Chapter 4 Being Narah

NARAH'S POV: Eighteen years later.

My lungs paved way for laboured breaths as I glared straight into his brown eyes. It was four against one but, as usual, I already knew the outcome - my fate was sealed, and I had resigned to it.

I clutched my stomach, trying to soothe the pain, but the incoming wave of wind from Jason's fist made me anxious. I ducked, but it still managed to land squarely on my already battered face.

My sluggish reflexes were no match for his swift and mighty strike.

With a great thud, I fell flat on my back and onto the green grass.

This sent the other three laughing their stupid heads off. Crystal Belton laughed the loudest since she was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

This scenario had gotten old. It was the same routine day after day, year after year and, as a result of that, I had grown used to the blows and injuries they inflicted on me. It was a mundane aspect of my existence.

I used to be good at hiding them, but when I found out father didn't care, I stopped hiding the bruises and injuries. Still, he never for once asked how I got them.

"Well, you've had your fun now, Crystal," I said, getting up from the ground. The laughing ceased immediately and Crystal laid her usual comeback,

"Oh shit! It talks." she strutted closer and stared right into my eyes without flinching, "dirty old Narah. Bastard child of a bastard father. Useless daughter of a loser."

"OK, Crystal, that's enough," Celine intervened, grabbing her by the hand, trying to pull her back, but Crystal didn't budge.

"My father said her mother was a slut, and she met with a stranger known as the Wolfman," she giggled, pointing her finger accusingly at me. "It was born as a result of their sin."

I scoffed and rubbed my tired eyes. Then, Harriet, the empty-headed brunette chimed in from behind Jason,

"Yeah, blue eyes and gray hair. She's definitely a witch." Her failed efforts to always suck up to Crystal only made her look more pathetic, and it made me nauseous. " I bet there–"

"Shut up, Harriet!" Crystal's commanding voice silenced her.

After a while, they left without causing any more damage to me than they already had. Well, welcome to my life. I am Narah Smith, and I was born on a night as cold as my heart. It was a full moon.

My father blamed me for the death of my mother. He said I had ripped her soul and eaten her whole during labor.

Crystal wasn't far from the truth. He wasn't my father. He was the murderer of my real father. This monster had boasted about killing my real father with a silver bullet because he wouldn't die from an ordinary one.

He cuffed me up in chains for weeks because he said he was afraid I would turn. And I feared that one day, he was going to kill me as well.

A miserable day such as this and it happened to be my 18th birthday, I didn't plan on spending the day alone.

So, I decided to ditch school to hang out with Benny, the only friend I had. No-one in Lystvair wanted to associate with me, let alone be friends, but Benny was different.

She was more than just different. In the books she buried her head, she let her thoughts and mind roam wild and free.

The herbs and spells she cast, she brewed me a creamy, green colored potion. She swore it would help unlock the secrets of my dreams.

Strange recurring dreams haunted my sleep since childhood and with each passing year, they grew more vivid, and I couldn't tell those dreams from reality.

A grey-haired woman just like me and a fierce silver wolf chasing a dark figure in a forest. A man whom she called "mate" with another woman. But I couldn't seem to put the other pieces of the dream together.

With Benny's parents away at work in the next town, we had their tiny brick house all to ourselves.

She believed my dreams had meaning and that it could be a link to my previous life. Although I bore a striking resemblance to the grey-haired woman in my dreams, I had my doubts about reincarnation and magic, even though my best friend was a witch.

I sat across from her in the kitchen, watching as she flipped through her worn pages, observing the words that danced before her with such focus.

Finally, when she seemed satisfied, she smiled and pushed a small cup towards me. With a hint of mischief sparkling in her eyes, she said,

"You can drink now."

I furrowed my brows and asked, "you're certain?" And she answered with a reassuring nod.

I stared intensely at the old wooden cup for a few minutes and slowly picked it up. I closed my eyes and gulped the entire content down my throat.

Immediately, I placed the cup back on the counter, my face writhed in the sweet-sour taste. Benny and I both laughed.

We spent the day gathering herbs. She baked me a cake and gave me a locket as a present. It had our pictures on it. I didn't believe the potion would work, although Benny told me to give it time.

We played some games and danced, just the two of us and soon, it was midnight. We squeezed together in her bed that had barely enough room to breathe, let alone move.

"Goodnight, Narah and happy birthday. I love you," Benny grinned at me. I chuckled sheepishly and replied,

"Goodnight, Benny. I love you too."

And that was the last thing I remembered before seeing myself at the edge of the woods standing beside the grey-haired woman.

"Who– who are– who are you?" she stuttered. I could tell she was afraid, but I sensed something in her that was even more terrifying than the presence watching her from the woods. She dashed into the dark woods and I followed.

"That's not a wolf, Reina, I don't know what it is, but it's not one of us," a voice cried.

"Reina?" I asked surprisingly. That was the first time I heard her name and the voice that spoke.

I watched as a red-headed woman slammed her into a tree and screamed her name again, "Reina!"

The next thing I knew, I was walking behind them into an opening filled with hundreds of people. I recognized the man whom she called 'mate' standing in the center, close to a burning stake.

I spotted a familiar face in the nearby woods, lurking behind a tree. It was the woman who had stood next to Reina's mate in all of my dreams. She wore a sinister smile.

"Just stay strong and if you need anything, you can always count on me," another voice uttered, and I knew it belonged to her.

"Thank you, sis..." Reina's voice replied.

"Sis?" I asked in utter shock. These scenes in the dream were new. I was beginning to put the puzzle together.

Reina stood beside the man and I stood in front of her, piercing her with my gaze. I became shocked and paralyzed when she looked straight into my eyes, instantly seizing my wrist.

All these years, she had never noticed my presence. Suddenly, scenes blurred and unfolded around me in a rapid motion, voices yelling at each other, people shifting into tooth-baring wolves and I let out a terrifying scream.