Wise Lyrics from "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri

I'm not sure how to exactly fit this into life, but I feel like it's a lyric showing progress. I have worked for it, and I'm not going back.

Wise Lyrics from "Superheroes" by The Script

The Script is probably my favorite band. I love this lyric because it's sort of saying anyone can be a superhero and make a change in the world. And nothing good ever came from sitting around. You've got to stand up and take a change. 

Torn Apart

Here is another story that I've written. Hope you like it!

Torn Apart

“I have to go… iron… my cat…?” I suggested super lamely.

Eden glared at me with those sapphire blue eyes. “What is it with you Hope? Yesterday you were going to ‘polish your pool’. Now you’re going to ‘iron your cat’? How stupid do you think I am? We both know that those are ridiculous excuses. Please, all I’m asking is to let me give you a ride home! It’s for your benefit.”

I turned in the opposite direction, and sprinted.

Eden had tried to get me to ride home with him for the past month. I don't know… there was something about him that made my instincts scream RUN!!!  at the top of their instinctual voice.

I was a fourteen year old freshman with wavy light brown hair glistening like the sun. My snake green eyes aren’t a feature I particularly favor about my appearance.

I ran till it felt like icicles were puncturing my sides and stabbing my lungs. Maybe I could join the track team after this.

At last, I saw my street up ahead. I turned on it and began running to the fourth house - my house.

I soon realized that all my Olympic running had been in vain. Eden had been slowly trailing behind me in his hybrid car.

He pulled ahead of me, and I knew I had to get in the house first.

><><><><

I anticipated that he didn't have a key to my house and took advantage of that detail.

I jumped the fence to our backyard and used the back door. I locked it as soon as I was inside. I went up to my room, heart beating crazily.

I knew I was safe, but for some inconspicuous reason, I could not calm my nerves.

I emptied my backpack and spread my homework out on the floor. I spent two hours on homework, as if seven hours of school wasn’t enough. Afterwards, I creeped downstairs to watch television. The only thing that bothered me, was the Eden’s car was still outside, parked.

Suddenly, the air went deathly cold, and the rocking chair started rocking on it’s own. The front door shattered, and Eden entered nonchalantly.

“How-? Who-? What-?” I stammered, unable to speak on complete sentences.

Eden looked at me with crazed eyes. “You should have listened the first time, now it’s too late.”

The following occurrence left me standing there full of stupefaction and horror, my eyes probably bigger than the state of Texas.

Eden began to change. His height grew to about eight feet, his blue eyes glowed red, and shaggy brown hair engulfed his body.

“You’re a… You’re a…” Again, I could not complete my sentences.

“Werewolf.”

He walked towards me, and bit me.

><><><><

I am Hope. I must have been someone at some point in time, but I don't know anymore. I am sure of very few things. One, I am a werewolf. Two, Eden is my master. And lastly, I know that I must keep my hopes up, because if hope dies, we might as well all kill ourselves.

><><><><

“Hope,” the werewolf council addressed me. “What a pitiful name. You will now be named Desdemona. Do you know what that name means?” They all spoke in unison, it was sort of unpleasurable.

“No, I am sorry, I do not.”

“It means ‘of the Devil’. A powerful name it is.”

I hated this name, Desdemona. It made me sound like a different person. Well, I probably was a different person. I didn’t know who I had been prior to this, but I felt different.

This time, they didn't talk in one voice, only the Alpha Wolf, “Desdemona, as a werewolf, you will go out into the human world, and gather more recruits. Go. You will be Eden’s apprentice.” He then turned to Eden, “Eden, show Desdemona how to work her magic and transform.”

Eden bowed and I copied him.

“Follow me,” he said, and we left the council room.

He led me through a series of corridors. I surprisingly seemed to remember every hallway we passed, which was surprising, considering my previous lack of direction. It had taken me about a month to map out my school.

Wait, my school… Just as I was beginning to remember, the memory slipped from my grasp. It was so frustrating, like being asked what you had for dinner last night, and not remembering. All my past memories seemed to be on the edge of being revived, but I could not push them off the edge.

“These is your personal quarters,” Eden said abruptly, gesturing to a plain brown door. I opened it and walked into a room, fifteen by fifteen feet. A bed was pushed in the far corner of the room. A desk was straight to the left when you entered through the door. A bookshelf was on the far wall. It consisted of four oak wood shelves, each about two feet wide. A mirror was on the wall opposite of the desk. Other than that, the room was bare.

“Transformation is easy, just think of what you want to be, feel it, become it. Try becoming your human form.”

“What is my human form?”

“You know your human form, Hope.”

Everything became blurry, I reached for the memory, grabbed it, glimpsed the image of a brown haired girl with green eyes. She was smiling, but her eyes told a deeper truth. She was scared, frightened. She was having a hard life. Was this me? Just as quickly, the image vanished.

“Did you remember your former form?” Eden asked.

I nodded, but the girl was already fading from my mind.

“Good, picture her. I know that her image is probably fading from your mind. But harness it. Imagine it, and you will become it.”

I tried, she had… blonde, no, brown hair, wavy and long. Her eyes were… green.

I felt like I was shrinking. From seven feet, I became five and a half feet, approximately.

I went to the mirror, walking strangely. My legs certainly felt different. In the mirror, I saw a girl with green eyes, and wavy light brown hair - the girl from the memory.

“Is it that easy?” I wondered aloud.

“Yes,” he answered. “As long as you can imagine and almost feel the organism you plan on becoming, you can transform into virtually anything.”

“Interesting…” My voice trailed off. I had a sudden feeling of greed. “Tell me more. Tell me everything!” What was happening to me? My character was changing!

“Yes, yes, in time.”

><><><><

He taught me everything a werewolf should know. Soon, I was ready. It may have taken two years, but I was ready now.

Eden brought me before the werewolf council, where I was to pass the official test. Afterwards, I would be an official werewolf.

In the council room, Eden said, “I believe Desdemona is ready for the trials.”

“You think so?” They spoke together. “Let’s test her then.”

Out of the ground, glass lifted up. It was the type of glass that are sometimes in prisons. They were the type where people on the outside could see in, but from the inside, it just looked like black glass.

The area that was surrounded by the glass was pretty vast. I don't know, approximately four thousand five hundred square feet.

