Hey! Thanks for reading this far. And sorry for posting such a long part. I needed to finish the chapters. So...enjoy!
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Despite that it was winter, I was warm. The woman was screaming at me and I roared at her. That seemed to help. Then, right as the man was distracted, I flung myself on him, ripping out his throat. Wonderful sensations flowed through my mind and I remembered that feeling. Blood squirted down my chin, flesh dribbling off of my tongue. Oh, what a sweet sensation.
Lacy gasped. As soon as they had brought Landon into the room, she had known that this Trial was not going to turn out good. She tugged on her fingers, absentmindedly cracking her knuckles. Her foot was tapping against the floor, waiting to see what was going to happen.
And then they had brought the other werewolf in. Lacy froze, horror flooding throughout her entire body. She could recognize that werewolf from anywhere.
It was Donald Peterson.
Landon retracted backwards, stumbling off of the platform. Donald stood still, snarling the best he could. His black fur gave off the presence of death, and that was what he wanted.
When the words came out of the intercom, “The first test is strength. You will need to kill this werewolf in order to continue the Trial,” Lacy stood up, not realizing that she had.
“No!” she cried and started making her way out of the isle of chairs, but without success. She would not let Donald get killed. He was part of the rebellion and they needed his expert advice and muscles. If Landon got hurt…or if Landon killed Donald…she couldn’t have it either way.
If only Payton were here. If only he were here, he would put a stop to this. Yes, Lacy was sure of it.
“Go sit back down!” a man snapped at her, and pointed towards her seat. Lacy glared at him, but the man refused to move.
Slowly, Lacy walked back to her seat and sat promptly down, watching every move that Landon made.
Suddenly, Donald made a quick move and jumped over Landon’s head, and Landon nipped his fangs at his foe. Lacy never even realized that Landon had punctured a vein, and Donald was now seriously injured.
The black werewolf barked at Landon, but he didn’t seem to notice. He growled and Lacy noticed foam coming out of his mouth. No – it couldn’t be. Landon didn’t have rabies! Lacy pulled herself to the edge of her seat and watched in horror as Landon went in for Donald’s stomach.
With a couple of twists of his head, Landon had managed to rip through Donald’s strong skin and was now feasting on his guts. Lacy turned away, tears dripping from her delicate eyes.
Landon had killed Donald.
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Good. Let that feeling overcome you. The Trial is almost over.
Grunting, I opened my eyes, feeling as if I had just taken a horribly long nap. Licking my lips, I tasted that delicious taste of fresh blood. I gasped and looked at where my snout was pointing. Just below me was a body of a werewolf.
No! No! I didn’t do that! Tell me I didn’t do that!
But you did. And you did a mighty fine job of killing him, might I add.
Leave me alone! Stop making me kill people! I hate you! I want you dead!
I gulped as tears started rolling out of the corner of my eyes. The blood mixed in with the tears, forming great big balls of red liquid.
What had I done? What was I becoming?
The whole point of the Trials are to make you become one with your inner beast. You know that.
Still, I couldn’t believe that. How many more people would I kill before I died? Too many. I had already made the mistake of killing three people. Silently, I vowed that I would never kill another.
My first kill flashed into my mind; a manifestation of my ‘inner beast’ obviously. Tom’s blood and guts lurched my stomach, and suddenly I coughed up all of that blood that I had recently just taken from my last kill.
And then Ronda. Ronda, the Vampire. I hadn’t meant to kill her at all. It was all a complete accident.
All of your kills were accidents, you idiot!
“Good! Wolfgang has been pleased with your progress, Maxfield. Remove the body, Dillon and Cody. We’ll clean up the blood later,” a man said. When I looked I saw that it was the same man that had told me all of the instructions.
The two men named Dillon and Cody picked up the dead werewolf’s body with disgusted looks. Together, they carried it off of the stage and out of the room. There was still a little puddle of blood that I had mistakenly created.
I shut my eyes, trying to forget what I had just done. Yet another murder…I was a cold-hearted murderer.
Now you are finally realizing what a true werewolf is.
But I didn’t want to be a murderer. I wanted to be a good guy. I didn’t want to be the guy that goes jail at the end of the movie. That wasn’t who I was. I paused, reflecting on my thoughts. Or was I? Was I truly a werewolf now? Can I ever turn back?
Once a werewolf, always a werewolf.
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Lacy’s face suddenly drained of yet even more color when she heard the man using the intercom say, “Maxfield, this next Trial will be to test what you are afraid of. A werewolf is afraid of nothing. Do you best and use your instincts.”
