My name. My damnation.
Seraphina pulled me around, but I couldn't so readily tear my eyes away. The words smeared down, staining the clinical white of the hospital floor. And the wolf's red eyes still seared like coals. In back of us, screams of fear and confusion burst.
Pack members leapt into the dark corridor, their strained white faces set in effort to catch their breath. The metallic smell hanging in the air enveloped us like a shroud.
A voice bellowed out of the chaos, yelling, "It's her. See what it's doing! She did it." Eyes widened with terror as everyone gazed to see the creature emerging from the darkness, its very presence fascinating and terrifying.
I shook my head in horror. "No… I didn't…" But I couldn't continue speaking. My voice grew thinner against the ferocity of their terrible stares.
Alpha Enzo lay just beyond these walls, machines controlling his heartbeat, body shattered but alive. And here I was, with the monster inscribing my name in blood like some abominable vow.
"Seraphina, we must leave now!" I begged, terror growing in my breast.
Mia, the healer, cut in front of me, her tone too even. "If she goes, it follows. If she stays, it follows. She's already marked. Save your breath."
Her tone tightened my stomach. The wolf strained against the glass harder. The window groaned as spiderweb cracks erupted where its paws pressed. The nurses screamed. A doctor ran, stubbing his own toes.
And then. it was nothing. One blink, horrible and terrifying presence; the next blink, nothing at all. The blood on the glass was drying, as if hours had passed since it was spilled.
The corridor burst into chaos. Some said it was an illusion, some said they were not dreaming. But all eyes, all suspicion, turned on me.
"She brought it," a man sneered, venom lacing his words. "It goes where she goes."
"She released it," another snarled, the words cutting more acutely than any knife.
"You see? She's. she's cursed."
They were words, daggers. I retreated, biting back pain, searching for someone who didn't look at me as if I were the plague. But when I caught his eye, one of the warriors I'd known all my life, he turned his face away, pretending not to see me.
I was shocked to life. Only Seraphina and Mia stayed near, clinging to my arms as though they would hold me together if they had to. At least I wasn't alone, then.
Then a sound. Alpha Enzo's gear started beeping steadily. For a moment, time froze. Nurses rushed into his room, the pack flooded behind them, shoving past me as if I were fog. I stumbled, nearly falling, until I grabbed the doorframe.
I peeked through the window, a red vertical line on his screen. The Alpha was so close that I could sense every look. His chest did not move. His body no longer convulsed. I turned around at once, pressing against the windowpane in shame and regret.
Standing there, the craziness around me receded and I could hear the beat of my own heart pounding in my ears; relentless and uninterrupted, it echoed the rhythm of the machines. "I must be responsible for all this," I thought, guilt strangling my heart in a vice.
"Focus!" Seraphina's voice pierced my head. "We need to get this sorted."
But! How? The wolf had come to me, and now it was tied to me. I simply sat there, and all at once there was a shudder across the floor that sent me clinging to the doorframe for dear life.
"Mr. Enzo!"! a nurse cried in distress. "He's crashing!"
I spun around in time to see the signals crest and then crash. Amidst all the chaos and disorientation, the only thing I could think about was the Alpha's body, still, the life force draining from him.
And then, in a twist of the universe being a trickster, the machines screeched, and the pack got confused. The Alpha's eyes flashed open.
He met my eyes and a chill ran through my entire body. He seemed to be able to pierce the very essence of my being, unpicking the knotted strands of fear and shame that held me bound. The pack stood stock still, their breathing barely audible as they waited.
"Seraphina! Mia! Back!" I bellowed. Something instinctive prompted me to keep them safe from what was happening. The Alpha's change was like a tempest, a whirlwind of fury and strength.
"Why are you here?" he snarled, his voice warped, but filled with this strange authority.
"I… I don't know!" I stammered, reaching back for my hands from the window and retreating, but the pull of his eyes was irresistible. "The wolf… it's bound to me. It's all my fault!"
"Your fault?" He coughed, the hack shaking deep within him. "No Hera, it is your destiny. You are marked, but you can choose. You may take it or let it consume you.".
I shook my head. "I don't want this! I never asked for any of this!"
"None of us do," he said, his voice growing stronger. "But fate does not care about our will. The wolf is stalking you, and you must confront it.".
"Hear me!" I screamed, my voice echoing above the chaos. "I believe that if we unite, we can fight this together. We can defeat the wolf and break this curse!"
But the pack were unsure, glancing at one another with doubt. The mutterings turned to cries, suspicion creeping into their brains like phantoms.
But before the final of the words had left my lips, a spine-crawling howl cut through the blackness, an echo that rode off the hospital walls. The sound was even more chilling, infused with rage and anguish.
At that moment, I could sense the ground beneath me tremble, as if the earth itself were responding to the wolf's call. Fear crept onto the faces of the pack.
"What was that?" someone breathed.
The atmosphere was charged with so much energy. Shadows darkened around us. I felt the weight of a thousand eyes watching from the darkest corners of the hospital.
"It's here," I whispered, the fear crawling into my marrow.
The gate creaked loudly, the sound echoing like thunder. There stood a dark figure at the door, the red eyes of the wolf burning fiercely, a threat of darkness.
"Run!" Seraphina shouted, her voice slicing through the astonishment.
But I stood there, transfixed, immovable on my feet, staring into eyes that appeared to penetrate right through me. And in that moment, I understood that I was not just marked; I was bound to the wolf in ways I had yet to understand.
As the pack wandered off, I moved ahead with a force beyond my comprehension. What lay ahead? Would I embrace my fate, or would destruction consume us all?
The wolf let out a ear-piercing howl that sent shivers down my spine and repeated the promise of devastation.
And then, as the machines shrieked so loudly I couldn't ignore it, the Alpha's eyes opened. His room glowed brighter than ever before, but somehow in a way that could be perceived by human beings outside.
"What the hell is going on?" Seraphina screamed as I whirled back to stare out the window once more.
"Enzo's eyes!" I cried, "glowing the same spooky, unholy red."