Hope’s Story
Illiana could not hold back these feelings any longer. Romero was cold to the touch, but he was not unfeeling. No, his century of unlife could not quell the beating passion inside his muscled chest. She knew this in her soul, right down to the dark depths of it, because in those dark depths was the black sun, the empty spirit of the cosmos born within her mortal body, the only essence left of God’s will, for God had been a jealous goddess; she had to tame Lucifer’s most terrible creation yet, the oligarch patriarchy of Orenstad, taming the vile patriarchy with her own essence.
Romero ran the narrow fingers of his right hand down the bare, sweaty flesh of the top of Illiana’s left breast. It was hot in her red gown, but his cold touch soothed her, chilling her with his unholy love, an arrow of darkness, straight down to the marrow of her very core…
Hope looked up from her laptop and grinned. This next part was going to be the best part so far, but she was going to have to handle it carefully.
“And then they banged like monkeys,” she nodded.
She giggled as she shook her head no.
“You’re such a dork, Hope,” she said to herself, and then she took to typing once more.
He gripped her around the waist and bent her backwards, so she bared her neck for him. He had to take her; now was the time, for if not now, there would be no other. She reached down with her right hand, and her fingers touched the bulging outline of…
“Oh, Hope, I’m so glad we found you,” came a familiar voice.
Hope looked up to see Saffron, and behind her was the tall blonde figure of Haley.
“Oh, hey!” smiled Hope.
She closed her laptop. She’d get back to that in a bit.
“What are you guys doing in the library?” she asked. “I’m just in here finishing up on a project.”
“Oh, we were just studying some paranormal stuff,” replied Haley. “But now that we’ve found you, well…”
“How are you doing?” asked Saffron.
“I’m okay,” shrugged Hope. “I’m fine, I guess.”
“Do you want to talk?” asked Saffron.
“I don’t know,” said Hope. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…I’ve been trying to have a one on one with everyone,” explained Saffron.
“Uh, huh,” said Hope. “What about?”
Haley rolled her eyes and sighed.
“You know what about, Hope,” she said.
Was this about the werewolf thing?…She really didn’t feel like talking about that.
“I don’t…Listen, I really have to finish this project…” began Hope.
“It can wait,” said Saffron. “Why don’t you come back with us to the chapter house, okay?”
“I don’t really have time,” said Hope as she shook her head no.
Saffron gave Haley a strange look. The blonde sighed, rolled her eyes, and then nodded her head as if reluctantly agreeing to something unspoken between them.
“Pick up your things and come with us,” said Saffron. “Say, ‘Yes, my queen’ if you understand.”
“Yes, my queen,” replied Hope.
She stood up, opened up her laptop, saved her work, and then shut down her device.
“Wait, what am I doing?” she asked herself.
She unplugged her laptop, rolled up the power cord, and placed the mini-PC into her backpack.
“Wait…I don’t want to do this,” she said nervously.
Something was wrong here. First of all, she had no interest in talking to Saffron. She barely knew her. Plus, Saffron was a pledge, but Haley had been treating her like…like the president of the president…It was weird.
But this was not as weird as what was happening now. Hope had just put away her things, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and was now following the pair out of the library, and none of those things were things she actually wanted to do.
“Wait…I have things to do,” she protested. “I don’t want to go with you. Why am I following you?”
“I told you she didn’t know, Saffy,” said Haley. “They don’t really understand like you, me, Stephanie, and Benji do.”
“What does Benji understand?” asked Hope. “She hasn’t told me anything.”
“Are you good friends with her?” asked Saffron.
“She’s my roommate,” said Hope. “Of course, I’m friends with her.”
“She should have told you then,” said Saffron, “but this is Benji we’re talking about, so it doesn’t surprise me she didn’t say anything.”
“Say what?” asked Hope. “Listen, I really have things to do. I don’t want to go with you…Something’s wrong…Hey…Hey, I can’t stop following you!”
“Don’t panic,” said Haley.
“Say, ‘Yes, my queen,’ if you understand,” said Saffron.
“Yes, my queen,” replied Hope. “Hey! Why did I say that! What is this!”
Haley gave a slight chuckle.
“What’s so funny!” demanded Hope. “What is this! This isn’t funny!”
“That’s Saffy’s power,” said Haley. “She’s the queen of the pack, Hope. Don’t you understand? She’s possessed by Garm, so when she tells you to do something, you’re going to do it whether you like it or not.”
“That’s not funny!” protested Hope. “What if she tells me to kill someone! What if she tells me to have sex with some…Well, maybe that one’s not so bad if it’s a hot guy, but…
“No, no, no! I don’t want to follow you guys anymore! This isn’t funny! This is serious! I don’t even know this girl very well!”
“Well, you know me now,” said Saffron. “I’m your queen, and you’re coming with me and Haley right now…After our one on one, I’ll leave you alone to do whatever it is you were doing, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay!” panicked Hope. “No, this is not okay! Somebody needs to help me! Hey, I need help!”
“Calm down,” ordered Saffron. “You’re trying to panic, but I ordered you not to panic, so that’s why you’re calling for help but not yelling…Now, you’re going to calm down. Answer me with ‘Yes, my queen,’ if you understand.”
“Yes, my queen,” replied Hope.
She did feel calmer now, but even that was unsettling.
“This is wrong,” she said unhappily. “You can’t do this to me. It’s not right, Saffy.”
“Unfortunately, we have to,” said Haley firmly. “I already knew you weren’t going to agree to come, so Saffy had to put the evil eye on you, or you weren’t going to do it. She has to talk to everyone one on one, and you’re the first unlucky soul we’ve run into right now, so you’re it.”
“I don’t want to be it,” frowned Hope. “I want to go back to writing my story.”
“Story?” asked Saffron. “Ah…So that’s it. You can get back to writing after we’ve had our one on one. Answer all of my questions with ‘Yes, my queen,’ from now on until I tell you not to.”
“Yes, my queen,” said Hope. “What the…? I hate that! I don’t want to do that!”
“Like it or not, Saffron’s above me in rank now, Hope,” explained Haley. “She’s the queen, and I know that’s not fair—I wanted to be the queen, honestly—but that’s life. We have to do what she says now. Besides, she’s genuinely trying to undo this curse so we can all get on with our lives.”
“We’re heading out to Haley’s rental, so follow us,” ordered Saffron.
“Yes, my queen,” replied Hope. “Oh, I hate that so much!”
“Really?” asked Saffron. “I suspect Malicia’s going to love it.”
Haley chuckled at that remark, but Hope didn’t particularly see that remark as funny.
“Oh, her,” said Hope unhappily. “Yeah, she’s got a thing for Gabrielle, but she also likes you for some reason.”
“We know,” giggled Haley. “She’s made it very clear in her own way.”
“Yeah,” chuckled Saffron.
They walked out of the library and into the library parking lot. They then made a beeline for Haley’s rental.
“I can’t understand why she isn’t attracted to men, though,” said Hope. “I just can’t get enough of those hot butts in their tight little spankies…spankies for men, anyway…”
Saffron turned to look at her in clear visible confusion.
“What campus are you going to?” asked the new “queen.”
“Yeah, I don’t think lycanthropy is good for Hope,” said Haley. “She was already horny before Garm’s curse…Can’t imagine what it’s doing to her now.”
