Blood Rose

°Chapter five°

( 1730 words)

Rose's POV:

“C’mon , we need to find where these lead to.”

She started following the claw marks on the soil. The marks abruptly stopped at a random place on the ground. To our right, we could see the high wall lined with sharp objects and wires at the top to avoid people and animals from jumping over it and entering the university. To our left, we could see the ground forming a small muddy path in between. The path was just a narrow strip of ground which was cleared of all types of vegetation to provide a small platform to walk comfortably on. The path continued to a longer distance and I couldn't see where it ended. Claire looked at me and signalled me to follow.

The path was stony and with each step, our shoe raised a cloud of dust around it. We walked for a long time for about one kilometre or so and soon reached the outer wall of the campus so high that even a werewolf couldn't jump over it. It stopped right there. Outside the wall, was the outskirts of the forest. There was no gate to the outside from there. We walked along the wall in search of some clue but could find nothing. My calf muscles were starting to ache a lot and I couldn't keep up the pace with Claire. Even though it was cloudy, there were no signs of rain. I was looking up at the sky admiring the clouds out of boredom when I tripped on a small rock and fell on my face. Claire turned around startled and went in defence mode with her fists balled up and arms in front of her chest alert for any sort of sound. Her expression was just so funny that I wanted to laugh out loud but held it in because this was definitely not a time for fun.

“Calm down Claire. I just tripped.”

“ Oh ok......get your clumsy ass up and keep going", she said and kept moving forward.

Damn bitch..... could have at least helped me up.....

I got up and waddled my way towards a bush. The bush had grown to a pretty big size taking up a lot of space. Moss stuck to the wall and the climbers twisted themselves around the surface through cracks and crevices causing the bricks to split into sharp cracks at few places. The whole wall had weeds and moss growing on its edges but at this place it was unusually thickened to form a soft bed of covering. Worms and other small organisms unknown to mankind crawled around in it. I bent own to examine the area as Claire followed me from behind. I touched the moss unsure about what else I should do. I got an uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach. My animal instincts were warning me that there was something big ahead.

I heard a loud gasp behind me. I widened my eyes and turned around swiftly to attack the person when,

“Creepy – crawlieee!!!!!! Ewwww ! Get off me!! Angel help!!” Claire was hopping around trying to get the worm out of her right arm.

I let out a sigh of relief and swatted away the millipede crawling on her arm. I then picked up a stick and poked at the moss covering. My suspicions were true . There was no bricks in that part of the wall. Only moss enclosed it completely. I poked through the hole trying to find the road on the opposite side, but I couldn’t find it. With Claire’s help, I got rid of all the moss and no sooner did I do that than a swarm of flies rushed in through the hole like a black cloud. Along with them, they also brought an unbearable stink that made me crinkle my nose in disgust. Claire was swatting away the flies and swaying her arms around in an attempt to get rid of them. Holding my nose between my index finger and the thumb I bent down to see what was there on the opposite side. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. When I didn’t get up for several seconds, Claire bent down too. Her mouth hang open wide and her eyes widened to such an extent I was scared they would fall off any minute. I closed her mouth to save her from those infected flies.
On the other side lay a corpse of a werewolf , a beta to be specific. He had a tattoo on his left wrist in the shape of a crescent moon that indicated he was the alpha’s advisor. Every beta gets his tattoo on the day of the coronation of the alpha. The beta's eyes were gouged out and the arms were crossed one above the other forming an X and tied with tight black wires to keep them in place. His claws were gripping his shoulders tightly as if he was avoiding the attacker's weapons from stabbing his chest. That was all we could see through the hole. We spared no minute in running back to the campus to the principal's office. Mr. Lambert had been my father’s friend since many years and he was the one who looked out for me in the university. We had always shared a friendly relationship. I knocked on the door few times. As soon as I heard the ringing of the bell, I barged into the room making the old man flinch a bit. He could sense something wrong by the expression on my face. I went in slowly and took a seat in front of him. The fifty-year old asked, “Shouldn’t you kids be in class at this time?”. We nodded our head slowly, all the time thinking about how I would tell him about the corpse.

“ Mr Lambert, we have something to show you!” I exclaimed abruptly.

“ Can you please come with us to the outer wall of the campus?” Claire asked.
Astonished by my sudden outburst, he got up slowly and followed us outside. Once we reached the place, he bent down to examine. He called a few workmen on the campus to dig the hole a bit wider and pull the corpse inside. The creases on his forehead deepened a bit. Maybe he knew the beta......I thought. His eyes crinkled ever so slightly and his lips twitched downwards in a slight frown. I now switched my gaze towards the dead body. There were deep scars of his forearms and legs. At many places, the skin was burnt exposing the small sheath of muscle and a bit of bone beneath. The corpse was shirtless and his canines were out, so were his claws. The beta might have been killed as it was starting to transform into his wolf form. The scene was pretty disturbing. The eyes were gouged out and the eyebrows shaved off. On his stomach, a deep scar ' V ' could be seen. It was covered with dried blood. The corpse had its mouth stretched wide sideways by a silver disc held securely by nails driven through his cheeks from the inside. The nails were attached to the disc or not was not known as they had to remove it first to check it. His legs were hairy and wolf like from calf down. The feet were held together by right black strings tied around them. The pants that he wore were torn at the thighs. Mr Lambert was in tears by now. He walked away without another word. The workmen brought some more help form the campus to remove it. Soon, on hearing the commotion, a large group of students surrounded the place in no time. I entered Mr Lambert's office. He was seated at his usual place with the chair turned towards the window on the side of the wall opposite to that of the door.
Clearing my throat to indicate my presence even though the bell already announced it, I asked, “By any chance, do you know who the beta is?”

There were several seconds of silence and I was almost convinced that he couldn't hear me. When I was about to repeat myself a second time, I heard a sad and broken voice.

“My brother” was all he uttered softly before bursting into tears. I stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do before he signalled me to leave him alone. I jogged towards my class and found no one there. Everyone might be at the open ground. Then, I recalled the peculiar silver disc stretching the corpse's mouth. I jogged away towards the place and found them carrying the corpse away. The disc was nowhere to be found. Why don’t we go to the police for such cases, you may ask......but it’s for our safety. We cannot risk revealing who we are which would put us in more danger than we already were in. So the alpha and the beta of the pack usually dealt with any case. Mr. Lambert belonged to the Night Howlers pack. The forest outside the campus was a home to 4 packs ---- the Night Howlers pack, the Red Flares pack, the Moonflowers pack and the Silver Moon pack. The forest provided us with everything we needed an see worshipped it.

Our university was let off earlier than usual due to unusual occurrences. We couldn't be sure that the attacker was only targeting only one person. There might be a whole group waiting for a perfect time to start a war. As far as I could recall, there were no packs against us and the attackers might be new rogues. The way that they chose to kill was pretty sadistic, I had to admit that it scared away many people. As soon as I entered my house, my mom engulfed me in a bear hug. She stroked my hair and asked if I was alright her voice laced with worry. Oh well, the news must have spread like a wildfire. After a heap of instructions from my mother on how I shouldn't wander off alone into the forest, always have some company if I'm going somewhere, always carry few weapons with me, etc...., I excused myself to my room. I sat by the window and let my thoughts wander off to that afternoon. A big mission awaited us for sure.......

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