Stuck In Between

chapter 5:

My feet hit against the ground as slightly as feather, inducing no sound of the footsteps. The crickets fell silent, recognizing the dominant predator in the area. As soon as I was out of the clearing, I climbed the nearest tree and swung from branch to branch to continue my journey. Just as Urdhal had instructed, I was trying to keep my i's dotted and t's crossed. The last thing I needed was the entire pack of wolves after me.

The wolf warriors were too exhausted to take note of a vampire creeping up the tree branches. Some were even snoring leaning against the tree. Reaching the edge of the forest, I jumped down for the second time upon arrival of the forest clearing and ran towards the canyon with my full speed. The only fear I was harboring was that Duke would be waiting in hiding to take me down again. The memories of the last showdown make me feel the chill, and ironically, he wasn't even hostile towards me!

Guess, the natural repulsion between the vampires and the werewolves had something to do with the fear I was feeling to see Duke in action again.

I didn't have much time, the sky was already lit by the sunlight. Any time now, and the sun would be out burning me to ashes...

Taking a leap of faith, I push my feet down to execute the jump and soared through the air over the canyon. The longest ever jump that I have had in my entire life was fast and filled with anxiety. The gushing of water filled my sensitive ears as if I was hovering right above as the cool wind greeted me from the canyon. Not that I felt anything close to coldness. My skin had stopped getting affected from the change of the temperature. Except the sunlight, if I say. It must be the UV rays concept from the movies.

Whatever it was, I wasn't willing to experience. Watching Rome burn from the sunlight was enough.

My dead heart ached at the thought of Rome. Was he dead? Was he still there? Would I ever know what happened to him?

Only one way was left to find out what had happened. I had to hunt him down.

I landed on my feet on the other side of the canyon. The plush grass of spring crunched underneath my soles. I walked towards the forest that looked serene knowing full well that I was very close to the barrier of the pack. I could feel the electrostatic energy buzzing in the air as I took each step towards the forest. The early morning birds chirped breaking the silence while I stopped a foot away from the concentration of magic.

The barrier was invisible but I could feel the electricity crackling and buzzing in magnitude.

"Here goes nothing," I mumbled to myself as I took in a deep breath. Like I really really needed it... I wanted to snort at the irony of the situation.

Nevertheless, I pushed the anxiety aside and took the much needed step, through the barrier.

The barrier became visible with a blue hue as unexplainable pain shot through my leg as it sucked me in just to spit me out on the other side rendering me completely immobilized due to pain. My own screams had left me with the belief that I had damaged my eardrums. The silence had succumbed the entire forest while my body withered in pain. It was like lightening had struck me. Urdhal had mentioned about the barrier but missed the part with the terrible pain. Definitely, missed the pain part.

If I had been a human and undergone this type of pain, I would have died on the spot...

Panting crazily for air, I eyed my leg just to find a deep round gash around my leg. No doubt that I could see the bone of my lower leg but then my vampiric cells way at it's peak of regeneration. The cells divided and multiplied, like the cancer cells. The flesh had again covered the bone and new skin was forming over it already. Wolverine would be so jealous to be failing the speed competition with me.

Fuck man... It surely was insane to witness this s**t happen with vampire eyes.

I contemplated between throwing up and being amazed.

I couldn't have believed any of this if this unbearable pain wasn't slowly subduing but one thing was for sure, never again in my life was I going to cross a barrier without preparation. What broke me out of my trance was the ear splitting howl that echoed through the forest. A familiar heart stopping howl. I looked up to see the traces of barrier with blue hue before disappearing again.

"Duke..." I gasped at realization that the whole pack had heard my painful scream. There was no doubt that he would be coming out for me.

Staggering to get up again, I pulled myself together and ran off into the forest. The sky was lighting up into a lighter blue freaking me out. If the barrier hurt like s**t, I wasn't keen to experience the pain brought by the sun...

The memories of Rome flashed through my mind for the second time but I just shoved it away and concentrated on getting more distance between me and the tailing wolves which I was sure was led by Duke.

Dragging my healing leg over the muddy terrain, I ran at my fastest as possible at the moment. It didn't take long for my body to fall in sync after rapid healing. My speed picked up, so did my strength. The distant sound of paws hitting the ground and the slight growling could be heard over the running water.

I better get out of there fast.

The time was running out as the sky turned lighter. The fear that either the wolves would hunt me down or the sunlight would burn me up, flooded me.

The insane forest stretched out forever, never hinting to even get the irregular ground over from beneath my feet. I looked over my shoulder to see if they had already caught up with me, just for a second and made the greatest mistake of my life. I tripped over the tree root and was sent flying to go and hit the giant moss covered boulder. I got up to run again but then the first rays of sun had started to seep through the gaps between the canopy of the trees. I experienced what they called as Tyndall effect outside the school. And why was I sitting there like a sitting duck and observing all the physics phenomena? Well, that would be because when I moved even an inch from my position, the sunlight burnt my skin making me hiss in pain.

I couldn't move away from the shade of the boulder. Realization hit me really hard, like a fall from the third floor and right into the concrete pavement, that hard -- I was trapped...

I was f*****g trapped for God knows how long!

But the thing that stilled my dead heart was the loud angry howl that echoed throughout the forest.

Now I was f*****g caught... Damn amazing. Was there anything else that was missing from this beautifully f****d up platter? I guess not, and if it did, I wouldn't even be surprised...

And all this pain and hard-work that I did would be going down the drain. Not to forget an infuriated Duke on my tail.

Don't know what he would do to me when he found me. But I doubt it would be a dazzling smile and 'oh! I found you baby! Nice run, by the way! Thoroughly enjoyed chasing you so early in the morning after you gave me a heart attack.'

Nope, it sounded too surreal. It definitely would be anything but that.