Landon had to be given time to train for this one. He must have tons of fears! How was he just supposed to forget them? She turned back to the stage and watched in distress.
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No! Please, not the fears! Anything but that! My thoughts rushed across my mind, making everything seem tight and compacted. I eyed the walls nervously, making sure that they didn’t start closing in. My blood quickened and my breath came out in short sections.
“Begin,” I heard a voice say over the intercom, and my eyes darted across the room. What was going to happen? The suspense hung in the air like a swarm of bees.
I waited. Nothing happened. I listened to every sound, every whisper. Nothing happened. My chin started to wobble and I knew that I was close to tears. How could these men torture me like this?
Nothing. Still, empty silence was carried through the air. I got the shivers and shook my long coat of white fur. The noise seemed to reverberate off of the walls.
Suddenly, I heard the intercom click on again, “Begin Round Two.”
Round Two? Round One hadn’t even started yet! I shook my head, not understanding.
I started hearing noises…it was like buzzing, but not like bees do. It was something distant, but I could hear it with my extra good hearing. I cocked my head to the side again and froze. Maybe if I could just hear a little better I would be able to identify what the buzzing was…
Suddenly, with a great whoosh of air, bats rushed into the room through the doorway and I stood up and barked. Sure, the suspense was worse than anything, but come on! Bats? I loved all kinds of birds! Bats would not scare me at all.
I gazed at them thoughtfully and sat down on my rear-quarters. Their beautiful wings only made my heart slow down so I could breathe normally again. The chirping filled my ears and I closed my eyes. Their sensory vision was so incredible that I could just watch them for hours.
There must have been hundreds of them! Lacy sat as far back in her chair as she could and looked down at the ground. Ugh! How could Landon not be afraid of those…those monsters? They were utterly disgusting!
Lacy made a face as she heard their constant and annoying squawking. Oh, nothing would annoy her more than to be with those bats. Carefully, she looked back up and saw Landon leaping up, playing with those creatures.
She covered her mouth, ready to hurl any moment.
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“Put the bats away. Let Round Three commence,” the flat voice said over the intercom. I smiled in a werewolf way, happy that I hadn’t failed this test. Yet.
I knew that the only thing that could really freak me out was if the walls started to move closer. Ha! I’m glad that the werewolves didn’t know that!
Slowly, the bats started migrating towards the door, and after about three more minutes of their lovely chirping, the last bat flew through the door and it was shut.
“Let Round Three begin,” the voice said.
What could it be this time? Ever since the bats, I felt happy. This was actually kind of fun. If they kept throwing stuff like that at me all day long, I would have a blast!
Suddenly, I felt hot. Had they just turned the heat up? What, was this another test? Did they really think that I would be afraid of heat?
I soon realized that I should have not been thinking at all about my worst fear. It wasn’t becoming hotter. The walls were closing in. Without even realizing it, I was becoming sweaty. I trotted over to the wall to see if anything was going to happen, and I saw it.
No…oh no. Please, no!
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Once the bats were gone, Lacy could finally watch the last of the fear test. At least this test wouldn’t freak her out. She enjoyed tight spaces and cozy spots. Did Landon?
Lacy watched carefully through the glass window and saw Landon walk over to the left wall. He sniffed it like a dog would, and then backed away, staring at the walls, as they started moving in, towards the middle of the room.
Landon tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground, and with a bark pushed himself back up. His eyes widened and he backed up, still facing the walls. His fur was becoming very damp, she could see. Landon was becoming obnoxious. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
“Stop! Stop the test!” Lacy shouted, too terrified to control it any longer. All of the people in the audience turned to her and glared at her. None of them seemed concerned that Landon was going to have a breakdown.
“Stop it! Can’t you see that this is bothering him?”
“That’s the point, girl! Now sit your butt down!” a man in the front row commanded. Lacy stared at the man with her mouth open. She tasted a sudden bitterness in her mouth.
“He’s going to faint!”
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My heart seemed like it stopped beating long ago. My fear took over my entire body as I was compressed into a four by four area. And to make matters even worse, the walls were still closing in.
I was panicking, that was for certain. I lost control of my legs and my brain. I was going to die and I knew it. Suddenly, I collapsed on the floor, my legs sticking out every which way.
I was doomed. I was doomed. I was going to die. The walls inched their way towards me, who was even paler and sicker than before. Slowly, I looked up and howled a howl that I had never uttered before. All the while, I felt the walls touching me, and started to make myself slide in. I was trapped. The walls started squeezing my body and it got tighter and tighter.
Then I passed out.