Fake houses popped out from the ground. The droids that were meant to resemble humans entered. They actually looked like humans My task was to find the one human droid that possessed power, track it down, bite it, and recruit it.

I transformed into a human and meddled around the droids for a bit. I looked into their eyes. Most looked shallow and blissful. A few looked sleep-deprived. And finally, I came across the one. His eyes were a deep deep blue color. If you looked into his eyes, it seemed as if you were staring into an abyss. His eyes were smiling, but they looked distant and dark. Those eyes were a symbol of power.

I stalked him around the “town”. His friends eventually joined him, and I heard them call him Calvin.

><><><><

I wished trials would go faster, but they went for as long as you needed. I had been tracking Calvin for maybe two hours. He was never alone. Never.

Finally, the trail room became dark signaling nighttime. The droids went to their houses and I followed Calvin to a tall blue house with a red roof.

It was the full moon tonight. Usually, werewolf can control what they become, but on the full moon, they have no choice, they need to be a werewolf. The moon makes sure of it.

I grew to seven and a half feet tall. Hair covered my body and a savage growl escaped my mouth.

I needed to hide. I found a house where there was an overhang over the patio and hid there for the night.

><><><><

Early in the morning, I woke up and found myself in human form again. I ran to Calvin’s house.

He was just leaving for school.

“Calvin,” I said. “Would you come with me?”

“No,” he said and walked around me.

“Please, all I’m asking is for you to come with me.”

“Why?” He turned around

“I need to tell you something.”

He rolled his eyes and continued on his way.

I wanted to strangle him. I really did. Unfortunately, werewolf powers didn’t work on humans. I could use it to do just about anything but control the person I’m attempting to recruit.

The only problem at the moment, was that other people were around. I could not will the ground to rise and trap him.

I circled his house. It was two stories high, with at least two windows on each side.

His parent were still in there. Didn't they have work? About an hour after Calvin had left for school. His parents began getting ready for work.

After they left for work, I shattered one of the windows on the first floor and climbed into their house.

I saw yesterday how Calvin came home first, and then his parents a few hours afterwards. I had a plan. The only question was, what to do the five remaining hours that he would be at school.

I looked at the clock on their wall. It was nine thirty. Suddenly, the arrow that counts the minutes wound forward four and a half hours, dragging the hour hand with it. The werewolf council has aided me a little. I now had an hour before Calvin got out of school.

I decided to meet him between the school and his house. I set off, and when I got to my desired location, I merely waited.

I waited for about forty-five minutes before I finally saw him coming towards me. Only problem? His friends were with him.

I confronted him anyway. “Calvin,” I addressed him confidently, “Please. I need to talk to you.”

His friends looked at me, then at him. Then they stood there awkwardly looking around as Calvin faced me.

“What is with you? Please, go away.”

He walked on and his friends followed him. The one boy who looked like the “leader of the pack” regained his position in the front of the group. Calvin hung towards the back.

He looked back at me, to make sure I wasn’t following him, and continued on his way. I did just the opposite of staying there.

I walked behind the group. When Calvin turned to check on me again, I almost collided with him.

“What do you want?” he demanded, almost in a whining tone.

“Could you just, come with me?”

“Not unless you tell me what you want!”

“Calvin, I really don’t want to hurt you or your friends.” I was sizing them up. I could totally beat them, they all looked weak, except for that boy leading.

“Hurt us? Excuse me?” the leader turned around.

“Yes, is there something wrong?”

“Did you hear that, guys?” the leader said with a mocking air. “The little girl's gonna beat us up!”

They all laughed.

I wanted to blurt, “Oh yeah?! Watch this!” Turn into my true form, and kill them all except for Calvin.

“Kill them?” I thought frightened. “Why would I ever even think that?”

I shook off the feeling and looked him in the eyes. They were shallow and teasing. I took a deep breath, restrained my wild nature, smiled, and said, “Could I just borrow Calvin for a second?”

“Uh, no.” Calvin claimed. “No you cannot. Come on guys.”

They left. I growled, received a few odd glances from the boys, and took off sprinting towards Calvin’s house.

“Whoa!” I heard some of them say, but that didn’t matter.

I got to his house in twenty second flat, and jumped through his window. With my keen hearing, I heard Calvin’s voice say, “Hey! That’s my house! We have to get there!”

Then I heard the running footfalls of the group. It took them over a minute to get here.

Calvin unlocked his front door and they went inside cautiously.

“She scares me,” one of them whimpered.

I had hidden behind their couch, but they were bound to find me eventually. I took the first step.

I jumped five feet in the air, over the couch, and landed lightly on my feet a few paces away from the boys.

“Man, she is one heck of a girl!” the leader exclaimed.

“That can’t be normal!” another one said.

I needed a way to get Calvin alone.

I advanced cautiously, and then planted a high kick in the leader’s face. He fell backward unconscious. I punched another in the stomach with inhuman strength. I knocked another off their feet. I kept on attacking them in various ways until only Calvin was left.

“What all the trouble is about?” he said. Then he added frightened,” Are you going to knock me out too?”

“No. I just needed your friends out of the way. Oh and by they way, they are totally stupid.”

“Why Do you say so?”

“Okay, normal people run away after one person gets knocked unconscious by a girl. Your friends, however, stood there like complete idiots.”

Then I cornered him, turned into a werewolf, and bit him. At that very moment, everything disappeared, and the glass walls went down.

The werewolf council was judging me. They didn’t have to converse, they could read each other’s minds. Then they all burst out clapping.

“Ingenious,” they praised in unison. “That is a very common tactic among our brethren . You are an official werewolf.”

Eden was smiling and clapping.

“Now, for your first official assignment,” they continued. “Eden will take you back to your past hometown, and you will recruit as many more people as you can.”

I nodded, and followed Eden out of the entire Wolf Building.

He ordered me to become a bird, so I imagined an eagle. After we were airborne, I saw that Eden had turned into a crow.

“Whoa, whoa, wait. I can’t have you looking better than me!” he squawked, and changed into a falcon. I laughed, but it sounded more like a cackle due to the form I was in.

After a while, Eden finally told me that the town below me was where my mission was.

We swooped down into a tree and transformed into humans, obscured by the branches. Then we jumped down, and Eden said, “You know where our base is, report back when you have recruited at least one person. This is where you were born. Good luck, until next time.”

