Jack

Lucas

Hearing a constant beeping noise, I wanted to push my alarm off my dresser but I couldn't move. I heard some rustling to my left and felt someone grab my hand. Their hand was rough but warm. The ever-present darkness was still pressuring me to give in to it. 
    "Will she wake up Sir?" I heard a young boy ask curiously.
    "I don't know," a gruff voice replied. "She is really hurt."
    "Where is her mommy and daddy?" I perked up my attention as much as I could with my blinding headache. I wanted to know what happened to my parents.
    "We couldn't find anyone in the fire. We have had people search records but nothing came up. We only found piles of ash. Her family is gone." My heart broke. I lost everything, my home, my parents, my brother. I wondered to myself if I should just let the darkness take me.
    "So she's all alone?" The boy asked.
    "It looks like it... Poor girl"
    "When she wakes up, can I make her not alone?" the boy inquired innocently.
    "I have been talking about that. If she wakes up, someone will have to take care of her. She has been through alot." His reply came through pained, emphasizing the 'if'.
    "Can we ask when she wakes up?" the boy's came through to my ears curiously, not seeming to understand that I might not survive.
    "Sure Lucas. We can ask."  I heard a door open and a new voice rang through the air.
    "Sir, can I talk to you please?" A feminine voice called over.  Heard some shuffling and my hand was released and a door was closed soon after. I felt my hand be taken again but this time it was a smaller hand with much softer skin.
    "Don't worry, I know you're strong enough to wake up.  And when you wake up, I pinky promise I will make sure nothing hurts you again." I felt a pinky be wrapped in a small finger. I tried to squeeze my finger against his but I only managed a twitch. I felt him go stiff and he ran off calling for the other man. I heard him bring him in and I could feel both the boy's soft hand and the man's rough one. I heard the boy pleading with me to move but the darkness was too strong and that small twitch was all I could manage before I fell back into darkness.
    This happened for what seemed like forever. I would fall back into darkness and wake up increasingly becoming more and more awake each time. I still could barely move and I couldn't open my eyes, but each time I woke up, I could feel the soft hand of the boy holding my hand. Sometimes I could hear him blabbering about silly things that had I been fully awake I would've laughed. Other times, I would hear light snores.
    I could hear him talking to me as I began waking up again.
    "My 8th birthday is tomorrow. I really want you to wake up soon so I can share my cake with you. It will be so much fun! I just wish Mommy and Daddy could be here..." he trailed off. He talks a lot about his parents. He said they were killed like mine. "I hope you wake up really soon. That way we can train together. I wonder what kind of training you do? I bet we could be the best in our division! No! The world! Do you want to? Maybe then we could find who killed both our families." Laying here gave me lots of time to think. Thinking about my family gone and wanting to make sure the people that stormed into our home could never hurt anyone else. I wanted them to be sorry they destroyed my family. At the mention of finding out who did it, I felt a new spark in me. It gave me energy and I squeezed my hand. The boy to my left gasped.
    "Are you waking up?!" he said excitedly. I moved my toes a little bit testing out how much motion I could muster. I tried opening my eyes but shut them immediately closed them again when the light blinded my eyes. "You are waking up! I knew you could! Come on! Open your eyes again!" he was jumping up and down, still holding my hand. I slowly opened them again, getting used to the brightness.
I looked over at him and turned my head to see him better. His hair was black, styled up in a cute mohawk that fit his 7 year old face. His dark blue eyes stared back at me with energy. His toothy grin was missing his front teeth. I smile back at him, my green eyes staring back at him.
"Hi! I'm Lucas!" his sapphire eyes showed his smile. I motioned at the water sitting on the table next to me and he handed a glass to me. I drank greedily. I finished the glass and smiled at him.
"My name is Jackelynn" I told him softly, my throat still dry and burning. I looked down at my aching body and saw white bandages stained with blood wrapped around my torso.
