We got to the curtain of vines that marked the breach between worlds - well, really it was just the entrance to Chaiyn’s clearing, but the Darkedge siblings were actually from a different world. Raza pulled aside the curtain of vines - he was always surprisingly gentle with them - and walked inside. There were four people inside - two pairs of siblings. Ember and Dusk Brightwood, older sister and younger sibling respectively, stood off to the left - both with light skin and short cut blonde hair, but the similarities ended there. Ember had scarlet tipped hair and brown eyes, and Dusk had ice-blue tipped hair with blue eyes. Ember was a Flamer and much more outgoing and trusting than her sibling, Dusk. They were a Froster, non-binary, and extremely cautious with their backstory. Elena “Maya” Darkedge sat on top of the tallest bookshelf in the clearing - the one that held Chaiyn’s green hourglass that was now empty in the top half. Maya’s skin was paler than any normal human’s or elf’s should be, her hair was much darker than her brother’s, and she had heterochromia - one black eye and one blue. This was all the result of an accident in hers and Chaiyn’s past that resulted in Maya becoming a Shade. And Chaiyn Darkedge was sitting on the table in the center of the clearing, leaning against the bookshelf Maya was sitting on and reading a book with a midnight-purple color, calling out the occasional annotation to his sister. His golden-brown hair was pulled back out of his face, mostly, but every so often a wisp of hair would blow through his line of sight. The Sight-Seer had turquoise eyes that seemed to pierce through your soul, and he knew almost everything about you from a single glance. Raza grinned as he walked inside. “Hello!” Chaiyn looked up, met my eyes, and smiled. “Hey, you guys are back!” I laughed. “Yup. School starts tomorrow. You guys ready for the power club?” I asked Maya and Dusk. Dusk nodded excitedly. “Yes! This summer wasn’t as hard with the ice, so I think I’m getting better.” “I talked to two squirrels the other day,” Maya said. “Animalias are really /wivgaz/- sorry, um, complicated.” Raza’s eyebrows shot up at the word squirrels. “What did they say, what did they say?” He ran over to the bookshelf where Maya was. She giggled, jumped down, and the two of them ran over to a random tree and talked quietly. Chaiyn laughed. “That is literally all she’s talked about the past few days.” “Little siblings,” Ember and I said in unison with the exact same tone of slightly exasperated amazement. “Hey!” Dusk said in a mockingly offended tone, then burst into laughter with the rest of us. Raza and I left after twenty minutes or so. Raza ran back up to the school, while I headed for a certain lakeside house. I hadn’t seen or heard from Ren for the last few weeks of summer break. “There you are, Acwulf.” One of these days, I won’t jump out of my skin when Ren sneaks up on me. I turned around and met his stormy dark brown eyes. “Hi,” I said, voice shaking and heart racing. “Is it necessary to give me a heart attack every time we meet?” He cracked a small smile that faded quickly. “I suppose Naomi hasn’t told you about what she and Gloria have been working on?” I shook my head slowly. “Nope. What’s been going on?” Ren and Gloria Sanchez were in their late thirties. Gloria was a year older than Ren, her younger brother. Ren is a werewolf, and also the one who bit me and his daughter, Shadow Sanchez. “Gloria and Naomi have been trying to access my memories.” My eyes widened. “Have they succeeded yet?” Ren shrugged. “Eh, sort of. A few bits and pieces here and there, but nothing extremely major yet.” I nodded. Ren had had a monster for nearly three decades of his life. It was like a parasite, feeding off of your every regret and wrongdoing to fully take over your head. I’d only had it for a few months and it was terrible. Ren had had it for so long most of his memories from that span of time were gone. But Naomi, a Memoria, and Gloria, a Telepath, were trying to fix that, apparently. “Do you want them to succeed?” I asked quietly. Ren hesitated, then sighed. “Not really. I’m genuinely scared of what they’ll find.” I smiled slightly. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” “But what if-” “Nope. No what ifs right now. Just stick to your own advice: hold on to who you are, because you still aren’t and never will be a monster.” Ren nodded slightly. “Thanks, Wolf.” The dinner bell rang. “See you around.” I nodded, waved, then ran back to the school.
Notes/Credits: Hi! Welcome to The Dark Prison - the third book in The Wolf Stories. If you haven't read The Wolf Boy or The Monster's Curse, I highly suggest you do so! This is Chapter 1, Part 2, enjoy! Previous Chapter(s): Chpt 1 Pt 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/750051827/ Credits: Me, for being the author Shannon Messenger, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, Rick Riordan, and many other authors for inspo @aqua_di_angelo, @AL600AWESOME, @Lanze_cupcake_face11, and @Yayabinks for inspo and supporting the story! QOTW: What do you think Ren might end up remembering?