He turned into a falcon once again, and flew off, leaving me to cruise around this town I don’t remember in hopes of finding new recruits. I thought it couldn’t go worse, but I didn’t know the half of what would happen in that little town.

I began walking in from the outskirts of the city.

><><><><

I spent the first week or so, walking, browsing, searching around the town, with no hope. I was certain that I had walked by every house in the area.

However, as I was double checking the houses, I saw I street that I didn’t recognize. I turned on it.

I got dizzy, the memories… They were being unleashed all at once. I stumbled and nearly hit my head on a tree. Just as quickly as they had been set free, the memories got bottled up again, out of reach.

I stood up slowly from the sitting position I had been in for the past two seconds. I walked cautiously forward, as if I was afraid that my legs would break.

I got to the fourth house on the street and had to sit down again. A memory… That house… It was… mine. My old house, the one I had lived in.

This time, the memory didn’t slip away, it stayed with me, and it was a good feeling.

What should I do? I didn’t know if the people living in this house had the potential to be werewolves.

I knocked anyway.

A lady answered, and she looked like she was going to faint when she saw me.

Another memory unbottled itself. She was my mother. This one stayed with me too.

“Hope?” my mother said. “Is that you?”

“Yes mother. I-”

She embraced me and the air was knocked out of my lungs. It was so painful, yet so comforting.

“What is going on?” a deeper, male voice said from behind her.

On seeing his face, I realized that he was my father. I really was home. I looked into their eyes though, because that’s what I needed.

They were both superficial and jubilant. A sure sign of weakness. These people meant nothing to me.

Hold up! How could I say that? They were my parents! Of course they were important, just not for the council.

“Please come in, Honey!” my mom ushered me in the house.

“Where have you been for the past two years, Hope?” Dad asked.

“I… was… kidnapped…” I lied, then added quickly, “But the villain was caught, in a different town…”

All I could do was hope that that was a strong enough lie. I didn’t want to cause any trouble to these pathetic mortal’s lives. What? I had just called my parents pathetic… Something wasn’t right with me.

“I see… You have a lot of school to catch up on young lady!” My dad informed.

How was I going to explain that I couldn’t go to school, I had a job elsewhere.

“We’ll figure it out later this winter break,” he went on, and I sighed with relief. It was winter break. “All that matters now is that you’re back.”

“Yes, it’s nice to be back… I’m gonna go out. I’ll be back for dinner though.” I said and bolted out the door.

Okay, now I had a place for the night, and a caring family, but still no recruits.

Up ahead, I saw a high school… My high school, I remembered when the memory was in my grasp.

I was going to go search when I realized that it was winter break and there’d be no kids there. Unless some sports game was going on. And I went to check, but my hopes sunk.

Walking back, a girl I didn’t recognize, shrieked a girly shriek, screamed ‘Hope!’, and ran over to me.

She held me by the hands, “God, Hope, where have you been the past two years? I have missed you so much!” Then she hugged me so hard I almost barfed my guts out.

I looked at her, her blonde hair hung over her shoulders in large curls. Her ocean blue eyes shone with power. They were deep, unfathomable, and understanding. She had the potential.

Maia was her name, she was my best friend. This memory stuck with me too. It was such a good feeling to be gaining memories instead of the other way around.

“I was kidnapped, but the jerk was captured in another city.” I used the same lie again.

Maia had power, I could feel it. I was really tempted to bite her and get it over with… But part of me wasn’t willing to.

I leaned toward her, ready to transform and bite, but then drew away, I couldn’t do it!

She was my friend. I wasn’t sure if being a werewolf was a good thing. But was it a bad thing? I wasn’t hurt or in pain or anything. At least not yet.

I suppose that I had suffered a great loss after being bitten, and I didn’t someone else to suffer that fate.

“Oh, all that matters,” she added, “is that you’re safe.”

“It was nice seeing you and all, but I need to be home for dinner.”

“Yes, I understand. You’re parents must be so relieved! Missing a daughter for two years is certainly… perturbing, demoralizing, formidable…”

“Okay Miss Dictionary,” I laughed, calling her by her old nickname.

“Ah, at least you remember our inside jokes, Lame Excusetress.”

We laughed together like good friends should, and it felt good. From that moment, I knew that I would never recruit Maia to the werewolf way of life. It may not be a curse, but it wasn’t a blessing either.

“Hey!” Maia called after me. I turned around. “You want to come to my place tomorrow?”

I was going to blurt out ‘sure!’ but then I realized that I didn’t remember where she lived.

“Sure, but how about we meet here.”

“Okay, here at three o’clock. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah! See you later!”

And we walked in opposite directions. It was a lonely feeling really, walking away from your best friend after seeing her for the first time in two years.

><><><><

“Mom!” I yelled into the house from the doorway, “I’m meeting Maia and we’re going to her house!”

“Okay honey! Be back no later than seven!”

“Okay! See you!”

I went back to the exact same place where I saw Maia yesterday. She wasn’t there, so I waited a few minutes. Soon she appeared.

She asked me if I had been waiting long, I answered no, and we walked off in the direction she had come from.

She led me to a white two story white with a red door. Another memory recovered.

She led me inside and up to her room.

“Oh yeah,” she mumbled. “Mom!” she called downstairs. “Hope is here, we’ll be in my room!”

“Okay, Sweetie!” the reply was.

We spent the first hour or so catching up, gossiping, and just chatting in general.

At around four o’clock, Maia’s doorbell rang.

“Darn, I forgot that Allan was supposed to come to.” She turned to me. “I invited this guy. The teacher paired us up on a science project. I had no choice. I’m sorry!”

“Oh it’s fine. I’ll just work on it with you, or something.”

“Perfect. Thanks for being so understanding!”

“Yeah. You should go study.”

We walked downstairs. Maia’s mother had just opened the door to a tall, skinny boy with dark brown hair and green eyes.

He was really cute. I think I blushed, but I had to cover it. Blushing was for the weak. I was anything but.

“Mrs. Millers,” I addressed Maia’s mother, “can I help with anything?”

“No dear, but I thank you dearly for asking.”

I nodded and sat on Maia’s couch, next to Maia. The boy was sitting in the armchair across from her.

