Chapter 5: The Night Before Classes

Wednesday would mark the start of actual classes. Ellie lay in bed the night before, too nervous to sleep. She alternated between deep depression and mild hysterics. The depression was due to the realization she was still at The Academy and it didn't look like she was going to escape anytime soon. Once that realization settled in her mind, the mild hysterics started. She pondered the fact she would be spending the next several years at The Academy and she was sure she was going to make a fool of herself or fail miserably because she wasn't really a magical creature. It had been two full days since she had arrived at The Academy already and her parents hadn't shown up to take her home. She had been holding onto a distance hope that this was all going to turn into one big mistake, her parents would realize she wasn't really supposed to be here and they would show up and whisk her away in a flurry of hugs and apologies and copious amounts of chocolate.

In fact, other than reassuring her mom and dad that she really was ok after her fainting spell, she hadn't even talked to them. She was so furious when they hadn't driven to campus and tucked her into the back seat of the minivan with a book, fluffy blanket, gas station hot chocolate, Little Debbies, and bags of disgustingly good chips for the four hour drive that she wouldn't even talk to them. She refused their calls and she ignored their texts. She knew, deep down, she was being petty and vindictive and they didn't truly deserve her attitude, but her hurt and pain was too great. She wanted to spread the despair around like cream cheese on a bagel, thick and rich.  Everyone with an emotional attachment to her should feel the same way she did right this moment.

The lights from campus glowed through the window of Ellie's room as she lay in bed, gazing at the trees visible from her position. She wondered how she ended up here. Her parents were shifters, sure. They were werewolves, part of the Blood Moon pack, but they weren't active members. They didn't go to the weekly pack meetings or visit with pack members. In fact, she had rarely seen her parents with other pack members at all over the years. It was an odd arrangement as far as she knew, her parents were members in name only. They had given birth to a human, a normal child without a wolf. It was unheard of. It may have happened in the history books, but it was more a thing of legend than fact. The wolf gene was dominant in a werewolf and no one had heard of a wolfless child being born to two werewolves before. In fact, even if only one parent had a wolf, the child would as well. The science was fairly well understood, werewolves had an extra gene and when that parent passed on their DNA, that extra gene naturally was handed down as well. It wasn't possible for that gene to just disappear, once it was in the family lineage, it stayed.

Ellie pondered the genetics of her parents. Maybe she should get her genes mapped. There were companies that did genetic mapping, mostly human ancestry companies. Ellie could send her blood into one of those to be mapped. Of course, if she sent her blood to a human company they would have possession of werewolf DNA and she had a feeling sending werewolf DNA to a human company was likely frowned upon. She wondered briefly if there was a lab on campus that could map her genome to see if she had the extra werewolf gene. She sat up in bed and made a note on the pad of paper on her bedside table, MAP DNA - CAMPUS? in bold black letters for later study. If in the morning it still sounded like a good idea, she could take it a step further and ask someone in the science department to see if they knew what could be done. In the meantime, she stared out the window and pondered her existance.

Sam and Meredith can both shift, and they both are guaranteed to have mates. I wonder if I will have a mate. Jake seemed fairly sure that I would, I wonder if he knows something I don't know. Maybe something in the history books that tell about a wolfless werewolf that had a mate and kids and a happy life, Ellie pondered the conversations with her friends from earlier in the week. I can ask Sam what her mate smells like and if she feels a pull toward him when she figures out it's Firesh. Ellie laughed to herself. Sam and Firesh.

It was fitting really, she wasn't sure there were many men who would be able to handle Sam's exuberance and Firesh seemed up to the task. He would have to settle down with those bedpost notches though. Ellie snorted as she thought about how many notches he probably had already, it was likely more than Sam would ever want to know about.

Ellie's thoughts were erratic, bouncing between topics, confused and distracted. Sam and Meredith both seemed nice, they were turning into good friends in a place this large and foreboding. It is nice to have someone here with a friendly face seemingly always on your side. I wouldn't have survived if I had to face Sarah and Jane alone.

The next day's unknown was looming over her head like a dark cloud with a lightning storm getting ready to strike. The electricity was building, the pressure almost too much for Ellie to handle as she felt her chest tighten. She couldn't breathe, she needed to get out. She sat up in bed and grabbed her robe and slippers while stumbling out the door, taking nothing else with her. Her footsteps were muffled from the slippers she barely had a grasp on. She stumbled toward the stairs. The walls were closing in on her, she couldn't see anything except the small space of the building getting smaller and smaller. She found the stairs and ran down in relief. She reached the bottom in record time, her feet slipping several times on the way down in her rush to reach the outside. She pushed the front door to Ackley Hall open with great force, racing outside where she leaned over gasping, short breaths inflating her lungs in and out, in and out in quick repetition. Then the tears came. She had held them at bay all day, but they traitorously slid down her cheeks. She looked up and saw the buildings surrounding her. So many buildings. They were closing in on her and she still couldn't breathe so she did something she had rarely done in the past, she ran. She ran as fast as she could through the buildings toward the road. Her hair flew out behind her in a curtain of waves and her open robe fluttered in the wind as her feet took off at top speed. She kept running and running. Her lungs were burning as she gasped breaths in desperately. She was woefully out of shape, but still she ran. The pain in her side, the pain in her calves, the overwhelming pressure in her chest kept pushing her on. She sprinted as fast as she could until she reached the road in front of The Academy at last. She turned to the right hand side and kept running. The pain in her legs and the cramp in her side were forgotten as she pushed further and further in her attempt to escape the panic inside.

