Silver seren/Cursed Beginnings

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Cursed Beginnings by ~silver-seren

The Story of a Lycan By Silver Seren

Chapter 1 Cursed Beginnings

Light filtered down through the leaves, lighting upon patches here and there. One of the patches just happened to be my face, but I didn't mind it all that much. The weather was nothing short of perfect: perfect humidity, perfect breeze, and perfect amount of sunlight. Truly this was a great day and I intended to enjoy it to the fullest. Sadly, this was not to be. A voice echoed from a copse of trees to my left, calling my name. "Sterling! Where are you?" I got up slowly, not wanting to leave my spot, but I knew there would be trouble if I didn't. "Coming!" I called out. I brushed off the dirt and grass that had accumulated from the trees above me as I walked through the evergreens.

The campsite spread out before me as I brushed the branches aside that enclosed it. My father was busy trying to build and start a fire, but it seemed he was not getting anywhere at all. He looked up as I entered the clearing. "Can you help me get this fire started? I don't think I'm doing that well." I smiled at that, knowing that my brother and I were the only ones who were any good at camping itself. "Sure," I looked over at the hastily made fire and I immediately saw the problem with it. "You can't just use these sticks as tinder. They aren't small enough. You need wood shavings for the sparks to catch on and light. Here, hand me that knife."

As I was shaving a stick, my mother, Elizabeth, came out of the trailer, where she was preparing the food to be cooked. "Andy, do you know where Derek is? I haven't seen him for awhile." It was at this moment that Derek, my oh so punctual brother, came out of the woods with an armload of firewood. "What took you so long?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as he stacked the wood next to the fire, now crackling merrily from my ministrations. "I took my time. Its not like we are in a hurry or anything," he replied sarcastically. My father sent him a cold glare that instantly quieted him. We knew not to make him angry. I grinned as I took some of the wood and fed it to the fire. "I'll go help mom get food ready." I left the warmth of the fire and I entered the cool atmosphere of the trailer.

My mom had all of the sides for the said dinner ready and she was just working on a soup on the stove. She jumped when I opened the door. "Oh, Sterling. Sorry, it was just so quiet in here. Go wash up. I can handle setting the food out." I nodded and stepped into the side bathroom. I turned on the faucet and splashed some water on my face, as it was black from the fire's smoke. After I washed my face thoroughly, I looked up at my reflection. What looked back at me didn't surprise me, though it certainly seemed to surprise everyone else.

Silver eyes gleamed from my reflection. It was a defect in my genetics that had given me these silver eyes and it had also given me silver hair that almost seemed to glow. Neither seemed strange to me and it was pretty nice to have things that no one else did. It seems not everyone thought the same way, but I didn't bother with them. I left the trailer to my mom and stepped back out to help my dad in setting up the table. Derek, of course, was no help whatsoever in the matter, but things were set up in short order even without him. We then ate our, according to my mother, painstakingly made dinner and it was one of the best moments on the entire trip. All of use sitting together and having a meal, listening to the forest around us. The whole trip had been without any outside disturbances to distract any of us from just being together. What I couldn't know was that this was going to be one of the last happy moments of my life, a moment that I should have savored forever.

It was late at night and we were just settling into our beds in the trailer. Mine was on the second floor, which really wasn't considering it was an attic-like compartment, and it was a little small. I was just drifting off to sleep in a hard to find good position, when a light on my face blinded me. What is that? I looked out through the window to find myself staring at the full moon that had just drifted over the horizon. The blinds slid shut as I twisted a knob on the side. It was at this moment that a howl came drifting through the night and I shivered unconsciously. I spent a moment listening to it and then shrugged and settled down again. Oh well, it is a full moon. Let the wolves have fun. I'm perfectly safe here. The thought ended as the darkness of sleep safely enveloped me.

Prey was near. Pure fresh human prey that we can rend to pieces. It has been so long since we have tasted the rich flesh of human. They will scream, but only we will answer.

I woke up suddenly for a seemingly unknown reason. Sitting up, I faintly heard weird noises coming from below me on the first floor of the trailer. "Mom, what's going on?" I called out as I slid open the trapdoor in the floor.

Drip...drip...drip...drip...drip...

Blood was everywhere. The floor, the walls, every cabinet and counter. It was like the very trailer was bleeding and the blood ran slowly down by gravity. Most of it had already congealed into a dark red mass covering everything. "Mom? D-dad?" I stammered, too afraid to go down and check. Snarling came from my right and I saw a huge wolf come out of the bedroom where my parents were. It was pure black with a single white stripe going over one eye. The stripe almost seemed to be a scar, but it must have been a very old one to be so faded. One other thing about it caught my immediate attention: it had a bloody muzzle and it was tracking blood behind it with every step it took, perfectly outlined. More snarling was coming from the bedroom, but my eyes never drifted away from the wolf below me. Please don't see me.

It had walked past the trapdoor and I was almost ready to breath a sigh of relief, when it stopped and cocked its head. Oh god! In one swift movement, it tilted its head and looked up at me. Intelligence resonated in its eyes in a way I had never seen before in any animal. As I stared at it, I could feel pure terror, but also something else. Some feeling that I couldn't recognize; it almost seemed to be longing? No that can't be. During the moment that I concentrated on this thought, the wolf leaped straight up for the trapdoor. I fell backwards in panic and rushed to undo the clips that held the window in place. A well-placed shove after this sent the glass falling to the ground and shattering into pieces.

