Chapter 1 - Escape

I woke up in a room surrounded by darkness. It was very quiet, and the only sound I could hear was my own breathing. I tried to move my body, but sharp pain quickly washed over me. I ġrȯȧnėd and leaned my back to the wall. Now that I was conscious, my eyes started to get used to the darkness and I could finally see my surroundings.

The only thing around was a bloody whip and a chair. I sighed knowing that I was back here again. I am back in the room that I was very familiar with, the torturing room. I closed my eyes trying to ease the pain that I felt all over my body and snapped my eyes open when the door creaked, showing a figure of a woman who I despised so much. Fiona, my stepmother.

"Are you finally awake, Violet?" She gave me a hideous smile that sent shudders to my body.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I asked, trying to not sound pitiful but that's exactly how I sound.

"What? I'm not doing anything to you. It's your father who hit you, don't blame me, darling," she had that sickly sweet voice that made me want to puke every time I heard it. It took everything in me to not throw up every time she uttered out a word. Not to mention when every word she said was nothing but gibberish to me.

"You are the one who convinced my dad to do this to me."

"I only said a few encouraging words and your dad is the one who decides to acts on it," a wicked smile spread across her face and I grimaced by the sight of it. I wholeheartedly hate everything about this woman.

"If you hate me so much, why don't you just kill me now?"

"Oh, honey, trust me, I really want to. But now is not the time. I will kill you when the time comes. For now, you will just have to stay here, okay?" With that, she went upstairs, leaving me all alone again in the room.

I sighed and water started to fill my eyes causing my vision to be even more blurry than before. I have been to this room so many times that I have lost count of it. I didn't even know the reason why I was here all this time. All I know was Fiona whispered a couple of words to my dad and he started to drag me underground back to this very room.

What exactly went wrong between me and my father, I wonder? We were so happy before, and I was so loved. They loved me, and it was also the same for me. But it all changed when my mom died, and the wicked woman came into my life.

Only a few days after Fiona moved into my house, my dad who was once kind and loving started to become abusive, and he always looked at me with a very evident sign of hatred on his face. We never really shared any word with each other ever since. The only words we shared were when I begged him to stop hitting me which obviously he didn't care about. He changed.

Time always went by fast whenever I was reminiscing memories of my past. It was because there were so many bad things to remember that it went by fast. Though I hated almost every single memory I have in my mind, I kept thinking about it as there was nothing else to think about when half of my life was full of those memories. After several long hours staring into nothing but darkness, my mind started to drift off to dreamland unconsciously, bringing me back to the memory of that cursed day.

"Violet, run!" My mom shouted at me, and I looked at her as if she was crazy.

"No! I'm not leaving you here!" I told her causing my mom to frowned and let out a frustrated shout.

"Violet, please run! I can't hold them much longer!" She said, swinging a stick that could easily be broken by the werewolves in front. She cried out a few curses to the werewolves, angering them so that they will focus on her.

"B-but! I—" before I could complete my sentence, I was cut off by my mom.

"RUN!"

I wiped my tears away and turned around to the other directions away from my mom and the werewolves. I let out a cry and ran like crazy. I ran for God knows how long and stumbled over the rocks on the ground. A little whimper went out of my small mouth and I held back my tears while trying to not make any sound.

"What will happen to my mom? I left her with three werewolves! I don't want to lose my mom," I said to myself and stifled yet another tear.

"It's all my fault! If only I didn't ask my mom to teach me how to hunt this wouldn't have happened," I kept thinking such thoughts in my head which only allowed tears to descended down to my cheeks like a waterfall. It was such a hard time for an eight years old child to bear alone.

I walked again for a couple of minutes and heard a rustling in the bushes. This made me stop in my tracks and alarmed all of the senses in my body. Please not again!! I tried to muster my courage and turned around. As I turned my body around meekly, I saw another wolf in front of me. It carried a very strong aura that I couldn't stand. It looked like the wolves that I saw back with my mom, but a lot bigger. Its red eyes stared deep into my green eyes which were now very puffy from all the tears that came out from it. The shock of seeing yet another wolf made me fall back to the ground.

"A-are you going to kill me?" I asked the wolf with a shaky voice, " Your friends hurt my mom! What else do you want from me?!"

The wolf stared at me and started to step closer which at the same time made me move my body further away. After coming closer to only five steps away from me, it lowered its body as if asking me to climb up to its body. I stared back at it for a good couple of minutes and it started to nudge my body, clearly feeling impatient.

"W-what? Do you want me to get on your back?" I asked and the wolf nodded its head up and down indicating yes. "Why? Will you kill me if I don't get on your back?"

I didn't know what he will do to me if I do what it asked me to. It could bring me to its packhouse and made a party to eat me! What should I do? But if he wanted to kill me then he would probably do that the moment he saw me. Maybe he was a good werewolf and not like the wolves before. Should I go with him? Or should I not? I let out a frustrated groan but was met with a little irritated growl from the wolf.

"O-okay. P-please don't hurt me," I climbed up to the wolf slowly and it immediately started to run from the spot we were standing at before.

The run was very quiet as I didn't dare to make any sound. As we ran, fatigue that my little body didn't feel before started to hit me like a wave. Even if I didn't want to fall asleep, my eyes threatened to close, and I eventually fell asleep on top of the wolf's back. It was one of the most terrifying sleep I have ever had. It was unknown to me whether I will be able to open my eyes again or not.

