by Lou Grimes
“Here,” the nurse said, setting a cup of water beside the table. Louvette got her arms and knees to relax long enough to leave the fetal position and sit up.
“I’ve been doing this for thirty years now. Each one of them screamed, except you. I guess you have to be made of something more to even be a girl wolf,” the nurse mused.
“I couldn’t scream if I wanted too,” she said to the nurse, not wishing her to think she hadn’t screamed out of pride or some kind of bravado.
“By the time you get home, there will be no proof,” the nurse said.
Louvette glared up at the offending light, sensing a headache starting to develop. It throbbed with each annoying flicker. She grit her teeth to bear it, but it wasn’t distracting enough.
“That will be gone too, you know. The sensory overload is a side effect. It Accelerates your entire wolf,” the nurse explained.
“Thank you for everything,” she said, relieved the torture would end soon enough. If it didn’t, she’d crawl into her bed and hide under the blankets until it went along similar to how she imagined a vampire would when the sun finally broke free in the morning.
Louvette stumbled to her car as if more than a few key body parts had died and she now had the misfortune of carrying around that dead weight.
When she turned the key, music she had loved a couple hours before blasted on a high volume. She didn’t love it now. The vibrations were making her sick.
Turning off the radio hurriedly, she sighed from the relief of the music ending. The ending of the vibrations lasted in air far longer than they had before. She played no music on the entire way home to limit the effects of sensory overload.
Once she got all the way home, she paused for a second to flip down her visor mirror. Her face was exactly the same as it had been when she had arrived. There was a slight unevenness of color, but it was fading before her eyes. She doubted even her hawk-eyed mother would be aware of the difference.
***
Upon returning home, Louvette’s body was so restless. She was a magical threadbare article of clothing supposedly restoring itself every second. A process that proved as restless as Louvette.
Her heart lifted when she caught sight of her flashing phone. Arsen had texted her at some point while she was getting ready for bed.
Arsen: How did training go?
Louvette: Did you put a hit out on me?
Arsen: No, why?
The all-too-familiar image of his cheeky small smirk popped up in her mind when he answered her. She smiled.
Louvette: Matt tried to kill me.
Arsen: Do you want me to try to kill him back?
Though the offer was tempting, this was Louvette’s battle to fight and winning would be all the better when she did. The image of a grinning Arsen morphed into an irate one before her eyes.
Louvette: No, thank you. Though, I appreciate and love the offer.
Hands stilling, Louvette paused over the word love, wondering if it was too early to mention the word. However, her need to express the true worth of that had her sending it anyways, regardless of the timing.
Arsen: You’re small of stature, so you will have to train hard if you want to be one of the best.
Louvette: They had to Accelerate my face. After I become a badass, I’m going to come roll you up for this.
Arsen: I did everything I could to convince you otherwise without being the asshole guy who was flat out saying no. It’s probably the worst pain I have experienced in my life. I can’t wait to see that.
Arsen: Let’s go out tomorrow.
Louvette paused at the way his text was worded.
Louvette: Out as in a date?
Arsen: Yes.
Louvette squealed like it was their first date, but the truth was probably around their tenth official date if you were counting double dates as well. She decided to tease him for a bit of fun since it had been awhile since their last one.
Louvette: Hmmm… I’ve already got plans.
Arsen: With who?
Louvette: The ring and death.
Arsen: Well, I’ll pick you up after. How does that sound?
Louvette: Where are we going? Let’s not do anything that requires physical activity unless you need to carry me around tomorrow.
Arsen: Carrying you around all night sounds like one of the best dates we’ve been on, excluding our first.
Louvette: It sounds a tad bit mortifying to me.
Arsen: Let me think about it. I want it to be an amazing one to make up for the lack of time lately.
Louvette: A lack of time that is all my fault.
Arsen: It’s not your fault, Winter.
Louvette: We shall say that I believe that, but know for sure it is false.
Arsen: I’ll give you some hints tomorrow when I figure it out.
Louvette: I can’t wait.
Her mother came home later that night after her waitressing shift had ended. The evidence was gone long before she arrived.
“You’re not normally up on a school night,” her mother said, caught off guard at finding her daughter zoned out on the couch. Some television series was playing in the background, but Louvette hadn’t paid an ounce of attention to it.
“I started an after-school self-defense class today. It kicked my butt. I’m too worn out to sleep,” she admitted. She tried to not lie to her mother. Everything she said in a sense was true.
“Why are you taking a self-defense class?” her mother asked. Her worry lines became more pronounced as the conversation continued. Her mother’s danger detector system was all but sounding its alarms.
“I figured self-defense was a useful thing to learn in my down time,” Louvette said. She gave her mother the bare minimum in an effort to appease the worry of why her daughter might need a self-defense class.
Relief flooded her when her mother nodded out of agreement. Her mother’s alarm slowed to a stop almost comically, detecting no noticeable dangers.
“You’re right. If you’re this sore afterwards, then you must be working hard,” her mother responded, thrilled, indicating her daughter had the right idea to learn self-defense.
