WILLA
I didn't want to die in a strange place.
So I fought harder than I had the last time. I really did.
My lungs were failing. It felt like the air had been ripped out of them, and no matter how wide I opened my mouth or how sharply I inhaled through my nose, nothing came in.
My legs and every limb in my body turned to jelly. I flailed weakly in its grip, my head lolling.
"You little shit," it growled.
Its voice sounded distant, yet I could still make out every word clearly.
Weird.
"You abomination, die!"
An abomination?
If anything here was abominable, it was this creature. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen and shouldn't exist outside of some Halloween costume.
And it had the nerve to call me names.
I might not be the prettiest, and maybe I lacked in a few areas physically, but I was not an ogre.
"My rewards for killing her," it cackled, its voice growing more unhinged with each passing second.
"Food. House. Women. Oh, oh… everything!" it listed greedily. "I am going to have you finally, Fiona. My wife. My wife!"
My stomach churned at every word. I didn't care about whatever reward it thought it would get, but the fact that I was the reason made me sick.
"Yes, yes… die now!" It slammed me hard against the wall.
The creature lifted its hand, and I saw the club gripped in it.
The same kind I had seen before. So it really was going to kill me this time.
It came prepared.
"Eric… Verah…"
I just needed someone to come. Anyone.
I didn't care who it was. I would take a mother fucking manwhore like Eric over dying like this.
The truth was… I didn't want to die.
Yes, I had lived my whole life preparing for a moment like this. When you've been passed through fifteen houses, treated like a monster, forced to do things no one should ever have to do, you learn to expect the worst.
But even then, I knew better.
No one cared about me. No one would bat an eyelash if I died right here.
No one is coming for you, Willa.
"Die!" the monster roared.
Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the final blow. My body had nothing left to give.
Then a faint voice cut through the fog in my mind.
"Willa! Willa!"
I couldn't breathe. My chest tightened painfully as the voice came again, louder this time.
"Fight!"
I knew that voice.
"I know this isn't the time for introductions, but I am your wolf, Nyra. And you can't die now!"
Nyra.
Yes. That was her name.
I had once called her the only light in my life, the only thing that felt pure in a world where everyone saw me as something dark.
"You've got to do it!"
Her voice broke through my thoughts again, urgent, pushing.
Something twisted in my chest, something I couldn't understand.
I opened my mouth to speak, but instead I choked, gasping desperately for air.
The more I tried to breathe, the more it felt like water was forcing its way into my mouth.
My eyes flew open, and I blinked through the haze clouding my vision, but it was almost impossible to make out anything.
It felt like I was deep beneath the ocean, sinking into endless darkness.
"Swim!" Nyra ordered.
Swim?
I blinked again, and suddenly my vision cleared.
Right.
I was in the middle of a body of water. I stared at my hands, my legs, every part of myself I could see.
I was a child?
"Poor crybaby. She isn't even a good swimmer."
"She's eight like us and we already know how to survive."
"She's a fucking freak. I hope she meets the rest of her kind at the bottom of the lake. She isn't fit to be human."
The voices echoed around me, distant yet sharp.
I knew them.
Mocking. Cruel. Empty of empathy.
They told me everything I needed to understand.
It was my eighth birthday at the Little Hope's Orphanage home.
And they had thrown me into the lake, knowing I couldn't swim.
Now, I was sinking.
Cold water surrounded me, thick and suffocating, pressing in from every side.
"I'll help you, Willa. If you die, I die too. I'll help you survive," Nyra whispered.
Then, suddenly, the darkness around me split apart as a faint, distant light appeared far above.
My body reacted before I could think. My arms moved clumsily as I tried to push upward, but nothing worked the way it should. Every movement felt slow, dragged down by a weight I couldn't fight.
"Nyra!"
"Try harder. I'm here with you!"
I forced myself not to breathe, even as my lungs burned.
I held on.
Until I couldn't. Until water began to rush in. Until panic set in.
It clawed at my chest, sharp and immediate, tightening as my body fought for oxygen, fighting to stay alive.
I kicked, reached, pushed, anything to get back to the surface, but my strength was failing me.
I wasn't going to make it.
Of course I wasn't. That much was obvious. This wasn't something to figure out.
I was going to die.
The thought settled in, just as it had before. My body began to go still. And for a moment, I let it.
"On goddess Selene's name, you won't die on me. Not yet!" Nyra's voice growled through the darkness again.
My fingers twitched.
Something in me resisted, pushing back against the force dragging me down.
I moved.
My legs kicked harder. My small arms dragged through the water with more force than before, each movement forcing me upward even as my body screamed at me to stop.
I pushed.
The light above me grew stronger, breaking through in uneven flashes as I forced myself upward, my chest constricting painfully as my body demanded air I still didn't have.
Closer.
And then—
"Willa!"
The sound hit me like a twig snapping, sharp and loud.
The water vanished.
The pressure around my throat disappeared just as suddenly, and I stumbled forward, air crashing into my lungs so violently it made me cough.
It burned, harsh and overwhelming. But I dragged it in anyway, breath after breath, like I had been pulled up from somewhere far too deep.
"Willa. Willa!"
That sounded like Verah.
A hand shook me hard. I tore my gaze away from the blurred figures around me and focused on the person in front of me.
"Verah," I whispered weakly as my legs gave out beneath me.
"Stay with me, Willa!" Verah cried, her eyes wide with panic and worry. "She needs air. Move, everyone!"
I was back in the hallway, that much was obvious.
The alarm was still blaring. Students had gathered around me, watching everything unfold.
"What happened?" Verah asked after a moment.
"The monster…" I started, my voice hoarse.
"Monster?" Verah whispered. "What the hell are you talking about?"
My hand went straight to my throat. There was nothing there, no grip, but the soreness lingered, deep enough to make swallowing uncomfortable.
Slowly, I lifted my gaze and scanned the space in front of me, searching for anything that could explain what had just happened.
There was nothing. No sign of that ugly creature.
"It was… just here," I murmured.
I looked at Verah. She was still staring at me like I had lost my mind, a faint frown settling on her face. She raised her hand and pressed the back of it against my temple.
"You're burning up, Elyse," Verah said, as if that explained everything.
My brows furrowed. My head was spinning, my thoughts just as unsteady.
I knew what I had seen. Only it was gone.