“I’m fine,” protested Hope. “I keep telling you that!…I don’t want to talk about the werewolf thing anyway. I’ll just deal with it until someone smarter finds a way to break the curse…Besides, other than the blinding pain of transformation that makes you want to die…it’s pretty freakin’ great running around as a big bad wolf. I loved it.”
“Huh…Strangely enough, I can’t argue with that,” said Saffron. “There’s just a…a primal electricity about running around wild like that.”
“Yeah, that part’s good,” nodded Haley. “It’s the whole rape, murder, and cannibalism part I don’t like.”
“Touché,” said Saffron. “That’s the part we have to worry about. That’s why we’re going to find a way to break this curse.”
“Great; do it,” said Hope. “I don’t want to be ordered around anymore. This is humiliating. It’s humiliating, and it’s freaking me out. I don’t like it, Saffy!”
“I get that,” said Saffron. “Get in the back seat, Hope, and stay calm.”
“Yes, my queen,” replied Hope. “Oh, God, I hate that, and now I can’t even get excited about hating it…How are you doing this? I think I’m going to start crying in a moment.”
“You don’t have to cry, Hope,” said Haley.
They got into Haley’s rental, and Hope took her seat in the back as Saffron took the front-passenger’s seat. Haley started the car, and they were off, apparently to the chapter house, but Hope honestly felt like she was being abducted…not to mention her precious time was being wasted. She needed to finish her story.
“Well, Garm is possessing me,” said Saffron. “To answer your question, Hope, that’s how I’m doing it. Trust me, you do not want him inside of you.”
“You really don’t,” said Haley. “I think I could take him on for you, though, Saffy.”
“Why would you want to do that?” asked Saffron. “You have no idea what it’s like to be possessed by him. He could corrupt you, Haley…He probably will over time.
“It’s not that I’m incorruptible, but I am stubborn, which is why I’m speed running a way to try and break this curse. We’ve got to break it before he fully gets to me.”
Well, the answer to why Haley suggested taking on Garm was pretty obvious.
“She just wants to be queen,” said Hope.
“Thanks, Hope,” replied Haley in a slightly bitter tone.
“Look, I really don’t like this,” said Hope. “This isn’t Ella Enchanted. This is real life. You can’t be doing this, Saffy. You can’t be ordering me around like this.”
“I have no idea what Ella Enchanted is, Hope,” said Saffron. “I do understand why you’re upset about the queen and command thing, though. What I don’t understand is why…is why you’re so…uhhh…unfazed by the whole curse thing and the fact that werewolves are real…err…vampires are real…demons are real…God may be real…”
“I always figured all that stuff was real,” said Hope.
“Even the religious part?” asked Haley.
Hope shrugged.
“I guess,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t think about it. What’s there to think about anyway? If all that stuff is real, what am I going to do about it? All of that’s way bigger than me, so why stress over it?”
“Okaaaay,” said Saffron in an amazed tone. “You are like the exact opposite of a Lovecraft character, Hope. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” frowned Hope. “It doesn’t matter, though, because what you’re doing is wrong, Saffy. You need to let me go. Don’t be doing this anymore, either. It’s not right. You’re making me mad. Stop being a bitch and let me go.”
“She’s got you pegged,” said Haley.
Saffron turned and looked over at the blonde, but she held a deep frown upon her pretty face.
“Pull over somewhere safe and park the car, Haley,” she said unhappily.
“Yes, my queen,” replied the tall blonde.
Haley pulled into a Busy All parking lot and parked the car. The little convenience store/gas station had a number of cars at the pumps, but Haley had parked in a customer spot next to a couple of other cars.
Saffron turned and stared directly into Hope’s eyes.
“You and I are going to have a talk,” said the strange girl.
“No, we’re not,” said Hope. “I have things to do. I don’t have time for this. Quit being a bitch.”
“I don’t care,” argued Saffron. “I have to get this thing out of me, and this curse has to be broken, so everyone has to be onboard. And stop calling me names.”
This wasn’t going to work.
“I don’t care,” said Hope as she shook her head no in a mocking way. “You’re going to let me get back to what I was doing. And you’re just being a bitch anyway.”
“No,” said Saffron firmly. “This is more important. I’ve got to get rid of this demon prince, or everyone is in danger.”
This really wasn’t going to work. This was nothing but frustrating, and Hope was not going to put up with it.
“Let me go, you stupid whore!” she hissed.
“Oooooh, shit,” said Haley. “Oh, Hope…”
The blonde’s face was a cast of straight-up fear, but Saffron’s face was a storm of suppressed rage.
“It’s clear to me that you are the adult version of O.D.D.,” said Saffron in a cold tone, but there was actual anger in her voice now. “That makes you a sociopath…and I don’t put up with sociopaths.”
“You started it, you stupid bitch!” argued Hope.
“Saffron, don’t,” warned Haley.
“I have warned and warned and warned everybody about Garm,” said Saffron as her eyes continued to lock with Hope’s own. “I don’t want this power, I don’t want to use this power, and I don’t even like this power, but I think it’s high time I showed you what Garm can do.”
“Do it, then,” said Hope. “I’m not scared of you. Go be a dumb bitch somewhere else.”
“Oh, I’ll do better than that,” said Saffron in her cold voice. “You want to be selfish? You want to be a little sociopath, huh? You think you’re better than the rest of the pack? That tells me you want to be queen…You want to be queen? Fine…You can have Garm.”
“What?” asked Haley. “Saffron, that’s just the way Hope is. Don’t do th—”
Hope clutched her head in both hands as she closed her eyes and screamed. The ancient being who was…that was…Garm, invaded her soul. This thing tore at her from the inside out, ripping into her soul like a cannonball through paper.
It got to her through the rage. She was already angry, but Garm’s rage amplified the fury inside her to the cosmos and beyond.
Her bones broke all over her body as sandy-blonde fur sprouted from her skin, and then the passenger door was off its hinges as she burst from the rental in a furious whirlwind. The change had not been slow this time, either, and it had been a full change, so the pain was on an exponential level, far worse than the original transformation on Saturday night, and this only energized her fury to the top and beyond.
She charged the first person she saw, a man in a business suit walking out of the Busy All. He didn’t even have time to scream as his head left his body, the blood like a fountain from the stump that had once been his neck. His body fell backwards as the severed head flew through the air, but where it went, who knew. Hope tasted the blood in her new maw, and then the hunger kicked in, causing the rage to burst open like a bleeding rose.
A younger woman in formal wear and heels screamed as Hope charged her next. Hope’s bestial fangs sank into this poor victim’s soft midriff, and then that woman was torn in half at the waist, the two halves falling as entrails wrapped around Hope’s canine head, but the savagery did not end there…It could not end there, not with all of Garm driving her…
The thing inside her reveled in the carnage, the blood, the offal, the smells of copper fear.
She looked over, and inside this now deceased woman’s car, this compact car next to the pump…inside this car was a baby in a baby-seat. Hope crashed through the rear-passenger window, the glass shattering, her bloody, gory maw opening as the baby’s tiny head grew closer…
Hope snapped out of the vision as she trembled within the backseat of the rental. She had tears running down her cheeks, though she couldn’t remember when she had started crying.
