Chapter Fifteen - The flashback

**Trigger warning: Violence. Reader discretion advised.**
After parting ways with Ariel, Talia made her way back to the house. She felt lighter after talking with someone who knew her before. Though she couldn’t help noticing the stares when more and more people came into the coffee shop as the workday drew to an end. From what Ariel had told her she wasn’t surprised. She would have stared if someone she believed to be dead turned out not to be dead. But it made her feel uncomfortable, like she was on display. It was better to make the way back home.

Home? Adam’s house and his pack had been her home and family for such a long time. But she could see the pictures of another house, another home. Her legs remembered where it was, carried her past it on the way back to the pack-house. It was at the outskirts of town, the last house at a dead-end street where all the houses were big and fancy, built in modern times. Once she stood before it the memories came flooding back. Swimming in the pool in the back in the summers, building snowmen outside in the winter. Celebrating Christmas, going trick-or-treat, easter egg hunt, a tradition her old neighbors had brought with them from their childhood. Thinking back made her smile, yet silent tears streamed down her face. She had lost so much that day. The day everything turned upside down.

***Flashback.***
She was home alone, her parents out having dinner with some of their friends. Most of the afternoon and early evening she had dedicated to her books. The third and final year of high school had just started, and she was reading up to prepare herself the next weeks tests. On any other Friday night she would have been out with her friends, enjoying herself. But she didn’t feel like it today. There had been an encounter at school, and the incident had left a knot in her stomach. Something felt out of place, and she had tried to focus on schoolwork to distract herself. But once the sun was setting she had to give up. Her stomach growled, signaling what she had been ignoring the entire day, food.

On the way down the stairs, she sensed it first. There was a small chill, like a window cracked open. But she hadn’t opened any windows, they were all closed. At the bottom of the stairs the hair in her neck rose, the feeling of someone watching her creeping up as she walked from the hallways and into the living room. There she found the reason behind the chill. One of the smaller windows at the far end was cracked open, the curtains floating in the light breeze. “How even?” Talia asked herself as she went over to close the window. She could have sworn it was closed when she arrived at home, and she hadn’t been in the living room for hours. Once closed she turned around, noticing a print on the floor. Hunching down she let her hand brush over it, feeling the moist dirt under her fingertips. It couldn’t have been there long, it was still moist, like the ground in the forest behind the yard.

Talia followed the prints to a closet. She had seen enough scary movies to know there would be someone behind the door. But she had to open it – had to expose the intruder hiding. She could defend herself; Xavier’s lesson had helped her find control. With one hand behind her back, feeling a small ball of energy forming as she wiggled her fingers, she used the other to open the door. Reading herself to strike when she noticed the familiar face. “Noah! You scared me” The ball disappeared as she wrapped her arms around her friend, but her sigh of relief was short-lived. He didn’t wrap his arms around her, his eyes full of regret and filling with tears as he pushed her to the ground.

She caught herself with her hands, making her wrists complain over the pain. “What the hell Noah?!” But before she could get an answer the male scurried out of the house, leaving the front door open behind him. Talia slowly rose to her feet, confusion flooding her brain. What, why and how was questions that played on repeat, but she couldn’t find any answers. Noah had always been so kind to her, kind and caring. This – this was just beyond weird. As Talia went to close the door, she felt something, something was moving quickly, aiming directly at her. Before she could slam the door shut she was forced to the ground by a pair of massive paws.

The attack came at such a surprise that she didn’t have time to catch herself. Her entire body crashed with the floor, the back of her head making impact. It hurt like hell, making her see stars. “What the hell?!” She shouted out, trying to force the big creature of her. But it was too big and heavy.

Once her sight cleared, she could see the beat standing on top of her, slowly crushing her ribs. There was a wolf – but not any ordinary wolf. It was too large and dark to be any ordinary grey wolf that lived by the border to Finland. Talia knew what it was, and it scared her. It was a creature of myths and legends, to most people. But Talia knew they were real, her parents and grandparents had warned her about them since she was a little girl. But none of them expected for it to be here, crashing into their little bubble of peace.

“Get. Off. ME!” Talia screamed, feeling her power radiate under her skin, feeling the sparkles of energy snap between her fingers. But before she could attack the wolf it moved, dragging its long claws down her chest in the process. Talia screamed in pain, feeling her skin tear open under his claws, blood soaking her shirt. This damn wolf was going to pay once she could get a handle on her body once again. But he didn’t give her a chance. Before she could move away a roaring pain felt from her right wrist. She could hear bones crack, feel skin burst open. The wolf was here to hurt her and wasn’t giving her a chance to fight back. Tear stung in her eyes as her body writhed in pain. She screamed her lungs out, waiting for the sound of footsteps. Someone must've heard her; the neighbors didn’t live that far away.

“You’re getting what you deserve” A familiar voice spoke. Talia forced her eyes open, forcing herself out of the darkness from the pain. There, where the wolf had stood before, was a man she knew. The man from before, the man that had bothered her for the last two weeks. The man she had rejected in full display of the entire school earlier. The man who promised she would pay for it. Asher.

