"The Lost Mind - Chapter 3" by Carly ´Lhena´ Silverton

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Julian froze as the droplets of blood slowly started trickling down her forearm as she scrabbled to cover it up. Concentrating on the smell and the feelings inside him trying to get out. He watched the blood with a feral look in his eye, he could feel it, the primal, animalistic part of him rising from the depths of the past; centuries of evolution had almost erased the need for survival, meaning food equaling blood and raw meat.

Then Julian split, opening his bedroom door and running out the back way off in the direction of their old school. The now very inferior part of his human side winning out as he ran toward the soccer field, away from the blood and confusion of the past.

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While he flipped out, Lhena had seen every flick of his eyes and had made up her own mind, this was some big trouble.

Dana, hearing her son dash out the door, came up the steps just then. She took one look at the blood on the floor and Lhena’s bleeding arm and freaked. Soon enough, her motherly instincts came back to her as she calmed and went to the kitchen to grab the emergency kit, under the sink.

Dana came back to the room to find Lhena sitting on the floor covering her bleeding arm. Dana, not wasting time, opened up the kit and brought out the necessary materials to bandage the wound. She was about to start the bandaging with her expert nursing skills when Lhena burst out, “ I can do this Dana, but I do feel a bit dizzy, could I have a soda or something?”

Dana, remembering how blood lose could effect people, went willingly to the kitchen to fetch a soda from the frig. When she came back Lhena’s arm was bandaged expertly, Dana complimented after inspecting it. Dana held out an Orange soda for Lhena, who took it willingly. Lhena had just now felt the effects of her blood lose and was thankful Dana hadn’t noticed the ratio of blood on the floor to the blood on the bandage. Any normal female human would have at least felt very dizzy by now, but Lhena only felt a slight headache. Thankfully, Dana hadn’t been a nurse for quite a while and didn’t notice how much blood was on the floor instead of in Lhena’s system. Lhena finally popped the cap, after Dana’s inspection, and let the sugary liquid run down her parched throat for several minutes as she almost chugged the entire can.

“Thanks for your help Dana. But I think I should go now. My mom will be freaking enough as it is about the time,” she lied. Lhena had no plans of going to her house tonight, she already had a study group meeting at a friends, and her mom knew she would call sometime.

Lhena quickly left the house, leaving Dana to clean the mess. The smell of her own blood has making her headache worse. She quickly got into the car and opened the windows. Starting the ignition, she pealed out of the driveway and with a quick glance saw the bars on Julian’s window.

Driving down to her old school, she filled her lungs with the clean air. Soon her nausea went away, but regretted chugging the soda that was now swirling around in her stomach, after having nothing for lunch earlier. She parked in the empty front parking lot and slammed the car door shut as anger for her foolishness crept in. I should have been more careful the moment I noticed something was up with him, she pounded herself all the way to the path leading to the creek. As the walkway turned from pavement to gravel and then soft wet grass and leaves, the scent of fresh air was intoxicating to her nose. She had missed this school for four years and now she was finally back to her favorite part of it. The path started its windy trail filled with uncut branches, bushes and ivy. The school left about half the creek to nature for the simple fact of too little money for such up keep.

After a fifteen minute walk through clear paths, it closed off to the creeks’ forest of branches, bushes and weeds. Lhena braved the wild trail and stepped carefully through it, making only the slightest of sounds. The only problem was that only humans couldn’t detect these noises without technology. Julian wasn’t human, at least not anymore. Her caution cost her another hour, which could have been cut in half if not for who she was trying to get to. The path finally opened up to the clearing by the creek. The sound of the low running creek trickling and spurting water, along with the wind ruffling the leaves made such a peaceful scene. But, this was not a time of peace for Lhena, she had to get to the bottom of this and fast.

She scanned the clearing with her adapted eyes and found him almost immediately. He as over by the one spot she never sat. The Dark Place, the darkest part of the clearing where the kids never went for the sake of keeping the littler kids afraid to come here. The Dark Place was a legend at the school to the younger kids, the place where anyone too young could die if they close. They all knew that wasn’t true, but none of them wanted to go near there.

Lhena moved out of the moon light that had taken place of the sun’s rays as she had crept into this place. She had never come to this place for the reason that the feeling of Selene leaving her always slinked into her being when she moved close. She entered this scared and dark place only to be greeted with Julian’s voice.

“What happened back there? I mean, I don‘t know what even happened to me. I didn‘t even feel guilt for hurting you, I just felt the urge to… the urge to-.”

“Kill, yeah I know. It’s okay, I didn’t know my own strength at first either, and no one does until Selene appears.”

“Selene, isn’t that one of the Greek moon goddess’ names?” Julian breathed.

“Yes.”

“I don’t understand, what does Selene have to do with what‘s happening to me?”

“Julian, she had everything to do with this. She was the one to grace you with this new power you hold within you. She has awaken your primal spirit and given you life,” Lhena answered, thinking a look of confusion would cross his face.

“I never asked for this, this thing. This can’t be a gift; no one graced me with this so-called power. I just hurt you, I nearly killed you-”

“You wouldn’t have killed me Julian. A new Cub never can kill a Wolf,” Lhena retorted with a growl in the back of her throat.

“But, I felt like I could. I felt that I needed to. That’s what scares me,” Julian explained.

“Well, I have never heard of a new Cub who could control their Instinct, so it’s not a big deal.” They fell silent for a while as the night air began to creep into the clearing.

After several minutes of dead silence she reached her hand over and rested it on Julian’s arm, “Julian?”