The savage wild

14. Golden death

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The muscles in his arms trembled with pain, but he stubbornly ignored it. He gave an extra push, with all his might, but it wasn’t enough. His breathing was fast, forming fog in the cool morning sun. His chest was drenched in sweat as he kept pushing against the giant boulder before him.

But the stone was too heavy. As he kept pushing and pushing, his bare feet slowly buried themselves in the ground behind him and he felt his arms getting heavier and heavier. His breathing felt more labored and painful and his legs wanted to sag and give out. To just let his body fall to the ground.

In the end he did just that, and he all but fell without any ceremony to the hard earth. He cursed under his breath and rolled himself on his back with the last of his strength. Then he closed his eyes and let his tired body rest.

“Are you still trying to impress me, stupid kiddo?” A voice came from beside him.

He opened one eye and glared at Lyall, too tired to do more than that. “It won’t work you know. You won’t succeed until you are at least in puberty.” Rafe closed his eye again, ignoring him. Lyall couldn’t handle being ignored, however, and started poking Rafe with his foot.

Rafe’s eyes flew open. “Are you bored or something?” he hissed. Lyall shrugged, “basically, yea.” “Then why don’t you just train me?” Lyall smirked, “because first off, if I would start training you without you making any effort to win that privilege, more fucking losers would stalk me for it. And secondly, I just love to see you fail.”

Rafe growled at him. “Whatever you say.” He struggled to his feet and grabbed his backpack, shouldering it while walking away from Lyall, or rather, limping away from him. “Go entertain yourself then.” Lyall laughed, and quickly caught up with him. “Aw come on, don’t ruin my fun. Let’s do something illegal.” Rafe gave him a look. “I thought you were the grownup?” Lyall snorted, “Yea but being a grownup is overrated.” Rafe raised his eyebrow, “what did you have in mind, then?” Lyall’s eyes started shining evilly, “well..”

­­­“Your brother?” I asked confused, looking from Selene to Ares and back. Ares sent me a charming smile, while Selene stayed expressionless. “I didn’t even know you had one. He was teaching me how to kill.” Selene threw her head back and laughed out loud, giving me the creeps. She never laughs like that. It sounded almost crazed.

As abruptly as she had started laughing, she stopped. Her pale eyes shot to mine, her full attention focused on me. I could feel her power almost physically. “Ares doesn’t teach ANYONE how to kill, child. He always kills them first.” My eyes shot to Ares, but there was nothing to read there. No clue to the riddle that blocked my way to safety. “However, he might make an exception for a price,” Selene whispered and she reached her hand out, catching a lock of my hair in her hands. She slowly stroked it, as if it was the only thing in her world that made sense. I watched her, and perhaps she felt my gaze as she met mine without any mercy. “My question is, child.. What was your price?” Her hand clenched around the lock of my hair in her hand and pulled it suddenly towards her, ripping the hair from my head. I blinked, not taking real notice to such little amount of pain. “There was no price. Only his own feelings of repaying perhaps.” Selene’s eyes went from full moon to half-moon and her gaze finally sent a glare towards Ares. “What does she mean?”

Ares simply shrugged. “It doesn’t concern you, woman.” Selene hissed, “It does, actually. This girl has my protection. Therefor she is subjugated to MY laws. You play with what is mine, Ares. Do not cross that line without my consent.” The way she stated me as a toy itched me, and I bit my lip from protesting. There was no use. I was only someone’s when I gave myself to her or him. Otherwise no one owned me.

Ares snorted and opened his mouth to reply, with a snarky reply no doubt, but I didn’t give him a chance and just kicked him on the shins. He gave me an offended look, then answered almost honestly. “I own her for something she did for me long ago.” Selene narrowed her eyes, but she let it go and again ogled the bowl in her hands. “Leave us,” she said to him and surprisingly he listened and vanished into thin air.

She handed me the bowl,  “what do you see, Shivani?” I turned my gaze towards the transparent bowl in my hands, filled with gold colored liquor. The longer I watched, how entranced I became. Until there was only the bowl and me. Its golden liquor enticing me to lean forward and take a sip of my dreams. My lips came in contact with the golden fluid, and it was like my lips were on fire. But no matter how much it burned, I couldn’t pull my head back. I had to take that sip. The fluid oozed into my mouth, burning holes into my tongue, my cheeks, my teeth. I swallowed, and the liquid seeped down my throat, into my stomach and spread towards every part of my body. Burning it, demolishing it, killing it. I wanted to scream, but there were holes in my throat, no air but fire in my lungs. I wanted to die. I wanted to claw at my stomach and rip the fluid from my viscera. But my fingers were falling from my hands. I saw them falling, I saw them rotted and ripped and dead. Then I saw nothing anymore. I only felt. How I wished I didn’t.

With his hands in his pockets he watched as Lyall was fucking with the lock of the door to St. Laurence high school. It was the only high school close to the pack house, and so every young were went here. It was still 40 km away though.

“Why are we here again?” Rafe asked. Lyall didn’t even glance up. “We’re here for future need.” Rafe raised his eyebrow. “Are we now? What are you planning?” Before Lyall could answer, a loud click sounded and the door was open. Rafe was impressed. “When you finally start to train me, that includes lock picking alright?” Lyall snorted, “In your dreams kid.” They both quickly entered the building, and then shut the door behind them. “I hope for you that there aren’t any cameras,” Rafe hissed at Lyall. Lyall abruptly stopped and turned around, his face contorted in shock and disbelief. “Shit..” “WHAT! You stupid fuck!” Rafe pounced on him, but Lyall skillfully evaded him and started laughing. “Relax, kid. Who do you think I am? I demolished them before we came here.” Rafe turned red and muttered something under his breath. “What did you say?” Lyall asked innocently. “Nothing! Let’s just go.” He laughed and turned around, walking confidently through the hallways. How did he even know the way here?

After a few minutes they stopped before a door with ‘principal office’ on it. Lyall proceeded to pick this lock too. “You do realize I’m going to have to go to school here, in a few years? If I’m caught right now, I’m going to have a hell of a time to get in.” Lyall just shrugged, “then we don’t get caught.” He clicked the door open and in they went.

The principal’s office looked just like they always show them in the movies: a big, neat desk with some papers on it dominates the whole room. Behind the desk is one comfy looking chair, and facing the desk are two tiny little chairs.

“Now kiddo, watch and learn.”