Road Runners

CHAPTER 21: April: Betrayal

I stayed up tossing and turning, I couldn’t sleep, Tyler’s words still echoed in my head. “You saw what happened, do you still trust him”

Do I still trust him? I wondered, I knew nothing about them, Taylor and Tyler, Tyler was a werewolf, I think, but what about Taylor?

The clock ticked loudly on the wall. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. I stayed up waiting, finally it was midnight, still I lay there, I didn’t know whether to go or not, would he be waiting, what if it’s a trap?

Finally I tip toed out of the room and down the back stairs, the library was cold and dark, the images of scared frightened children running frantically, many of them who had been trampled. He came out of the shadows, he had been waiting for me, Tyler.

“I wasn’t sure you would come” he mumbled. His face looked dark, he refused to meet my gaze.

“You said, you wanted to talk, I wanted to hear you out at least, so talk” I said, staring him directly in the face. “Not here” he began to walk away towards the back of the library, it was darkest there.

“What’s going on and why don’t you trust him?” I asked confused.

“I don’t trust him and neither should you, he is more dangerous than you know. To trust everyone is to be naïve, to trust no one is to be alone, to be alone is to be hostile, to be hostile is to be broken. It is better to be broken and wise than to be trusting and dead.”

I still didn’t get it. “but you’re brothers aren’t you, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt you would he?”

“That thing is not my brother” he spat bitterly. “He’s a clone, the stronger duplicate. He has plans for you, get out while you still can”

A clone, not a brother?

“Nice to know you’re so fond of me, brother, and it seems that you have already told our little friend too much” he smiled cynically.

Tyler stepped back and two arms grabbed him from behind, he snarled as they tried to restrain him, one of them pulled out a syringe, filled with a bright yellow liquid, they stabbed it into his arm, he howled in pain as the syringe pierced his skin, he slowly blacked out as they lay him down on the ground and tied his arms behind back, they picked him up and half dragged him towards the exit.

“Let’s not forget about little April” he grabbed me and held a cloth to my nose and mouth, I blacked out.

“Wakey, wakey” a voice said smiling, almost laughing at me.

“I said wake up!” he yelled. My eyes began to open slightly, I was tied to a board standing upright, Tyler was tied next to me, looked beaten up, his nose was bloody, lip split and one eye swelled shut. He didn’t look well. We were in one of the laboratories. The place was gleaming white and there were many scientists walking around.

“Tyler, you think I didn’t hear your conversation about your little rendezvous. I have listeners everywhere” he gestured around the room.

Taylor punched Tyler in the stomach and Tyler groaned in pain. A scientist stabbed him with another syringe, causing him to hiss. He screamed and began to change, sweating and roaring, fur began to force its way through his skin, he howled and shook violently against the ropes that held him down.  I watched in astonishment. Taylor only smiled. “Unlike me, Tyler wasn’t blessed with the gifts of lycanthropy, I was instructed to change him, of course he didn’t welcome the change, so we had to use force, the pain does get easier, right now, we’re recruiting” he smiled.

“It’ll be her first change” he said to one of the scientists who nodded as the approached me with an injection filled with a dark blue liquid. Taylor approached me as Tyler continued to howl and roar in pain.

He stepped forward rolling up my right sleeve. “This may hurt a lot” he said as the scientist swabbed the area for the needle to go in, I was amazed when it turned out to be the one I had trusted, the one who I thought had always been on my side, I sniffed as the tears began to fill my eyes, he had betrayed me, they all had. Tyler and Sebastian were right, trust could get you killed, it was better to be broken and wise than to be trusting and dead.

A surging fire raged through me as the injection pierced my skin, everywhere began to burn, my veins were on fire, I cried out, my cry turned into a howl , it felt like I was being ripped apart, it was like I was being stretched, I was suddenly warm, so very warm.

“Keep her in a cage until it wears off” he said. I couldn’t breathe, they undid the ropes that held me down, the blood pulsed from my pores, he lifted me from the board, I could already feel the hair begin to force their way through my skin, he laid me down in a cold white cell. I was shaking so hard, he covered me with a brown cloth, tears ran down my cheeks, my head was throbbing and I passed out.

“Make it stop” I murmured, everywhere and everything ached, everything was black and white, bright clouds of colour shone from the bodies of scientists that walked past.

Taylor came to the cage smiling, everything was so bright, it hurt to look at anything, too bright, it was all too bright.

Taylor threw something wet into the cage, it was meat, raw, wet and bloody. My mouth began to water, I was so hungry, but that’s not how meat should look, should it? , no, no meat had to be… it had to be… something, before people ate it, what was that word? My mind was swimming it was hard to concentrate. The meat, it had to be hot, yes that was it, it had to be hot, that’s it! Meat had to be cooked. But I didn’t care, I wanted it any way, succulent, tender, juicy meat.

I ate it hungrily and he laughed. “Not too fast, you’ll be sick” I didn’t care “More!” I demanded, he placed a T-bone on the floor and watched as I ripped the meat with my claws.

Suddenly the taste of raw meat sickened me, I vomited it all up slimy, sticky and bloody. “You see, I tried to warn you, your stomach isn’t used to your new diet. It’ll take time before you are able to eat solid food, and I doubt you’ll want to, you’ll be in a lot of pain since you’ll be teething pretty soon.”

He walked away from the cage and whispered something to one of the scientists and walked out of the room.