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I couldn't sleep. Amira's words, the sight of so many werewolves looking down at me sympathetically, Evan's hateful glare, it was all burned deep into my mind. Among everything that kept me awake, Amira's words managed to stand out the most, returning to me every few seconds.

"Prepare yourself. I'm going to make sure what happened tonight NEVER happens again."

Despite everything that I had been through, I managed to hold onto a shred of hope. I couldn't begin to guess what Amira would do, but I desperately clung to the thought that she would do something, anything to help me. It was the only thing keeping me sane.

Suddenly, there was a voice, and just after hearing it the scent of fresh meat filled my nose.

"Eric..."

I looked around regardless of the night's thick darkness. As usual, I wasn't able to see anyone or anything, but the sound of the familiar voice and smell of food quickly turned my attention to my side.

"That is your name, isn't it?"

Only a moment later, a pair of glowing white eyes illuminated the two of us, myself, and Amira, who knelt down next to me with her usual expression showing very slight interest. She held a medium-sized cut of bloody red meat in her claws that made my mouth noticeably water, but didn't show any signs of wanting to share it.

"Y-yeah..." I nodded as I watched her take a seat beside me out of the corner of my eye. She opened her mouth wide to yawn before ripping the cut of meat in two. Afterward, she held out a piece to me and I gladly took it, letting only a single word leave my mouth before I sunk my teeth into it with a light growl. "Th-thanks."

Amira looked over to me with a warm smile before taking a small bite of her own piece. "You don't seem very surprised that I know your name."

I looked over to Amira and quietly composed myself. The last thing I wanted was the only werewolf who didn't look down on me to leave me.

"...I'm not..." I chewed slowly and quietly, but swallowed quickly before raising the small chunk of meat that was left. "Not really..."

After I had finished eating, I looked back to Amira only to notice that she had been watching me the whole time.

"Evan told you..." his name made my insides twist up. "Right?"

Amira nodded, then she turned her head to look off into the distance of the darkness. "Yeah..." she let silence fall over us before looking back to me to continue. "Listen. I won't force you to talk, and I won't treat you any different if you don't...but would you tell me about Evan?"

My insides clenched up at the sound of his name again, but I forced back my mixture of fear and sadness to look back to Amira. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about...Evan...but I felt that I owed her everything. After all, I was almost positive that I was alive still because she was around and apparently looking out for me.

"I knew Evan since first grade..." With that, I started my recollection of my friendship with Evan for Amira.

He was always a little taller and stronger than me, but back then, it didn't seem to make much of a difference. When I was picked on, he stood up for me, and vice-versa, even though I could hardly do more than use my words. Evan, he was a good friend, the best I had ever known, turning down chances at being "cool" or popular just to stick around.

We graduated from middle school two years apart and met up in high school. Despite the differences in our setting, age, and personalities, we were still the best of friends. He was truly the best friend I could ever imagine having, and recollecting with Amira at my side only made me wonder if the past weeks were just some awful nightmare. If Amira wasn't a werewolf, I would've been able to convince myself.

"I thought that he started to hate me a few days before he transformed. I didn't think that I had done anything wrong...but he was the one getting pushed around by...the werewolves a lot more than me." I sighed and picked up my legs, holding them close to my body as I stared off into the darkness, "after he had transformed, I thought that everything got better, he started talking again and visited every time he got the chance, which was pretty often..."

Amira didn't seem to make an attempt to interject, so I continued. "Evan always told me about the new things happening around the cave and that he'd have a big surprise for me soon, but after a while I started to disregard his "big surprise." I was mostly just glad that I wasn't alone and he actually seemed to enjoy himself even though he cried the night that he turned and cursed the werewolves who did it."

I wasn't sure how long I had been talking, but I took one final deep breath, hoping that I'd be finished reliving the past in a few moments. "When he first transformed, I remember him promising to get me out of here so I didn't have to "suffer" the same fate, but as the days passed, he wanted to talk to me more and more about the clan and what he was doing. Eventually, he started to visit less and talk to me differently, like he was forcing himself to talk to me. After that, he stopped talking to me completely and the only time he came to visit was to throw a piece of meat at me. It wasn't long after then that-"

"That's enough, Eric."

I quickly looked over to Amira only to notice that she didn't look so confident or curious anymore. She sat in the fetal position as I did and looked into the distance of the darkness with a slight hopeless glow in her eyes. She rested her muzzle on her furry arms and her normally perky ears fell to the sides. Had I somehow depressed her with my story...?

"I-I'm sorry..."

Amira slightly looked over to me and tilted her head. I honestly didn't know why I was apologizing, but I almost felt that I had to say something. It was my pain after all, even though her clan was the one to cause it...

Finally, Amira held up her head and returned her expression to normal, alongside it, her ears perked back up and twitched a few times.

"No Eric." She spoke confidently as she stood up, then she held out a hand to me. "I'm the one who should be sorry."

I looked up curiously as she looked down confidently, then I slowly took her hand and she pulled me up to my feet. Even being shorter than the other werewolves, she still towered over me, but she didn't look threatening, just...majestic. The warm, white glow in her eyes, her snowy white and silver fur, everything about her almost convinced me to relax despite my predicament.

