Chapter 3
Note:
Bold=🐺 speaking.
Italics = Thinking/thoughts 💭
Non-Elemental Universe
Present Year
After a long day of dodging calls from my family, even Laetitia is starting to annoy me. I rushed to my bathroom and started preparing my bath. My whirlpool bathtub is gold and round, shaped like a large bowl. Silas had brought this as a graduation gift, which is probably the best gift I ever received from him.
I lay down under the warm stream of water. Passing time, soaking into the moments as if each were a warm and fragrant bubble bath showed me that happiness is a quiet contentment that requires self-love and self-respect.
With a glass of red wine and soft jazz music playing in the background. I breathe in the aromas of the bubble bath and feel it hug every inch of my skin so gently. My vision became blurry-sort of like a camera trying to focus on two different things at once.
The sound of running water-fast filled my ears. Next thing I realize the tub and the popping soapy bubbles vanish. The bathroom itself disappears. I find myself standing on top of the ocean waves, confused as I look down at my feet.
I glance around, I am surrounded by bodies of water, not a sight of land nearby. A sudden wave grew taller as it got closer to me, following behind it was another one as strong and bold as the first.
Without a second thought, I move in fluid and graceful motions, adapting to the waves. I see a peculiar beastly werewolf that is as blue as the ocean. Blending in so perfectly with the sea, commanding the sea as if it’s the master of the ocean.
Wolves are land creatures so to see one on water with such immense power is unheard of. The wolf stops the waves and turns to me, his eyes glowing midnight blue and shifts back.
He has long black hair that is tied back, small strands are loose moving from the strong wind. I squint my eyes and notice tribal markings appearing on his chest and arms one by one until he is covered with them, only his face remains bare without any. He did not speak, he only smiled before vanishing into the strong ocean tides.
Suddenly the bodies of water swiftly disappeared and my feet felt a hard texture.
Rock.
I look down to see that I am in fact on top of a rock and its moving. It is like I was skiing on land. I turn to my left and there is yet another wolf different from the first. This wolf’s fur is green like freshly cut grass. Her eyes glow to a bright emerald colour and she shifts.
“Sora!” She shouts. The rock shakes momentarily.
She is focused and places emphasis on her fortitude and strength. Her hair was tightly coiled, and woolly, rising high to the sky as it defied gravity with two birds chirping and multiple flower petals on her hair. Her skin is brown mahogany, rich like forbidden soil. She is magical in every way.
“Where are we going?” I ask. Out of all the questions forming in my head, this was the only thing that seemed to come out.
“Come back to us ” She clenches her fist and pushes her arms forward as she lengthens her strides, pushing off one foot from the rock, while the other stood firmly on the rock and began to glide. We are moving swiftly. She looks at me one last time before allowing the earth to swallow her whole.
I knew this was a dream but it strangely feels so realistic.
“Because it is real.” A sudden voice spoke.
Another wolf appears this time he is engulfed in menacing flames. It became unpleasant and dangerous very quickly. I cover my mouth and nose in hopes of not inhaling too much smoke.
“You are FIRE!” When he spoke the flames blazed up taller than before and turned electric blue.
“What the hell is this!”
It just occurred to me that he had shifted back to man. He blended in the flames so well, that even his eyes did not give him away till he stepped out from the blue flames. He prowls towards me in slow motion.
“You should be asking,″ Who are you and why are you here?”
He raised his arm and a huge amount of fire came rushing to me like a comet. I cover my head with my arms and crouch down. Fearing for the worst but nothing came.
I open my eyes and see my lower body covered in blue flame, after a couple of seconds, my whole body was engulfed in uncontrollable blue flames. I don’t feel any pain, instead, I feel a high immense of power. Not like any other.
I look at where he stands. His flame-like eyes watch my every movement. He forms a devilish smirk. “Hmph. It seems that you have the will of fire. Stronger than any other elementas. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” I roared. It wasn’t like me to get this worked up.
“It is not you. You have never been you!” He barked.
What does he mean by this? “Can you read my mind?”
“I can read your energy. Fire is a raw energy.”
Before I could ask him anything, I blinked and the fire disappeared along with him.
I am in utter darkness.
Unaware of my surroundings. I tried to connect with my wolf but the only problem is my wolf never spoke to me since I was young.
She only shifts when needed but so far she has shown no signs of doing just that either, this isn’t good.