“That’s what Garm is like,” warned Saffron. “Haley, take Hope back to wherever she wants to go. I’m leaving. I’ll just walk back to school. I need to calm down. It’s hard sometimes for me to remain calm, and I can’t do it here.”
“Yes, my queen,” replied Haley.
Saffron’s yellow eyes burrowed right through Hope’s soul, burning a hole right through her.
“And you…You don’t ever…ever…treat me that way again,” she warned. “Am I clear?”
Hope gave a weak nod as she wiped at her slightly chubby cheeks. There was no argument there.
“Am I CLEAR!” yelled Saffron.
Her face warped into something entirely inhuman, the skin darkening, the eyes a glowing yellow, the fangs out, the nose broad and dark, but then she was just the normal Saffron again, the normal stranger that, unfortunately, Hope knew very little about.
“Y-yes, my queen,” stammered Hope, though she had not wanted to say it.
Saffron said nothing else; she simply left the car and walked off.
Hope waited for her to get some distance before exiting the vehicle and getting into the front passenger seat. She was still crying, so she wiped at her eyes yet again as she buckled in.
“Do you want to go back to the library?” asked Haley.
Hope shook her head no. She didn’t want to write right now. That had been ruined, all of her inspiration, gone for the moment.
“We’ll go to a restaurant, then,” said Haley. “I’m feeling peckish.”
Hope could only give her a weak nod. This was all screwed anyway. All she’d wanted to do was write…That’s all she’d wanted to do.
Haley pulled out of the Busy All lot and headed out into the street.
“I know…I know that what Saffron can do is wrong,” said Haley gently. “I know it’s wrong. I don’t like it, either, but Saffy isn’t your sister, Hope. You can’t be like that with her. You can’t be like you are with Charity. And you’re right; she’s little more than a stranger, and…and you definitely can’t treat a stranger that way. When we were in the real world…something like that can get you killed.
“You’re too used to Charity, Hope. You can’t talk to other people that way…But I understand why you’re upset…That’s one of the reasons I want to be queen. I want to make sure this power is properly managed.
“What did she do to you, anyway? I just saw you freak out in the backseat, but I don’t know what happened. Whatever happened, the look on your face was…something I’d rather not describe.”
“I-I don’t want to talk about it,” stammered Hope. “I-I don’t want to be the queen. I don’t want to be the queen. I don’t want to be the queen.”
“Okay,” said Haley. “Well, whatever happened, you definitely don’t want to be the queen.”
Hope nodded and tried to stop crying, but all she could do was whine and cry some more.
“Oh, Hope,” said Haley in a sad tone. “I’ll talk to Saffron. Maybe she’ll let me be the queen instead. We’ll just find some way to transfer—”
“N-No!” choked out Hope.
“Hope?” asked Haley.
“No,” replied Hope in a calmer voice. “No, you don’t want to be the queen. I-I-I don’t know how she’s holding that thing back, because I couldn’t do it…b-but I know one thing: You don’t want to be the queen.”
“Okaaaay,” drawled out Haley. “Can you tell me why?”
“N-No,” choked out Hope. “No.”
“Well, she clearly scared the living daylights out of you,” said Haley. “Let’s go get something to eat, okay? I’ll pay for it.”
“I-I’m not hungry,” stammered Hope.
“Well, I’m hungry,” replied Haley. “I feel like pizza. Yeah, pizza sounds good.”
“H-How do you eat so much and stay so thin?” asked Hope.
“I don’t know,” shrugged Haley. “I just hit the jackpot when it came to genes, I guess. Blonde hair, blue eyes…thin…I guess I just piss off all of the haters like Sydney Sweeney does.”
“Y-Yeah,” said Hope.
They drove to Haley’s favorite pizza place. Haley drove the car into the busy lot and parked the car next to a silver Bimmer.
“That’s Charity’s car,” said Hope. “Did…Did you know she was here?”
“That’s Charity’s car?” asked Haley. “I didn’t know she was here, Hope…but you don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to. If she says something, I’ll just chase her off.”
“No,” said Hope. “No, she’s my sister. I’ll deal with her.”
They walked inside the restaurant, and the first person they ran into was, in fact, Charity. The young lady was with her roommate, Daria. They had clearly entered the building just before Hope and Haley had shown up. It was obvious they hadn’t ordered anything yet.
Charity looked directly at Hope, shook her head, and scowled.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Can’t I have one day off without having to look at your fat ugly face?”
“Leave her alone, Charity,” warned Haley. “She’s had a really bad day.”
The young woman was about to say something mean, but she took one look at Hope and cut that insult short.
“What happened to you?” asked Hope’s sister.
Hope shook her head no as she wiped tears from her eyes.
“Saffron got mad at her,” explained Haley. “They had a fight.”
“What did she do?” asked Charity.
“Oh, Hope got frustrated with her, and then there was the name calling,” said Haley. “That made Saffron really mad.”
“No, what did that bitch do to my sister!” hissed Charity. “What did she make you do, Hope!”
“She’s not a bitch, Charity,” warned Haley. “Saffron has big trouble going on in her life right now. Don’t call her that.”
“She abused my sister!” fired back Charity. “And my name is Hatea. Use my real name.”
“I am,” said Haley as she rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to call you two ‘Hatea and Sin’ in public. That’s so cringe. It’s like you never left middle school.”
“Whatever,” frowned Charity. “You didn’t answer my question. What did Vengencia do to my sister?”
“L-Like you care,” stammered Hope.
“Of course, I care,” scowled Charity. “Only I get to call you a fat ass.”
“Leave me alone,” said Hope.
“Come on, guys,” said Haley. “Why don’t we all sit down and have some pizza. I’ll pay for it.”
“Well, that’s nice,” said Daria. “I won’t argue with that, but I’m not paying you back.”
“That’s fine,” sighed Haley.
They were all guided to a booth, and they took the next few minutes to order their food. After that was finished, Charity immediately began to needle Hope, but Hope honestly did not want to talk to her stupid sister about…well…anything.
“Tell me what went on, Hope,” frowned Charity. “I need to know.”
“No, you don’t,” argued Hope. “I told you. I don’t want to talk about it.”
This was not going to stop Charity, however, but Hope already knew that.
Her stupid sister turned to the blonde president of Beta Theta Sigma for answers.
“Haley?” asked Charity. “What in the hell happened?”
“She got into it with Saffron,” sighed Haley.
“I know that already,” said Charity. “Why? Why did she get into it with Vengencia?”
“Because we had to use the queen and command power to get Hope out of the library,” said Haley matter-of-factly. “Hope wasn’t too happy about it.”
“I just wanted to write,” sniffed Hope.
She felt some tears well up in her eyes. Oh, this was awkward. She was definitely going to start crying again.
“I just…I just wanted to write…” she wept.
“What did Vengencia do?” asked Charity. “Why did you need Hope out of the library?”
“For a one on one,” explained Haley. “Saffron is trying to get everybody motivated. She needs everyone onboard to break this curse. It wouldn’t have taken much time, but Hope wouldn’t go with us, and she freaked out when Saffy commanded her.”
“Nobody told me she could do that,” choked out Hope. “I told her it wasn’t right. You can’t do that to me…It isn’t right.”
