My trembling hand finds itself pressed against my parted lips, a gasp warming my shaking palms. The rest of my body remains paralyzed, frozen in fear as I face the creature that stands only feet away. It's blood-red eye highlighting against the other shaded black marble. A mix of salt and pepper fur illuminates the darkened forest. My heart races, readying itself to possibly stop. Even with the realization that I might die, a part of me can't help but notice how beautiful this creature is before me.

A wave of dizziness crashes into me like water against a cliff. My knees struggle to hold their balance. Fear pools through me, a warm tide washes through my veins. Eerie silence is deafening.

The wolf fades into darkness, yet his presence remains.

Then, a person descends from where the wolf vanished—waiting in the shadows. Four legs become two, a wolf transforms into a human. He remains there, a statue in the distance. Fear turns to confusion, the trembles of my body cease.

Recognition brews inside me, the sense of security drawing me to the darkened figure. Something about him brings feelings of home. He emerges, shadowing me like a small building. Hazel eyes shine against a face that knows no emotion. His expression is that of a ghost, still, his warmth reaches me from where he stands.

Aside from a darkened presence, he looks like any other ordinary being. A jacket hugs a muscular body, the scent of leather battling the damp leaves and pine. Haughty, broad shoulders carry an aura of somber authority that runs down to taut hands hanging at his sides. A stance so firm, he could be a soldier in a lineup. A charming impression clashes with intimidation, as if a white knight had an affair with the devil. Is it really possible he was a wolf only moments ago?

Above all, familiarity sprouts within, stirring inside though I can't place where. No name clicks inside my mind, even his face is one I've never seen. His presence, though, wreaks of remembrance and something in my head is blocking it from emerging.

His eyes—a blank, but penetrating, stare that can pierce any soul. They shout to me, urging me to remember—to trust.

After an eternity of silence, his voice breaks the air. "Serelia... come home. They're coming." His broken sentences echo, a seriousness expressed through a deepened voice that clashes like a distant thunder. A surge of alarm chills my spine when he speaks, his message unnerving, but his manner calm.

I can only bring a single word to leave my mouth. "What?" Even alone, my voice quivers, the curve of my lips quaver with the simple question. A part of me tries to remember this isn't real, it's impossible. Yet somehow it also feels like the only true thing that has happened in weeks. All my fear drains inside me, questions replacing it. Even with my uneasy response, the boy continues unfazed, his empty expression never changing. "Where's home?" This time, my question sounds with great clarity, still, there's a shakiness as I attempt to manage each word.

With no answer, he turns away from me and saunters into the shadows once more. My lips part, a need for him to return and acknowledge me. "Wait," I clamor towards the darkness, but he was gone before my words could reach him.

Common sense warns me to stay put, that the last thing I need to do is chase a boy on a hurt leg in these harrowing woods. My conscience reminds me that this is insanity brewing fantastic delusions, to pick myself up and go home. Leave these woods and let it become a bad memory that vanishes in time.

Instead, I drown out the subconscious and any other opposing thoughts. "Follow him," I whisper to myself, forcing my body to ignore my mind. "Just go," and with that, I spring into motion, racing to the shadows. The prey chasing the predator, the hunted now chasing the hunter.

I barely move a few feet until his figure appears ahead. Before he is fully absorbed by darkness, he halts in his trails and I continue to near, playing a game of chess, trying to be the quickest to advance. His back still faces me as I come only feet a few years away.

"Don't follow," his instruction sounds in a whisper. Even standing in a distance, his words sound as if he's beside me, speaking into my ear-in my head. "You will know when your time comes. Beware of those who are in your life; they are not who you believe them to be. Find a way to save yourself. Once you understand how, come and save us."

My feet come to a dead halt in the midst of my tracks. A throbbing pressure forces inside my head, like two brains are fighting for control inside my skull. Like he's inside my head.

Even though he speaks in simple phrases, clear words to ensure understanding, I'm unable to process a single thing he said. Why am I not safe? Save who? Who can't I trust? I don't even have the opportunity to ask for he proceeds to walk away without another word.

This time, I don't chase after him.

In a matter of steps, darkness swallows him and I'm left here, all alone with whispers and pains of my body as my only companions. My mind racks around each word, picking apart every letter he uttered, trying anything to understand even part of what he meant. Words become lost to me at a stand still, while my mind runs in circles, looking to escape the tedious trails of round and around.

