Wolfheart's Quest #1: The Alpha

Chapter 2

     Far away, in the public hospital of Tamworth, Eunice Svinski lay in a bed, contemplating her life. She is 16 with dark chocolate-brown, blonde-streaked hair and brown eyes.  Eunice thinks about her past, and finds herself puzzled. It has been three months since she was poisoned. Poisoning hasn't been the first attempt on her life, though.
    For eleven years, Eunice has been dodging assassins, but now they have stopped. When she was only four, her father had been murdered horribly, leaving her with her Uncle Mordeci. Mordeci assumed the role of a father, but moved her all over Australia since the assassins went after her. Mordeci did teach her how to defend herself, but it never quite prepared her for the next attempt.
    Mordeci is a strong believer in Jesus Christ. He tries to teach Eunice about him, but Eunice refuses to listen. Mordeci says that Jesus is a saviour for everyone, and that he loves everyone. But if Jesus is such a loving saviour, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why did he let her parents die?
     Anyway, Eunice is 16,and she doesn't know anything about her past except that her father was murdered. Mordeci refuses to tell her. But no doubt, the attempts on her life were because of who her parents were.
     By now, she's lost count of how many times she's been attacked.
She's been stabbed, choked, thrown over cliffs, shot at, almost ran over, trampled by a stampede of cows, bitten by snakes and tarantulas, and most recently, poisoned. Somehow,- she's not sure how,- she's still alive.
    She's been in the hospital three months, but for once, no one has tried to slip into the hospital and kill her yet. It seems to have stopped.
     Now that they stopped, Mordeci doesn't seem to be running away, but he's more of looking for someone, for he's always looking at all the information on the town's inhabitants.
     The door opens and Mordeci walks in, deep in thought. Eunice sits up to greet him.
     The grey-bearded man walks over to Eunice, and kisses her on the forehead, distracted. "Hi, Eunice. How are you feeling?" Eunice smiles. "I feel a lot better, now. The doctor says I can leave tomorrow. You have to wonder if that's such a good idea, though. They seem to come up with new ways to try and kill me. They seemed to have stopped now, but they're probably waiting for me to come out of the hospital."    Mordeci shook his head. "No. They aren't after you any more."    Eunice bolted straight up. "Really?! Why? They've been after me this long. Why would they give up now?"
   Mordeci's look gets grimmer. "I know why."
   "Why?" Asks Eunice.
   Mordeci gave her a look. "I'm not sure you're ready to hear this."
    "Please." Begs Eunice. "I'm 16, now. I should be allowed to know about me and my family."    Mordeci sighs and nods. "You're right. You should at least know why people try to take your life. I should have told you years ago." He hesitates. Finally, he take a deep breath, and starts. "You aren't really Eunice Svinski. Your parents weren't really your parents. You're kinda... adopted."    Eunice puts her hand up. "Wait. So I'm not me?" She asks. "If I'm not me, then who am I?"
   Mordeci looks confused. "Huh? You're Eunice Svinski."
   Eunice tries again. "But I'm adopted, which means that I'm not Eunice Svinski. And if I'm not Eunice Svinski, and my parents weren't my parents, then who am I, if not me?"
   Mordeci finally gets it, though Eunice didn't make it easy. Women always have a gift for talking in a confusing way. "Oh. Right. Well, I don't actually know who you are."
   "So I'm a stranger? Wouldn't that mean I don't know you, and you don't know me? I don't think that will work, because I do know you, and you do know me." Mordeci slaps his hand over her mouth. "Can you please stop your brain twisters, you're hurting my brain. Just let me finish." Eunice looks at Mordeci "Fine."
   "As I was saying, your parents--"   Eunice interrupts again. "But you said that they weren't my parents?"
   Mordeci sighs. "Just pretend that they're your parents for now." He waits for any objections. Eunice motions for him to continue. "As I was saying for the second time, your parents were the leaders of Australia." "So my dad was famous? Shouldn't he have had bodyguards then?" Mordeci glares at her. Eunice shuts up. Mordeci continues. "He was the leader of Australia. They were also strong believers in Jesus." Eunice looks away at that name. Mordeci doesn't notice. "They were very wise, and successful in everything they did. They were merciful, yet were strict about the laws. They were happy, but their joy wasn't complete. They wanted a child to love, and carry on with the responsibility that God entrusted to them. They had been married for many years, but never had any children. They soon found out why. Your mother was barren, so they went to a friend who was also a prophet to ask about adopting a child into the family. Turns out that that was unnecessary. The friend prophesied that they would have a baby despite the odds. A girl, who was going to save Australia, possibly even the world. She was going to go against Lucifer himself.
    Like the prophet said, your mum got pregnant. The parents were overjoyed at that. But weeks before the baby was born, the prophet went missing, as well as his family. Shortly after, the baby was born. A baby girl.
   Not an hour after she was born, while the mother was sleeping, someone snuck in and tried to take the baby. We found him, so he threatened to kill the girl. He had already killed her mother. We tried to stop him, and succeeded, but he cut the girl. Nothing serious, but still, it was too dangerous to keep her there, so we searched for an answer.    The same day the girl was born, another girl was born. She was the daughter of an ordinary citizen, and she was the same weight, size, and looked the same as her. So your father sent me, and I swapped them. We felt it was God's way of providing for our needs."
   Eunice scoffs. "God again? He doesn't even care about us!"    "That's enough, Eunice! You will not speak of God that way." Snaps Mordeci.
   Eunice shakes her head. "No! I won't stop speaking against him. He's just a cruel God to let us go through all this pain. Does he help? No, he doesn't! He just sits back and let's us suffer. I hate him! And if this is all true, I'm here, not because you love me, but because I'm being sacrificed so someone else can live."    Mordeci puts his hand on her shoulder. "Eunice, God loves you more than you know, and he lets us suffer, so we can grow." Eunice just crosses her arms and looks away. Mordeci sighs. He's tried to teach her that a million times, but she refuses to listen. "And even though, you weren't his own, your father loved you like his own. And now I love you like my own." Eunice looks at him. Mordeci nods his assurance. "And I'm not your uncle. I was actually your parents personal protector."
   "So we're looking for the girl now?"
   Mordeci nods. Then he grins. "Oh, you're gonna have fun when we find her. If we're not too late, that is."