“We know, Hope,” said Haley with a sad smile. “Saffy knows that too, but she’s desperate. She’s really, really desperate and scared.”
“What happened then?” asked Charity. “Is that why you’re crying, Hope? You’re crying because she ordered you around?”
“N-No,” stammered Hope.
“Nope,” said Haley as she shook her head no.
“What happened then?” asked Daria. “I don’t mean to repeat Hatea, but Vengencia doesn’t strike me as being a particularly vicious person…She spared Wenna, and that’s more than I would have done.”
“We drove off to go back to the chapter house, but Hope wouldn’t let it go,” said Haley.
“And?” asked Charity.
“Well…let me explain it this way,” said Haley slowly. “I get that you wanted to write, Hope, but it’s one thing to want to write when everything is fine, but it’s another thing entirely when you want to write when the library is burning down around you and the fire department makes you leave.
“It also doesn’t help that you called the fire chief a bitch and a whore just because you didn’t want to leave…And then you wonder why you got thrown in jail once you were outside the building.”
“You called Vengencia a bitch and a whore!” gasped Daria in visible disbelief.
“Are you out of your freakin’ mind!” scolded Charity.
“N-Nobody told me she was the queen,” choked out Hope. “Nobody told me that…And it wasn’t like being thrown in jail, Haley. It was like being set on fire once you were thrown out of the building.”
“What happened?” asked Charity. “What did Vengencia do?”
“N-No,” said Hope with a shake of her head.
“I don’t know,” sighed Haley. “Saffy called Hope a sociopath…Then she told Hope that she could be queen…uhhh…that Hope could be queen…Then Hope freaked out in the back seat. She started screaming, and she was shaking and clutching her head…Then it was over. She just started crying after that.”
“What actually happened, Hope?” asked Charity. “Did she give you a vision? Because I’ve been on the receiving end of one of those, and it wasn’t fun.”
Hope nodded her head as she took in a gulp of saliva.
“Did she hurt you in that vision?” asked Charity. “Did she kill you!”
Her sister sounded…angry…and that was really strange, but that anger was misplaced.
Hope shook her head no.
“She…She showed me what it was like to be queen,” said Hope.
“Okaaaay,” said Haley. “And that was bad?…I don’t understand.”
“She showed me what it was like to…to have Garm inside of me,” said Hope.
“Oh…” said Charity. “I wasn’t expecting that…What was it like?”
“I don’t…I don’t want to talk about it,” said Hope.
“She’s scared shitless, Charity,” frowned Daria. “I can tell. I can read emotions.”
“No, you can’t,” snorted Charity. “Whatever.”
“No, I can,” said Daria. “It…It’s something I can do ever since…you know…”
“Is that your power?” asked Haley. “Mine’s super hearing.”
“Really?” asked Charity. “Wait…I don’t have a power. Why do you two get powers?”
“Talk to Macy,” said Haley. “She thinks we all have one. My guess is…you just don’t know what yours is yet.”
“Huh,” said Charity. “Well…that doesn’t matter right now. I should go talk to Vengencia. I want her side of the story…Whatever happened…This isn’t right. She shouldn’t be doing that to my sister.”
“You don’t care about me,” choked out Hope.
The tears were still flowing, and they hadn’t even gotten their pizza yet.
“You’re my sister, you dumbass!” scolded Charity. “Of course, I care about you!”
“No, you don’t,” wept Hope. “You left me in the chapter house to die when you…you thought Stephanie had sent over Saffron to kill us…You don’t care about me at all.”
Charity looked taken aback. For once, Hope’s own stupid sister looked speechless.
“It’s because…I…I did try…I told her it wasn’t right…” stammered Charity.
“That’s it?” asked Hope. “You told her ‘It wasn’t right?’ You didn’t do anything to stop her.”
“To be fair, Hope, she was terrified,” said Haley. “I remember. Charity was scared shitless just like you are now. She couldn’t do anything to stop Stephanie. You must know that, right?”
“I wasn’t terrified…” said Charity in a sulking tone.
“You pissed your pants,” nodded Haley. “I remember. I was there.”
“I remember,” sniffed Hope.
“Just, shut up,” scowled Charity. “That doesn’t matter…I’ll talk to Vengencia, Hope. I want to hear what she has to say.”
“Then do it,” said Haley. “I think that’s a good idea. She wants to have a one on one with you anyway.”
“Well, she’s not getting one,” said Charity. “Hope is coming with me.”
“No,” said Hope. “No, I don’t want to.”
“Why not?” asked Charity, her face twisting into visible confusion.
“Because I’m scared,” said Hope.
“Scared of what?” asked her sister.
“You don’t have to be scared of Saffy, Hope,” said Haley. “She doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Yeah,” said Daria. “Once again, she showed Wenna mercy, and if anyone deserved being ripped apart, it’s her. I say ‘deserved’ instead of ‘deserves,’ because she did do a 180 and save Benji, but that still doesn’t make up for what she did.”
“No, that’s not it,” said Hope.
“Then what is it?” asked Haley.
“I’m scared of turning into a wolf again,” admitted Hope. “I told Saffron that I didn’t care about the whole werewolf thing, and that was true at the time, but now I…I’m scared of it. I don’t know what’s going to happen on the full moon…She’s going to know…She’s going to know, and she’s going to use it against me.”
“That’s just pride talking, Hope,” said Haley. “If any one of us understands what living with this curse is like, it’s Saffy, so don’t be afraid, okay?”
Hope nodded in understanding, but that nod was a lie. The truth was exactly as she had previously stated, and now she was going to look like a little baby bitch in front of the so-called “queen,” and that was something she was going to have trouble stomaching.
The real truth?…She wasn’t going to give that bitch an inch. Not one.
*****
Hope walked to the end of the pier. The moon was out, a beautiful ring of white above the ocean waves, the lapping of those waves a subtle song in itself. There was no artificial illumination out here, nothing to spoil the natural grandeur of the night sky, only a few flat clouds to accent the moon and stars.
He was standing there, waiting for her, Romero, his beautiful pale face with its sharp and unforgiving features, features that would melt into something gentler upon the contact of his lips upon hers. Hope had been waiting for this her entire life, his cold touch and his longing embrace, the supple and velvet grip of death without death within his exploring hands.
She had to move carefully in her dress, Illiana’s own red gown, the ruffles at the hem threatening to trip her by her own sparkling red heels.
“My love,” she said quietly. “I knew you would be here.”
She could barely breathe as he ran his long and delicate fingers across the smooth skin of her left cheek as he carefully avoided raking her tender flesh with his sharp black nails.
“My eternal vessel,” said Romero in a deep and rumbling voice.
“Y-Yes!” quavered Hope. “Take me, Romero! Take me now!”
He gently raised his right hand, moving the black nail of his index finger along her scarlet bodice so that the fragile cloth split in twain. The dress fell from her, peeling away like the outer layer of some rare aphrodisiac fruit, and then she was fully nude, fully naked but unashamed as she stepped out of her own red heels.
He laid his narrow hands upon her bare shoulders, and she gazed up into the blue fire within his golden eyes.
“Hope!” came a little voice from beside her, a little voice down near her bare feet.
Confused, she turned to see a little brown dog no bigger than a cat staring up at her.
