Alexander lay crumpled against the base of the tree, his body twisted and broken, like he'd been crushed beneath a semi-truck. His limbs bent at unnatural angles, bones jutting beneath torn skin, and his chest unmoving for a few seconds.
Then.....snap.
A sickening crunch echoed. Alisha gasped, her eyes wide as she watched his mangled body twitch… then shift.
Crack… pop… snap.
His bones began to realign, muscle fibers stretching, twisting, and thickening. His chest rose sharply as air returned to his lungs. Then, Alexander transformed.
What now stood in his place was a towering silver werewolf, his fur glistening beneath the moonlight like steel. His eyes blazed with a haunting white glow that pulsed with fury.
He let out a guttural growl and lunged.
The impact when he collided with the other two wolves shook the entire clearing like a quake had just struck. Trees trembled and leaves scattered in waves. Alisha dropped to the ground, covering her ears from the sheer force of it.
It was two against one, but it didn't matter.
Alexander was something else.
His movements were too precise. Every strike landed with devastating weight. His claws slashed through their defenses like paper, and the sound of ripping flesh and snapping bone filled the forest. Even his roars held a pressure that made the others stagger.
Micha cried out as Alexander sank his teeth into his shoulder and flung him like a ragdoll. The brown wolf tried to retaliate, but Alexander dodged the blow and retaliated with a swipe that tore deep into his ribs.
It was over. Or so they thought.
The air shifted again.
And this time… it was heavier.
A massive black wolf emerged from the shadows, equal in size to Alexander but darker than night, its eyes glowing a searing red. Power radiated from him like heat off burning coal.
An Alpha. A furious one.
Micha's bleeding form turned, his eyes wide with awe and relief. His voice echoed in Alexander's mind: "My Alpha…"
Alexander paused, his glowing eyes locking with the red-eyed beast. He felt it instantly....this one was just as powerful as he was. Maybe even more.
The odds had shifted.
And he knew this fight was no longer in his favor.
Without another sound, Alexander turned and bolted...vanishing into the trees with unnatural speed, leaving behind a storm of crushed earth and bloodied air.
"Take the girl," the Alpha's voice thundered in Micha's mind. "Get her home. Now."
Micha, still limping, obeyed instantly. He shifted back into his human form and reached for Alisha, who trembled near the tree's base, her eyes wide and filled with questions and fear.
The brown wolf followed the Alpha, disappearing into the trees after Alexander, as the black Alpha gave chase, leaving only silence in their wake.
But for Alisha, nothing felt silent.
Not with the storm now roaring in her chest.
It happened so fast.
One moment she was surrounded by monsters, blood, and snarling teeth, then in the blink of an eye, she stood at the edge of the road, right at the entrance to the woods. No growls. No shadows. Just the long stretch of asphalt and the distant hum of the town asleep.
No one needed to tell her twice as she ran.
Her shoes slapped against the pavement as she bolted down the road, lungs burning, heart thudding against her ribs like it was trying to escape. Her thoughts raced faster than her feet. Was she safe? Would those creatures come back? Why didn't Alexander hurt her? Why did the others try to?
And why… did he look at her like he knew her?
The magnetic pull she'd been feeling all day was fading. But something else was creeping in now. Something far worse.
That smell.
That heavy, metallic, rotting stench. She'd described it earlier as "death," but now it wasn't just in the air.
It was inside her.
Her chest tightened. Her throat itched. Her legs faltered slightly as a strange pressure welled up behind her ribs, clawing at her lungs. It wasn't from exhaustion. No… it was something building.
And then....she screamed.
A piercing, raw cry that came from the very center of her soul and ripped through the silence like a blade.
The world shattered around her.
Windows along the street exploded in bursts of glass. Streetlights flickered violently, then popped. Power lines sparked and hissed, electricity tearing free in wild lashes. Poles snapped, collapsing into the road, wires thrashing like snakes. In seconds, the entire area was plunged into darkness.
Alisha dropped to her knees in the middle of the street, gasping.
And then, like a puppet with its strings cut, she collapsed, her body folding into the pavement.
The town went silent.
********
It was pitch black, not just the absence of light, but the absence of everything. Even the concept of existence felt suspended. No ground. No air. No sound. Just a vast, endless nothingness. It wasn't death, nor was it life. It was something else entirely, a void and a place where being and unbeing blurred into one.
Alisha woke up to it.
Her eyes opened to the endless dark, but she couldn't tell if her body had moved. She didn't know if she was standing, floating, or sinking. There was no pain, no cold, no warmth. No markers of being alive or dead. Only stillness.
She tried to take a breath, but there was no air. Tried to panic, but the emotion wouldn't come. She should have felt fear. Confusion. Something.
But there was only emptiness.
She moved forward, or at least she thought she did. One step… then another. No sound followed her steps, echoes, or friction beneath her feet. And then slowly the void began to change.
Shapes began to form in the distance like mist taking on form. Faint outlines of people. Structures. Walls. The blackness around her pulsed and twisted, gradually bleeding into color and dimension until the darkness gave way to a scene.
A hospital.
Figures in colored robes moved around with clinical urgency, face masks hiding their features, gloved hands carrying stretchers with patients groaning or unconscious. Some were being rushed through corridors, others wheeled into rooms with names Alisha couldn't read.
She stepped into their path but they didn't see her. Not one of them paused. Some moved right through her, like she wasn't even there. Like she was made of smoke.
Confused, she turned, trying to process what she was seeing. Her heart, if it still beat, was pounding against the wall of her thoughts. None of this felt real. None of this felt possible.
Then she caught a glimpse through the window of a hospital room. And everything inside her stilled. There.....on the bed lay someone who looked exactly like her. Pale and motionless. Tubes in her arm. Machines are blinking steadily beside the bed.
By the window sat her mother, face drawn tight with worry. Next to her were Jake and Diana, their hands clasped together, their eyes locked on the body in the bed.
It was her.
She was lying there.
Yet she was also… here.
Watching.
And suddenly, the emptiness she felt before twisted into something heavier, something terrifying.
What was this place?
And how had she ended up here?