Verum

one.

one 

evelyn 

I screamed as I was dragged by rough hands through the dark woods, into the area known as the Dark Meadow. It was a place of nightmares and death, the end of the road for hundreds of girls. Never in my life had I thought it would become reality for me. It always seemed so distant, like it happened to the people that no one really knew. So it was easy to ignore and move on. Until now, of course.

They don't tell you that you've been chosen. No. The Elders decide months in advance and only tell the Enforcers the night of who they will be taking. To be woken in the middle of this night signifies the end of a life; your life.

Maybe I should have known. I was the runt. Small, helpless. My parents were omegas and my mother had been lost to psychosis years ago. Since then, I'd been taking care of her empty shell of a body. Slowly I withdrew from the pack and supporting the woman was expensive. But they couldn't very well offer her to him. She wasn't a virgin, a stupid piece of this twisted story, nor was she under 21. My father would disappear. Either out drinking or sleeping with women, after having thrown his wedding band into the nearby river. He didn't live at home anymore, but would come by to bring medication and food. Sometimes books for me. Other times he would tell me that this wasn't my mom anymore. But how could I let go of the woman who gave me life? He had once told me that if I kept on like this, it would kill me. I wonder if he knew how true those words would be.

A booted foot suddenly thrust into my back, between my shoulder blades, forcing me onto the cold, wet ground. Mud caked the side of my face and now my clothing, not that the clothes would matter soon. I knew what came next. I knew the whole process, as did most of the pack. The steps were used as ways to keep children in line, parents would threaten their children with this nightmare if they didn't obey.

"You are the sacrifice to keep the pack safe, Evelyn Freeman. Your life will keep ours intact for yet another year, and for that you should be honored. We thank you for giving this life up so that we may prosper," my Alpha announced stoically before an Enforcer plunged a syringe into my throat. It was as if he was reading from a script, which made sense since he had been doing this for about twenty years now. His voice held no remorse or kindness in it. He didn't care about sacrificing me and I'm sure he didn't care about any of the other girls left here for the slaughter either.

I screamed in anguish and fear, trying my hardest to free myself from the binds. I wasn't giving it up. My life was being taken from me and I couldn't go down without some sort of a fight, even if I was the runt. As the fluids were pumped into me, I tried to lunge forward and out of the grip of the men, but one of them curled his fingers into my hair and twisted painfully, holding my head in place while tearing hair from my scalp.

The syringe held a high dosage of the hormones that were used in order to make Shifters transform. In such a concentrated dosage, it would force my body into turning and then I would be bound in that form for the rest of my vastly shortened life, which would only be hours at the most.