“Hope, wake up!” said the little dog in a human voice.
“What?” asked Hope.
“Wake up, Hope!” said the little dog again.
Romero reached up and turned Hope’s face toward his own and fixed his gaze upon hers.
All she could do was stare into the burning blue fire of his glowing eyes, and in that fire she could see figures within those flames, naked figures dancing around a raging bonfire.
“You are mine, Hope,” said Romero.
“Hope, you have to wake up!” came the little dog’s voice, this time more urgent.
That voice sounded familiar. It sounded like…
She swiveled her head to look down at the little dog, but Romero turned Hope’s head again to fix his gaze upon hers once more.
She could see the dancing figures in his eyes, the nude women dancing around the large and raging bonfire, and on a tree stump in this wicked forest was a book…
“Hope, wake up!” came Benji’s voice.
“Benji?” asked Hope.
She tried to look down at the little dog again, but she was prevented in that action by her nocturnal lover.
Romero clutched the bottom of Hope’s chin, but this time his gaze was something wholly alien, something interminably evil, something that caused her jaw to drop and her lungs to expel what air they had in them, her breath releasing into a long and slow gasp of horror.
“You are MINE!” cried Romero as his face warped into something more animal than human.
Hope trembled as she snapped awake. She was cold, and there was a breeze on her bare skin, and Benji was pulling on her left arm, and…
She looked down at herself in wide-eyed surprise. She was buck naked and standing in the fourth-floor hallway, staring at a closed door to one of the floor’s apartments, though she could not remember who lived in that particular unit.
She gave a little whine and covered herself with her arms and hands as best she could.
“What the hell, Hope!” said Benji. “You just got up out of bed, stripped off your night clothes, and just went waltzing down the hall in your birthday suit! Are you trying to get assaulted! What is wrong with you!”
“I-I-I don’t know!” stammered Hope. “I don’t know what’s going on!”
“We have to get you back to the apartment,” grimaced Benji. “We’ve got to get you out of here before somebody sees you! You could get arrested…or worse!”
“Yeah, yeah,” nodded Hope. “Yeah, that’s definitely a good idea.”
They hustled down the hall and back to their apartment. The door closed behind them just as footsteps started coming up from the third-floor stairs.
“Oh, that was close,” said Benji as she breathed out a sigh of relief.
Hope’s roommate stared up at her and frowned.
“I didn’t know you sleepwalked, Hope,” she said unhappily. “Here.”
She reached down to the wooden floor of the “living room” of their little apartment and picked up Hope’s nightgown and panties.
“Will you put these back on, please?” she asked. “I know we’re best friends, but we’re not that close.”
Hope snatched her clothes out of Benji’s little hands and frowned.
“Hilarious, Benji,” she said unhappily. “I didn’t do it on purpose. And last time I checked, I don’t sleepwalk.”
“Well, go take a shower,” said Benji as she held her own nose. “You smell like a brothel. That’s what woke me up in the first place.”
“Oh, real funny!” whined Hope.
She felt some tears coming on. The situation was strange, obviously, but it was more than that…Her pride was hurt. This was really, really humiliating, and there was no reason for it, and she didn’t want to have anyone talking shit about it, either.
She shook her head as she dashed into the bedroom and into the bathroom. She quickly shut and locked the door, but that was just a physical barrier. It was the emotional one she could not construct. She didn’t think Benji would tell anybody, but…
“We need to call someone about this!” said Benji from outside. “This is weird, Hope!”
Naturally, Benji was going to tell someone…Little traitor.
“No!” replied Hope. “Just leave me alone!”
“No!” called back Benji. “No, this isn’t right!”
“Leave me alone, Benji!” whined Hope. “You can’t tell anyone!”
“I’m calling Saffron,” said Benji firmly.
“Don’t you dare!” cried Hope. “I’m not talking to that fu…that bitch!”
“Hope, I have to call someone!” cried Benji. “If we go back to bed, you just might do it again! I’ve got to call Saffron! This isn’t normal! You’re right, you never sleepwalk, so this has to be pack related…I’ve got to call Saffy! She’s the queen! If anybody knows what’s going on, it’s—”
“I hate her!” hissed Hope. “I hate that whore!”
“Wh-What?” stammered Benji.
“I hope she dies!” said Hope as she held her face in her left hand.
She squeezed her eyes shut, choked out a sob, and shook her head. There was no way she was going to call that tyrannical bitch.
“Hope!” exclaimed Benji in what sounded like extreme exasperation. “You can’t hate her! You don’t even know her!”
“You don’t know what she did to me!” choked out Hope.
“What are you talking about?” asked Benji. “Hope, you’re not making any sense…Just…Just take a hot shower. You’ll feel better. Look, I’m calling Haley. Something is wrong, because you never act like this. You’re freaking me out.”
“Just leave me alone!” sobbed Hope.
She threw her nightclothes down onto the white and gold tiles of the bathroom floor in a small fit of rage. However, if Benji was right about anything, a hot shower wasn’t going to hurt, but she was still offended and humiliated over the whole thing, and that…that was eating at her.
She took her shower, and she even took the time to go through her calculated hair routine, but the whole thought of Benji telling someone about this incident really got under her skin…It was like being caught by your parents when you were masturbating. It just wasn’t something you wanted other people to know about.
Hope toweled off, put on her nightclothes, and exited the bathroom. She walked out into the “living room” area, but waiting for her was not only Benji, but Haley, Stephanie, and…Saffron. The trio had all hastily thrown on their day clothes, but it was still two in the morning, so none of them looked happy, but still…Saffron was here.
Hope glared down at Benji. This was a betrayal, and she wasn’t going to forget it.
“What is she doing here?” she demanded.
“I’m here because I got dragged out of bed over your sorry ass,” frowned Stephanie. “I swear, you’d have six kids and be living in a trailer by now if you were poor, Hope…and that’s if men were actually attracted to you, so don’t give me an attitude, you wannabe virgin slut.”
But Saffron wasn’t stupid. The young brunette, the “queen,” knew exactly who Hope had meant.
“She’s not talking about you, Wenna,” she frowned. “She’s referring to me.”
“I don’t want her here,” said Hope as she took in a gulp of saliva. “Just leave, Saffron. Go.”
She was still afraid of their “queen,” but she did not want to admit that herself, even though admitting not wanting to admit it was already admitting it.
“Whoa,” said Stephanie in surprise. “What’s the fu…uhhh…What’s going on here?”
Saffron shook her head once and looked over at Stephanie.
“I’ll answer that in a second, but there’s something I need to know first,” she said. “Why do none of you say the ‘F’ word? You can say ‘fuck,’ you know. It’s not illegal.”
“You’re new, so you don’t know,” explained Haley. “We have an old charter rule where we’re not allowed to say certain words, like the ‘F’ word, the ‘N’ word, and the ‘C’ word, C-U-N-T, or we get punished for it.”
“Punished?” asked Saffron.
“You get paddled in front of everyone,” nodded Benji. “I once said the ‘F’ word on accident…uhhh…the other ‘F’ word, F-A-G. I got the paddle in the chapter house. That was before the whole sorority split into two groups.”
“Okay,” said Saffron in sudden realization. “Okay, I don’t even know what to think about that. So, you’re telling me that the members of the GSNCU used to be part of BTS?…And how in the hell do you ‘accidentally’ say that word, Benji?”
