~ The Morning After~
Selene woke to the sound of dripping water.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly, lids heavy. Cold air kissed her skin, and for a moment, she thought she was still dreaming. The scent of pine and wet earth filled her lungs. She blinked up at the gray morning sky—sky?—and realized she wasn't in her bed.
She was lying on the forest floor.
Naked.
Covered in dirt, sweat, and dried blood.
Her breath caught in her throat as she sat up abruptly. Pain shot through her spine. Her hands trembled, scratched and bruised, fingernails cracked and filthy. Her legs were scraped raw, her feet bare. Her body ached in places she didn't even know could ache.
"What the hell..."
She looked around wildly. Trees surrounded her like towering judges, their branches heavy with morning mist. The world was eerily quiet. No birdsong. No wind. Just the constant, steady drip of water from the leaves.
Selene's heart pounded.
She didn't remember coming here.
The last thing she could recall clearly was collapsing on her bedroom floor... her body on fire, bones breaking, a howl tearing from her lips that didn't sound human. The rest was a blur. Flashes of darkness. Teeth. Running. Hunger.
And something else—golden eyes in the woods.
Her stomach turned.
She tried to stand, but her knees buckled. She crawled to a nearby tree and used it to hoist herself up. Her body felt both foreign and familiar—strong, but wrong. Her muscles were tense, like they were waiting for a fight. Her hearing was too sharp. Every snap of a twig, every whisper of wind made her flinch.
Her bare skin was covered in streaks of blood. Some of it was hers.
Some of it… wasn't.
She backed up, nearly tripping over a pile of torn fabric—her clothes. Or what was left of them. Ripped. Shredded like an animal had torn through them.
No. Not an animal. Me.
She stumbled toward a nearby stream, hands shaking. When she reached the water, she dropped to her knees and stared at her reflection.
She barely recognized herself.
Her eyes had returned to their usual dark brown, but something in them had changed—sharper, clearer, edged with silver just beneath the surface. Her lips were swollen and chapped. Her cheekbones were more defined. Her entire face looked… primal.
Selene splashed cold water on herself, scrubbing at the blood on her arms and legs. It came off in rust-colored swirls that clouded the water before disappearing downstream. She didn't want to think about where it came from.
She just wanted to get home.
---
The walk back to her apartment felt like an eternity.
She wrapped herself in the remnants of her coat, holding it tight across her chest. Thankfully, it had survived—barely—though the lining was torn and caked in mud. She kept to the trees, avoiding the road. The last thing she needed was someone seeing her like this.
As she got closer to the town, a memory surfaced—faint, but vivid.
She was running. Fast. Faster than she ever thought possible. Her legs weren't human then. Her breath came out in snarls. Her vision had been blurred with heat and hunger. And there had been a deer—a beautiful, terrified creature in the clearing.
Then blood.
Selene stopped walking and bent over, gagging.
No. I didn't… I couldn't have.
She shook the thought from her mind and forced herself to keep going.
By the time she reached her apartment building, the sun was peeking through the clouds. She crept up the fire escape, praying no one saw her, and slipped in through her window.
Inside, everything was still.
Too still.
She turned slowly.
The living room was a mess. Her table was overturned. One of the windows was cracked. Her mirror lay shattered on the floor, shards glinting like ice. Claw marks—deep and violent—raked across the walls and floor.
Her transformation hadn't just happened in the woods.
It had started here.
And she had destroyed everything.
Selene leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor. Her arms wrapped around her knees. For a long time, she just sat there—silent, still, trying to breathe.
Then came the knock.
She flinched violently, every nerve in her body firing at once.
Another knock. Slower this time. Purposeful.
She crawled to the door, peeking through the peephole.
No one was there.
She opened the door slowly.
And froze.
Lying on the doormat was a small bundle: neatly folded clothes, a sealed water bottle, and a note.
She picked it up with trembling fingers.
In clean, dark ink, written in bold strokes:
"You're not alone. Meet me at the edge of Blackpine Forest. Sunset. —K"
Selene stared at the letter, her heart hammering.
She didn't know who "K" was.
But something deep inside her did.
And it wanted to find him.