"Let's go. There's something you need to see."

Amira left my chamber fearlessly, but I was hesitant. As far as I could tell, I was still a prisoner, and even worse, I still reeked of the wolves' white goo. If any werewolves were awake they'd surely know that I was gone. I couldn't help but feel nervous, but I continued forward just behind Amira with my senses heightened, knowing that if I were attacked, I'd still be absolutely helpless.

Eventually, Amira led me past a door with two pair of glowing, silvery eyes staring me down curiously, but I refused to look back. I couldn't be sure, but they seemed different from the other werewolves. It was probably because I was almost positive that if they were werewolves that had seen and used me like a mere toy, they would have attacked me. At the end of the long hallway, far off from the glowing eyes, Amira made her way inside yet another chamber and I followed her without word or hesitations. Nothing that had happened yet had prepared me for what I saw.

The room, illuminated by Amira's eyes was filled with personal possessions from my house. An old Gameboy and quite a few of my games were scattered in a corner, a large pile of my favorite clothes were in the very back of the cave, a toothbrush and toothpaste were on the cave's floor next to it all. On the other side of the room were the blankets and pillows from my bed back home.

"Wh-what's this?" I knew exactly what it was and I had a guess how it all came to be, but I tried my best not to raise my own hopes. There had to be a reason Amira was showing me the room, I just hoped it wasn't for the reason that I expected.

Amira took a step forward to meet me in the middle of the room, afterward, she motioned me over to the blankets and pillows all rolled up together. She revealed a small flashlight with a compass attached to it from my scouting days and handed it to me. I didn't expect the flashlight to work, but it did with a low, quickly fading light.

"You mean you don't know what this stuff is?" I looked back to Amira as I pointed the flashlight behind her, revealing even more memories from my house.

"N-No, I mean...yes, I do...but..." I lowered the flashlight to the ground, "what is it all doing here?"

I knew the answer to that question too, but if I spoke it out loud, I almost wouldn't have a choice but to believe myself. I couldn't remember a single time that I wanted to be more wrong.

Amira looked around at all of my personal belongings before looking back to me. "When Evan was first transformed, he was depressed for a while until he realized that he could leave the cave freely. No one knew for a while, but he had been sneaking out in the blackness of the night, returning to your home to bring your belongings here. We found out quite a time later and when we did, we had to punish him, it wasn't too bad, though. The last thing any of us want is to be found out and have to fight humans or leave such a perfect home."

After a short breath, Amira went on to tell me about how Evan was first seen as the equivalent of "popular" to other werewolves for his appearance and his devotion to me. I almost felt warm inside until her story started to go downhill. After a while of being punished for sneaking out or arguing and fighting with his fellow werewolves, the others had stopped wanting to be around him and he was mostly alone, but it got even worse for him. Amira herself explained everything to him and that he was the clan's omega and had started off ranked much higher, being a desirable ally and friend for the others. Desperate to regain his status and not wanting to be alone anymore, he did whatever he could in an attempt to "make friends," but nothing worked.

"Little did any of us know, he had a plan..."

I could tell that Amira hadn't finished yet, but she didn't continue. It was for the better, my insides had grown twisted with her recollection of Evan's life after he had become a werewolf. I didn't want to hear anymore, at least not until I had some time to think.

It didn't take long after Amira had finished that she addressed my unease with a shimmering-eyed smile.

"Please, take some time to look around. I'll be close." With that, Amira turned away and left me to my scattered belongings.

Once I was sure that Amira was gone, I turned on the flashlight at my side and started to walk around the cave. My old Gameboy was missing batteries just as it was when I left home and it had a few claw marks embedded into its plastic exterior that were probably from Evan's claws. Beside it were a ton of games, I had a lot, but Evan brought only my favorite. My clothes, I was happy to see them, I hadn't worn anything at all since the first time I had been taken alone, and being so plentiful made my heart race.

Suddenly, the light from the flashlight started to flicker; I wouldn't be able to see much longer. I quickly moved over to my blankets and pillows, looking around before snatching them from the floor. They were soft and warm, much softer and much more warm than the cave floors I had grown accustomed to. As I explored my warm past, I couldn't help but notice something hard wrapped in my blankets. Further examination only revealed boards and screws, it was apparent that he was planning to build a bed.

Finally, the light went out and I was back in the darkness, gripping my covers tight. Usually, I'd have something to think about in the dark, but everything that had been happened and everything that had been told had my heart in two pieces. I didn't know what I wanted to think about, or even if I wanted to think at all. Even though I was a mere captive in a cave of werewolves, everything had become so complicated...

After a short while, Amira made herself known at my side by simply opening her glowing eyes. She had returned, wearing a cloak of silver fur, but I barely paid it any mind. I could hardly see anything past Amira's eyes looking through me in a way that made me shiver all over my body.

She stared through my soul for a solid minute before taking a slow, quiet breath to speak. "Are you ready, Eric?"

"R-ready?" I couldn't help but tremble, the look in her eyes made me nervous. "For what?"

Amira took my wrist and pulled me up to my feet before taking a step back and turning away. "I told you, I'm going to make sure what happened to you tonight will never happen again."