“It’s a long story,” shrugged Benji.
“It really isn’t,” grinned Stephanie.
“And you, Wenna,” said Saffron. “You must have carried over the tradition, didn’t you?”
“Eh,” said Stephanie. “I was used to it…Although we use a little leather cat-o’-nine-tails instead of a wooden paddle.”
“Huh…” said Saffron. “That tracks…I just thought about that. No wonder your insults are so creative.”
“Bending the rules,” smirked Stephanie. “It’s what I do.”
“We should add ‘clit’ to those rules,” frowned Haley. “Then Stephanie wouldn’t be able to swear at all.”
“Ha, ha,” said Stephanie with a roll of her eyes.
None of this idiotic talk mattered, though.
“Did no one listen to me?” asked Hope in growing indignation. “This is my apartment. I want her out of here! I want her gone!”
“This is also my apartment, Hope,” said Benji unhappily. “Saffron is my friend. I wanted her here because this is important.”
“What in the hell happened between you two?” asked Stephanie. “This whole thing is new. I thought Saint Saffron was beloved by everyone. That’s why I have to call her ‘Vengencia.’ It gives her some edge.”
“It happened yesterday,” said Haley in a sad tone. “Hope didn’t know Saffron was queen, and after being compelled by Saffy’s power, she got extremely upset. She called Saffy a bunch of names, and now both of them are upset.”
“She’s upset!” said Hope angrily. “She has no reason to be upset! She has no right to be upset!”
“Really?” frowned Saffron. “Because of you, I missed one of my classes.”
“That’s your fault,” said Hope. “You’re the one who decided to walk back to campus from the Busy All.”
“Oh, I made it to class on time, Hope,” said Saffron. “No, I missed my class because I spent a half-an-hour crying in a stall in the women’s restroom.”
“What?” asked Hope.
There was no reason for her to do that…She had to be trying to garner sympathy. That’s what this was.
“I don’t believe you,” she replied.
“I don’t care whether you believe me,” said Saffron. “I was crying because I lost control.”
“Good,” scowled Hope. “Now you know what it’s like to not have any.”
Saffron’s face worked up into a twisted version of its normally perfect self. Her skin darkened a little as her eyes flashed yellow, and her teeth looked a little sharper, but that flash of inverse transfiguration was gone just as quickly as it had come.
“Then you, of all people, should know what it’s like to have this thing inside of me,” warned Saffron.
That one cut deeply. Hope did indeed know, but she was trying to forget that, bury it deep down in her psyche, but that clearly wasn’t going to work, especially with the bitch queen reminding her of it.
“Th-That’s your fault,” she said as she swallowed a gulp of saliva.
“I know,” said Saffron. “I get that, but your treatment of me was unacceptable, and you won’t do it again.”
“You can’t stay queen forever,” said Hope. “I won’t forgive what you did. I’ll remember no matter what you do.”
“What did she do?” asked Stephanie. “What the fu…fudge is going on?”
“She gave Hope a vision,” said Haley bluntly.
Benji’s head snapped up to stare directly at Saffron, her dark eyes wide with surprise, her small lips aghast.
“You did what!” she protested in sheer verbal surprise. “Why would you do that! What did Hope do that was so…so bad that you would do that, Saffy! You…You can’t do that!”
“Oof,” said Stephanie. “Been there and done that.”
“That’s bad, Saffy,” said Benji, and she had a serious note of disappointment in her voice. “You shouldn’t have done that. That’s really, really bad.”
This, of all things, had an immediate effect on the bitch queen. Her shoulders slumped as her face fell.
“I lost control, Benji,” she said unhappily. “I just wanted to get the point across to everyone that I really need help. I’m fighting this thing inside me every second of the day, even in my sleep…He does things to me in my dreams. Don’t you understand?”
That last bit made Hope shake a little. She did not like the thought of that thing invading her dreams, but…but the dream she had just woken from…
No…No. No, that’s not what happened. That thing was not still inside her. It was inside Saffron.
“What kind of vision did you give her?” asked Benji. “Was it like Wenna’s?…Did you kill her Saffy?…That’s awful…”
A single tear spilled from Saffron’s right eye. She wiped it away and shook her head no.
“No, I…I showed her what it was like to be queen,” she explained. “I lent her Garm in the vision.”
“Oh…Okay,” said Benji. “I…Okay. I don’t really know what that means.”
Hope’s roommate looked up at her with confusion in her dark eyes.
“So, what happened, Hope?” asked the smaller girl.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” winced Hope.
“Oh, we’ll talk about it,” said Saffron. “She completely lost control, Benji, and I mean completely.”
“That’s just something you put in my head!” hissed Hope. “It’s all a lie, Benji! She’s lying! She did that to me on purpose!”
“Did what?” asked Benji. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t do anything but construct the rules,” said Saffron coldly. “I lent her Garm in the vision, but everything after that was up to her, and I saw what you did, Hope.”
Hope took another swallow of her own saliva as she shook her head no. She was lying. Saffron was lying; she had to be.
“What did she do?” asked Stephanie. “Now I’m really curious.”
“Don’t,” said Hope.
“She immediately changed into a full wolf and tore right out of Haley’s rental,” said Saffron.
How did she know that? She had to have made the vision then. She was a liar, obviously.
“Stop it,” warned Hope.
“The first thing she did was decapitate a man,” continued Saffron. “She just bit his head right off. That was all her. I had nothing to do with it.”
“I said stop it!” said Hope.
“Then she ripped a woman in half,” said Saffron. “Her guts were everywhere, but that’s not even the worst part. The next thing she did was—”
“I said STOP IT!” screeched Hope.
Her rightful protest rang around the small apartment, and that shut everyone up for a few seconds. Of course, it was still after two in the morning, but this hadn’t even occurred to her until after the outburst.
“You will never…be the queen,” said Saffron coldly.
It was Haley who spoke up next. The tall and thin blonde looked a little pale and subdued after the toxic exchange, but she did stand up for Hope, and that was good, because Hope had never really been too sure about their president.
“Hope doesn’t ever want to be the queen, Saffy,” said Haley. “She told me as much. If what you say is true, then…I can see why she wouldn’t want to be.”
“Do you still want to be queen, Haley?” asked Saffron. “I have nightmares every single night, and they’re always of Garm, and you wouldn’t believe the things he does to me. Let’s just say I’m on my hands and knees and he’s on top of me. It has happened every…single…night since the ritual. I wake up in a cold sweat several times during the night, then I go back to sleep, and it starts all over again…So…I’m asking you one more time…Do you still want to be the queen?”
“I…I uuuuhhh…” stalled out Haley.
“That’s why I took this call from Benji seriously,” continued Saffron. “I had another nightmare, but this one was different. This time Hope was in it.”
“Wh-What?” asked Hope.
She was lying. She had to be.
“Garm was there, of course, but I wasn’t his target,” said Saffron. “I was watching from a distance. Hope was naked, and he had his paws on her shoulders, and he was saying…something to her…There was also a little dog in it that was telling Hope to wake up…That was the weird part of the dream.”
“No, that was me,” nodded Benji. “I told Hope to wake…Heeeeey! I am not a little dog!…Wait…How did you know that?”