At long last, she was slowing down, her initial burst of energy had waned the further she went and she wasn't able to keep the same pace, having never run that fast or that far before in her life. 

She finally couldn't stand any longer and she collapsed in a heap on the side of the road. She didn't know where she was and she didn't care. She crumpled to the ground and her eyes closed blissfully tired after the exertion. Her side throbbed and she curled into a ball to stem the pain. Her legs were so wobbly she couldn't even feel the pain in her calves. Her lungs were on fire, but the desperation in her chest was gone, finally. She had run past her panic, she had beaten it without blacking out or fainting, without her mom or Meredith there to coach her through breathing, she had won. This round was her victory.

It's getting cold, she thought as she drifted off to sleep, dirt in her hair, leaves on her robe, but peace finally in her heart.

-----

Ellie awoke with a start. She raised her head and looked around. She was on a road. She couldn't figure out why she was on a road. Why am I curled up in a ball on the side of a road?

Then with a rush the prior night came back, filling her mind with painful and slightly embarrassing memories. Her legs ached but her chest felt light. She glanced around noting that the sky was still dark. She didn't have her phone with her and she didn't wear a watch so she had no idea what time it actually was. It was usually light when she woke up, so she rightly guessed it was still the middle of the night.

There was a street light on the side of the road about 10 feet in front of where she was laying and another light was shining about 40 feet behind her. She surveyed the area and determined that she must have been running to her right toward the closer street light since she was facing that way. Therefore, she should go left and retrace her steps to return to school. The road was lined with street lights, but no sidewalk. The road dropped off into a ditch and then rose to meet the edge of the woods. She wasn't keen on school, but it was much preferred to this dark road in the dead of night. She was going to need a few espressos in the morning to last through the day. The further side of the road was lined with trees, a dark, dense forest fitting for the area where the school was located and ideal for a pack of wolves to run through. She stared at the trees and prickles of apprehension ran up her spine causing her to shiver in discomfort. She quickly stood, brushing the leaves from her robe as she surveyed the area and determined going left was definitely the right choice. She started jogging to the left, where she was sure she would find the school.

Ellie glanced at the trees and saw eyes blinking out of the treeline. Ellie blinked and looked again, the eyes were gone. She must have imagined it, she was working herself up because it was dark and she was alone. Despite that logic, she started to go faster. She wasn't sure how she managed to pick up her pace, her legs virtually wobbled down the road while they carried her toward campus but she pushed herself to go faster regardless.

I don't want to end up one of those unsolved mysteries mom and I watch on Dateline. What a terrible ending. Ellie thought as she picked up her speed some more. When they find my decomposing body in ten years, they won't be able to figure out why a dumb 16 year old was in the forest in the middle of the night in her robe and slippers. I don't even have a good ending to my story.

Ellie felt her feet slide against the roadway as she made her way back to campus. She looked down and saw the oil stains on her robe. She was covered in leaves, gravel clung to her slippers, and dirt was caked on her arms and hands. 

Look at this robe, it looks like I got a job as a mechanic at a logging camp. I'm going to need a new one. I might as well get a new pair of slippers too, these are practically ruined. I think I can feel the ground under my left big toe, the sole is practically gone.

Ellie kept up a stream of thoughts, meant to distract herself from the fear building in her stomach at the perceived threat she saw in the dark forest. She was just pondering what kind of slippers she wanted to get when she saw a giant wolf jump out of the woods directly to her left and leap in her direction. She let out a blood-curdling scream as the wolf bit down on her arm and started to drag her into the forest.

Ellie panicked. There was nothing else to do, really. She was in the middle of a dark road in the middle of the night and no one knew she was there. She didn't even have a roommate to miss her if they woke up in the middle of the night.

She did the only thing she could think of. She kicked her foot in the general direction of the wolf's balls with all of the force she could muster.  It's funny how much energy your body can find to harness when you find yourself in the midst of a desperate situation. Ellie's body was far from done fighting the elements, first the panic that encompassed it, then the wolf attacking out of nowhere. Her foot made contact with something and the wolf dropped her arm and let out a loud howl of pain.

