Palace of Wolves

Chapter 5 -- The Dark Truth

I woke up in a surprisingly cold room. I could feel the comforting clasp of bandages around my shoulder and the light touch of a paper hospital dress. I opened my eyes and was blinded by electric light.  After my sight was adjusted I reached out of routine for my glasses, they weren’t there –must have broken that night.  With a jolt I released I had no idea when that night was. A day ago? Two? Three? How long had I been here? Where was Adrian? His injuries hadn’t been as bad as mine so he might not be in the hospital. We had gone through so much together in one night; I wanted to talk to him, to reassure myself it happened. I took in my surroundings; it looked like a regular hospital ward apart from it was windowless, giving the feeling of containment. Stroking my hand against the metal bars of the bed my finger collected quite a sum of dust --too much for a hospital. Then again, I must have still been in Egypt; it wouldn't exactly be the NHS, maybe the Egyptians let there hospitals go without a little dusting.

Suddenly the door opened. A dark skinned woman in a white coat walked in. Her hair was pinned up in a tight bun and her fringe was ruler straight. She wore an identidy card with what was presumably her name, Dr Meera Aitkin.

"It seems you have awoken." She announced in a calm, rather put on sounding posh English accent. She picked up a clipboard and pen and sat on a stool at the foot of the bed and started questioning me. "Miss Forrester, what is the last thing you remember."

"Being attacked by a wolf."

"What events led up to that?"

"The man at the hotel, the tourbus driver told Adrian and I that we where leaving for the pyramids. He--"

"This man did he wear a badge like this?" the doctor held out a badge, it was an upturned V enclosed in a silver cirle.

"Yes, exactly like that. The bus was empty and we couldn't leave. He stopped the bus and waked away. Then the wolf came."

"It seems that I've gathered enough information about your attack."

 "How, I barely know anything! Where did the man go? Where did the wolf come from?

"Well...we think that they where the same thing. the man was the wolf."

"No, thats crazy. your talking like werewolves and whatnot are actually real! We all know Hollywood made them up."

"They are very real."

“No, no you’re joking! It’s a trick. Everyone’s going to jump out and shout surprise. Come on then! Mum, Dad; I know your there. Adrian, you’re in on it too aren’t you? Josie probably helped out too.” I kept talking, with each syllable I was kidding myself less and less. The doctor’s face was honest. “No, this is crazy I ... I... I need a sit down.”

I sat back, breathing heavily. Everything I knew was based on logic and fact. As much as I enjoyed crafts I wasn’t the most imaginative of people and was lost without instructions. I felt like a cake gone wrong: I had all the right ingredients, I was following a good method then BAM in comes a crazy ingredient that doesn’t fit and it’s all ruined.

“So,” I said, trying to regain sanity, “If I am to believe that werewolves exist, what they like are. Is there all these packs and mates and alphas and so on.”

. “Dear me no! You’ve been reading too many werewolf books.”

“Just the one.”

“Well half that stuff was written to cover the real werewolves’ tails. The real werewolves are just regular humans who where bitten and they shift at the full moon. Lycanthropy is a recognised condition although most medical textbooks deny this as the UN tries to keep it a secret. ”

"What! The UN knows about werewolves and didn't tell us."

"Yes, don't you see why. It's to protect the Lycanthropes themselves. You'd want to keep it a secret if you where one! Across so many countries they are being marked out, having to wear this!" she gestured to the silver badge she had shown earliar. I noticed as her voice became more passionate the posh tone was stripped away revealing her true Birmingham accent. "They are already being descriminated by the small number who know the secret, imagine if the whole world knew!"

"I guess that makes sense." 

"Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is well... I need to know how you injured your shoulder."

"Okay, there was the wolf, I was holding it off and--" I stopped, relising what had happened and the impact. "Oh my god! It bit me! The wolf bit me! It...it..."

"Calm down Sandra. It might not mean what you think it does. Not all werewolf bites turn the victim."

"How do we know."

"Well there are several signs. Non-infected bites heal like regular dog bites whereas Infected bites don't fully heal but where too early to know. Whether you tranform at the full moon is the obvious one but where not waiting. The easiest way to know now is with this." She took a jewellery box out her pocket, opened it up and emptied the contents into her hand.

"A necklace?"

"It's one of mine, the closest silver to hand."

"What! The silver stuff is true." 

"Yes, if you where infected you'll feel a slight burning sensation, not particullary painful. If not it will feel like a regular necklace, which it is."

"Okay then." I held out my hand. The necklace was a locket, I wondered what photo she kept inside. Family? Partner? Maybe even a dearly loved hamster. Time seemed to stretch as it passed from her hand to mine but eventually it landed in my palm, all at once.

It burned. 

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That took too long to write! I had immense writers block so I had to delete and rewrite a chapter because I was getting no-where and since this is such an important chapter it had to be right.

Also I am possibly going to have the chacter Dr Aitkin reappear in later chapters but I don’t know if I should since there’s tons I need to introduce soon.

If I get over 5 votes for this chapter I will include drawings of characters with the next chapter so vote and comment.