I felt real awkward, sitting next to my closest friend, watching her talk to someone I had never even known existed on this planet. You never really notice small details in people’s houses, until you’re sitting there awkwardly, not knowing what to look at. You’re sorta all, “Nice ceiling. I like that wall… It’s so wall-like.”

They began discussing a topic I had never heard of, something called Sickle Cell Anemia. Apparently it was a genetic disease that caused your red blood cells to form a “C” shape instead of a round, donut-like shape. When the blood cells sickled like this, they could stick together or to the sides of blood vessels, causing blockage. This way, oxygen could not get to nearby muscles or tissues that needed it. They were discussing what to do for their model to show this disease.

I was looking around Maia’s house, seeming suddenly interested in the color of the walls and how far up their ceiling was. I noticed tons of minor details, including his Allan kept shifting his eyes to glance at me.

They discussed for about an hour, but it felt oh so much longer. Boredom causes everything to be long, and then time flies when you’re having fun. Unfortunately, that’s the way the world decided to work.

At last, the boy, Allan, stood up, and Maia escorted him to the door.

He turned around on the doorstep, and glanced at me again, but this time for longer.

His eyes, they were deep, eerie, and significant. He had the power as well. Why? Why did my favorite people in the world have to carry the burden?

Whoa, Allan? My favorite person in the world? Ha! I barely knew him!

“Don't get ahead of yourself, Desdemo- I mean Hope.”

“My name’s Allan,” he said.

“Des- I mean Hope.”

“Sorry? Des Hope? That’s your name?”

“No, it’s Hope.”

“Oh, cool. Nice name…” he answered. It felt to me like he just one of those moments where you aren’t sure how to reply to a comment, so you say something completely lame, like ‘good for you’ or ‘cool’ or ‘yay!’ with great lack of enthusiasm.

“Where do you go to school?” he continued on.

“Um… Maia…?” I turned to my friend.

“Okay, um, Allan. Would you like to come back in for another minute or two? This is a pretty long story.”

He answered sure and we went and sat back on the couch.

“Um,” Maia began, wondering where to start. “You read on the News App about that missing girl?”

Allan nodded.

“Yeah, that’s Hope over here,” Maia went on, gesturing to me. Then she looked at me like, You can take over from here.

“Yeah, um, I was kidnapped. And brought me to Aldley, the neighboring town. He was caught there, and I basically hitchhiked back to here.”

I hated telling lies, but sometimes, you must. Whether it’s to spare your friend’s feelings, or to make sure that secret organization you’re working for stays secret. Either way.

Allan seemed to detect my lies. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

“You realize it’s nearly ten miles from here to Aldley? And you hitchhiked?”

I gulped, “Yeah?”

“Hope ran four minute miles in middle school,” Maia added, except that she wasn’t lying.

“I see,” Allan said skeptically. “And what was the name of your kidnapper?”

“Um, I don’t know.”

“So if I look on the News App, there will be something about a criminal captured?”

“Well, it isn’t guaranteed that every single news story will be on this… App.”

The conversation was tense, and it was now Maia’s turn to feel uncomfortable.

I felt weird saying app, I didn’t have a phone! What has the world come down to? No one reads newspapers anymore, there’s social media, and Internet, and apps, and whatnot. It was surprisingly pathetic if you sit back and reflect on it all. Smart phones, dumb people. But on the flip side, it was really useful, yet sad.

“I’m going to check,” Allan replied. He seemed eager to prove me wrong. There was something about him that reminded me of Eden. The same curiosity, desire, and competitive side. It almost scared me.

I crossed my fingers tightly behind my back, as he took out his iPhone and tapped on a red app with the white letters CNN in all capitals.

He searched the page and found nothing. I don’t know if he would assume that it never happened, or if my logic would dominate his mindset.

I could only hope.

Allan narrowed his eyes a little further, but let it go.

“My parents… Have a weekly practice… To… Pray to the food gods… I have to go.”

“You and Hope both! You and I both know that is a terrible excuse, but, yes. You probably need to go.”

Allan nodded and stood up. We stood up with him.

Maia and I escorted him to the door. He stepped outside once again. He started to go, but turned around. He looked straight into my eyes, but it felt like he was looking into my very soul, digging out my secrets. He opened his mouth to say something to me, but then closed it again, turned around, and walked away.

Maia stood there for a second. Then she squealed, grabbed my arm and pulled me up to her room.

Up there, she slammed the door, locked it, and turned to face me. A giddy smile was painted on her face. I could tell she was about to gossip about something.

She may be a complete nerd when it came to school, but she was a total gossip when it came her best friend - me.

“Oh my goodness.” She squealed.

“Oh no, no, Maia, just no!”

She grinned like a madwoman. “Allan. Totally. Likes you!”

“Oh my god, Maia, no! No he doesn’t!”

“Ah!” She screeched, pointing to my face. “You’re pink! You like him too! Ah-ha-ha! My best friend and my science partner! Ah! What’s your ship name gonna be?!”

“God, Maia, no!” I blushed more fiercely.

“Alope! Or Hallan! Yes, I like Hallan! Hallan! Hallan! Hallan! Hallan! Hallan! Hallan!”

She was prancing around the room, jumping up and down, teasing me. I was not used to this type of embarrassment.

Eventually, by which I mean after ten minutes of jumping, she stopped, pulled me onto her bed, and looked seriously into my eyes. I was forced again to notice the potential her eyes possessed.

I could easily just bite her and satisfy my master, but it wasn't that easy. She didn’t deserve to hide the secrets I had to deal with hiding.

“Okay, what do you like about him?”

“What?! I never said anything about liking him!”

“Okay, but at least he likes you! Hallan! Hallan!”

“Would you just shut up? I don't like him! He’s to, proud, egotistical.”

“No he’s not! You’re lying to yourself! You like him and you know it!” She laughed like a lunatic.

I felt for just one second, that she could read my mind. “You’re lying to yourself!” She had said. Well, yes. Don’t we all lie? Even if it’s as little as, I won’t be tired tomorrow! I’ll wake up at six! We say it, and know it’s a lie. If someone said, ‘I’ve never told a lie.’ I would have to say that they were lying, because it isn’t possible.

We conversed a bit more, but then I glanced at her clock. 6:30! My mom needed me home at seven.

