Innocent Creatures

Chapter 18 (P.O.V: Zeek and Red)

(Zeek)
I hear a clatter in Red's living quarters, and immediately look over to the caravan.

The door is open.

The instant I notice the door, realizing something is wrong, I sprint over from my position in the stripy tent, changing into my wolf form. The caravans are presented in a semi-circle shape, ending at both ends by the back of the tent. When I enter, I am greeted with a whisky bottle being thrown at my head. Red lays unconscious on the floor, decorated with pots and pans.

"ZEEK HELP ME!" I hear Fia scream, and when I look in the direction of the voice, Fia is being pushed out of the oak wood back gate, by a swaying Sebastian.

"Get out Wolf Boy!" He stumbles, as he looks at me, "Leave me and Fia alone". I growl, striding towards him. Then I pounce. I jump onto him, but for some reason I do not touch him. I have been grabbed at the waist by Derik.

"Hey there, puppy" He says, as I thrash to get free "You need to calm down". Changing into my human form, bones cracking and muscle re-forming, I shout:

"Let me go!" Missing, I try to bite Derik's arm, but he pulls a dog muzzle over my face, which he padlocks. "I am human Derik, take this off me!" I thrash, kicking him.

"No you are not, you are a monster, and so is your excuse for a sister!"

Skye

"DO NOT BE MEAN TO SKYE!" I shout, thrashing and clawing at him, now a wolf again, but my teeth are useless because of the muzzle. Fia has been shoved out of the door, and I can no longer see her or Sebastian. I thrash forward, and scratch Red, wanting him to wake up.
I scream his name, and he immediately wakes up, shouting:

"Fia! Where did she go?"

"The gate!" I shout, still thrashing, "He took her through the gate"
He stands up and nods towards me, then runs out of the open gate as fast as he can.
"Go get her Red" I whisper under my breath, no longer struggling to get out of the gentleman's arms, as I know he is much stronger than I.

(Red)

I run out of the door as fast as I can - knocking over a barrel outside, used to hang washing - and into the night, looking for my beloved Fia.

"Fia!" I shout, as I run into the forest of gnarled trees in front of me, located behind the circus tent. The trees all look similar, with the same peering eyes and twisted arms. Then a thought crosses my mind as I realized something:

I could escape now...

What a shameful way to think, I shake my head, with thoughts of leaving your sister and friends behind. I follow ashy footprints in the wet forest floor, until the sun rises and I am generally almost frostbitten. I grasp onto my shawl as I trudge through the long grasses, and break twigs in order for something amusing to happen.

I am lost; I am so frightfully that I might as well have been in Switzerland. My leg muscles burn as I walk, making me feel tired and breathless, but, still, I follow the trail. The large footprints twist and turn as if following the walls of a maze - left, right, left, forwards. Then all of a sudden, they stop. An empty beer bottle lays in a tiny grass clearing ahead of me, catching the moonlight.

Then I hear a laugh.