“Thanks, Mom,” Louvette said, grateful for the support. At least she would always have her mother in her corner if no one else was.
“Tomorrow, me and Arsen may be going on a late date because of the self-defense class. I don’t know what we are doing, so I don’t have an actual time I’ll be back,” Louvette added.
“It’s tomorrow, too?” her mother wondered.
“It’s five days a week, I believe,” Louvette explained, overwhelmed as that statement sank into her soul. Five days of total torture she had signed up for every single week. One day at a time, she mentally told herself to keep the thought from overrunning her mind.
“Thanks for telling me, but I won’t be home either. I have a date with Thomas, too,” her mother said. Louvette tried not to flinch at his name. She was doing her best not to break her mother’s heart if she didn’t have to. As far as she was concerned, he was innocent until proven guilty.
She had no idea how this was going to end if she found proof he had killed her father.
“Well, I’m glad. I hope you have fun,” she said. She really only wanted her mother to be happy, regardless of what happened.
Louvette hugged her mother tightly like she deserved. She hadn’t given up on Louvette when all the schools had thrown her out. Louvette had not been grateful before because she had been too mad and wild to understand what she was doing to her own mother. Now that she had calmed down some, she was doing everything she could to appear collected.
“You too, baby,” her mother replied as she melted from her daughter’s sweet words.
Louvette pretended to yawn, stretching falsely. Her muscles contracted, nearly causing her to curl up on the ground. She released the tension, hoping the pain would ebb away.
“I’m going to turn in,” she said, craving the seclusion of her room.
“I
love you, honey. Goodnight,” her mother responded, heading to her own room.
“I love you too, goodnight,” Louvette said.
She climbed the same steps she had the night before, but this time they might as well have led to the top of the very mountain that took up residence in her very own sky.
After she got ready for bed, Louvette lay awake for a while until exhaustion pulled her under.
Chapter 7
Without a drop of grace or even skill, Louvette was climbing a mountain alone. The mountain was normal at first, but soon started spreading into something horrible. It stretched into the clouds similar to the magic beans leading to the land of giants. The mountain broke free from the earth, suddenly turning into Mount Everest. Snow flew wildly all around Louvette. Wind caught her, attempting to tear her away from the mountain. Her muscles were screaming out in pain to the point she was amazed she didn’t hear an actual scream. She clung to its sides, afraid moving from the spot would send her tumbling to her death; her head ducked then only to notice her clothing.
This was ridiculous, as if some blood witch had caught her up in a storm and teleported her on top of the mountains like a game. She had on tall, dressy black leather boots that were digging into the mountain. The short end of a satin little red dress flailed around in the wind comically. Louvette was a match, fighting back the cold with nothing more than her flame. Unfortunately, her flame was her body heat. Snuffing out that would bring about dire consequences, such as death.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she yelled. She rolled her eyes at the ludicrousness of this. As if he heard her, Arsen suddenly appeared beside her.
“Do you want me to carry you?” Arsen asked. It was odd because no one had been there before. His questions echoed around the mountain for all to hear.
Checking him once over, he was in appropriate gear to hike K2, unlike herself. Her eyes began to water from the rough weather.
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her mind was in total chaos.
“Come on, then,” he called as he crawled similar to a monkey up the mountainous terrain, the snow crunching under each foothold or handhold.
“Arsen, wait,” she shouted as his body began to change, and not into anything of the Lupine nature. His body was solid, but then became a white wisp, disappearing into the clouds.
The wind whipped harder, and she tucked herself down, fighting against the pull of Mother Nature. A fight she wouldn’t win no matter how much she desired.
Creatures began to take shape in the clouds much in the way that Arsen had vanished.
“I said I’m too worn out,” she cried, her eyes and face scrunched up from the cold.
Nature had won. The wind ripped her from the mountain. She fell for a few seconds, but the fall seemed to last for an eternity, the wind whipping her body about. Her eyes closed. Everything went black.
When she woke up, the ground was hot. Louvette sat up and searched around bewilderedly. Where there used to be white, now there was orange, red, yellow, and any hue in between. She dug her fingers into the dirt, hoping the touch would explain. Lifting a handful of earth, she was amazed when sand fell out of her hands.
After standing, she stumbled across a vast desert. Her mouth was drying out as if she had never had a drink in her life. There was no one around her. There was nothing but sand.
She was convinced she was going to sweat the satin red dress right off along with the stupid chunky boots she had on.
“Need a drink?” she heard Arsen ask. Louvette whipped around. Arsen was sitting on a stone chair under the canopies of trees. There was a watering hole, a little oasis.
The blue of the water was the clearest spring she had ever seen. She gulped, causing her sandpaper throat to rub together.
“Yes, please,” she gasped out, stumbling toward him. He dipped a ladle into the water leisurely. Louvette stared at him in outrage. She was dying of thirst and he was taking his sweet time.
“Am I trapped in your dream because I’m in this red dress every time?” Louvette asked. Arsen simply smirked at her.
