Chapter 183: 183-Lost My Mind For A Bit
Clementine:
My heart was pounding in my chest as I sped up toward the window. I could hear it coming after me, and it wasn’t just following me, she was jumping from one side of the wall to the other. Every time she did that, the whole building shook.
As she began to speed up, I heard her vicious growls. She was terrifying, and her presence filled me with fear, but I kept going. I knew that if I stopped or got out of her sight to save myself, my squadmates would be in danger.
I made sure to stay in her sight and rushed toward the big window. Speeding up with all my strength, I felt her try to graze my back with her claw as she jumped from one side of the wall to the other. I reached the window first, and without pausing, I slammed it open.
It all happened in a second. She had already jumped on top of me. When I opened the window and moved to the side, she growled, wailing as she leapt straight out. I was breathing heavily before I shut the window and looked down at her falling onto the road.
She hit the ground, her neck snapping, and began to wail. I noticed she was going to heal quickly. She steadily got up, wagging her tail and preparing for another attack. I had only a few minutes to warn the others that we needed to get out.
"What was all that commotion? Did you feel the earthquake too?" I heard Troy ask from behind. I guessed he had heard the loud grunting and came out.
"It’s the monster," I said, pointing toward the window. He rushed over, and I noticed his eyes widened. I guessed he was realizing how deadly it was.
"Wait, there are more!" he said, making me rush back toward the window, staring in the direction he was pointing. It was at the end of the street. Another monster was crawling onto the building.
"What the fuck?" I grunted. I was so panicked that even if I wanted to move, I couldn’t. There weren’t just two, there were so many, all rushing toward our building.
"What the heck are we going to do now?" Troy asked, stepping away from the window. One by one, I noticed them crawling toward the big window. Only a few could fit, but I knew there were more. They began hitting the window with their tails.
At that moment, even one of their tails was strong enough to crack the window. Troy and I just stared at it. As we started to step back and closed our eyes for a second, one of the Wendigos raised its tail so high I thought it was about to shatter the glass. We covered our faces. But no sound came. No crack, no breaking glass, no Wendigos rushing in.
I knew it was stupid to hide our eyes instead of running, but if they had all come inside, there was no way we could outrun them. I had already seen what they were capable of. Even one of them had managed to chase me through a tight space as if it belonged there.
When we uncovered our eyes, we looked at each other, then back at the window. Suddenly, they were all gone. A large crack ran across the glass, so it wasn’t just our imagination. But where did they go?
We slowly approached the window again to look outside. All we saw were clouds parting, and suddenly the sky was sunny. We couldn’t understand how everything had changed so quickly. Where had they gone? Why would they leave? We searched the road, thinking maybe they had found another victim, another target, but nothing. It was silent outside.
"I don’t understand," I told Troy, turning to him.
"Well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is we need to get out of here. And now we know where to go if we want to survive these things," Troy said, making it clear he knew that mansion in Fleshmingo Village was monster-proof. That was why it was always locked.
So were there more people securing that mansion? Were there other safe places like it?
"Yeah, let’s go," I told Troy. But as soon as we turned around, we saw someone standing behind us. It was Nate. He stared at us, his claws out, letting his wolf take over.
"I’m going to kill everyone," he growled, hissing. It was clear he was losing his mind quickly. And because he wasn’t as strong as an alpha, he couldn’t resist the bite marks, he had been bitten too many times.
"Nate, we are crusaders, just like you. We didn’t do this to you." I spoke slowly, trying to reach him, my hand brushing the small dagger I had hidden at my back just in case.
If he attacked, I would defend myself. Just because he was one of us didn’t mean I would let him kill us. If he became a monster, we’d have to fight back.
"Clementine, what are you doing?" Troy asked. I turned slightly to look at him.
"Don’t you see? He’s ready to kill us," I muttered, and Troy frowned.
"Are you going to kill him?" Before I could answer, Nate let out a grunt. Troy looked past me and shouted, "Clementine, get out of the way!" He rushed at me, pulled me aside, and leapt with me to the other side as Nate crashed to the floor, missing his attack.
Nate snarled and lunged again, but this time Troy caught him first. He grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall.
"Not her. You’re not going to touch her, you hear me?" Troy roared.
Suddenly, Nate stopped struggling. I don’t know what came over me, why I thought about fighting him to the death. Because right then, in front of me, he started breaking free from the trance. He looked around and began to cry quietly. Troy released him.
"Did I hurt someone?" Nate stammered.
"No. You’re Nate. You can’t hurt us." Then Troy gave the kind of response only an alpha could. Even in a moment like this, he reminded Nate he was too strong to be harmed by him. At least Nate was awake again.
"We need to check on Haiden," I told Troy. As soon as we turned the corner to the room where he was sleeping, we found Yorick and Haiden stepping out. Haiden didn’t look like he was under any trance. He looked fine, just a guy who’d had a very good nap.