~Alistair~
I sensed that he was going to strike a blow at my side, and dodged it, taking him by surprise as I swung to his back, twisting his neck and sending him collapsing to the floor with a yelp. I had barely managed to get the dust off my chest, when the other guy came at me, putting his arms around my neck as he tried to strangle me. The third guy came forward and tried to throw a punch in my face.
I laughed mockingly, then taking them unawares, I suddenly placed my hands on the second guy’s hands and with force, I succeeded in pulling them away, after which I pushed him towards the third guy, making both of them lose their balance and fall to the ground, trying to gasp for air.
They glared at me, and their eyes were glowing, as claws started to emerge from their fingers.
“Are you mad? Are you mad at me?” I asked, in a loud voice.
They didn’t say a word, but they all growled softly, trying to control their rage.
“Come at me, then. If you’re mad that I beat up your asses today, come and take out your anger on me, okay?” I yelled.
They remained where they were, trying to suppress the wolf in them.
“Are you too scared of facing me? Cowards, that’s what you are. Maybe you shouldn’t be here today. You’re just a bunch of crappy teenagers who don’t even have the balls to face a mutual enemy. I wonder what your mothers would say right now,” I said, with a laughter which was intended to mock them.
One of them grew furious with rage and lunged at me, but stopped right in front of me, not doing anything and just breathing hard, trying to control the anger he had towards me.
“Why did you stop? Make me regret ever belittling you,” I said, urging him on.
I saw the glow in his eyes disappear, as well as his claws. “No, Alistair. I won’t make you regret belittling me,” He said, with a smile.
I returned his smile, feeling really impressed as the other two had stopped themselves from changing into werewolves as well, and that was the point of the whole lesson.
“Listen to me, you’ll be insulted, mocked, laughed at, and made me furious. Why? It’s because human beings are awful...”
“Weren’t you in love with a human being once?” Aiden, the first guy asked.
“Once? He’s still in love with that same human being,” Garrett said, coming out of the shadows, where I had known he had been all along.
“I guess human beings aren’t that awful, then,” Jackson, the one who had sprang up to fight me said.
I heaved a sigh, and threw them all an annoyed glance. “Listen, that’s not the point of this whole lesson. The point is that three of you want to attend high school meant for human beings, and I’m just letting you understand that you’d be stepped on and possibly even bullied, but always have it at the back of your minds that you must not let your emotions get the best of you. I’ve been teaching you all through the summer on how to defend yourselves as human beings, and how not to resort to transforming into a werewolf no matter what happens. Now, today, you resisted the urge to break my bones...”
“So, can we start high school now?” Ray, the second guy asked, staring at me with his bright curious eyes.
“Not yet,” I replied.
“But we resisted the urge to transform into werewolves today,” Jackson said.
“But you almost turned into werewolves, especially you, Jackson. You’re lucky you controlled your anger just in time, but what if you’re unlucky next time?” Garrett asked.
“Thanks, G. Schools opened today, so, if you really want to start high school, don’t even get mad enough to have glowing eyes all through the week...”
“Not even glowing eyes?” Aiden asked, sounding skeptical.
“Not even glowing eyes. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it can get really dangerous in a matter of seconds. So, this week’s assignment is for you not to even change in the slightest bit no matter how badly I beat you or insult you. If you can keep up with that till Saturday, I’ll personally drive you in my Ferrari to school on Monday, and make sure you get admitted. It may seem hard, but it’s not, trust me. Just get an anchor,” I explained.
“That’s the hard thing, Alistair. We don’t know what is strong enough to be our anchor, that’s if we truly understand what that means,” Ray said.
“Then, you’re not ready...”
“No, Alistair. I think I can help. Now, boys, why do you want to go badly to high school?” Garrett asked, interrupting me.
“There’s this girl I met in Summer camp last year. Her name’s Adelaide. She was from another school and she told me via Facebook that she had transferred to the school we all intend on going to. I really like her, and she likes me as well. That’s why I want to go to high school so badly,” Aiden said.
“Considering the fact that I’m asexual, my reason is definitely not because of a love interest. My stepfather makes life really annoying for me, and I figured that if I’m at school the whole day, coupled with attending an academy at night, I wouldn’t have to deal with much of his crap,” Ray explained.
Jackson shrugged. “I just want to be like other kids and become something in future, say like an astronaut someday, instead of being stuck here as a Beta. I never asked to be a werewolf, and I just want to live like a normal human being. I want to be like you. You’ve got a great life and you’re an influential person among human beings, and I want to have a taste of what that’s like,” He said.
“You all have beautiful reasons for wanting to go to high school, although I’m wondering why no one said they want to be like me. Anyways, Aiden, you wouldn’t like Adelaide to be kissing you and suddenly stop because your fangs suddenly appeared. She’d be shaken and scared, so, when you’re on the verge of losing control, think of her. She’ll be your anchor,” Garrett explained.
“True. As for you, Ray, I’m going to have a word with your stepfather. In the meantime, think of all the troubles he’s going to cause you should you remain stuck in his house. That feeling of wanting to escape should trigger you into wanting to stay human, because if you lose it, you’d be too scared to show your face in school again,” I said.
“I’ll just think of you, Alistair,” Jackson said, before I could offer my advice to him.
