. I wanted to be with Mom and Amanda and Alex and my aunt and Uncle (And maybe Abel if I felt generous). But instead, I was in a borderline-apocalyptic city and leaning over a smelly dumpster after wearing the same clothes for four days straight. I gulped. I'm a murderer. I thought. No one will want me back now. My parents would be so disappointed. They'll hate me. I ran away and committed murder. If I told them... I gulped. Mom would cry. Dad would disown me out of shame. Joshua would hate me forever and ever.