“I’d love to stay and chat more,” I said, “but my mom needs me home at seven…”

“I understand, it was fun,” she answered as we walked down to her front door. “Thanks for coming over!”

“Thanks for having me!”

We waved goodbye and I set off walking back to my house.

I hated that feeling when you feel as if someone is following you. I turned around, but no one was there.

I started walking again, but could not shake the feeling. I turned around again, and caught a glimpse of an odd shaped silhouette. My eyes must have deceived me, because the silhouette seemed to change form, and turn a corner.

I shuttered and quickened my pace. Something about that profile was disturbingly familiar.

I clenched my teeth, shivered again, and began jogging at a pace a bit faster than I was used to.

When I reached within a block of my house, I slowed down to fast walking, because I didn’t want to enter looking like I had just ran a triathlon.

I opened my door, closed it, and sank to the ground with my back to the door.

“What happened to you?” my dad came in. “You look like you just ran a triathlon!”

So it didn’t work.

“Um, I was just exercising… You know…”

“Yeah, uh-huh. Dinner’s ready.”

“Great, thanks!” I stood up and walked into the kitchen accompanied by my dad. My mother had just put the last plate on her spot.

We sat down to the magnificent dinner my mom had cooked. I could have eaten it all, savoring each bite, but on pondering what I had just seen, it all tasted like wet toilet paper. In other words, it was completely disgusting.

><><><><

The end of winter break came quickly, and I was enrolled into the school I had been in before the “kidnapping”.

I wondered if my old classmates would remember me. I was going to find out tomorrow, it was the first day back from winter break. I didn’t know what to wear, or where to go, or what to do just in general! I had a feeling that junior year was far more different than freshman year.

I called Maia at nine o’clock in the evening on the eve of back to school.

“Hi, I’m sorry for calling this late. I’m nervous for tomorrow.”

“Don’t be! Our schedules are exactly the same! You could just follow me!”

“You’re joking!”

“Nope! So cease to stress!”

“But what do I wear? How do I act?”

“Gosh, Hope, just be yourself. ‘It's not your job to like me, it’s mine.’” She quoted Byron Katie.

“Great thanks!”

She hung up, but I wasn’t completely satisfied.

><><><><

“Hope!” My mom was standing above me. “You need to get ready for school!”

I groaned. Why is it that your bed has to be the most comfortable when you need to get out of it?

I dragged myself out from under the covers, and to my closet.

“Be yourself…” Maia’s voice echoed in my face.

I took down a purple shirt with a white flower on it. After, I took down a pair of bell bottom jeans.

I walked down stairs to the kitchen.

I grabbed a porcelain bowl from the cupboard and poured milk in it. Then I took out our cereal, poured it into the bowl, and began spooning it into my mouth.

“So, you and Maia have the exact same schedules,” my mom said, stuffing papers into her briefcase. “So you can just follow her around all day until you learn your schedule.”

“I know, Mom. Maia told me last night!”

“Oh, in that case, I’ll see you tonight at around six o’clock. Have fun at school!”

And she left. I finished eating and went back up to my room.

I stared out the window. The view was beautiful, as always. The evergreen forest had grown since the last time I’d been here. The branches reached higher, and the sky seemed purple. The clouds looked like pink cotton candy with orange streaks. The sun was still rising, and the colors of dawn were painting the trees, buildings, sky, and clouds.

What was I doing in the human world? I needed to be recruiting people with the potential! And now I was going to school?! Was I out of my mind? I needed to just bite Maia, or possibly Allan, and get it over with! The Werewolf Council would not approve of my lagging. But I couldn't do it! Maia especially, I had known for my entire life. I couldn’t just straight out bite her. Losing my memories was not a joyful feeling. Even after I had regained them all, it still felt like a part of me was missing.

I looked out over the forest again. It surprised me that, judging by the rest of the word, this fairly large forest hadn’t been cut down. That was a good thing of course. If we destroy all of our trees for manufacturing, we’ll all die. Did the human world not see that?

I looked farther over the trees than I had before, and with my enhanced vision of a werewolf in a human’s body, I saw a small clearing. It was strange. I had been in the woods many times, I thought I had seen every inch of them. I made a mental note to go there after school today and check it out.

I glimpsed at my clock and saw that it was seven o’clock. I still had an hour before I would start walking to school.

I took a book off of my bookshelf, plopped onto my messy bed, and began reading.

At about five minutes to eight, I put the book away, and made my bed. Then I slipped on a jacket, walked outside, and headed towards school.

Soon, I reached my high school, and saw Maia waiting close to the main entrance.

She smiled as I jogged up to her, my backpack bouncing up and down.

She led me through the halls and I recognized old classmates, but they had changed so much. Girls wore makeup as if their faces were coloring books, and the boys, well, they had grown like redwood trees.

First I had physical education, P.E. Then I followed Maia to our next class. We were both learning Latin. Afterwards, we walked to English. Next science. Our penultimate class for the day was math. Finally, we had history.

I was surprised to not get a pile of homework as big a Mount Whitney.

“Bye, Maia!” I shouted after my friends who was heading towards her house. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Bye!” She turned around, waved, and smiled.

I looked around the students suspiciously, then headed back onto campus, to find a safe place to transform.

I stood behind the farthest classroom, and became a small sparrow. It is a magnificent feeling, flying. So free, so refreshing. The wind gliding through your feathers. I close my eyes and imagine that I’m flying into a sunset. The colors more on the warm side than they were this morning. Instead of purple, the sky is pink. And the clouds are purple with pink hues blended in. The air is chilly, even outside of my fantasy. And I feel refreshed.

Boy, after a day at school, everyone should be able to do this. Sitting down in a chair with a desk in front of you doesn’t exactly make you feel... liberated.

I opened my eyes and squinted in the bright sunlight. The clearing I had never seen before today was just a little farther ahead of my current position.

Soon, I swooped down into the clearing and transformed back into Hope, the human.

The area was breathtaking.

I had thought it was a clearing, because the trees that covered the ground were shorter than the surrounding pines.

I had transformed just on the border between the pine trees and willow trees. The “clearing” was in a circular shape, and willow trees grew so close together, that from above, you could not see the ground.

I pushed aside the hanging branches of a willow, and began walking towards the center. There were many vine-like branches that I had to walk through, but I didn’t mind.