“Great choice. Now, run along,” Garrett said, dismissively.
“You don’t get to dismiss my students,” I said, flexing my muscles.
“I seem to recall you making me your personal assistant,” Garrett said.
“You’re chasing them away like I’m done with them for the day,” I said, with a frown.
“You have to go to work,” He argued.
“It’s okay, Alistair. We have to go hunting,” Jackson said.
“Seems they’re already done with you for today,” Garrett said, with a mischievous smirk playing around his lips.
“Something like that. Thanks for today, Alistair,” Aiden said, as they started to leave.
Ray turned around. “Thank you for promising to speak to my stepfather, but I’ll give you a warning. He doesn’t listen to anyone,” He managed to say, before his friends pulled him away.
“How long are you going to keep doing this?” Garrett asked, passing me a bottle of water.
“I don’t know, G. Probably forever,” I responded.
“Listen, I know you’re doing this just to get your mind off...”
“Don’t say her name,” I said, giving him a deadly stare.
“Well, maybe you should just start accepting the hard truth that she’s never coming back to you. You should move on and stop trying to think about other things just to fill in the void in your life,” Garrett said.
“Once again, Garrett, thanks for your advice, but you should learn how to keep your opinions to yourself,” I said, starting to walk off.
“I just feel that you’re overdoing yourself. I mean, you come here to train teenagers every morning, then you have to work till evening. After that, you go home and probably just mope around over a bottle of beer. You’re 38, Alistair. Soon, you’d be forty...”
“Are you trying to remind me that I’m getting old, or what exactly are you trying to say right now?” I inquired.
“All I’m saying is that it’s been six years already, and you should move on with your life. There are many beautiful girls out there,” Garrett said.
“Shh,” I said, trying to hush him up.
“No, I’m serious, Alistair. If you set your heart on it, you’d find the perfect one soon,” He said.
“I wonder when you’d finally get that I’m not interested in anyone, and that your words have no impact whatsoever on me because you’ve been singing this song for more than half a decade, and I’m still very much single and not searching. Now, shut the hell up and listen,” I ordered.
He opened his mouth to say something, then closed his mouth abruptly, as he finally heard what I had been hearing all the time he was running his mouth over such an unimportant topic.
We heard someone’s heartbeat slowing down, and it was as though the person was fighting so hard to breathe, but just couldn’t.
We walked stealthily, trying hard not to make a sound as we gradually approaches the sound of the failing heartbeat. We were struck by so much shock when we saw a red-haired woman in her fifties stuck to a tree, with a log of wood which had been shot straight through her stomach.
My first instinct was to save her life, even if I didn’t know whether she was the good or bad guy. With every ounce of strength I possessed, I pulled the log of wood from her stomach. Together, Garrett and I placed our hands on her arms and tried to save her from dying, but we only succeeded in taking away her pain.
Her breath was shaky, and she shuddered. “Listen... Someone has waged a war on supernatural creatures. We...we're all going to die...Please...you have to be careful,” She managed to say.
“What are you talking about?” Garett and I asked in unison.
“What your heart seeks will find its way to you, but that will only spell doom for you and your kind,” She said.
“Calm down. You can tell us all about this when we get you healed,” I told her.
“No...I was poisoned... I can’t...can’t be saved,” She said.
“I’m sure we can do something...” Garrett started, but was cut off.
“You’ve done more than enough...I get to die peacefully. Make sure you get rid of that which you’ve only ever wanted...get rid...” Her statement stopped midway, because just then, she opened her mouth widely and wailed mournfully, before giving up the ghost.
“She was a Banshee, G. Her death was the last she predicted,” I said.
“Do you believe what she said?” He asked, looking as blank as I was, not knowing what exactly to believe.
“I doubt it entirely. We both know what I’ve only ever wanted, and we’re both aware it’s never going to find its way back to me,” I said, forcing a sad smile.
Garrett patted my shoulder. “What do we do about the body then?” He asked.
“Just leave it. Aunt Salome will find it and get rid of it. I’ve got to go,” I told him.
“Off to the other thing you do to keep yourself busy apart from training young werewolves, when you should face reality and go on blind dates?” He asked, sarcastically.
I stifled a laugh. “Yes, Garrett. I’m off to work,” I said, and before his mind could register that statement, I was out of his sight.
For the past six years, I have lived like this. At first, I spent some time alone drinking alcohol and narrating my story to bartenders, then after a few months, I decided to just get involved in other things in order to keep myself from thinking about Eliana.
Her parents refused my kind gesture of giving them their company back, with millions of dollars as compensation for all I did, but they refused to have anything to do with me or my money. They had asked me out of their house, and as if warning me sternly never to step foot in their house ever again wasn’t enough, they had gone ahead to get a restraining order against me.
Several years had gone by, but not a single day had passed without me thinking of her. After pretending that I was fine and being occupied throughout the day, I’d come back home to the sad realisation that no matter what I did, I couldn’t get her off my mind or erase the guilt I felt for the pain I had caused her.
I wished that somehow, there was a way to see her and make up for the wrongs I had committed. Rooted deep down in my heart was a flicker of hope that desired that the Banshee was right, and that Eliana, who was all I had ever wanted, found her way back to me.