PAT

The sound of the dripping water woke Pat up. Her body felt numb. She blinked away the haziness and felt gentle hands probing the bandage on her left hand.

She took her hand away, a bit too harshly and immediately groaned as pain shot through her whole body.

“Whoa! Calm down. I don’t bite.” The voice was distinctly male and strangely comforting. Pat firmly covered her left wrist and tried to move away from him, ignoring the pain in her body.

“Your hand is in a bad shape and if you don’t change the bandage, you will get an infection.”- The guy said, dimples prominent on both his cheeks when he spoke.

“I’ll do it on my own”- Pat replied, her face impassive.

“Looking at the condition of your bandage, I don’t think you’ve got very good nursing skills.”- He said

“Doesn’t matter. Just give me the gauze. I’ll do it myself.”- She said again and looked away from his face.

The guy sighed and moved away.

“Fine. Just don’t try to escape. It’s no use, we paralyzed your legs and…”

She didn’t let him finish.”You did what?”

“It’s temporary.” The guy completed while rummaging through the drawers of the bedside table.

“Here”- he said putting down a first aid kit and a wash basin on the table.

“If you need something, just shout at the top of your voice.”- He said moving away towards the door.

“By the way, I am Lay.”-he said and closed the door after him.

Patricia peeled away her eyes from the door and looked around in the room. The room was furnished in an old fashioned way. Though the furniture looked sophisticated and orthodox, there was still an aura of splendor about them.

Where was she? In the eighteenth century or  what? She asked herself. Was that guy the only one living in this house?

She trembled as the bloody scene with the warlocks and werewolves flashed in her mind.

Did that guy save her? But there were four werewolves. Was it their house?

Werewolves were usually hot- tempered but the ‘Lay’ guy was pretty decent.

Pat was too weak to think now. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She held up the duvet to see the damage. She was half and Pat could see the dark, red slashes on her pale skin.

‘Those bastards!’ she truly hated warlocks now.

Pat observed her bleeding left hand and started taking off the bandages. By the time she had washed her wound, the water in the wash basin had turned pink in color.

The carving on her left hand was still raw and had no intentions of healing up. Patricia knew that she didn’t have much time left. If anyone else knew about the deadly wound, they would make her an outcast because she was about to lose all her humanity and truly become a monster.

She applied the antiseptic and covered her wound. Already exhausted from the simple exertion, she slouched back on the bed, the wheels of her mind spinning already.

After she fully transforms, she would be nothing more than an animal, a savage animal whose thirst could never be quenched. It was worse than death.

 She shivered at the thought and closed her eyes. One of Pat’s best qualities was her ability to not give up in a fight. When she was born, one of the guardians, a friend of her father, had remarked-“she is a born fighter. Don’t ever try to cage her. You will fail.”

Patricia’s eyes frantically searched for her backpack. She panicked as she realized that her captors had taken away her orb. Her only chance to cure herself.....even that was snatched away from her. It seemed like the entire world was conspiring against her.

She couldn’t control her tears now. She let loose and cried over her helplessness and loneliness. She cried for the first time in two years. She had made herself strong when her parents died, hadn’t let out a single drop of tear when she came to know about her brother’s betrayal.

She never cried on the countless occasions of her getting hurt. She had never let herself be weak in front of others even when she knew that she was transforming.

But now, she was tired of fighting. She just wanted to let go of everything. She didn’t even know why she had started the war against death when she had no reason and had no one  to live for. The wave of emotions hit her, strong and hard and she gasped for an escape from this empty void.

For the first time in life, she wanted someone to hold her, to tell her that everything was okay.

But she had lost everyone and now she was all alone, the last one standing. Nobody to love her and nobody to protect her or give her strength.

---

 

CHANYEOL

 

Chanyeol felt a bit uneasy sitting there. For some unknown reasons, he was always restless now and his brothers could see it too. Lay walked into the living room and plopped on the couch beside Chanyeol, startling him.

“Why are you so jumpy today?”- He asked.

“Nothing”- Chanyeol replied, staring at  his comic, unable to focus.

“He hasn’t flipped one page ever since he sat with that book.”- Kai said, earning a scowl from him.

“How is she?”- Suho asked Lay. Chanyeol’s ears perked up now. Though he acted nonchalant, in reality he was thoroughly interested.

“Getting better but it could have been so much faster if I could use my healing powers.”- Lay said yawning.

“Did she ask you about her backpack?”- Sehun asked.

“No. not yet, she just recovered from unconsciousness. It will take her time to process her memories. She wouldn’t allow me to see her wounds after she woke up.  She is quite a girl.” -Lay replied switching T.V. channels.

“Oh man! That was a good drama. Why did you change it?”- Chen whined.

“I worked all day long. Now it’s my turn. So….SHUT UP.”- Lay said, stopping Chen from grabbing the remote. Both of them started fighting over it and Chanyeol sighed. He used to be the playful one, he thought. He had been feeling gloomy and cranky ever since the girl got in the house but he was oblivious to it though his brothers could sense it well enough.

“Everyone dinner is ready.”- D.O. called from the kitchen. All of them rushed towards him at the mention of food. Being werewolves made them hungry all the time and they wouldn’t mind eating a whole chicken each.

“Sehun, go take the soup upstairs and don’t scare her.”- D.O. said giving the tray to Sehun.

“I don’t think she is the type to get sacred by a handsome guy.”- Sehun said boasting about his looks.

“Also go wake up Xiumin.”- D.O. gave the final orders and proceeded to help others set the table.

Chanyeol grimaced at the thought of Sehun flirting with that girl. It was an unnecessary bother. It was true that werewolves had handsome physique and it wouldn’t be a shock if the girl got entranced by Sehun’s looks.

Chanyeol almost got up from his chair to take the tray but by that time Sehun had already left.

He sat back down, clenching his jaw and hoping that the girl wouldn’t judge the book by its cover. After all, Sehun was a playboy of sorts and was very good at breaking girls’ hearts. Chanyeol convinced himself that he only felt like that because it wasn’t wise for a romance to bloom between a human and a werewolf.

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