Willows had always struck me as a sort of magical tree. So instead of feeling as if I was pushing through a crowd, I felt like I was a dainty fairy, making her way to the center of this magical plantation.

When I reached the center, I was just about sure that some type of mythical creature hung around here. A unicorn or something.

A smallish pond was marking the exact center. There were lush green lily pads with white lilies on them. Though I didn’t see how plant’s could grow, there was virtually no sunlight. Small fish were swimming in the water. The bottom of the pond was covered in smooth, white pebbles. The grass throughout this entire willow area was as soft as memory foam, and acted like it too. I could see the shoe imprints in the grass from where I had been. The most surprising part, there was a white bridge, crossing over the pond. Even more surprising? The bridge looked well-kept, new almost. There was no moss, pond scum, or even a single speck of dirt on that bridge.

Well, before there had been no dirt, then I climbed on top of it. The railing on the bridge went up to about my knees, so it wasn’t really meant to be held on to.

I heard the ruling of branches and looked up from my fishy friends in the water, suspicious.

My heart was beating hard, my eyes were wide and carefully trying to locate where the sound had come from.

The branches straight in front of me were pushed aside, and a boy walked in.

I screamed, he screamed. We were both screaming for what seemed like forever. But it was probably only a second or two.

Then he recognized me.

“Hope?!” He said, but I still couldn’t remember where I’d seen him. I was still screaming.

My heart was pounding so hard, that I lost my balance, and fell backwards into the pond.

My world turned fuzzy, then black.

><><><><

“Hope!” He was shaking me. “God, Hope, wake up!”

“Who-” I said. But then I remembered.

Allan. How had I not recognized him? The human brain is very adept at noticing faces in a millisecond, why had it taken me longer?

“Are you okay?” Allan was kneeling in the water next to me.

Then I realized that the water was cold.

“God, I’m fine! Let’s get out of this pond!”

He stood up and held his hand out to me.

“I know how to stand up,” I said. I did not like guys who thought that women were weak. Allan did not know a thing about me. If I had to get married for whatever reason at some point in my life, I would still never sit second place to a man.

“Fine. Whatever. I was offering my hand to the fish anyway!” he snapped at me and waded out of the water.

I followed.

“Sorry to scare you like that,” he continued after a few minutes.

“No, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t recognize you for a few seconds, and just got scared I guess.”

Then I cursed myself. I had just shown weakness. “Just got scared!” I thought. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

“So um, what brought you here?” Allan pushed forward.

“I saw this place from my bedroom window this morning, and wanted to see it. This is my first time.”

“Oh. I’ve been coming here after school for quite a while now.”

I nodded. “Cool.” Which practically ended our conversation.

“You, know, Hope,” he began again. “There’s a power within you. You may not know it yet-”

“I just remembered that I have to go and, um, you know, groom my stuffed animals.”

“Right… yeah, everyone grooms their stuffed animals.” There was sarcasm in his voice. “I’ve got to go too.”

He led me to the place where the pines and willows met.

“So, do you know the way out of here?” I asked.

“No, I usually just-” He stopped.

“You just what?”

He turned to face me. “Hope, we need to talk.”

I hated that line. First it had come from my parents in fifth grade, then my friends, and now a boy I had barely met.

My heart was thumping hard. I knew it was impossible, but I still feared…

“You know, um, my house is in the other direction,” I said and ran back into the willows. I sprinted with my werewolf agility. But then I heard branches rustling behind me, and I knew he was following, what was his deal?

I silently turned into a sparrow and flew up I between the branches. That had been too close.

><><><><

I stopped going to that spot, because I knew Allan was tracking me, and I didn’t know why.

I went to Maia’s house the next day after school. She assured me that she didn’t have meetings to discuss any projects.

Walking to her house, I kept looking back, with the unsettling feeling of being followed. I hated the feeling. Suddenly, it was so overwhelming, that I began sprinting, however without werewolf strength.

“Wait, Hope. What the heck are you doing?” Maia ran after me.

I stopped at her door, and said, “I won.” to cover my fear.

“That wasn’t fair!” Maia protested. “You didn’t give a ‘ready, set, go!’ or even a ‘race you there!’ sort of thing.

“Exactly, and I won!” I lied.

She stuck out her tongue out playfully. Afterwards, she opened her door and said, “My parents aren’t back from work yet, so we’ll be alone. You want something to eat or drink?”

Maia led me to her kitchen and opened her refrigerator. I hadn’t gotten a chance to respond, when she handed a cheese stick.

“Thanks,” I said, unpeeled it, and took a bite.

“Who the heck even bites a string cheese?” Maia asked, she was peeling hers like a banana.

I shrugged and bit it again.

After we had finished, and we were just about to go upstairs, when Maia’s doorbell rang.

A puzzled look crossed over her face. “I was sure…”

Maia opened the door and revealed Allan standing there. As soon as she had opened, he asked,

“Is Hope here?”

“Yeah, why?” I popped out from behind Maia.

“Great. Hope, we need to talk. Maia, do you mind?”

“Um, I’m sorry. This is my house last I checked, I can’t be the one left out, thank you.”

“Yes,” I completely agreed. “Normal people don’t barge into other people’s houses and sabotage their hang-outs.”

Allan glared at us, clearly defeated. “Until next time, Hope.”

He left. Maia turned around,

“He totally likes you!”

“No, I think he totally hates me.”

“Oh my god! No! Did you even see how badly he wanted to talk to you?”

“Yeah, but did you see that murderous look deep in his eyes?”

><><><><

When I was walking home from Maia’s house, it was about seven in the evening. The days were getting shorter as we got deeper into the winter season. The sun had just barely set and the sky still contained it’s blue-purple color before it would turn black.

How could Maia be so ignorant? Allan clearly didn't like me, he wanted to kill me. Or something of the sort. Maybe she didn’t have the potential of a werewolf as I’d originally suspected. But her eyes, her eyes told a different story. They were deeper than Allan’s deeper than mine. She had so much power, but how could I be sure? Should I rely on physical appearance, or her actions?

Then I felt the same ominous presence that had followed me home a few weeks prior.

I looked behind me just to confirm. Yes, the silhouette was following me again. It was time to turn the tables.

I turned to face the figure. It stopped in it’s tracks. We just stood there for a minute or so. It gave me time to figure out what it was. My vision, as I had mentioned, was enhanced with werewolf abilities.