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The walls stopped, and Lacy shouted, “Finally! Someone, please get in there! He must be hurt!” No one moved. Of course.
Lacy grunted and started kicking people’s feet, trying to escape from the isle. The same man that she had talked to before walked up to her and pulled her back to her seat.
“Now you listen, young lady. This boy was doomed to die in the first place. That was the reason that Wolfgang put him through the Trials. He wanted to see if he was even worth keeping around. If the boy wasn’t, then Wolfgang would have him killed,” the man sternly told her. All the while Lacy was shaking her head, tears pouring out of her bloodshot eyes.
“Please…please, he’s my friend. I don’t want him to die…” Lacy whispered so quietly that the man didn’t even hear her. He stood up, straightened his T-shirt and sat down next to Lacy.
“Just calm down. He’s all right. Can’t you see him up there? They helped him stand up,” the man told Lacy softly. She didn’t look because she was rubbing her eyes.
“He’ll be fine. He still has to go through the speed test and then he’s done.”
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“You failed,” the man with the clipboard told me when I finally woke up. I uttered a small cry and looked at the walls. They were back to where they had originally been.
Quickly, they helped me get on my four feet and I wiped at my face. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just get over my fear of closed spaces? I shook my head, my fur bouncing through the air.
I am very disappointed in you. You failed. You know that you can only fail one of the three tests, right? Don’t lose again.
I didn’t feel like talking. I felt tears start to come to my eyes again, but I shook them away. Not right here. Please, don’t cry here.
“Maxfield has completed Strength, but failed Fear. We will now test him on Speed. If he wins, he will be able to remain in Fort Wolfgang. But if he fails, Wolfgang has commanded that he be shunned from Fort Wolfgang forever.”
What? Says who?
I barked, trying to say, “Whatever! He can’t shun me!” However, I knew that Wolfgang could. But why would he want to? I haven’t hurt him or anything.
The clipboard man smiled at me evilly and stepped back, pressing his back against the wall.
“Let the Speed test begin,” the bored intercom voice said.
I ducked, expecting something to be hurled at me. Nothing did. Everything was silent. Again. It was just like the first Fear test. I had figured out that they had probably tested my nerves, to try and see how long I could stand the anticipation of something to scare me.
“Maxfield will now be challenged with the most difficult tests of all. He will try to outrun a bullet,” the intercom said, his voice now lightening up.
What? Are you freaking kidding me?
I leaped up to my feet and stared around at the doorway, expecting someone to come out holding a gun. My fear started to edge at me, and I snarled. What kind of a twisted people are these guys? Who would shoot a kid?
It’s the werewolf way of life. They have to train you to become one of them.
Well, I don’t care! I don’t want to be shot!
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Lacy gasped. Her blood went cold and she stood up.
“No! I will not let him be shot! What are you playing at?” she hollered to the audience. The man that sat beside her didn’t say anything this time; he too was worried about the safety of Landon.
“Lacy Tolman,” a rough voice said behind her. Lacy quickly turned around, glaring at her disruptor. It was Wolfgang.
Out of reflex, Lacy screamed and her knees gave up on her. Wolfgang’s evil face was enough to frighten anyone. His fur pointed out in every which way and he was snarling.
“Lacy, I need you to stop disrupting the Trial. I am going to ask you to leave. You can see Landon once he gets out. If he gets out,” Wolfgang said and smirked. Lacy gaped at him, not knowing what to say.
Jonathan, out of the corner of his eye saw everything that was happening to Lacy. Should he stand up and risk losing the rebellion? He needed Wolfgang to trust him as long as he possibly could. If Lacy would just shut up, then Lacy wouldn’t be in danger.
“Take her away,” Wolfgang said, and summoned his two guards that were following him. The guards grabbed Lacy roughly by the arms and tugged her, sending the girl plowing through the chairs.
“Hey! Stop!” Lacy screamed, but it was no use. The audience made way for Lacy and the guards to pass through. She was still screaming when they took her out of the hall and into the Dining Hall.
“Now sit her and don’t move. We need to ask you some…questions about a rebellion Wolfgang has been hearing about,” a guard told her tersely. Lacy gasped and stared at the two guards. How could they possibly know?
“I – I don’t know anything about that! I swear!” Lacy said as convincingly as she could. The guards didn’t seem to buy it.
“That’s not what we have been hearing. Our loyal Donald Peterson has told us everything. We knew that we could trust him,” one of the guards said, and glared at her, “We know each member of the rebellion. All I ask is that you confirm them.”