I fluttered my eyes open when I heard the metal door creaked open for the second time and the yellowish lights from the wall torch entered, making the underground room that was once dark to be a bit brighter.

"Miss Violet, please wake up!" I heard someone whispering my name, sounding very anxious.

I glanced towards the door and saw a lady in her 40s with her brown hair tied in a neat ponytail. Familiar with the new presence in the cold room, I asked, "Anna? What are you doing here?"

She was the maid who took care of me even from when my mom was alive. She was the only one in this house who didn't treat me badly ever since my mom died. I was genuinely surprised to see her presence in this underground room which was banned from everyone in the house except for my dad and Fiona.

"The sir and madam are away right now and the only people who are in the house are the guards and some maids. This is your chance to escape this house," she said while stifling her tears, "I can't see you like this any longer, miss. I will help you escape from this house even if I will lose my life."

My eyes started to water after hearing Anna's words, "You will also come with me, right?" I asked her as I forced my body to stand.

"No, miss. You have to go by yourself. I will be here to distract the guards and other maids. I will give you an opening so you can go out."

I stared at her wide-eyed, shocked to hear her answer. She placed her index finger vertically over her lips, then pulled me upstairs slowly while tiptoeing.

"But they will torture you for letting me out! They won't even think twice to kill you!" I whispered, not wanting to attract people's attention.

Anna turned around and held my shoulders with both of her hands, "I told you before, miss. I will help you escape even if it will cost me my life," she stated, "So please go somewhere safe from them and promise me to never come back, okay? That is how you can repay me."

No matter what I said to convince her to come with me, she wouldn't change her decision after she set her mind to it. I hugged Anna and let my tears fall to my cheeks, "I will help you out of this place."

Anna smiled after hearing my words and we walked out of my house sneakily trying to not draw any attention from the guards and the maids. It was close to midnight and there were only a few guards and maids who were still awake so we easily snuck out of the house without anyone knowing.

After finally escaping the house, Anna let go of my hand and smiled at me, "Please don't come back," at the same time she said it, tears fell on both sides of her face.

"Thank you, Anna. I will never forget what you did to me all this time. You are the mother figure that I needed ever since I lost my mom," I hugged her tightly.

"You're also the perfect daughter that I've always dreamed of," Anna hugged me back and then, walked back into the house. I stared at her retreating figure for a good few minutes before turning my own back away from the house.

I started to run, far-far away from the house. After running for a certain distance, I heard someone shout from the direction behind me. It was then followed by a few more footsteps. Guessing from the sound of the footsteps, there were probably around three to four people running behind me.

"Hey! There you are! Don't even think to run away! Come back here!"

Hearing that, I started to panic and ran faster. What do I do? I think it was the guards from the house. My body shivered to the thoughts of coming back to that house. I ran from the people behind me and didn't dare to look behind at them. I ran crazily, not minding the stare from the few people who were still on the street. The dress that ran until the length of my ankle didn't do justice to all the running that I was doing and it was fortunate enough that I didn't trip on it.

After a few minutes of running, the footsteps of those chasing behind me could no longer be heard. Making sure that they weren't still after me, I turned my head around hastily. Fortunately, there was no sign of my pursuers.

Just as I turned back around towards the direction I was headed to, I bumped into someone. Are they not behind me, but in front of me?! I panicked, but the impact from the bump sent me falling backward. I peeked my eyes up slowly, nervously looked for what I had just bumped into. As I raised my head, I saw a tall man with jet black hair staring down at me with his red eyes. He looked very surprised to see the state I was in. Well, anyone would be just as surprised if they looked at my bloody state, moreover, the ragged dress that I was wearing. He must've thought that I was a runaway slave that was chased by the silly guards.

He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the shouting from the guards that chased me before. "Oh! Thank you for catching that little troublemaker. Please give her back to us," said one of the guards while panting for air.

Not knowing what to do, I frantically held the man's hand and pleaded, "Please save me! They are going to hurt me! I don't want to go back!"

The man first looked at me for a couple of seconds, then to the guards, "Go," he said to the guards grimly, before helping me stand on my feet. "What?" asked the guards, confused by the man's words.

"I said go... before I kill you," he threatened. I was hiding behind the man's back and couldn't see his face, but my guts told me that he meant his words.

The guards looked surprised by his words but quickly recover from them and instead, started to challenge the man, "We won't go before you hand us that girl."

The man sighed and said, "I warned you." After that, the man let go of my hand and turned my body around, "Don't look," he said before starting to walk towards the guards.

Every step he took exuded confidence, and he was not the least scared of the guards who were armed with swords when he himself got nothing but his bȧrė hands.

I closed my eyes even with my back towards them and heard one of the guards scream trying to attack the man. No longer after, the only sound that I could hear was something like... bones breaking.

A few moments later, it was completely silent. Was he finished? The silence was soon broken by footsteps that I ȧssumed were getting closer to where I was. Is this the footsteps of the man or the guards? That was the question that popped up in my mind.

I was ready to run, but before I could proceed to do just that, two strong arms grip both of my shoulders, turning my body around. I nervously opened my eyes to found a pair of red eyes staring softly at me.

"Are you okay?"