After his presence departs, my senses collectively shout a giant, screw it, to his orders and leaps into motion. Pushing forward, my mind refuses to be left without a wider collection of questions than I had from before entering these woods. I need to find him. To know what he means. I know he wants to say more, he has to. As my heart jets, my stomach churns with a roller coaster of nerves and doubts.

With a few steps deeper into the unfaltering woods, hope dawns through my legs as they slow. My feet stand in the same place he was only seconds ago, his tracks outlined in the dirt. In the darkest parts between the trees, a faint light gliders down to me. A spotlight shining on the worst play in history, and I'm still trying to figure out my role.

One question bellows louder than the others, incapable of being ignored. It replays again and again in my head above all the whispers: is this all just a dream? For the truth of this being reality is too unfathomable for even the most fantastic dreams. His voice is still in my head and all I hear are those two simple words. 'Come home.'

As the broken record of my brain repeats, a flash of a face appears— someone new. A vision unveiling like a lightning strike, yet his eyes were crystal clear. Or rather a forest green, similar to mine. The illusion disappears, but his eyes, his sad eyes, remain. Another pull of familiarity drives within, even though his image appeared for a brief moment, it stays with me. As if I could draw his facial structure by that simple memory, and somehow I know that he is watching me, protecting me.

Who are these people? What do they mean to me? What do I mean to them?

With a heavy heart I realize there is only one person who can answer these questions for me.

"Serelia?" Unable to comprehend a voice, my breath halts and the hairs of my eyebrows brush together, questions surging if he returned, or ever left.

"Are you okay?" Relief eases through me for a moment, only a moment, as the voice processes and recognition swallows me. After that second, a faint-lasting tranquility turns to anger, and I whip my head around only to lock eyes with a familiar face. In the next second, regret fills, weighing on my heart.

I'd rather be eaten by the wolves.

Memories of betrayal return. How I could go the rest of my life without seeing his face, but yet, here he stands.

"What do you want, Finn?" My words pinch with a sharp snap, I turn my gaze down to break eye-contact.

"No need for hostility, Ser. We're still best friends." His whispered breath pauses, there's a small hesitation in his hands, nearly reaching for me, but when my eyes draw back to him, he pulls away.

"Correction," venom spit with each letter. "We were best friends, past tense. Doesn't mean anything now. Just go."

"I saw you running out here and that you tripped on that branch. I called for you, but you kept walking. Unless you've perfected the skill of being able to ignore me, it seemed like you never even saw or heard me." His eyes hold a genuinity inside, softening with concern as his bottom lip curls inward. Yet, I find it hard to believe he can care for me after what he did to me.

To think I had someone stand by me when the whole world was trying to bring me down, yet he was the one with the knife the entire time.

"Maybe you have perfected the art of ignoring," he mutters, but there's nothing for me to say in response. Nothing I want to say to him. A metallic taste of blood rises in my mouth, staining my teeth as they bite into the soft flesh of my tongue. Taking a harsh step to turn away from him, I move to walk away from having this conversation, from him. "Hey, please just talk to me," his hand brushes against my skin to stop me as I take another step away. As I feel his fingers make contact with my arm, I flick his hand away, the stinging of my teeth as they bear inside my tongue increasing.

"Stop," irritation bites in my words as I attempt to take another step. "I have to go."

Despite any wish I have otherwise, any desire there may be for circumstances to stand differently, the best thing I could do for myself now is walk away. Back in another life, a life before these hallucinations and before the accident, Finn would have been my knight to save me from these delusions. From these wolves. From myself. In another life we would have laughed together at the idea of me running from imaginary monsters and tripping on that stupid branch. But that was then, in that other life. This is now. And now? Too much has happened to even think of forgiveness.

"Let me at least drive you home," he persists, copying each step I make away from him.

"I'm not going home," the words muffle out instinctively. As my eyes keep on the faint light of the park, fear arises through me like a hurricane. A fear that there is no clear answer. That everything that is happening is more than I could possibly figure out by myself, and without answers, I will lose any sanity left inside. A fear that drives inside my gut, moving until there's a tight clenching in my chest as I realize what I need to do.

I need to see her.

I have to go to my mother.

***

Pictured at Top : Serelia Lone

Until then

-Xxx