All she could do was run.
Above her, in the sky, the Blue Moon shinned bright and menacing. It’s light cutting through the trees, following her wherever she went.
Cait ran faster. Her paws kicking up dirt. It hurt to run, her side was bleeding, but she kept running. Inside, she screamed. Silently. Screaming.
Screaming like those kids had. Like the adults had. She could hear it, like she was still back there.
“Oh my god, what happened!”
“John do something!!”
“No! NO! Take her! Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me! NO!”
“Get away from my son!”
Cait howled, an anguished, ferocious sound, but still the sound of a juvenile faoladh.
Run. Run. Run.
She stopped when she got back to her campsite. It was far from the house. The campsite was just outside of a tiny nook, naturally carved out of a hilly rock side. She skidded to a halt. Pacing, pacing, and finally started to shift back into her human form. Cait collapsed onto the ground, sobbing, crying, wailing as seven year olds do. There was blood all over her. Her hands, her face, her own blood leaking from the nasty cut at her hip that hurt so bad! She didn’t know how to clean it, she didn’t have any band aids. Every time she got cut before she just healed, but this one wasn’t healing and it hurt so much!
Cait gasped, trying to breathe but she couldn’t breathe. Her small bloody hands fisted into her hair, raising up to her knees only to bend at the waist under the force of her grief and terror.
She’d killed those people! She didn’t know what came over her. Earlier was she sitting here, eating her cookies, thinking about where to go next to find her pack. But, all day she’d felt different. She was more angry than usual. She was agitated. She’d tried throwing rocks. She’d even punched the trees. But she kept getting angrier, and angrier…
When night came she started changing. At first she was so excited! She was becoming a wolf! But it didn’t feel good, she felt like she was burning inside. She had to run, had to run away from it, because everything felt bad. She called out for the Sisters, but they couldn’t hear her. She was alone. She had no one. She had to run.
She’d found the house and thought maybe they could help her, tell her what was wrong with her, tell her why she felt like that. But she didn’t want their help when she saw them. She wanted to hurt them. She needed to hurt them. It’s like there was a voice inside of her, telling her to do it, and she couldn’t control it –
“No! No! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!!!” Her child like screams pierced the air as she sobbed, and threw herself back onto the ground, curling into a ball, trembling, shaking, crying. The Sisters were right. Mother Superior was right. She wasn’t a protector. She was a devil.
Finally, perhaps blissfully she passed out. A combination of her hyperventilating and the pain.
_______________
The sound of someone humming. The smell of bacon. The chirping of birds, and the gentle light of the sun. Cait slowly opened her eyes. She was inside the nook. She was on a sleeping bag that wasn’t hers, but it smelled good. Her head was on a pillow. She blinked and rubbed her sleepy eyes.
Had she dreamed it all? Was it just a nightmare – she sat up and winced. Someone cleaned and bandaged side. It didn’t hurt, not nearly as bad as before but it was still sore. Cait looked down at her hands. The remnants of the blood was still there. Her eyes welled up with tears –
“Well good mornin!” A man’s cheerful voice.
Cait swallowed back her tears. It was probably a policeman or something worse, come to put her down or take her jail. She’d confess. There was no sense in running. She was dangerous. Mother Superior was right. Cait climbed out of the sleeping bag and stepped outside.
The man was big. The biggest man she’d ever seen. He was wearing a cap. Clean shaven. There was an eyepatch on his right eye, and a nasty scar that went down the right side of his face. He was dressed normal. Not like a policeman.
“Hi.” Cait said quietly.
He smiled at her. “You want some breakfast? Can’t eat all this by myself.”
Her stomach growled, but she tucked her arms around herself. “Are you gonna take me to prison?”
“For what you did last night?”
Cait bit her bottom lip, tears welling in her eyes again. She couldn’t speak. She nodded.
He gave her a reassuring smile. It wouldn’t be till years later she’d learn that real smiles should reach the eyes. “No darlin’. I’m not here to take you to prison. I’m here to help you, if you want.”
Hope welled up inside of her. “You can help me? I don’t want to hurt people. I didn’t mean to I-”
“Easy. Calm down. Sit.” He motioned to the chair beside him.
Cait did as she was told, climbing into the chair. He put a plate of food in front of her first. “Here. Eat.”
Cait took the plate, her stomach growling again and gobbled it up, with all the manners of a seven year old that hasn’t eaten properly in over twenty-four hours.
The man leaned back in his chair, sipping from a mug, watching her with calculating eyes, and a smile that never reached them.
“I’m Tony.”
“I’m Cait.” She said with a mouthful.
“Well, Cait. I’m not going to lie to you. You did do a bad thing last night. And the police are looking for who killed all those people.”
Cait trembled. She swiped her hand across the back of her mouth, struggling not cry again. “Okay. I’ll turn myself in.”
“Whatever for?”
“Because that’s what your spose to do.”
“Who told you that?”
“I just… I learned it. Everybody knows and Mother Superior said I-” She cut herself off. Looked down at her hands around the plate. She wasn’t hungry anymore. Her vision blurred.
“What if there was another way?”
Cait didn’t answer. She sniffled and looked over at Tony.
“What if you didn’t have to go to prison? What if I could make all that go away? What if I could teach you how to use your devil?”
Hope welled inside Cait again. “You can teach me not to be a devil? I don’t wanna be. I didn’t mean to hurt those people.”
“Well… what if I could teach you how to control it? What if you could protect people like Lilly and hurt mean old people like Emma? Wouldn’t that be good?”
“You know about Lilly and Emma?”
“Oh, I know all about you Cait. I’m very excited to meet you. You’re special you know.”
Cait blinked back her tears, wiping her eyes. No one had ever told her that. “I’m special?”
“You’re very special to me.” He smiled again, leaning forward. “So what do you say? I keep you safe, out of prison. I won’t let anyone know that it was you who killed all those people. And I’m going to teach you lots of really cool things. Doesn’t that sound nice? You just have to do what I tell you. Do we have deal?” He held out his hand.
Cait stared at him, then down at his hand. A part of her, told her to run. To run fast and hard and as far away as she could from this man.
She caught sight of her still bloody hands.
“Mark my words, if you it live she will be nothing but a killer.”
“Oh my god, what happened!”
“John do something!!”
“No! NO! Take her! Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me! NO!”
“Get away from my son!”
Cait swallowed, and put her tiny hand in his big one. “Okay, I guess.”
Tony smiled again, and for the first time, Cait felt a little afraid of him. “Welcome to the family, Cait.”