It was a person, a boy. He was maybe a few years older than me, he was plump and shorter than I was. I hadn’t seen him around before.

I turned the tables big time, because I began running after him.

He seemed to take a minute to process that he was now the victim, then he began running.

He was a fast runner for a short, plump guy. I was maybe only a bit faster.

He turned into an alley with me just a few yards behind. Clearly, he was new around here, because the alley was a dead end.

The boy backed up to the wall, while I headed for him like a panther ready to strike. He scanned for options, realized he didn’t have any, and waited.

I jumped, and just as I did, he turned into a bird and flew away. I pushed off the wall when I got there, rolled to the ground, and stood up. I felt like a ninja.

I looked into the night sky, where the bird was flying free. I couldn’t be sure, but I think I had just met another of my brethren.

><><><><

“Hope!” Allan has cornered me at school again.

It had been about a week since I had seen another of my kind.

“Yeah?” I replied timidly.

“We really need to talk.”

“What do we have to talk about?” Waves of fear rolled over me. I tried to keep reminding myself that it was impossible.

“Hope? Have you noticed anything about your eyes? How they might be different than others?”

My eyes widened, I shook my head.

“Are you sure? I just want to say that they are really beautiful. They seem to be about four different colors. Forest green, lime green, gold, and amber.”

I exhaled deeply. I had known it wasn’t true. My fears just got the better of me. I could hear Maia’s voice in my head, “He totally likes you!”

“I’ve got to go and, uh, you know, research werewolves,” I lied. Then I mentally slapped myself. I was used to saying the first excuse that came to mind, this may have cost me my secret.

Allan’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“For fun. You know, I won’t only research werewolves, I’ll do vampires, and witches, and mermaids, and fairies, and so on.”

He was still skeptical, but he nodded and walked off.

It took me about three second to realize that I needed to follow him. Where was his house? Why was he so intent on talking to me?

I made sure no one was watching and transformed into a different form. I pictured a girl with auburn hair, blue eyes, and freckles. I turned into a taller, skinnier woman, with pale skin. Red hair swept over my shoulders. I had turned into a thirty-year-old woman. But it didn’t matter, it was a disguise.

I stalked Allan.

I followed him until he walked into a house.

It wasn’t an out of the ordinary looking house. It was tan. The roof was dark brown. The door white. Nothing strange about it.

“Dad! I’m home!” I heard him shout into the air.

“Good,” a deep male voice answered. “How was school today?” The most frightening part? I recognize that voice.

“It was cool.”

“No girlfriends or anything?”

“DAD! Seriously?”

Then they both started laughing, like a father and his son should. Allan seemed like a normal kid. His family seemed normal, he wasn’t too strange himself.

Another thought crossed my mind. Has Allan told his parents about me? Are they unaware of his attempts to talk to me?

For now, that didn’t matter. I turned and walked home.

“How was school today?” The voice had said. Who was it? Who am I not thinking of? Who am I not considering?

My brain gave me an answer. I gasped. It couldn’t be… But how could it not be? The sonorous tone, that laugh that sounded hearty. Yet if you listened was actually hollow and emotionless. But how was it possible?

><><><><

Now that I had the suspicion in my head, and it kept getting more obvious. How had I missed it? My brain kept finding evidence to further prove my thought, but there would always be a small part of me that wouldn’t be sure, until I saw it with my own eyes.

I had assumed that Allan had given up on searching for me in that spot of willows amongst the woods, so I was headed there.

The air Ruffles my feather as I soared higher and higher still. How high can an eagle fly, I wonder?

Fifteen thousand feet, I answered myself. Too bad, I thought after this fact. The clouds are twenty thousand feet up. What would it be like to fly above them? The endless sky above you, a valley of white cotton below you. It would be totally clichè. And if the sun was setting, or possible rising, the sky would be pink or purple or yellow or orange. No two sunsets paint the sky the same color.

I swooped down and landed straight in the middle of the meadow of trees. In fact, I landed on the small white bridge over the pond.

To my utter horror, Allan was sitting by the pond, looking at me. I hadn’t transformed yet, and I stayed as an eagle.

“Eagles aren’t native to the city of Rayburn you know. How did one get here?”

I remained silent, daring to hope.

Allan stood up and approached me cautiously. I flew away. In the air I transformed into a peregrine falcon, the fastest bird on the planet. I gained altitude and then dove down at a forty five degree angle. My speed went up to about two hundred miles an hour, the top speed of the peregrine falcon. Then I felt myself go even faster. Right before I was going to crash into my house, I swooped up. Another feature of the falcon, the ability to level out even if you were just zooming down to earth around three times faster than a cheetah can run.

I flew through my open bedroom window and morphed into a human being again. That had been close. How much longer could I keep this up? Allan kept getting closer and closer to uncovering my secret.

><><><><

“Hope, this is it. I won’t let you get away anymore.”

Allan yet again had me cornered.

I glanced around in alarm looking for a possible escape, but there were none.

“Why won’t you let me get away anymore? What do you want you… You… Mortal?!”

He took a step back in surprise. “Mortal?”

I punched myself mentally. “Yeah, mortal. Um, I’m a fangirl…?”

I mentally slapped myself again. Way to go make yourself look like a nerd.

“Fangirl? Right. What fandom?”

“Fandom? What? Wait... does this signify that you’re a fanboy?”

“‘Words mean what you want them to mean.’ In the words of Ally Condie,” he quoted.

I nodded suspiciously. There was truth to that. But where was he going with this?

His step back left me with some space. Maybe if I bolted unexpectedly?

There are moments when it’s now or never. This was one of those, but I couldn’t help but hesitate.

Hope, now or never. No hesitation. The opportunity will slip.

I looked at Allan, then at the spot I had chosen to run from. I gathered my energy, sort of like fueling up my werewolf speed. Then I sprinted.

Allan blinked and it took him a second to register what just happened. Like all the pitiful humans do.

Stop Hope. They aren’t all pathetic. Maia for example.

I smiled to myself, Allan would never catch me. I cannot be restrained.

I turned around to see if Allan had given up. The results didn’t satisfy me, not in the least.

Allan was sprinting right after me. Did he run four minute miles too?