She scrambled to her feet and took off at a dead sprint, jelly legs, and burning chest be damned. She didn't really think she was going to be an unsolved murder before when she had allowed her imagination to run wild but now that a raging werewolf was chasing her, she was almost certain. At least she got in one good kick, she thought with satisfaction. They may find my decomposed body still though. She wasn't going down without a fight. She knew she wasn't strong enough to fight off a fully grown werewolf but she was able to at least make it harder for him to kill her.

She had made it a few dozen feet before the wolf recovered from the kick to his groin and he came after her again. He was running much more gingerly as he attempted to protect his family jewels from the jostling that came with running. Ellie glanced behind her and noticed that he seemed to have recovered sufficiently as his stride was steady and his face a mask of determination. Ellie screamed and looked around for help. Anything to help. She wasn't picky, she'd even take Sarah, Jane, or Mark at this point. She didn't see anything that she could use but she did see a drive way up ahead. The school drive. She gasped in desperate relief. If she could just make it there, surely one of the teachers would be able to hear her. Surely help would come. She wouldn't die this close to safety, that's not how the stories went. She felt a snap graze against her back; the wolf had gotten her robe. She pushed her arms behind her and let the robe fall to the ground as she sprinted the final way to the drive. In the back of her mind she thought depressingly that she was sure she had made it further away from the school when she had sprinted off campus in panic the night before. Apparently not. She really needed to work on her stamina if she wanted to keep running away from people and things. And problems, she added in her mind.

Although, if I keep getting chased by wolves, maybe it's a good thing I couldn't actually get that far away.

The wolf had her in his clutches again, his teeth nipping at her leg. She stumbled and fell with a crash to the ground, throwing her arms out in front of her to break the fall. She kicked with her free foot but the wolf had her in his teeth and was dragging her toward the woods again. She screamed again and pushed at his face with her hands and nails, trying to inflict pain but his eyes just laughed at her feeble attempt.

"The next chance I get, I am going to kick you in the balls again, SO HARD THAT YOU NEVER HAVE CHILDREN EVER." Ellie screamed each word individually with as much emphasis as she could while she desperately tried to push the wolf's teeth off her leg and get free of the beast. She thought she heard the wolf laughing in between his growls but she was starting to panic in desperation again and she couldn't make out any of her surroundings. Only her desperate desire to live pushed her on. He had almost reached the forest and she would be hidden in the cover of trees and darkness. She couldn't let him get to the forest.

"Listen, I don't know why you want me but please let me go. I'm no one special. I just want to go home. Please, just let me go home." The wolf continued to drag her and Ellie felt her chest tighten with despair. This was it, this was the end. He was going to take her into the woods and kill her. She was just a quarter mile from her dorm room, which she never should have left, now she really thought about it.

Ellie's breathing picked up as she heard the pounding of more feet.

There are more of them? She thought in desperation, twisting her head to try to get a glimpse of where the wolf was dragging her, while still trying to gouge the wolf's eyes out and kick free of his mouth. Nothing she did was doing any bit of good. In fact, she was getting so exponentially tired that she didn't think she'd be able to think straight much longer. She'd rather let the darkness take over. It would be easier this way. She closed her eyes and with a start she heard a giant pounding on the ground in front of her as the wolf let go of her leg. Ellie looked up in surprise, adrenaline rushing through her veins. There was a second wolf standing in front of her growling at the dark brown one that had jumped out at her on the road. The giant black wolf jumped at the dark brown one snarling in anger. The two wolves were swiping with their paws and biting each other, kicking and tearing at flesh. Ellie watched in horror, frozen in the same spot she had been in when the brown wolf had released her leg. She glanced to her side and noticed with surprise there was a third light tan wolf sitting next to her, whining lightly, nudging her with its nose in a gesture meant to say 'get up!'. She was sure this was a girl wolf. The wolf looked so familiar, but Ellie's mind wasn't working properly. She couldn't be sure this wasn't a dream, and in her dreams the seemingly logical connections her brain made never made sense once she woke up. The tan wolf kept nudging her, as if to tell her to get up, quickly. Ellie snapped back into focus and scrambled clumsily to her feet, limping slightly on the leg the wolf had been dragging. She brushed off the pain in her leg as she realized she should really make a run for it back to school. The tan wolf seemed friendly, but maybe that was a trick. Ellie took off, the tan wolf staying right next to her. Ellie relaxed when she realized the tan wolf was looking back an forth through the woods, keeping watch as she walked with her all the way to campus. Ellie had her own personal security guard.

I could have used you several hours ago, she thought bitterly as she realized her leg was bleeding from the wolf bite.

The duo made their way back through the forest as quickly as Ellie's legs could carry her, which was fairly slow now that she was coming off the adrenaline high that had previously blocked out all pain. After a few minutes, they came to the edge of the forest and as they left the cover of the trees Ellie looked up and saw the kind eyes of Madame Richert.