FLASHBACK - NOVA - 13 YEARS OLD
I woke up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain. I rolled off the bed and landed on the floor hard.
My bedroom door slammed open and Evelyn was standing there in her pajamas and she was looking beyond pissed.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” Evelyn yelled.
“I don’t know. Something’s wrong. It really hurts.” I moaned out.
“Oh my god. You are such a drama queen. Shut up and get back to bed. I have to work in the morning.” She yelled, storming out of my room.
I managed to stand up but the pain in my stomach was just as bad that I crippled over.
I managed to walk to my bedroom door and I heard Evelyn in her bedroom with the boyfriend that she had at the time. So I walked down the other end of the hallway and out the back door.
I fell down the backstairs as another wave of pain hit me. As I landed on the ground I felt my arm snap so I pulled it in front of me to have a look and then it snapped back into place.
What the hell was happening to me?
I got up and started running down the road from my house. I didn’t know where I was going, but I kept falling whenever another bone would break and then snap back into place.
I was laying on the footpath when a car pulled up next to me. I couldn’t see who it was. I was blinded by pain and writhing in agony. I was trying so hard not to scream, but I couldn’t help letting it out.
A familiar and soothing voice appeared next to me as someone helped me up and put me inside the car.
They laid me down in the backseat as I started to lose consciousness. But the pain would just snap me back to reality.
I wasn’t sure how long we were driving for. It felt like an eternity, but when the car finally pulled over the driver got out and opened the backseat.
She was soon joined by someone else and they helped me get out of the car and they carried me into the woods.
I thought they were going to kill me, but they placed me down on the ground and the woman that found me kneeled down next to me rubbing my back.
“It’s alright Nova. It will all be over soon.” She said.
I then started thrashing around, letting out blood curdling screams and I turned over onto my stomach as I heard the fabric of my clothes tearing.
I felt all my bones breaking again, but this time they were rearranging into different places.
I tried to scream, but instead I let out a howl.
Moments later, I realized that the pain had stopped. I tried to stand up but something wasn’t right. I couldn’t stand properly and I was really close to the ground.
I looked down and there were two white paws right in front of me. And then one of the people I was with placed a little mirror in front of me and a white wolf was staring back at me.
I fell backwards and I tried to regain my footing but I couldn’t. I then looked at the two people who were standing in front of me.
It was my school teacher Ava Hudson and her 18-year-old son Jacob.
They were both watching me intently as I tried to get back onto my paws, wondering what the hell was wrong with me. What the hell just happened?
My body started making those same breaking noises and rearranging again as I suddenly turned back into myself, but I wasn’t wearing any clothes.
Jacob quickly grabbed a blanket and placed it over me so I could cover myself with it.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, backing away from them until I backed into a tree.
“You don’t need to be scared Nova. I know that it seems scary, but it’s not.” Mrs. Hudson said.
“What am I?” I asked.
“You’re a werewolf.” Jacob said.
My eyes almost bugged out of my head as soon as he said that. I couldn’t be a werewolf. That meant that I was interesting. There was absolutely nothing interesting about me.
I started shaking my head and Mrs. Hudson walked closer to me and kneeled down beside me.
“Nova. It’s alright. You didn’t do anything wrong. This isn’t your fault.” She said.
“My mother is gonna want me killed.” I said.
“You’re not going to tell your mother. Jacob and I are also werewolves and we are going to help you. You can trust us.” Mrs. Hudson said.
“This is why you’ve been so nice to me?” I asked.
“It’s because I like you.” She said.
“How am I a werewolf?” I asked.
“You said that you never met your father. I’m guessing he’s the werewolf.” She said.
“You’re guessing?” I asked.
“You can only be a werewolf if you’ve been born to a werewolf. Don’t worry about those movies that you’ve seen. You don’t become a wolf by getting bitten. One of your parents has to be a werewolf.” Mrs. Hudson explained.
“Then why would my dad abandon me if he knew that this was going to happen?” I asked.
“I’m sure he had his reasons. Nova, there is a lot that you don’t know about yourself. But I think we can take it one step at a time. You just discovered that you’re a werewolf. And we are going to help you with that. You’re going to notice that you’re stronger and your hearing and eyesight will be better. You can’t let anyone else see these changes. I know that it will be hard at school, with everyone teasing you. I know that you will want to hurt them. But you can’t. You will just have to try to control your strength while you’re around humans.” Mrs. Hudson explained.
“And your smell is going to change as well. Which means you will be able to tell who is human and who isn’t.” Jacob added.
I just sat there nodding the whole time because I didn’t know what else to do. I was scared. I was confused. I am only 13 years old and I just transformed into a fucking werewolf.
“Do you think you can do that for us?” Mrs. Hudson asked.
“Yeah.” I said.
“Jacob is going to help train you. You’re going to need it. And I will try and teach you all about werewolves. And then when you’re ready, we might get into the other stuff.” She said.
“What other stuff?” I asked.
“We can smell it, in your blood. You’re not just half human, half werewolf. You’ve got other species inside of you.” She said. And I looked at her really confused.
“Like what?” I asked. But she looked really hesitant to answer me. So I looked up at Jacob. “Like what?” I repeated.
“We need to find out who your father is so we can be sure of it. But we think you’re the prophecy.” She said.
“I don’t understand.” I said.
“We think that you also have witch, vampire and fae inside of you.” Jacob said.
“Fae?” I asked, confused.
“Faerie.” He said. And I let out a chuckle. Not really believing that faeries were real. But then again, I didn’t think that werewolves were real either.
“I’ll take you home now. But please, you need to be really careful now that you’ve shifted. You need to be on alert. There might be other werewolves out there that want to hurt you.” Mrs. Hudson said.
Jacob helped me up and we went back to the car and Mrs. Hudson drove me home.
All the lights were out so I was glad that mom went back to bed and I could sneak back in. I was only wearing a blanket and I didn’t know how to explain that away.
“How do I learn about everything else in me?” I asked.
“I’m going to look into that. You don’t worry about a thing, okay. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Now remember, I’m still just your teacher tomorrow.” She said.
“I know how to pretend like we don’t know each other. My mother makes me do it with her whenever she meets a new man downtown.” I said. And Mrs. Hudson gave me a sad looking smile and I got out of the car.