Page 2 of Omega's Bears

They’ll know I wasn’t there when they slaughtered my clan. They’ll know they missed me. And they won’t have given up on their plan. But now, I have no one to protect me. I’m alone in the world, and I have no ability to fight them off. Running is the only option left.

I have to hope I got away quickly enough that they lost the trail. I have to hope that if they are following me, they won’t pick up on signs, like Berto’s bike, which I did my best to conceal by parking it behind the motel instead of where it could be seen from the street. But my odds of getting out of this are feeling pretty low.

I bathe quickly over the sink, using soap and a washcloth, mostly because I’m afraid to get in the shower. My hearing is sharp, and I’ll know, right away, if anyone makes noise outside the room, but if I’m in the shower, that will muffle any noise there might be. I can’t take the risk. Once clean, I gather up my clothes from the day, place them in the motel garbage can, pull out the bag, and tie it in a knot. I stuff the bag of dirty laundry down to the bottom of my backpack. I’ll have to wait until everything I own is dirty before I can consider spending money on laundry.

I want to leave the lights on, but I know I can’t. I can’t give anyone driving by any reason to notice or think twice about my motel room. As soon as I flick the switch and turn them off, though, the room becomes ten times more ominous. I feel shaky and afraid. I make my way slowly from the wall over to the bed and crawl in, my eyes darting from corner to corner. There are no wolves in here. I would smell them if there were. But I can’t shake the specter from my mind.

I have to sleep but sleep eludes me. When I close my eyes, I see the big old three-story house that was our den. I relive the moment I walked inside after my evening run. I was only allowed to run in the woods behind our house. That was the only place it was safe to go alone. As long as I was there, I was protected, because no one could get by my clan.

I knew, as soon as I walked into the house, that something was wrong. I smelled it. Wolf and something worse. And then I saw the bodies, piled in the living room. Leo, Manny, Val, Alessa, Dani, Sam...and Berto....

They were my brothers and sisters. My mother and father.

I wanted to stay. I wanted to give in to the horror, to fall to the floor and scream with the pain. But the wolves would already be in the forest looking for me. It was sheer luck that I’d made it back without running into them. I had to go. I had to go quickly. So, I ran to my room and threw a few things in a bag, forcing myself not to feel the overwhelming emotions inside. I took the keys to Berto’s bike. I ran. I’ve been running ever since.

Now, finally lying still, the emotions catch up to me and crash down over me, and with thoughts of my lost clan battering against my mind and my heart, I cry myself to sleep.

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