A camel ran past her, clearly running from something. Louvette turned around, and then froze. Something dark was on the horizon. It danced wildly about, similar to wind, though the nature of it was darker than that. This had a specific direction.
The darkness proved it when it changed directions, heading straight toward her. The wind devil tore a path in the sand, sucking up all the brush, cactus, and sand that monstrosity could. She took off running. There was nowhere she could hide from it.
The sound the darkness was making was not anything the wind had sounded like. It took her a couple seconds before she recognized a swarm of locusts were heading for her.
“Run, Arsen,” she screamed at him, but he was gone. The oasis had disappeared, too.
She changed into a wolf, determined to at least attempt to beat it. Her paws had to dig harder into the sand to have normal traction. Muscles ached from overuse.
A muffled hum met her ears, escalating louder as she ran, using everything she had. That’s when she knew there was no way to outrun the locusts.
One bug assaulted her. Then, hundreds more followed like someone was using their Gift of the earth to bombard her with pebbles. They were aiming to dent her skin.
Bugs surrounded her as her wolf snapped at the bugs and howled in pain as they bit her.
Again, the world was remixed. She was in the ocean. Thunder sounded above her. Lightning struck. The broken remnants of a boat were floating in the water around her. Her howl let in liters of ocean water down her throat. She tried to close her mouth, but couldn’t. She made a dash for a life-saving device, but it washed away when her fingertips were centimeters from grasping it. The water rolled her under.
The red dress clung to her soaking wet body, dragging her down.
After making it to the surface, she found Arsen swimming beside her with a floatie on. They were being pulled under as each wave hit them. She attempted to cough out as much water as possible before she was pulled back in again.
He extended his hand to help her. She grabbed for his hand, now convinced her drowning in the ocean was all his fault. Her body ached like never before as she fought the current to stay alive.
She broke free of the water for a second while the angry ocean calmed. Choking, she noticed Arsen was gone again.
Seeing larger debris of the boat, she made another swim for it. This time her life depended on her making it to the debris. Each stroke seemed to be to no avail. She wasn’t getting closer. If anything, she was moving further away.
Then, the waves twisted the boat debris toward her.
Once she reached the piece of debris, she grabbed on to it, but the debris was no match for what she saw building out of the corner of her eye. It was the size of a tsunami.
The wave ripped her from her anchor and dragged her down to the ocean’s depths. Kicking and clawing, she tried to reach air. Her fighting was futile. She was going to drown.
***
Louvette woke up grasping at her choking throat, feeling as if she had lived a thousand appalling dates in the night. Her blankets were half on her, and half thrown onto the ground. She groaned her dissatisfaction at the state of mind Arsen’s surprise date had caused.
She got ready in zombie mode, throwing on some light makeup. Any makeup she put on would be sweated off from her training anyway, so there was no reason to go all out. Today, she sported an easy navy hoodie, black thermal long sleeve, and black hiking boots.
At school, she couldn’t wait to question Arsen. The need to finally find out if he was going to take her on a torturous date just to carry her around all the time had only increased from her lack of sleep and wild dreams. She popped up right beside where he and his friends were talking.
“What’s my first hint?” Louvette wondered. He slid his hand into hers, walking off with her to talk. They waved to his friends.
“Your first hint is it’s somethi
ng you asked to not do, but I know you will have fun doing,” he said immediately.
“Ugh! It involves physical activity, I knew it would,” she said, dreading that her dreams had been correct. On the occasion they were doing something wild, like trekking Mount Everest, she was going to opt out.
“Not too much physical activity,” he replied.
“What’s my second hint?” Louvette asked. She could live a little as long as she and Arsen got to spend time together, and it didn’t involve undertaking some nearly impossible task.
“You’ll get another hint at lunch,” he said.
“No, I want to know now,” she demanded.
“Too bad. I need to create some suspense here,” he said, standing firm on his word.
At lunch, he dropped a piece of paper in her hand, and then left without a word. His eyes were twinkling from mirth. They didn’t have the same lunch period, so Louvette couldn’t pester him into revealing his secrets. If only pestering worked on others to reveal their secrets, Louvette’s life would have been far smoother.
Louvette snatched the paper up before Cara noticed. She was unsure if their date was Lupine related and didn’t desire to risk exposing it to her when she had failed to secure permission from Cara’s father.
She unfolded the note and found Arsen’s second hint. There was a rough sketch of a tree-lined lake. Penciled mountains lined the background of this piece of art.
Refolding the note, she mulled it over. It had to be Flathead Lake since they didn’t have an overabundance of time due to her workouts to drive to another lake.
Her final clue came in the manner of a text right before school ended.
He sent her a picture of a Neanderthal.
Louvette: Real hunting?
Arsen: Is that your final answer?
Louvette: I guess.
Arsen: I’m taking you fishing.
Louvette: Neat. Good thing you’re dating a Lupine because a normal girl would freeze to death on most of the dates we’ve had.
Arsen: I know, you’re the best.
Louvette: You can’t take that back now. I have the proof.
Arsen: I’ll get Ian to remove it from both our systems.