I had started a few seconds before him, and I had enhanced everything compared to a human. Allan would not catch me, I wouldn’t let him. I leaned forward and ran faster than a sprint.

How far would I need to run? When would he give up? Why was he so set on talking to me about who knows what?

I ran for eternity. Or at least, what seemed like eternity. And I actually began to tire. I looked back. Allan was still following me, though he seemed to be running out of energy as well.

I was in a section of the town I was not familiar with. I turned into an alley and hoped for the best. The best apparently did not listen to my plea.

It was a dead end.

Allan slowed down when he realized I had nowhere to go.

“Well now, guess you’re caught.” He was smiling evilly. Why? “You are different Hope, you truly are. You just don’t know it yet.”

His eyes shone red. The sun was setting and the moon was awaking. He grew in height. Fangs protruded from his mouth. And he grew black shaggy fur.

My eyes must have been deceiving me.

He came forward slowly. He leaned down prepared to bite me. I had been through this before.

“ALLAN STOP!” Another body slammed into Allan.

The shock sent both people flying. They landed in their human form. Allan looked no different, and beside him was… Eden.

Allan stood, “Dad! You always asked me to gather recruits!”

“Yes,” Eden stood as well, towering a few inches taller than Allan. “But I also instructed you to tell me before recruiting them. I see you have omitted that step.”

“But Dad, she’s more powerful than the others. Look at her.” Allan gestured to me.

“Yes, I should know. I trained her.”

It was Allan’s turn to be stupefied. His mouth hung about a foot open.

“You- How- What- How- I never knew!”

“Yes, but I could have told you if you’d told me who you were going after!”

So that was the familiar voice I’d heard in his house. Eden was Allan’s father. How had I not known?

Eden had left Allan speechless. Allan turned to me.

“Hope, I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s fine, you couldn't have known.”

“If you had just told me!”

“How was I supposed to know that you were one as well!” I shot back.

“I was sure I’d made it obvious enough.”

“I was scared.”

Eden looked at me. “Hope, scared is not a word in the vocabulary of a werewolf.”

I was suddenly angry.

“Well maybe I don’t want to be a werewolf anymore. I want to live a normal life. I want to have a boyfriend, get married, have kids. You know, live. Like normal people would. I despise holding secrets from my parents and my best friend! I hate that my friend has all this trust in me, even though I’m holding out on her! I hate that Maia’s smarter than I am! I wish I had her grades! I hate that my social studies teacher gave us a map test to study for! I’m certain I’ll fail it and bring my average down even more! I hate homework! I hate pencils, they break so often! Why do mechanical pencils run out of lead so fast? Why can’t people invent an infinite lead supply for pencils?! Cars are so stupid! The mortals invented them to aid with transportation, but they’re ruining the Earth as we know it! Carbon is emitted and sent into the atmosphere! In addition, some of that carbon makes it’s way into the oceans causing ocean acidification! Many marine organisms will die! Algae is one of our main oxygen sources, so this will result in humans dying as well! We’re killing ourselves!” I stopped, confused. “Where was I going with this?”

“After you begin complaining about one thing, you end up whining about every possible thing wrong in the world,” Eden lectured.

“Yeah, that was confusing,” Allan added.

“Oh!” I recalled. “I remembered the point I set out to make: I. Don’t. Want. To. Be. A. Werewolf!!!!”

Eden smiled sadly and sympathetically, “I’ve tried, trust me. It isn’t possible. Now, back to the crime you almost committed, son. Do you know what happens when you bite another werewolf?”

Allan shook his head.

“They become savage, wild, uncontrollable. They’d also become stuck in werewolf form for the rest of their lives. See, now we are able to control our actions, letting us disguise ourselves as humans. But if a werewolf is bitten again, that won’t be possible. One, we’d look like werewolves and not be able to transform. And two, we’d be uncontrollable. So, Allan, be glad I came to intercept you, or Hope here would have gone savage, killing us all.”

“I’m truly sorry,” Allan addressed to no one in particular.

><><><><

Allan never looked at me the same way after that. I never did either. Being with Allan and Maia was even worse. There was silence between Allan and I, and then there was Maia. She would talk on and on and on about God knows what. But you could tell that she noticed the awkwardness too. D

One day, I was at Maia’s house.

“What is it between you and Allan?” She asked. It was inevitable.

“It’s hard to explain, Maia. You shouldn’t worry about it.”

“But you’re my friend. It’s my job to worry.”

“It’s totally fine. I swear. Let it go.”

“I still ship it.”

“Sorry?”

“Hallan. You know.”

“Oh geez, Maia. That’s so over.”

“Not to me it isn’t.”

Because none of it was over. No, it was all just beginning.

Maybe one day, I’d tell Maia about my abilities, and hers. I’ll prove to her that Allan does not like me. I’ll tell her about his powers too. We could all work together as a trio. Recruiting more and more werewolves.

But was that a good thing? Shouldn’t people have the right to live normally? Being a werewolf is more of a burden than a gift. Maybe I could find a way to become a normal human being again. One with a normal life. Maybe I could rebel against the Werewolf Council and its authority. But to do that, I’d need an army of rebels. And what if most werewolves are happy the way they are?

What if another werewolf bites me thinking I’m not aware of my abilities? Almost like Allan did? What if I do become uncontrollable, like Eden warned? What would I do then?

I’m walking home from Maia’s house at sunset. Instead though, I take the path by the beach - the long way to my house.

I look at the sun. It was setting on the cloudy horizon. The clouds around the sun turned orange, making the whole scene look like an exploding volcano. The clouds over the ocean were thin cirrus clouds. They appeared in a mix of pink, green, yellow, orange, blue, and purple. The clouds over the land were fluffy cumulus clouds. They look literally like cotton candy. Mostly pink, with purple splotches and a little blue as well. I turned back to the sun. It had sunk lower, and the “volcano” wasn’t erupting but rather merely overflowing.

In the opposite direction of the sun, the darkness was spreading. The dark blue blended with the light blue. Green, yellow, red, purple, and orange was also in there somewhere. It all looked like a watercolor painting. A feeling of deep peace settled over me.

No, I wasn’t going to tell Maia. I would spare her and do my best to protect her from other werewolves that try to turn her over. I will not have my best friend suffer because of my own discomforts, mistakes, and regrets. I won’t even tell her about it, never.