I Live For Nights Like These - First place winner: ArielMLongee

The Secret Of Woods Challenge - Day 2 from Werewolf Week 2021

My eyes dart open as I take in a deep breath of dusty air, coughing out into the darkness. My mind is racing on where I am? Glancing around, only to see a small stream of light beaming at me. I decided to crawl towards the illumination because it was the only thing I remembered about my life.

Child-like laughs echo in my head as a flash of my two best friends appears in my memory. "Lora," I try to whisper out, but it only sounded like scratching on a chalkboard. "Ash." I managed to say as my palms dug into the dirt below me. The flashes of images go through my head like a slide show. The three of us, pulling our long hair into ponytails as we walk a trail in the pine forest to a cave. The spook stories Ash told, scaring the girlie sides of us.

I pulled myself out of a small hole from the side of a hill, breathing in the cold air like the dead, breaking the surface of the ground. The wind, whistling through the trees, brushing at my hair, whipping it around to smack me in the face. Slowly more memories flood back to me. The fear I felt when we came across others in the cave.

"Ash!" I yelled into the forest around me, spinning in circles to only see wilderness. "Lora!" I kept yelling, trying to find my friends. "Lora," I whispered as sadness washed over me, regret, betrayal. Lora's smile in my head as she talks to the strangers like she knows them, pointing over at me. "This one would be perfect for the alpha," she said, confusing Ash and me, my head throbbing for my past to come back to me.

I spun around until Selene dancing on the horizon caught my attention, bright, shinning at me. I wrapped my arms around my torso, slowly trailing my way towards the moon. Something was calling me towards the midnight blue like the wolf howling at the moon, getting hypnotized by the glow. Ash's lifeless expression flashes across my memories as blood spills from her mouth. Screams echo around my brain, realizing it was my own screams I remember. "Please," I cry out towards Lora, cradling Ash's dead body in my arms. Lora's mocking expression as she yells at me. "Shut up, Ava! Or you are next." A man, happily humming to himself, eyeing me. "Yes, the alpha will love this one, but let's make sure her mouth doesn't ruin it," he said before stabbing a needled into my arm.

My heart started to pick up as the sound of my own blood pulsed through my veins. I could hear it flowing up into my ears, racing around my brain. My body was a jittery mess like some wild animal with rabies.

I stopped in my tracks, thinking, why am I going towards the moon? Quickly my palms, brushed along my pants, feeling the keys in my pocket. I needed to get out of the forest so I could get help.

With my mind set into action, I started to run in the direction I thought the car was parked. I remember when we pulled up to the trailhead, there were red trees surrounding the area. My eyes forced on the trees as I thought was red, but it was dark out, and everything seemed to have a tint of blue to it.

I jumped over logs and ducked under branches when finally, the old car came into view. I picked up my pace, praying that Lora wasn't going to be at the car. As I stumbled out of the forest into the graveled parking area, nobody was in sight. A breath of relief washed over me.

My fear got the best of me, hands shaking as the key scrapped alongside the door, hitting everything but the keyhole. "Frick," I murmured to myself.

"Where are you going?" A deep voice from in front of the car had my eyes looking up in fear.

The man stood there with a smirk across his face. His arms folded over his chest as his blonde hair fell over his eyes. His facial features were hard to make out in the dark, but this man didn't come to mind as one of the strangers in the cave. The smell of sandalwood and pine, filling my nose as I stood there in shock.

"I... I... I..." I stuttered out while unlocking the door, flinging it open fast, jumping into the car, where I thought I would be safe. Once I locked the door, I gazed up at the man, standing next to the driver's door, hovering over me.

"I'm not going to let you get away," he said through the glass.

My stomach felt like it was going to come out of my mouth. "Leave me alone!" I yelled back at him.

"Can't do that, sweetheart," the man said, smashing the window to the car.

Glass flew up around me as I tried to jump to the other seat. The man wrapped his arms around my shoulders, gripping tight, pulling me through the window like I was a toy he could play with. He threw me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

I tried to crawl away as he jumped onto my back, pulling at my hair. "You see, little werewolf, I live for nights like these," he whispered in my ear, causing me to bark back at him.

"What are you talking about?" I managed to say before he stuffed my face into the dirt.

"Don't play dumb with me," he said as his knee put pressure on my lower spine. "I hunt monsters like you once a month."

This man was crazy. I am about to be killed by a man that thinks I am a mythical creature as I'm running from my ex murdering friend plus her minions. He put more weight on me, causing my breathing to become uneasy. I could feel something cold slide across the side of my neck as his breath danced along with it. "This knife is going to cut right into that perfect neck of yours," his voice whispered into my ear. "Too bad you are a werewolf, or I would have thought you were pretty."

The ground below me was becoming mud as my ears mixed with the dirt. "Please, you have me mixed up with someone else," I said when I had enough air to speak.

"Ha," he said in a mocking voice. "You expect me to believe you?" He stood up off of me, causing me to spin around, crawling backward away from him. His wide steps shadowed me as he pointed down. "You want me to believe you, then explain your hands."

Still, with fear, I glance down to see my hands covered in hair with nails like a wolf. In shock, I stopped crawling away from my killer, looking up at the man with fear. My bottom lip started to tremble as my night kept getting worse. My eyes glanced at my palms as the hair slowly disappeared as the moon became covered by the dark clouds. What happened in that cave after they stuck me with a needle?

He tilted his head, dropping the knife to the ground. "You didn't know," he said more like a statement instead of a question. His eyes started to dart around as his mind went in circles. "Have you eaten anyone yet?"

"N... N... N... No." I stuttered out, bringing my knees to my chest, using them as a shield between him and me.

He stepped closer to me, crouching down. "I'm Rudy," he held out his hand. "And I think I can help you."

I glanced at his open palm, then back at him. My eyes did not want to settle on either. With a shaky hand, I hesitantly took his as he helped me up off the ground. "Ava," I said back to him, introducing myself to the man who almost killed me.

"So, there is only one way to save you," he said with an evil smile as a wolf in the distance started to howl, echoing around the dark forest. "And that is to kill the alpha that changed you."