Lacy’s eyes widened and she had a stupor of thought. If Donald had really told Wolfgang all about the rebellion…
“Why did you kill him if he helped you?” Lacy suddenly asked and tears swelled up in her eyes. This was…too much. She couldn’t deal with all of the death and betrayal right now.
“Wolfgang didn’t trust him for very long. All we needed were names. And we got them. Oh, yes. We have them right here,” the same guard said, pointing to his pocket. Slowly, he reached in and pulled his hand out, along with a piece of paper.
“All you have to do is nod yes or no if these are people in the rebellion. If you lie, little dearie, and we find out, you will be worse off then dead. Believe me.”
No. She couldn’t spoil the rebellion. Wolfgang needed to die. It needed planning and meetings…and then finally they would act. But that wouldn’t be for a while. The rebels still needed time to plan. She couldn’t tattle on them.
“I – I don’t know what you are talking about,” Lacy said, shaking her head.
The guard seemed to ignore her, and read the list of names that he held, “Jonathan Bird, Tanner Baker, Adrianne Phillips, Matthew Rileys, Lacy Tolman, Brad Thomas, Marci Cleave and Andrew Bartend. Do you confirm that those are all of the names of the rebels?”
Lacy nodded in her mind as each of the names were read off, except for Andrew Bartend. She didn’t know who he was, so she supposed that he was the newcomer that she had seen earlier this morning.
“No! I only know a couple of those guys! And I’m not a rebel! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Lacy exclaimed. The guard still seemed not to believe her. He glared into her eyes and she returned the favor. There was a long silence.
“Lock her up. Wolfgang will deal with her later. Round up all of the other rebels and put them in the dungeons along with this girl,” the guard said, breaking the silence.
Lacy’s mouth dropped and she said, “No! I haven’t done anything!”
“Peterson seems to think otherwise.”
“Well, he lied! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! Please, just…just don’t put me in the dungeons!” Lacy cried and covered her face with her hands. Oh, how happy should would be if Landon were here right now. That was all that she needed. Lacy needed Landon to wrap his arm around her and tell her everything was going to turn out ok.
But they weren’t. She knew that everything was going to go downhill from then.
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Swiftly, a man stepped through the door and I pushed myself up the glass wall. Were they really going to shoot me? What devils!
The man was wearing a black cowboy hat and a leather jacket, and quickly reached into the jacket and pulled out a revolver. For those of you that have no clue what that is, a revolver is a hand held gun. Yeah. And guess what? He pointed it at me.
I growled and lowered myself off of the glass wall. I could feel every eye on me right then. All of the people in the audience, waiting. Watching me. I eyed the man, never letting him out of my sight. I started to make my way around the walls, and he did also. We were traveling in a circle, with the man with the gun following me. It was like one of those westerns on Hallmark that my mom always used to watch.
Suddenly, in a quick move, the man raised the gun and shot a bullet. The sound of the blast terrified me and I think I peed a little. But that wasn’t what concerned me. I was really worried about a bullet, traveling through the air at stunning speeds, racing towards me.
I lowered my head to my feet, dodging the first shot, and then I took off. I bounced off of the wall and held my paws out, claws extended. This guy seriously needed to learn that I wasn’t going to mess with him.
I snarled, baring my fangs and he shot once again. The bullet whizzed through the air, the noise reverberating off of the walls. Even through the glass I could hear people on the other side scream at the explosion.
This bullet hit me, but it only took a few hairs and my heart skipped a beat. I fell to the ground, searching for any bullet holes. Amazingly, I found none. There was no trace of blood or anything.
Move, you lazy butt! Move!
I nodded and leaped off of the ground and through the air, dodging yet another bullet. This wasn’t nearly as hard as I had imagined it to be. With being a werewolf and all, I received some pretty cool powers.
The man with the gun grunted and shoved his gun into my side. I flinched and kicked the gun away with my hind leg and ran for it. The man seemed surprised at my stunning speed, but picked up the gun once more.
I stopped moving, breathing hard. The grin left my face and it turned to sheer terror. The man smiled, his teeth showed and I noticed that they were all yellow. Then he shot once again, and I had no time to react.
The bullet plunged straight into my gut, and as soon as it hit I fell to the floor, withering in pain. Blood oozed out of the open hole and then man laughed.
“Stupid pussy cat,” he muttered, and the intercom clicked on.
“Landon has failed the Speed test, in addition to the Fear test. Wolfgang has summoned that he is to be shunned from Fort Wolfgang forever.”
beautiful. well great now i have to wait for the next one! how the heck am i sposed to do that?! thanx a lot bigbaad... making me wait... writing a good story...keeping me in suspense... jerk.
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