I remember my dad warning me that if I ever find myself in a situation where I can’t connect with my wolf to shift then I must be on alert.
I am getting anxious but I refuse to overact and spin off into absurd scenarios. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead as I looked around in utter darkness. My eyes haven’t yet been able to adjust to the lack of lightning. I thought closing my eyes would be better than having them open.
Think Selah. Fucking think.
I wasn’t trained for this. I don’t think anyone was trained for this. It’s all in your head, just wake yourself up.
“Good idea. Wake up Sora.” an unfamiliar voice whispered.
I feel a hand touch my shoulder and I quiver back. I could sense he was near me but I couldn’t see him.
“Here let me help you.” His voice is deep and sincere, soothing my nerves.
I feel his hand over my eyes. After some time I opened my eyes and saw the most beautiful landscape ever. It’s like I just walked into a canvas of art. There were colours I never imagined seeing.
The land is wide and open, surrounded by flowery meadows and lush green fields covering every inch of that land. The blue corn moon was large, closer than ever before. It glows brightly over its land. My eyes could see everything so clearly, it wasn’t just my sight but I felt a connection with this land. Trusting that every rock, tree, and creature has a life, a spirit and a name.
I feel the endless energy of a humming universe vibrates through me. I watch in awe, wordlessly, as the energy splits her apart, hand creeping up her arm, shattering her bones, one by one, piece by piece.
I could feel her. As if I was her.
I became silent dust and blew away upon the wind. I look up at the moon and close my eyes as I imagine settling on the oceans, on trees, grass and clouds floating lazily across the sky. I find her spreading through the veins of the earth. I’ve never felt so free.
I open my eyes and see a man moon bathing lazily on a tree branch.
“Wh-… where..?” Before I could finish, he says
“Home,” While jumping down from the mighty tall tree, landing upright with ease.
“Oh. Si-..” I gasped. Clapping my hands over my mouth. He looked exactly like-….
He snaps his fingers and says “Times up.”
*************************************
“SELAH!”
I open my eyes as strong arms wrap around me, pulling me up from under the water. My mind is in a fog, processing my next location. After some time my mind began to clear, and I realized that I was back in my bathroom.
“SELAH! Look at me, are you ok!” Silas asked in a panic.
He didn’t wait for me to answer.
Silas quickly takes me out of the tub. Feeling embarrassed, I tried to cover my boobs and whatever body part I could as I drip in water, soaking his jeans and sweater but that seemed to be the least of his worries.
I glance up at him. His eyes glowed momentarily. I could hear his heart working overtime from the adrenaline rush of finding me underwater for who knows how long.
“I can walk you know” I whispered. I wish he had given me a towel at least.
“Yeah, and you can drown too.” He pauses, and mumbles, “In a fucking bathtub.”
He lays me down on my bed. Quickly rushes to get towels and throws about five at me, his back turned to me.
“Dry yourself first.” His tone was rough and I could tell he was fighting control with his wolf. His eyes flash multiple times back and forth. Why is his wolf so worked up?
“Done."
As Silas turns around, I see his jaw working rhythmically. He takes the remainder of the wet towels and throws them on the floor. He grabbed his sweater from the back of his neck and tore it off with one fluid motion.
“Wear this and take off your towel.”
I didn’t oblige.
My stomach clenched feeling guilty. He hasn’t looked at me yet. As I put on his sweater, he was prepping my bed, still avoiding eye contact. I looked at my dresser mirror and saw that my eyes were glowing gold.
Great! My contacts must’ve … Wait why are my eyes glowing if my wolf hasn’t surfaced! It was real!
He stopped for a moment and placed his palms on my face. His eyes glowed, “Don’t ..” then went back to his originally malachite-green eyes. “Don’t.. don’t ever scare me like that again.”
He hasn’t said anything about my eyes?
“Scoot over.”
“It’s a bit wet on this side. Come over to the other side.” I suggest.
“No, just scoot over.”
“Ugh.. fine..”
He took out his car keys and his phone from his pocket and placed them on the nightstand before climbing into bed.
Silas and I used to cuddle together when we were young, but of course, as we got older things changed. I can’t remember the last time we slept in the same bed.
“When was the last time we did this?” I whispered as I turned to my side. My back facing him. Surprised by his sudden movement, I feel Silas’ arm around me pulling me closer to his hard chest.
