Ruby's Story

Prologue

          When I was a young girl, all I wanted in life was the calm simplicity.. I was the bad child, the handful if you will. I had a mother, a father and most specially my twin sister, otherwise known as the angel child. Despite how that may sound I held no ill feelings towards my sister, I loved her very dearly, I was the darkness where she was the shining light.. even back then. We were both merely ten when the world permanently changed, I can clearly remember my aunts and uncles telling us to run to the roof to escape. Plan went brilliantly, everyone got up to the roof where a portal was opened to take us to a different place, somewhere much more safe than our current location. Our world was invaded, vicious creatures had appeared and it became like a zombie apocalypse... Though instead of flesh eating human zombies.. These things, just the thought of them sends shivers through my body.. 

          Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a ten year old girl, picture a huge dog in front of you like a Great Dane. Picture massive canines protruding from it's mouth like fangs, almost like a saber but small an thin pointed like needles, designed to puncture deep to spread its infectious venom deep inside your body. Then their breath, enough to make you gag and practically acquainting your senses to the stench of rotting meat and week old vomit with the added hint of ammonia. Drifting to the nose it was peeling off! Beneath the peeling nose tissue you could see the white of the bone where flies were feasting upon it, its beady.. soulless black eyes filled with one desire.. killing. A mindless desire to hunt prey, just to discard and be forgotten. Then their pelts, something that was once thick and vibrant was now torn, matted and stank like a carcass, the stench strong enough that with combined with the creatures breath would send you puking. It's paws were the size of my head, talons protruding from its feet and dug into the concrete.. That was my first encounter but unfortunately not my last..

         As my family fled through the portal our evacuation was merely complete, only myself, my aunt, and a couple remained, we were so close.. Though through the corner of my eye my heart stopped, none had noticed the creature that brilliantly made its way to the roof. What made the realization worse than the fact we were cornered with a enemy we couldn't risk touching was the fact that it wasn't like zombies in the the books and movies. This living dead carcass was watching us, calculating us as it watched another family member escape through the portal. This can't be real... Is what I had thought, though before I had the chance to warn the others it looked at me, it watched me! I knew the others hadn't noticed its presence for it had none, other than the rotting smell that now mingled with the chaotic shrill cries of people fleeing and dying from the packs that surged below through the streets. In that brief span of time where I listened the creature lunged at my aunt.. You see there's a reason I did what I did.. The fact I was a family outcast with my difficult-to-handle personality had nothing to do with it but I had overheard something a few days earlier before this chaos came. These simple little words are enough to permanently change a life and it was a surprise for my uncle.. Whether he'd feel the same or not was not my concern.. But could I allow my aunt and her unborn child be taken away from my uncle...? I'd like to say no way in hell but in the moment my body was moving to fast for me to think and quite honestly, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I suddenly felt myself shifting into a red wolf and sink my fangs into the creatures shoulder as I collided with it and knocked it off course. 

          Pounding was all I could hear.. the pounding of my heart, the pounding in my ears but I ignored it all as my adrenaline surged through me, biting harder into this canine like creature. Knowing I stood no chance against it, for I was just a pup still in my wolf form, my pelt still fluffy and scrappy, my size a quarter of this huge disgrace trash. Jumping away I tried to keep its focus on me but I ultimately failed to notice and remember something, where one exists so does another.. Upon landing when I jumped away I gave the creature my fiercest snarl I could conjure but it quickly turned into a strangled yelp as sharp painful teeth dug deeply into my back and began shaking me. Agony.. sheer agony, that's all I could feel.. Just teeth.. then more teeth, all burrowing into me, ripping into me, tugging at my pelt. I could neither see nor hear only to realize I couldn't see because my eyes were locked shut.. My hearing deafened by the sounds of my own screams.. that's funny, who knew I could scream that loud. My pain was slowly fading, not because these awful things were stopping, they were quiet intent on me still but I just started feeling lighter... colder.. just less there.. When I was finally able to open my eyes I was blinded for a moment, a wall of red dominated my vision before I blinked a couple more times. As blurry shapes began appearing in my gaze I saw horrified looks from my family, my mom and father being held back while my sister screaming and crying with her friend had his arms held tightly around her waist.. Asshole... let go of her... Was all I could think upon seeing the two so close together, though mentally I scolded myself and just gave a reassuring whine and attempted to wag my tail. I couldn't move, my body was limp and at the mercy of these creatures. 

          At the very moment they realized I couldn't fight back they turned to the more lively prey at the entrance. Sorrow consumed me, I wanted to go with them and not be left alone, but I couldn't move to them an I was surrounded their only option was to flee. Tears sneaked their way from the corners of my eyes as I saw them be shoved through the portal leaving it to close behind them, not a second to late. An unusual shudder seemed to pass through me, jerking my entire body as a wave of black forced its way across my vision, blinding me as I watched the creatures turned towards me... That day, the last thing I remembered was accepting death.. It terrified me and I knew I wasn't ready but I accepted it so that I could be with my family.. find them and make sure their haven was fine, that they would be okay.. But that was just before a large black boot stepped in front of my eye, just seconds before I blacked out...