Curse of Eternity

Chapter Seven

The shifter couldn't sleep for more than ten minutes without nightmares haunting him. The darkness of falling asleep reminded him of the dark blood that had covered his hands like gloves. When he was awake, the midnight breeze sounded like ghosts, moaning on about his actions and how much of a disgrace he was.

To the ghosts, Maliki wasn't a shifter. He was a monster. An abomination. One who had destroyed the only thing keeping him safe in this world. Again, he awoke from a nightmare. He had been running in the forest as a beast chased him around, always on his heels. When he eventually got caught, the beast lunged. Instinctively, Maliki would shut his eyes and brace for the impact but when they opened, he was the beast and now stood over a body that was not his own. A body that was all too familiar.

Maliki fingered the crescent moon on his wrist, it's smooth surface and sense of familiarity acting as an anchor. As it had for the past three nights.

That's how long ago he had left his home. He had been outcasted three days and three nights ago. He acted as a guide for Anna and Alys, leading them off well-traveled paths without getting lost and using his keen senses to avoid any scouts or traps. They hadn't gotten into much trouble and would be in even less tomorrow. They would finally be out of the massive forest that was shifter territory by sundown. Now they just had to survive the night, and he had to survive his nightmares.

"Nightmares?"

Maliki turned and looked across their little campsite at Anna sitting at the edge of the small cave he had found. He glanced to his left and snorted. Alys had managed to scoot closer to Maliki in her sleep and was now uncomfortably close to the shifter.

Anna continued speaking. "That's the fifth one tonight and the twelth one in total. Even mine weren't that bad, and I killed my own parents. Technically." The way she spoke made it clear to Maliki that despite the nightmares, she held no remorse for her actions. No sorrow for their deaths. She felt nothing at all.

"Something like that," he murmured. Alys moved in her sleep again, this time scooting closer and onto Maliki's cot. He decided to move before the assassin used him as a teddy wolf. Quietly and slowly, he rose and made his way to the cave entrance. His bare feet dug into the mossy rock beneath and he smiled, digging his feet into the natural rug. "Why are you up? I thought Alys was taking watch tonight."

Anna looked over her shoulders at the sleeping girl. The dim light coming from the embers of their campfire making the drool on her face slightly visible. "Eh. I'll let her have this one. She did catch dinner after all."

Maliki scoffed and sat down on a log outside the cave. Anna had made herself comfortable leaning back against a tree and staring up into the stars. "We wouldn't have had dinner if I didn't smell the elk. Should feed us enough for a week or so, especially with how much you two eat."

"What? We're growing women," Anna said in her and Alys' defense.

Another scoff. "You're fae. You keep growing."

Anna went silent after that. An owl hooted nearby and Maliki turned to look into the forest. This close to the edge it was more like a dense wooded area. Crickets whistled in the night, the wind blew between the trees and rustled leaves, a river a quarter-mile ahead flowed softly. The sounds he had spent so many years becoming familiar with. It made him sad to be leaving it tomorrow, possibly forever.

"I... didn't know my parents," Anna whispered. Maliki turned to her but she was still looking up at the stars. But she was doing it so intensely that he didn't know if her fascination was indeed with the stars or with the darkness between them. "My birth parents I mean. I was adopted."

"Still must've been sad. I mean, to... lose them." He had to be careful on this subject. Anna wore a mask as she spoke so it was difficult for Maliki to tell what she was feeling or thinking.

She nodded and wiped away the water from her eyes. "Yeah, yeah it was. But I was only sad afterwards when I realized I was now alone and my brother was stuck without anymore family. He was most likely taken in with the servant. She always liked him."

The mention of her brother made Maliki think of Dex for what must've been the fiftieth time in the past twenty-four hours. Even if she wasn't related to her brother, that didn't mean they weren't close. And as a younger sibling, Maliki knew how much it hurt to be left behind by the ones you love.

There was a silence between them for a few minutes. It was strangely comfortable and Maliki found himself feeling closer to Anna, even if they had only met a few days ago and were still basically strangers.

Anna finally turned to Maliki and took him for a moment before asking, "How did she die? Your mother." The question struck Maliki like an arrow. Quick and sudden, nothing he could've done to stop it. "Whenever you wake up, you start rubbing the moon on your wrist and hold it a little closer to you. My brother used to do that when he was scared too but he had an old rabbit toy from his mother."

Another silence for a few minutes. Maliki's mind was completely empty. Then he spoke. "Like I said, I have no control over my shift. Some of the boys were bullying me and dragged me out into the forest, there were about three girls but most were boys. Not far enough so that nobody could hear but too far for anyone to immediately help." As he told the story, images from the incident began to replay in his mind.

"They beat me, called me names, and started saying I didn't belong. That I should just die. One of them decided to insult my wolf. It was an older boy, one who had shifted before and could bring his out partially. He reached out and scratched my face. It wasn't deep but it was enough to make me lash out. Violently." As he spoke, the words came more naturally. The weight he had been carrying lifted up off his shoulders, but only a little.

Maliki turned to look towards the forest again. His eyes landed on a spot that looked similar to the one where he was attacked. "I shifted and started attacking them. The one who hurt me was too afraid to shift and started running and screaming with the others. I chased them around and caught a few but only bruised them or pushed them down. The only one I wanted dead was the one who hurt me."

Anna moved over and took a spot next to Maliki. She didn't stop him from speaking or touch him, just listened.

"He had tripped on a root and I found him a few seconds later. I think he pissed himself. I slashed and cut him good and deep. An attack like that wouldn't go away easy. Just before I could make the killing blow, my mo... my moth... she came." Her face was burned into his mind. The face of a woman who realized the little boy she raised was hiding a monster. An abomination.

He couldn't bring himself to tell that part of the story and knew Anna was smart enough to put two and two together. "It wasn't supposed to be her," he said sady. Maliki hadn't realized he was crying until drops of water started falling on his feet and his cheeks began to sting. "By the time they found her body, I was already gone. I had grabbed what I could from our home and left before anyone could find me."

This time Anna did touch him. It wasn't much, just a hand on his. He looked at it but didn't bring himself to look at the girl's face. He took his hand back and wiped his face clean. He only managed to spread the water around. "You go to sleep. I'll keep watch for the rest of the night." Anna sat there for a moment more but after a while got up, a hand on his shoulder the only sign that she was leaving but not far from him.

He sat there looking at the forest, listening to the leaves rustle in the wind and the animals move slowly about if they dared. It was quiet, peaceful almost. He heard a howl, so far in the distance that he couldn't recognize it but he knew it had come from within his pack. He also knew Dex was going to hunt him to the ends of the world if he had to. He would see revenge for what he had done to their mother.

As the night got darker he stood and walked out and around the forest outside the cave. He could sense something was watching them but he couldn't place what it was. It wasn't a threatening thing, but it was curious. And lurking in the shadows their entire way to the cave.