Hope felt like throwing up. This was too much. She trembled in place as she shook her head no.
“Y-You…You’re making this up!” she quavered.
“Am I?” asked Saffron. “Because that’s the first time I’ve ever dreamed about one of you girls…certainly not with Garm in it at the same time. Benji told me you had stripped off all of your clothes and had gone walking down the hallway in the nude to stare at someone’s door…She says you were sleepwalking. Did…Did you dream about anything?”
Hope lied and shook her head no. This wasn’t any of this bitch’s business.
“Don’t lie to me, Hope,” said Saffron.
There was a low rumble in the girl’s throat as her eyes temporarily flashed yellow.
“Did you have a dream tonight?” asked Saffron again. “Answer me!”
Her voice deepened in pitch with that command, and Hope felt compelled to answer, but all she could do was nod her head in compliance.
“Was Garm in it?” asked Saffron.
“N-No…It was…There was someone in it, but it was just an OC of mine!” said Hope. “I didn’t see any ancient demon or anything!”
“Does any part…any part at all…resemble my dream?” asked Saffron. “You will tell me the truth. That’s a command, and I don’t give a fu…uhhh..fudge whether you hate it or not. Now tell me the truth.”
Hope did not want to spill the truth, but she was forced to, and it was…horrifying.
“It was the vampire lord from my story!” whined Hope. “I did get naked because we were going to make love, and he did have his hands on my shoulders, but that’s it!…Why did you make me say that! You’re just humiliating me on purpose! You made me say that just so everyone would make fun of me!”
This was the worst. She’d just admitted that in front of everyone.
This time she did cry. She wept into her hands as she hid her face and shook her head no.
“Oh, Hope,” said Benji softly.
“Wow…” said Stephanie. “I’d like her dream…Mine sucked. I dreamed a squirrel hit me in the face with a hedgeapple.”
“Stephanie…” said Haley in a warning tone. “Not now.”
“Why not?” asked the Goth girl. “Look, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I have a theory.”
“What’s that, Wenna?” asked Saffron. “I’d really like to know…No, I really need to know.”
“I think…that when you lent Garm to Hope, you…did something on accident,” said Stephanie.
“What’s that?” asked Saffron.
“I think you may have unlocked a door for Garm to walk through,” said Stephanie in a thoughtful tone. “He still possesses you, but I think now he can influence Hope in different ways he can’t do with the rest of us. The dreams you two had are similar enough that it…it makes sense.
“I mean, what better way to get to Hope than through one of her OCs? She’s been writing that smut for as long as I’ve known her. It’d be easy for him to disguise himself as one of Hope’s original characters.”
“Yeah, but that…That means I…Oh, my God…” said Saffron in visibly growing horror. “Oh, no…”
Her face was strained with…something…Regret maybe? No, that couldn’t be it.
“I am so, so sorry, Hope,” said the queen.
“No, you’re not!” said Hope as she lowered her hands and shook her head no. “You did this on purpose! It’s all because I wouldn’t play your stupid games!”
“This isn’t a game, Hope,” said Benji. “All of this is serious. Don’t you understand?”
“We have to…to find out what Garm wants from her,” said Saffron. “I know what he wants from me, but he can’t have it. I won’t send all of you out on a slaughtering rampage during the next full moon. That’s why he tortures me every night.”
“Is that really what’s happening to you?” asked Haley. “Is that true, Saffy?…If it gets too hard, I can be queen instead.”
“This again?” asked Stephanie. “I wanted to be queen, but even I’m not that power hungry. Not enough to get butt pumped every night by a giant man-wolf. I don’t need hemorrhoids. No thanks.”
“They’re just dreams, Wenna,” frowned Saffron. “I understand this, which is how I handle it. I know they’re not real…and you don’t know what they’re like, but…they are awful, and I’m just trying to get Haley to understand that.”
“I do understand it, Saffy,” said the blonde leader of Beta Theta Sigma. “I can take the burden from you…at least for a while.”
“Well, Hope couldn’t,” frowned Saffron. “It’s also screwed her up, so we have got to figure out what Garm wants from her. I don’t even know where to start with that.”
“That’s easy,” said Haley. “We just have to figure out who lives in that apartment Hope was standing outside of.”
“Oooooh,” said Benji. “That makes sense…but I think a couple of guys live there.”
“Really?” asked Saffron.
“This is a coed NCU apartment complex,” said Benji. “You wouldn’t know that, because you don’t live here. You live in those cheap housing rentals, right?”
“Thanks, Benji,” frowned Saffron. “This building is a little out of my price range.”
“It is handy by being on campus,” explained Benji. “There’s a downside, though. I was in one of the free lounges on the third floor when a couple of drunk guys walked in and told me they wanted me to…you know…give them a little…”
She put her slightly open left fist up to her mouth, molded her lips into an ‘O’ shape, and moved her fist back and forth in a line.
Hope found herself growling right along with Haley and Stephanie. Her tears vanished in a puff of instant proverbial smoke upon this revelation.
“Who did that!” she growled.
“I’ll tear off their nuts!” growled Stephanie.
“Let’s go find them!” growled Haley.
“Calm down, everyone!” commanded Saffron. “Geez…”
“Yeah, it was like a year ago,” said Benji. “Those guys are long gone.”
“Well, you need to tell us if some guys do that again,” said Hope in a low rumbling growl.
“Yeah,” agreed Stephanie. “We’ll go full Trick r’ Treat on ’em.”
“You should have told us back then, Benji,” scowled Haley.
Hope’s small roommate simply backed up a couple of steps and raised both hands up, palms out.
“Saffron’s right…” said Benji. “Calm down.”
“Look, that doesn’t matter right now,” said Saffron. “We’ve got to find out who lives in that apartment so we can figure out what Garm wants with Hope. Considering he had her undress, whatever he wants, it’s not going to be good, so we need to do this quickly. I don’t think knocking on their door in the middle of the night is a good idea, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Don’t I get a say?” asked Hope. “Where is my say?”
“Like what, Hope?” asked Haley. “We’re trying to help you.”
“Everyone is making decisions for me!” said Hope. “This is my life, and…and there’s nothing wrong! There’s nothing wrong with me! I was just sleepwalking, okay!”
“No, it’s not okay,” argued Saffron. “It’s not okay at all.”
Hope growled. It was a low rumble much like before, but this time it was aimed at their so-called “queen.” She’d had enough of this bitch who had only been a pledge like…like three days ago. Saffron may have commanded Hope not to insult her or “treat her that way,” but apparently there was a work around.
“Get out of my apartment!” she snapped out. “I want you out! You’re not my friend, so don’t pretend to care about me! Now get out! I don’t ever want to see you again!”
Saffron’s face once again worked up into a storm of emotions. Her skin darkened as her eyes washed over with a golden gleam. Her teeth sharpened into points like they had before, but something was different this time. Something was different in those golden eyes.
The bitch queen looked as if she were struggling against something terrible, something terribly dark inside her, something Hope immediately cowered before because she too had experienced it, that ravaging darkness. Hope could tell that Saffron was straining against something so ancient that it defied all reason…but it was more than that. Saffron was truly wrestling against something absolutely awful that had taken up residence inside her…and the young woman was losing.
