The Return

Darkness was all I saw. It was all I ever saw when they were not here. Sometimes, they rewarded me with sunshine for a couple hours if I had done something correctly. It rarely happened, though. I always messed up somehow.

I wished I was with my family. Sure, they weren't my real family, but they were family nonetheless. I remembered that night so clearly, it haunted me every time I fell asleep.

The blood, the screams, the tears—and all I could do was cower away into a corner, wishing that somehow it was all a nightmare and none of it was true.

That was the night 'Father' told me I wasn't his real son. I figured that out by myself when I turned into a wolf. I always thought I was a late vampire. He told me the truth about my real family. I made a promise to myself then that I would find them.

That promise went down the drain when they found us. Steven, which was his real name, died protecting me. He yelled for me to hide over and over again. If only I had listened—then, maybe I might not have been captured.

I was the reason they all died, and I hated myself for it every single day. My brother watched our little sister be torn apart. Then, it was his turn. No one dared to touch me. I tried to use it to my advantage, but it just made everything worse. 'Mother'—oh, how I adored her.

Even when I wasn't her own and I was not blood related to any one of them, they all still treated me like I was.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of the metal door slamming open. The light temporarily blinded me, but I still enjoyed what little I could get.

I looked at them to see the evil smirks that remained on their faces each time they came in here. "You ready?" she asked. I had no choice in the matter, and it was always a rhetorical question.

I stayed silent, not answering or looking at them anymore.

"Answer, you piece of shit!" he yelled and whipped me with his favourite whip. It had metal spikes on the leather.

I had so many scars on my body, I didn't even remember how it looked before. I was skin and bones. They didn't feed me; I was too disrespectful to have food.

"No. I'm not going to do it," I whispered loud enough for them to hear. Another strike hit me, but on the face. I cried out in pain and clutched the side of my cheek.

"Bring it in," she said and stood more towards the wall while he stepped out and brought in the new victim. It was a little girl this time. She had tear-stained cheeks, and she looked like she had taken more than one beating. She saw me tied to the wall and unfortunately thought I was safety to her.

I felt the pain going through my body like it usually did when they wanted me to become the true monster I was. I smelled the little girl as she crawled closer to me. She was a human girl.

"P-please help m-me," she called out to me. I felt myself lose the last bit of control I had. The true monster was coming out.

"Come here. I'll protect you," the voice said to her. I just sat inside my head, watching it all happen.

This was how it always happened. He charmed his prey into thinking he was their saviour, but he—no, we—were their demise. She gave him a small smile and crawled into his lap. She hid her face from their view. That poor little girl just made the biggest and last mistake of her life.

I saw what he was thinking of doing. I got a moment to try and reach out. "Get away from me quickly!" I yelled at her with my voice and pushed her off. She listened to me and tried to crawl away. He took control again, and in a blink of an eye, the little girl’s body was mutilated. There was blood everywhere, her insides were outside, and he congratulated himself by planting a kiss on her dead lips.

He did that to all his victims to apparently show respect to his prey. He was my wolf, but they had changed him. We were friends when I first spoke to him, but after that one night, he was gone, and something else replaced him.

I got control back, and I just sat there, no tears falling. I hadn't cried in a full year. They had broken me long ago, and they knew it. "He's never going to be ready if he can still sometimes take control back!" he yelled. I ignored them and just stared at the dead girl in front of me. The guilt always ate away at me, knowing they had died by my hands.

"That’s why I made this, my love," she said and gave him a kiss. She held up a silver medallion. It had a moon on it, and it shone from the light that hit it.

"What will this trinket do?" he asked her while taking it from her.

"This will keep him trapped forever. As long as this is placed on his neck, his wolf will have full control," she said while smirking at me.

I crawled into the corner, more scared than I had been in a long time. "Well, now, that is good. Put it on him," he said and handed it to her. I screamed, kicked, and thrashed, trying anything to get her away from me.

She did something that made me freeze in place. She put the medallion around my neck. I unfroze and felt a pull in my head. I tried to resist the pull, feeling my wolf coming through. I eventually lost all my strength, and it happened. He became me, I became him, and he must follow a revenge-based plan.

"Are you sure he's ready?" he asked while looking around at us.

"He's fine, babe. We've been over this a million times. Now, would you just trust me?" she said, getting impatient with him.

After that night when they put the medallion around my neck, I hadn't been in control once. He had killed and slaughtered so many already—all innocent, all thinking he was their saviour. That was a year ago. During the time after that and now, I had been training and was now pure muscle.

I knew how to kill someone in the simplest ways, and I was disgusted with myself. I talked with my wolf, but he was too far gone. It would take a miracle to change him. I found out there was a spell on him as well.

