Shudder

15

A week. It had been a full, long...agonizing week. A week filled with torture, a week trapped in the basement, a week of screaming from Dean, Claire and Cole, a week of being in this wolfen body.

School had crossed my mind at the start of the week, but it was clear that Claire and Dean had no intention of taking either Cole or myself to school. Or trying to find a humane way to get me to change back.

I had tried just about anything, but I wasn't given much time seeing as I was beaten frequently, every time within an inch of my life only for my body to painfully knit me back together.

Once Cole had gotten me down, I was immediately strung back up and Cole had been beaten excessively; his screams so loud they echoed down into the basement.

Despite the beating though Cole never stayed away, sneaking food and water to me, and continuously getting beaten for it.

Now it was Sunday night, my wolfen mind was still reaching for the others, still hoping in my dream I wasn't the only one, my stomach growled hungerily and my mouth was dry once again. I had recieved another beating -- this one resulting in a few broken ribs and a hell of a lot of blood with massive bruises -- I had lost consciousness and Dean had backed off. When I awoke no one was there, I could hear Claire and Dean's footsteps and voices mixed in with Cole's above though I didn't know what they were muttering about since my wounds rehealing painfully caused quite the distraction.

The door to the basement creaked open and I winced, the sound now rather horrifying to me. All I had in this basement between beatings and rare visits from Cole were what thoughts I could conjure and my memories, my haunting memories.

A foot applied weight to the stairs and it groaned with the effort and then more groans followed as feet descended the stairs. Once at the bottom, I could make out a blurry figure through my swollen eyes. They were smaller than Dean and Claire and I knew instantly it was Cole.

My entire body shuddered as it relaxed and my muscles spasmed painfully as they stopping tensing. My whole body quivered in fear of being hit and I no longer had such steel determination, only raging hate to kill the monsters that abused me so.

"Hey Rori," Cole murmured as he stepped into the halo of light created by the swaying, bare light bulb up above.

I winced inside as I noticed the bruises decorating his face in awful patterns and colors of purple, blue and black. He attempted a smile at me, but cringed in pain. He rushed over to the chains like he always did and lowered me to the ground -- without dropping me this time, he'd gotten quite good at it now.

He hurriedly set down the raw meat he'd grabbed for me and the bottle of water and tried to quickly, but cautiously pull the chains out of my ankles. The minute the metal was free my ankles began to heal.

I had wondered if I, as a werewolf, found silver lethal, but I figured the chains weren't silver or I wasn't "allergic" to it.

Ankles free I attempted to stand, but my bones completely protested with sharp pains. I released a whimper and flopped to the floor, hoping I'd heal faster now that I wasn't hanging.

"Oh, Rori.. I said I'd free you but it's been a week.. and still I haven't managed it. I'm a failure. I failed you!" Cole wailed, tears falling onto the concrete basement floor.

I tried to move, tried to comfort the boy who'd shown so much bravery over the past week against being beaten as severely as me, but I could not, not yet.

Instead I listened to his whimpers and cries of being a failure while my bones religned to fuse back together, my scraps knitted to give way to smooth skin and fur, and my swelling eased away.