Forcing herself she managed to prop herself up on her elbows. She didn’t dare to look down at her left hand, knowing full well from the lack of feeling it was beyond repair. But her right hand was still functioning. ‘For now’ She thought to herself. “Why are you doing this?” Talia asked, her voice barely a whisper, hear throat sore from the screaming. “Because you rejected me. Now you’re going to experience what happens when someone rejects me” Asher smiled smugly, hunching down beside her. His hands were normal, yet her fingernails looked like claws. There was a sparkle in his eyes when he lowered the hand, letting the claws dig in as it slid down her arm. She tried to keep herself from screaming, but the pain made it impossible. It felt like she was burning from the inside out. The louder she screamed, the wider he grinned.

Once her left arm was fully covered in scratch marks and her body covered in sweat Asher stood again. Looking down at his work with a satisfied smile, like her body was a canvas and his hands the pencil. “You’re gonna look like a piece of art once I’m finished” He looked at her chest with a gleeful expression on his face. Talia tried to move, tried to create some distance between them, but he stopped her by putting a foot down on her ankle, pressing down to the point where she believed it would snap. “Stay” He ordered her. “Unless you want your foot to share the same fate as your hand” He nodded to the hand, but Talia refused to look. She didn’t want to see how damaged it was. But she didn’t move. Stayed in place – trying to come up with a plan. If she played her cards right, maybe, just maybe he wouldn’t leave her for dead. She wanted to believe she could get out of this, but she couldn’t convince herself.

“You’re such a good girl” Asher hunched down next to her, taking a strand of hair in his hands, twirling it in-between her fingers, an absent look presenting itself. Talia took this chance, slowly wiggling her fingers, feeling little sparks grow. She was losing blood; she would lose conscience eventually. This was her chance. She slowly rose her hand, but he was quicker than her. Wrapping her hand around her wrist it took him zero effort to snap it, dislocating it in the process. She screamed again. Screamed and screamed until her voice was nothing but a rasp whine, and all the while he just sat beside her, laughing, thrilling in the pain she was enduring. He was a sadist, and a supernatural one at that.

“There’s no escaping faith” He locked eyes with her, blue meeting dark grey. There was no remorse in his eyes, no second guessing what he was doing. He was thriving of this, enjoying himself by inflicting pain on others. Claws where still present, this time finding her other hand, letting his clawed fingers run down, one finger at the time. It wasn’t puncturing her skin, just threatening to do so. Talia could barely breath, fear had taken over. Blood was sticking to her clothes, slowly pooling around her. She needed help. She needed someone who could end this madness and put her back together. She needed Xavier. But her phone was far away, there was no way should get up and run for it. ‘Please please please help’ She thought to herself, eyes squeezed shut, picturing Xavier, hoping that somehow somewhere he knew she was in trouble.

“No passing out just yet” Asher spoke softly before another string of pain shot through her, this time from her shoulder. Claws dig into her flesh, making another scream tear from her throat as he dragged her into the living room, propping her up against the wall. When she was properly seated, he sat down before her, letting his claws run up and down her legs, one part of her that was yet to be violated. But it was coming, she knew it. “You know. This could all have been avoided, if you had simply done what was asked of you” The man smirked, his dark hair falling forward, casting his face in a shadow from the dim light outside. He licked his lips, eyes going up and down her body. Admiring his work, while hungry for more. Talia had never been so scared before in her life.

“Just one little taste” Asher’s voice was but a whisper when he moved the shredded pieces of her tope to the side, revealing an equally broken bra. His eyes lit up and he leaned down. Talia closed her eyes, brazing herself from more pain. But the instead of pain she felt something soft. Lips brushed against her chest, giving her goosebumps. Once he had removed the last fabric overing her, he leaned down further, cupping one breast in his hand while nibbling on the other. Her body betrayed her, enjoying the touch. It gave a relief from the pain, offering her body a break from suffering. But her mind hated her body. Hated her body for enjoying the action. It wasn’t supposed to feel good.

“Get off me” It hurt, but she managed to push Asher away from her. Away from her naked chest, away from violating her further. “So that’s how you want to play” Claws dig into her knees, making her scream in pain, and Ashes laughed wholeheartedly. A wicked sound that made every hair on her body stand in salute. Once he released the grip on her knees blood dripped from the open wounds. “I’m going to enjoy this” Another puncture, this time his claws were digging into her torso, leaving five holes on each side. Blood was floating like little rivers, covering her and the floor in crimson red. If he didn’t kill her the loss of blood would surely lead to her demise. And she didn’t want to die. She had so much more to live for.

“Stop” Talia whispered as his claws dug into her bare legs, leaving slashes on her thighs. “Stop” She whispered again, and his laugh turned maniac, his hands finding her bare chest, claws digging into the tissue, soon replied by a rabid mouth. Her breast where torn apart from claws and pointy teeth. She could feel the skin on her left side loose, more blood flowing down her body. Darkness was lingering at the edge of her sight, slowly taking over. Her mind was in scrambled, tears streaming down her cheeks as Asher kept clawing and biting at her, leaving every possible mark on her skin. The man was replaced by a wolf. “Stop!” Talia shouted once last time. The wolf flew off her, all across the room and out through the backdoor with the satisfying sound of shattering glass.