"The doctors said you're gonna have a big scar for the rest of your life from that he looked over at me." He saw my face drop and my eyes water. "No don't cry. Why are you crying?" Between my shaky breaths I softly answered him.
"Now I'm ugly. I will have a huge scar on me..." I whispered.
"You're not ugly. You're pretty. The scar shows you're tough. It's a battle wound. You got hurt but you can handle it." He told me seriously. My lips tugged into a smile and a tear rolled down my cheek. He wiped it away before it could drop onto my hospital bed sheets. The door opened and in walked a woman wearing a white coat looking at a clipboard of papers in her hand. Without looking up she asked Lucas how he was. When he didn't reply at first she looked up and her eyes widened when they landed on me. She rushed over and I shrank away from her and scooted closer to Lucas. She stopped seeing that she scared me and lifted her hands up to show she wasn't going to hurt me. I glanced at Lucas and he nodded at me telling me it was ok. I relaxed a bit and looked at the woman.
"Hey, Hunny. My name is Dr. Vivian. I'm not gonna hurt you ok? I'm gonna make you better. How does that sound?" she said gently to me. I only nodded my head. She smiled slightly before continuing. "I need to ask you a few questions ok?" Again, I only nodded. "Ok, what's your name, Sweetie?"
"Jackelynn" I answered.
"Do you remember what happened?" I nodded. "Can you tell me?"
"Men came to my home. They attacked my parents. My brother told me to run but I followed him when he went to help my parents. Someone grabbed me put me in the car and then the car flipped... someone... someone pulled me out... that's it."
"Do you know why those men would have came to your house?" she asked, looking at me with pity. I hated that look. It made me feel like I was broken. I shook my head no at her question. "Ok, Jackelynn, how old are you?" I held up seven fingers. She nodded her head. She sent Lucas out of the room and told him to get the Director. "I'm going to take a look at your cuts ok? Do you need to look away?" I remembered Lucas telling me they were my battle scars and shook my head no.
She nodded and went to work taking the bandages off. I watched her removed them. There were fived jagged lines torn through my skin like the man's face who did this to me. They started at my right shoulder and continued across to my right upper thigh. The wounds were stitched carefully and Dr. Vivian re wrapped me. She checked my shoulder where the man dug his nails into my shoulder. The five nail marks were bright pink like the ones across my body. After satisfied with her checking, she wrote stuff on the clipboard. Lucas walked in and told her the Director is outside the room waiting for her.
"Jackelynn, I need to go talk to the Director. He is the one who is in charge here, ok? He is the one who brought you here." Dr. Vivian stated and walked off. I looked at Lucas and he smiled at me.
"See? I told you they are battle scars. You should wear them proudly, you survived that." Lucas told me pointing to my exposed scars. A man walked in and looked at me. His tall frame shouted authority and his hair was slightly greying from age and stress. The lines on his face showed that he had a hard life. He was dressed in a pair of black pants and black fitted t shirt. Even with age you could tell he was still very strong.
"Jacelynn? My name is Liam, I'm the Director here at the Academy. Do you know what the men that attacked you were?" He said directly, not beating around the bush. I liked that. I tilted my head to the side conveying my confusion. "Jackelynn, they were werewolves. That is why you have those scars, they used their claws on you."
I looked down at me and looked back up at him, nodding for him to continue. "Your family was not found in the house and there is no other family that we could find in any record. Can you think of anyone that would take you in?" I shook my head no to his question. "Ok, then I offer you a home here, at the Academy. This academy is to train werewolf hunters. I know you are still young and you might not want to go into the field but if you want we could put you another division if you want. We have a research branch if that would be more what you would like." I nodded slowly thinking about my options. "Do you want to think about it or do you want to choose? You can alway change if you want to." He offered.
"I know what I want to do." I replied. I had been thinking about what my life would hold, now I know what it holds, and I felt the spark of determination light inside of me. "I have one question though." The Director nodded waiting for my response. I smirked slightly and looked him in the eye. "When do I start hunting?" He looked back at me with amusement and smiled.
"As soon as you heal." he replied.