Poisoned Blood

chapter two

Everything was dark. It was like I was asleep, but I was aware of the world around me. Am I dead? It seemed likely after being bitten by Ariadne. I couldn’t remember much of what happened last night. I recalled the chestnut wolf with golden eyes. I could remember that strange boy, and the wolf that could understand me. Maybe I’ve gone insane. Then I could hear voices around me. Raised voices, the sound of feet hitting the ground, and then the sound of a women sobbing; that’s all I heard.

Someone touched my neck. I could feel the cut sting like hell. Flinching away from the touch, people around me started to move faster. They picked me up. I could feel myself being carried through the woods, but I couldn’t open my eyes. So I’m not dead. Am I going to die? Or am I going crazy? I heard sirens and more shouting voices, and felt the cold metal on my back. Then everything went black again, but I could still hear the women sobbing.

Bright white lights burned through my eyelids. I could hear people rushing around, shouting different things. The sharp smell of bleach stung my nose. Someone was sitting next to me. I couldn’t speak. My throat was too dry. I couldn’t move my head. It was being supported by something. I opened my eyes slowly, but everything was blurry, and too white. The person next to me moved closer. She stood above me; her brown hair was braided down her back. I stared up into her shockingly green eyes. Her eyes looked so familiar, but I’d never seen this girl before. Who are you? What do you want? Why am I here? Where am I? Questions rang through my mind but when I opened my mouth to try and speak, she turned and headed out the door.

Days passed. It turned out that I was in the hospital. They told me that Chris at been dead when the ambulance had arrived. I had known he was dead, but I still had to fight back tears when they told me. People from school stopped by once in awhile. My mom and dad came every day. Once, Chris’s sister stopped in, she said she was happy I was alive, and that even though Chris had died, he would have wanted me to live and be happy. I cried. She sat in the chair next to my bed and wailed. We sat crying for almost an hour before the nurse asked her to leave. The girl I had seen hadn’t come back. She seemed like a dream to me, all I could remember were her eyes. So familiar, but unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d be in the hospital. They didn’t tell me, and I didn’t ask. It was peaceful, wondering around the garden, having food brought to me. I didn’t want to leave. I knew that when I left, the reality of everything that had happen would crash down on me. Sure I missed my family, my bed, and my dog, but for now, the garden was nice.

            I sat under the archway one day, taking in the sweet scents of the flowers around me. The bench felt cold under me, the grass soft under my feet. It was sunny out, not a cloud in sight. That’s when I heard a noise. The rustle of bushes, the muffled sound of paws hitting the grass. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the pain in my neck. I had heard these sounds before. I couldn’t remember when, but I knew they weren’t good sounds to hear in a garden. Turning around, I tried to figure out where the sounds were coming from, but the bushes and trees around me made it impossible to tell. I was about to call out for help, when I saw something, a tuff of brown fur in the bushes, and the sparkle of green eyes. “Ariadne?” I moved closer, walking slowly, I called to her again. “Ariadne? Is that you?” The small wolf ducked out of the bushes and came to rest next to where I stood. She looked up at me before padding into the hospital. “Hey! Ariadne! I don’t think you can go in there!” she kept walking. Through the garden, then through the open door, she ran swiftly, keeping to the sides, not being spotted.

            I lost sight of her as she rounded the corner. Slowing down, I looked around at the corridor. It was empty. Not a single person was in sight as I made my way back to my room. I had requested a quiet room, and they had given me a room that was hardly used, in a corridor that looked like ghost town. Maybe it’s so when I die, they won’t hear my screams. I laughed at the thought and decided to go lay down. That’s when I was in for the biggest shock yet.

A girl, a few years older than me, sat on my bed. Her brown hair was braided down her back. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants I recognized as my own. Her shirt, well, she wasn’t wearing one.

I looked away from her quickly, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks, “Excuse me? Miss, this is my room.”

“I know. Logan is it? That’s a beautiful name.” her voice was soft as she stepped towards me, her braids now flowing down her front.

“Who are you?” I recognized her words, because I had said them, not too long ago.

“You already know me, don’t you remember?” I shook my head softly.

“No, sorry.”

“My name is Ariadne; you may not recognize me in this form.” That’s when she stared into my eyes, and I stared back at hers in stunned silence.

Her eyes were deep green.

“Ariadne? B-But Ariadne, the Ariadne I know is a wolf!” I stumbled backwards onto my bed, pain swelling through my neck as I sat up. The pain was getting worse and worse each day, but I didn’t complain.

“I am that too,” she replied simply, sitting in a chair to the left of my bed, “I have two forms, and soon, you will too.”

“What?”

“You see, that bite on your neck, it has healed, correct?”

I nodded slowly, “Yes. It has”

“But the pain has not gone away?”

“No”

“That’s because the fire is spreading. Soon it will overtake you, and you mustn’t fight it. The fire will spread, but after it has changed you, it will dull.”

“Fire? You’re going to burn me?” I looked over at her as she laughed to herself.

“No. The fire is in you, not something I am doing, well, it’s something I did. Soon you will be a shifter just like me, just like the others. You will run in two forms, see the world through two sets of eyes. It’s wonderful, the feeling you get.”

“Wait, a shifter? What the hell is that?”

“I suppose you would call it a lycanthrope or lycanthropy,” I shook my head in confusion so she continued, “a werewolf, Logan.”

“I’m not a werewolf!”

“No, not yet, but you will be.”

“No I won’t!”

“Logan, you can’t get out of it, the change is already taking place.”

“Well stop it!”

“Once the blood has been poisoned, there is no stopping the change.” She began to head out the door, stripping herself of my sweat pants. I looked away again, and when I looked back, I heard her call out to me.

“I’ll be back for you.”

Author's Note

the second chapter, still working on three.