Chapter 28

*Warning: there is blood and such in this scene. I don't think it's that bad, but just to be safe.

Her breath was short and heavy, swirling in white clouds up into the frozen night air. Elana could hear the pounding footsteps behind her; feel Xiumin running steadily beside her. She was not scared, slightly panicked, but somehow Elana felt like she wouldn't get hurt.

Suho and Kai had seemingly disappeared, having sprinted ahead. That had been a while ago. She had lost sight of them since they had first entered the forest. She wasn't sure how long ago that had been, for how long she had been running, but it didn't seem like they were going to be stopping anytime soon.

Elana realized as she ran, that Xiumin had somehow managed to direct her in a different direction than the wolves' den. Instead of heading eastern, they were running in a southern direction. The more they ran the more dense the woods became. The game paths they had been sticking to were now somewhere behind them. It was making running at full speed much more difficult not being on a trail. Elana found herself slowing down to avoid the dark branches and logs the full moon seemed to forget about. That was a mistake on her part. If she had ever run from, well anything, she would have known that getting a few scratches on the face was far better than slowing down and getting caught.

It happened so abruptly that Elana fell to the ground with a scream. The human figure that had suddenly leapt in front of her, stared down at her with dead eyes that rolled freely in his sockets. The figure smiled down at her with a toothless smile, blood pouring over his lips. Shimmering ever so slightly in the moon's light. As the Sluagh reached down for her, the only thing Elana wanted to do was puke. She felt like she was stuck to the ground, suddenly losing her breath, and then she was no longer in the forest, or even the world of the wolves.

She was back home standing underneath the silver maple tree at the outskirts of her elementary school. Looking around Elana noticed rows upon rows of cars parked in the parking lot and along the streets. There must have been some kind of event happening. She walked cautiously forward, wondering if this was real, if she was really home. But as she focused on her surroundings she noticed a slight fog around the outside of her vision, a lack of colors. She knew there were colors, but she couldn't actually see any color. Much like how her dreams were. That was it, she had to be asleep, dreaming, yet this didn't feel like a dream. As she walked forward, Elana realized why.

Elana's younger self was there, arguing with her best friend at the time, a boy she referred to as Nate. He was her first love, her best friend, and her partner in crime. Her mother didn't like him, she always said that