Unfortunately, Hope could no longer lie to herself about this. She knew exactly what that “something” was, because she could see it, a ball of light-blue luminescence inside Saffron’s body, a color much like Saffron’s namesake, but that light was surrounded by an impermeable darkness burning with a strange blue fire.
“S-Saffy?” stammered Benji. “Are you okay?”
Saffron’s skin was a dark brown now, but Hope’s attention was elsewhere. The bitch queen’s hands snapped up as she reached for Hope’s neck. The college girl’s fingers had elongated into knotted horrors of claws and fur, but thankfully, those deadly digits never reached Hope. Haley and Stephanie held her back, but even their combined strength was only barely keeping the young woman in check.
“Saffy, calm down!” cried Haley. “Calm down!”
“Holy shit, she is strong!” hissed Stephanie. “I can barely hold her, and I’m supposed to be the strong one!”
The bitch queen’s golden eyes were full of blue flame, and there was nothing in those flames but sheer, unadulterated rage.
She flung off Haley first, and the tall thin blonde hit the couch, only to bounce off of it and roll onto the wood floor of the “living room.” Next came Stephanie, although she was backhanded by a powerful left hand. The leader of the Goths spun around and held her mouth with both hands as her eyes squeezed shut.
Hope shrieked out in terror as Saffron pounced upon her and sent her crashing to the floor. The bitch queen straddled her as her own knees locked Hope in place, and then the young woman’s twisted, dark, bestial face lowered to hover right above Hope’s own.
Hope could not look at her. She could only turn her own head to the right as she tried to cry out for help, but even that only came out as a muffled whine.
“You are mine, my little flower,” came a deep and terrible voice, spoken from Saffron’s own lips, but those words were not Saffron’s.
They couldn’t be.
Hope gritted her teeth and released a high-pitched whine as Saffron’s tongue extended out of her mouth a good nine inches. That tongue made a long trailing slurp across Hope’s left cheek, and then the taste organ snapped back into Saffron’s open mouth.
“We shall be one, the mother and the son,” came that deep voice again from the creature that currently held control of Saffron’s body. “Soon.”
And then it was over.
Benji, Hope’s diminutive roommate, wrapped her thin arms around Saffron’s neck, but she didn’t try to strangle the so-called “queen.” Benji simply rested her small head against Saffron’s own and gently held onto her, and somehow and in some way, the person that was Saffron came back from the prison that had been her own body.
Hope could sense something was different, so she quickly looked up in spite of not wanting to. Saffron had raised her head and was staring off at nothing, but that wasn’t important. What was important was that the glowing gold of her eyes changed back into a forest hazel. The light-blue ball of strange luminescence that had been curled inside of her expanded to push out the flaming shadow…
And then the tears came.
Saffron’s expression collapsed into a pool of piteous misery before she began to sob. Haley and Stephanie were on her yet again, but this time they helped her up and to the couch.
Hope wanted to cry, but she simply couldn’t. She could not process what had just happened, at least not yet. She sat up and shook, her hands trembling, because that’s all she could do.
She looked over and saw the pink aura glowing around her tiny roommate, and she had to shake her head a couple of times in order for that glow to go away.
“There is going to have to be a time where you let me share this burden with you, Saffy,” said Haley. “You’re losing control, and it’s only been three days.”
“Ugh…One of my teeth is on the floor,” said Stephanie. “Oh…Sfffff…It’s already growing in…Oh, yeah, that’s some pain…Nope…It’s back. Yep, there it is.”
Saffron was a sobbing mess. Hope looked upon her and didn’t know what to say. Honestly, Hope had, in fact, been the victim in that exchange, but she’d also seen the truth inside Saffron, and now?…She didn’t know what to say.
She wanted to hate her, hate Saffron, but…she just couldn’t. Not after that. Not to mention that she could no longer deny the facts right in front of her face, the facts that had just been force-fed down her throat. She was caught up in something bigger, much bigger, and that bigger part was going to have to be resolved before she could get another moment’s rest.
Her writing was going to have to wait. All she’d wanted to do was write, but that was clearly going to have to wait.
“Y-You can’t contain him, H-Haley,” choked out Saffron.
“You can’t either, Saffy,” said Benji. “I saw him in your face, and I don’t think you can do this for much longer.”
“You’ve got to give me a chance,” said Haley. “What we need to do is find a way for you to pass on the burden, share it with someone else…Not Hope. You’ve already proven that was a bad idea, and Hope doesn’t want to be queen anyway.”
“Not me,” said Benji. “I think Garm would have fun kicking me around. After what Saffy said, I don’t want to get molested in my sleep, either.”
“There’s n-no way I’m sending him your way, Benji,” said Saffron.
“Huh…I wonder if I can make an infinite number of teeth?” said Stephanie. “Now, that’s a thought…Now, hold up…Werewolves are real, so is the Tooth Fairy real?…Hmmm…I don’t know if I like the sound of that…”
“Definitely not Stephanie,” said Haley as she rolled her eyes.
“Well, I think Saffy’s going to have to miss classes tomorrow,” said Benji. “At the very least, you have to do that, Saffy. If Garm is getting to you in your dreams, then we’ll have to research some ways to quiet him down at night while you sleep.”
“Speaking of sleep, if that bitch comes for me in my sleep, I’m going to kick some fairy ass,” said Stephanie. “Not letting her witch ass take any of my teeth…Wait…Where did my tooth go?…I think I just kicked it under the couch…”
“We need to get all of this resolved,” said Haley. “As fun as it is to smell like wet dog all of the time, I really don’t want to be a werewolf. That first night running around through the city and the woods was incredible, but I really don’t want this life.”
“No kidding,” said Benji. “All of this supernatural stuff is too much for me. As it stands, we’re going to get complaints about all of the noise at near three in the morning.”
“I think we should all just take the day off tomorrow and convene at the chapter house,” said Haley. “I know classes are important to you, but you have to skip them tomorrow, Saffy, okay? You’re smart, and you’ll catch up. You’re not going to lose your scholarship.”
“Dammit, now I have to go dig up some salt,” muttered Stephanie. “Make a ring around my bed…Lock the window…Where is my tooth?…Aha!…No, that’s an old piece of gum…Eww…It’s as hard as a rock…”
Hope’s shoulders sank. This time was clearly her fault. She still resented Saffron, she still resented what Saffron did, but the girl was truly holding back a monster, and that monster had taken a sudden interest in Hope…
All the werewolf stuff aside, Hope really wanted that thing gone.
They were all ignoring her for the time being, but that didn’t bother her so much, because she realized that she had escalated things, and…all of this had gotten way out of hand.
She was going to have to make peace with Saffron whether she herself liked it or not. She had to get this thing’s attention off of her. For one thing, it had capitalized on her OCs, and that? That was way worse than what Saffron had done.
Also, she was definitely going to have to tell somebody about the glowing lights around Saffron and Benji, but who was she going to tell?…Wait, maybe Benji…Yeah, she’d probably tell Benji. Haley and Daria had said they had “powers” now, so maybe this was her power, though Hope was still unsure of that. Of course, she had no idea what the colors meant, but there’d be time to get into that later, a later not involving being close to three in the morning.
15 WOLVES: The Unlocked Door Part I Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.
