From scratch ✔️

14. A bouquet of revelations.

Dark. Cold. Lonely. Scary. I'm in the woods again. The routine is so familiar, that I almost give up and stop running, because I know that I'm dreaming and I can't really change anything, but the hope that maybe this time it will all change, maybe this time I will be able to run away, this hope makes me push harder. Blood is oozing from my forehead and my eyes sting, my breathing is hard and shallow. I'm running out of strength. I run and run. My fear hurt, branches are scraping my skin as I run. But they run as well. I can hear them. I can feel them. They are getting closer...

"Oh Eeeeemilyyyyy! You know there's no point in running!" - a high pitched voice, that reminds me of an old and rusty toilet pipe, taunts me. Dug. I think he's the worst of them all. Hiding behind Conner's back, he knows he can do anything to me. And Conner's daddy will make it all go away, he's got the power. 

My breathing get's even more shallow. I am terrified now. I can't let them get me. Push, I tell myself, push harder!

"Why daaaaarling! Why complicate it? Just stop running and we'll show you some good time!" - and that, ladies and gentlemen, is Conner, the mayors son himself. Selfish spoiled bastard. Why, oh why didn't I stay home?

I see a fallen tree and jump right over it. Thankfully I still have some wit left in me. I have to believe that I can outrun them! I have to! 

So I run. 

"Emily! You stupid girl!" now he's laughing. Is he crazy? Why in the world is Conner laughing? I don't see anything funny here. We are in the middle of the night running through a forest and no one is here to help me. I am all alone and desperate. I feel tears welling in the corners of my eyes and I start sobbing uncontrollably. But I don't stop running. I can't. I know what will happen to me if I stop. I can't let that happen. I can't let them violate me. 

"But Emily!" he continues, "Did you forget that we can smell you?..."

What? I am confused. What the hell does that mean? How can he smell me?

And at that moment a realization hits me straight in the gut. They are wolfs. Werewolf's. And they can smell me. And they can run faster than me. And they are stronger. The thought is enough to slow me down just for a second, but at that exact second a hand grabs me by the hair and slams me to the ground. My body is hit by a wave of pain from the collision, all air leaves my lungs. I look up and see sharp jaws. A violent sneer breaks out from it.

"Got you"

I wake up with a start. My heart beats a thousand times per second and I find it really hard to breathe. My body is covered in cold sweat. My eyes can't focus on anything in front of me, I only see jaws with saliva dripping of them. "Got you" sounds in my ears on repeat. I feel dizzy. I grab the bed sheets in tight fists to stop my hands from shaking. This is horrible. I can't live like that. What am I supposed to do now? 

Slowly my breathing comes back to normal. 

The dream has changed. I did get nightmares about that night pretty often, there's no surprise there. But this time, this time the dream has changed. And that made it all ten times more scary. My life will never be the same again. I am not the person a thought I was. Hell, I'm not even human, if what Nathan, Jonathan and doc Evans say is true. Everything I believed in just tumbled down yesterday. What am I supposed to do now? God... 

I slowly get up from the bed and turn to look at the clock on the wall. 10 am. It's not usual for me to wake up that late, but yesterday was exhausting and I couldn't fall asleep for a long time after I retired to my room the previous night. My head was so full of different thoughts, it was impossible to think straight. I couldn't even grasp one single thought from a million battling in my brain until the sun rose, and then my brain just shut down.