He inhales and exhales deeply before speaking “We were nine and you had your first period. I noticed the stain on the bed and you started to scream. Your dad was the first to come in the room, followed by your mom and then your sisters. After that, your dad gave me a two-hour lecture, detail by detail on how he’d break my bones if I were to ever sleep next to you again.”
I giggled, “Sounds like something he would do.”
He chuckles and whispers “Times up.”
Just like my dreams… “Silas?”
“Please go to sleep Selah. I'm trying my hardest here.... like really trying my hardest to calm myself and my wolf down.”
The room went quiet and the only sound that's heard is both of our hearts beating steadily as we fell into slumber.
___________________________
My eyes slowly flutter open. I stirred and groaned in annoyance from the piercing sun rays beaming through the blinds hitting my face. Usually waking up to such a beautiful morning is sort of visual poetry at least that’s what the TV would like you to believe.
Instead, my vision is sleep-blurred and untrustworthy. Eyelids feel weight shut. Completely annoyed by the fact that the sun's rays just so happened to my on me.
Just when I am about to get up, I feel someone’s hand lying heavy on my waist. I jolted at first then relaxed when I saw Silas peacefully sleeping next to me.
I don’t know why but I feel a sense of admiration creep up as I watch his smooth dark hair fall over his face and his gladiator’s biceps and iron muscles move up and down from his steady breathing.
He had taken off his shirt. Probably when I was already in my deep sleep. I traced his bare olive skin with my fingertip and then lifted my hand ready to smack him on the back as hard as I could as a joke.
Before I could, his eyes opened. His arms locked around me even tighter, pulling me closer to him. He is protective and agitated. His breathing was exhilarated and his eyes glowed for a very long time. His wolf has resurfaced. My wolf alert, waiting for anyone to packlink us. There was nothing and that only meant he was having a nightmare.
“Hey! HEY! SILAS!”
“Sora?”
The way he said that name in such an affectionate way had goosebumps appear on my forearms. I felt the inside of my stomach being tickled just from the way he said that name. As if it was my name or wished it was?
Strange
I push the thought back and place my focus on calming Silas and his wolf.
I got on top of him. “Silas! It’s me Selah. Breathe buddy, there you go just breathe.”
“Fuck!” Silas hissed while tossing back his hair away from his face with his free hand. He instantly sat upright and hugged me. Burying his face on my shoulder, I could hear him breathing in my scent.
I froze for a moment not knowing what to make of this. Usually, the side of our necks is a very intimate place, it’s where our scent is at its strongest, a vulnerable spot for an attack and also where our mate mark will be.
I breathed in, still unsure of the right words to say so I hugged him back tightly. His hold became tighter. This hug feels different, different from all the other hugs we had throughout our friendship. He softly caresses my back as he continues to breathe in my scent. I could hear his heart rate changing pace and mine as well.
Silas has been acting differently and I’m starting to worry that there’s something he isn’t telling me. I gently shoved him back so I could read him. I did not expect to see a tender expression across his face. An expression that looks so similar to the one he gave me when my mom and Lucía were home.
“You ok?” I whisper.
He places both of his warm hands on each side of my face, “What was that about yesterday night?”
I look down, my fingers fidgeting. “I..I.. honestly I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to kill myself if that’s what you were thinking.”
“Waters. I told you to stay away from the waters. ”
"Silas be serious, I needed to take a shower."
"Body of water Selah, you took a bath."
"Ok. Explain to me why...--"
I cut him off, “shhh. Mama,” I whisper.
“Oh, Gods!” He says quietly.
I jump off him “Don’t leave this room. She barely comes upstairs.”
“Selah, Selah.”
“What!” I hissed quietly.
“My sweater you idiot.”
Oh shit! She’s gonna know by his scent.
“Sora, be care…”
“Silas?”
Suddenly his body froze. I walked back to him, to look at him more carefully but there wasn’t any movement, he didn’t blink, nor react when I pinched him on his cheeks.
“Stop playing around Silas.”
Something strange is happening, I open the window blinds only to see the birds frozen midair.
In denial, I yelled out “MAMA!”.
Running down the stairs and there she is near the stairs just frozen. This has to be some sick joke.
I ran back upstairs and looked at Silas once again. I glanced at his watch that was on the nightstand and saw that the ticking of the watch was constant, the hands seemed to be moving with time.
Yet something is different.
As the hands of the watch turned the noises got louder like sad howls with shattered hearts. I shook my head violently to clear it out but the noise went on..