The wolf was right behind me when I scrambled and jumped out of the window, something more akin to tripping or falling. Unfortunately, but predictably, I landed badly, partially twisting my ankle in the process. My eyes squinting in pain, I hauled myself to my feet and tried to move as fast as I could into the woods. When I took a moment to look behind me, I saw that the wolf wasn't following. It just stood there in the clearing next to the trailer looking at me, its eyes glinting almost as if it was laughing. But that couldn't be...could it? Suddenly it let out a howl that could wake the dead. The sound was answered quickly by many voices around me in the woods.

Fear overtook me at this and I ran with abandon, not looking where I was going at all. After running a considerable distance, I heard noises behind me in the underbrush and I knew they were following. No matter how fast I ran it seemed as if the sound was always right behind me. I didn't look back, mostly in fear of what I would see. It seemed like hours had past and my breath was coming out in great puffs of air, my lungs burning. I knew that I couldn't keep up the pace for much longer, but I also knew that stopping wasn't an option. Either way, the decision was taken out of my hands. It might have been that I was running too fast or it was too dark to see where I was going, but no matter the true cause, I did trip and fall. I smashed to the ground, churning up the dirt beneath me and scraping up my arm considerably.

Cradling the hurt arm beneath me, I tried to sit up and this I could do this only barely. Blood was dripping down my arm and the pain was almost blinding. Eventually, the pain started to recede and I could think again. It was at this exact moment that I heard a low growl from behind me and I fearfully turned over to look into the eyes of the black wolf. My eyes widened in fear and I edged away slowly, not wanting to provoke it into attacking me. The thought never crossed my mind that I was seemingly beyond that point. It was then that another wolf came up behind me, stopping a few feet away, and I heard more footsteps in the bushes around me. I was surrounded. The black wolf stood over me as I lay in the dirt, cringing in absolute fear. I knew something was wrong with these wolves and the intelligent eyes that stared at me impressed on that fact, but my fear was too strong for me to focus on my thoughts at all. The black wolf, once again, was looking at me in a way that I took to be laughter. This I focused upon as something infinitely strange, a coherent thought that filled my mind in its terror.

Once again my focus was diverted from my surroundings and I only realized that the black wolf had stepped forward and bit deeply into my arm when I felt the blinding flash of pain. I was shocked as the movement was so sudden that I just sat there for a moment, my brain overloaded from the pain running through my nerves. Eventually, I gritted my teeth against the pain and looked down at the wound. There were two perfectly-shaped puncture wounds on my forearm and a slow river of blood was flowing from them. I quickly placed my hand over the holes and tried to stem the flow as much as possible. When I glanced up at the black wolf once more, it was cocking its head to the side and looked interested in that I didn't scream with pain, that's my opinion anyway. Yeah, you've definitely gone crazy. You think a wolf can actually understand you and your concept of screaming and pain.

This thought was so funny to me that I almost started laughing, but another wave of pain made me groan a little. I didn't think of the black wolf as anything more than a predator that was going to kill me and it was because of this line of thinking that I was completely stunned when the wolf said, "Do you wish to join us?" The black wolf had moved his mouth and sounds I understood were coming out of it! My mind blanked out, refusing the believe the impossibility of a talking animal. Not possible! I have to be dreaming! I clung to this thought, wanting it to be true with all of my heart. If I was dreaming, then that would mean that everyone was okay. "Come on, wake up!" I said to myself, pinching the wounded part of my arm hard. Another blinding spasm of pain crossed my mind and I writhed in torment. The pain showed me that I wasn't dreaming.

Tears began to drip down my face as I realized that everything had happened and that my parents were...were... Burying my face in my arms, I didn't reply to the wolf. It tilted its head to the side again, "Well?" Sounds came out of his mouth another time, sounds that I had to see as really happening. At the sound of his voice once more, anger and rage bubbled up inside of me. "All of you killed my entire family and you expect me to just forget that and join you?!" The wolf nodded as if he expected my anger at the question. "That's the point. Your anger will feed your desire to join us and create a valuable asset to the pack. You can try to leave, but you will eventually be drawn back to us. They always do. My DNA is in your bloodstream now. You are now a part of myself, a part that will always be connected to the whole. Go then if you think your anger will keep us separated," the black wolf said.

His laughter was evident in every word he spoke. My anger continued to rise and I glared at him with every ounce of malice I could project. "That's exactly what I will do and I will never come back!" I yelled, pronouncing every word distinctly. The wolf sneered at me, in the wolf sense of it of course. "We'll see, young one, we'll see," he replied as I walked away. The circle of wolves stepped apart and allowed me to pass through unharmed. When I was out of sight of the pack I started to run as fast as my aching body would allow, but I knew what I would find.

The door to the trailer was open, swinging slightly in the chill night breeze, and I hesitantly walked up the steps. Nothing had changed, though all of the wolves were now gone. Congealed gobbets of blood were everywhere and the door to my parents room was ajar. I slowly pushed the door open, not sure if I really wanted to see what lay inside, and stopped in horror. Even though I had expected it, it still came as a largest shock. My parents were still in bed, but they were completely unrecognizable. Every feature had been ripped to shreds and blood was everywhere. I never knew that two bodies could produce that much blood, something that would always surprise me for the rest of my life. My steps echoed through the dead room and I grabbed my parent's hands, the only part of them that were untouched. Tears began to stream down my face and I buried it in their hands. My screams would echo throughout the woods for a long time, until I lost my voice in my grief.