I looked at my two kidnappers. They had ruined my whole life. I saw them arguing over and over again. She finally slapped him after his last complaint.

She always treated him like this, but he did the same. I still wondered how they were mates. They were the worst mates I'd ever seen. "Okay, go on. Time to set the plan into action," he said. I felt my body move, but I was not in control—he was.

"Please don't do this to our family, Gage! What have they ever done to us! Gage please!" I yelled inside my head.

"Shut up, Theo!" he yelled at me. I didn't listen and continued to yell, trying to change his mind. I knew it was a lost cause, but a guy could try. We walked up to the front doors of the castle. He knocked, and the huge doors opened.

We looked to the woods and saw them still there. She shooed us, in and he complied. "Hello, and you are here for?" a guard asked. I observed him. He was quite big, which meant he had many blind spots that could be deadly.

"I'm here to see the Moon Goddess," he said with his deep tone. The guard nodded and told us to wait here while he went to ask if we could see her.

"Why, Gage? Why do you want to do this? Please, Gage, just take the medallion off. Then we can help you, and we'll be free. We don't need to kill our family. They—"

I was cut off by him yelling at me. "They are not our family!" he yelled and shut me out. Luckily, I could still control this part, so he technically couldn't shut me out. We waited silently for the gourd to return.

When he did, all he said was to follow him. We complied and followed after him silently. We looked around the hallways and admired the beauty of the architecture and its elegant designs. He opened another pair of huge wooden doors.

We kept our head down, not wanting to draw any attention to ourselves yet. We could see them, but they couldn't see us. We looked at the couch and saw a young girl who was probably 16 already. We looked at our parents. Our mom had raven hair with amazing white eyes. Our father had mostly grey hair, but he was still a very handsome and huge, muscular man. I was sure if we had to fight against him, we would meet our match.

She dismissed the guard, and he left us alone in the room. "Hello, young man. How may I help you?" she asked us. Her voice was so soothing and calming to my ears. We didn't answer but only took the hoodie off of our head and looked up at them.

We saw the tears begin to form in her eyes, but she said nothing. Our father was having a similar reaction while apparently, the girl was the only one who could speak. "Mom, who is this guy?" she asked our mother. Gage growled at me, telling me this was not our family and never would be. I rolled my eyes at him and ignored him, loving the fact that I was finally meeting my family, even though we were sent here to kill them. I'd do everything in my power to not let that happen.

"Keep dreaming, Theo," Gage spat at me in our head.

"The?" she asked as she came near us.

"Mom," we sighed out. I did it in relief that she really did remember us. He did it to put on a show.

"I-is it really you?" she asked, not coming closer, but we could see she wanted to.

We nodded our head with a smile, and she smiled back and hugged us tightly. We groaned from the strength she had.

"M-Mom?" the girl asked our mother with a shaky voice. She approached us hesitantly.

"Callie, come meet your big brother," Mom said to our sister.

She came close to us and looked us over. The next thing we knew, there was a girl hugging us while crying. It was Callie. While I was actually crying in my head, Gage only smiled. I could actually feel his emotions still, and I knew he was slightly happy, whether he liked it or not. "Shut up. I don't like it!" he yelled as we still hugged Callie.

Callie released us and stood next to our mother. The man who was our father stepped closer to me and looked me over more carefully. He suddenly smiled and broke into tears while pulling me into his embrace.

We both moved closer into his embrace, loving the feel of it. We both liked the affection we got from our family.

"I don't love them, and I never will, Theo! They are not our family! Get that through your thick head already!" Gage yelled at me as we still hugged our father.

"Stop it, Gage! We both know they are our family! Stop following their orders. Please!" I yelled at him, just trying to change his mind.

"No. We are to follow orders. Nothing more, nothing less," he said in an emotionless voice.

I internally sighed and just continued to watch.

"I'm so happy my son's back. We thought you were gone forever," our father cried out as he hugged us even tighter.

"Kyle, the boy can't breathe. Let go of him." Our mother chuckled. He released us but still kept a hold of our shoulders.

"Theo—"

I cut him off and screamed out in pain. I fell to the ground and writhed around in pain. I felt my bones begin to break and began to form shift into my wolf form. "Why is this happening? We've shifted before!" I yelled in our head as my arms snapped.

"How the fuck should I know!" Gage screamed back at me as both our legs broke and morphed into our hind legs.

We saw our family looking at us worriedly. Our father was trying to speak to me, and my mom was yelling for someone to show up while Callie was crying her eyes out.

We felt our fur start to sprout from our skin, and it didn't feel like it did the first time. This time, it felt like we were engulfed in fire.

We continued to scream out for help, in pain. After 20 minutes of the agonizing pain, we passed out from exhaustion.