CHAPTER 26: 26-THE BLOND GUY FROM THE WHITE SQUAD

Clementine:

We looked around for a while, but night fell, and we were pretty cold. We were also starving, so Troy and I decided to look for some fruit trees. We found an apple tree, and he was the first to take a bite because I didn’t want to risk being poisoned by an apple from a tree, which seemed harmless by the way. But who knows, this place was pretty messed up. Once I saw he was fine, I grabbed an apple too. He started the fire, and we sat around it, watching the flames rise. For a moment, there was just silence. If it had been us before the fight, we’d be laughing, talking, gossiping, playing all kinds of fun games. But things had changed, and it was because our communication was really poor. We were young, I admit that, but I still expected him to come to me first. The way he handled the situation left me thinking, maybe it was for the best that we were no longer friends.

"You know, others were pretty confused seeing what you were hiding behind that hat and those baggy clothes," Troy said after clearing his throat.

I just let out a scoff because I knew exactly what he meant. Sadly, when I wore those baggy clothes, they didn’t respect me. But I noticed their attitude changed once my appearance did.

"What was that scoff for?" Troy definitely noticed, so he asked.

"What about you? Why has your attitude changed?" I asked, raising my eyes to find him staring at my face before he shrugged and looked away.

He was sitting on his ass, knees up, legs apart, with his arms wrapped around them.

"Honestly speaking, I just... I told you, I feel awkward bullying you now because it feels like I’m mistreating a girl," he mumbled under his breath.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes. Then I looked around for a bit, glancing up at the sky.

When night arrived, it kind of started to look like South, East, and West. Like nothing was wrong with North.

I’d heard great stories about the North being the most beautiful one. Their packs used to be rich and full of fun things and activities. I remember my maid telling me she had run from the North when all the chaos erupted. She was just a baby back then, a little child.

So it really saddens me how this part started to go bad. Like mold on bread, it starts in one corner and then ruins the whole thing.

This is what we were afraid of, that somehow these monsters would cross the border and reach the other regions. That would be a disaster. Only the warriors would survive in that case.

"You know, Clementine, I honestly don’t care how you dress or how gorgeous you look now."

His tone had changed again. My eyes moved back to him, and I found him tilting his head, staring me dead in the eye.

"Because I know how ugly you are on the inside. You’re jealous, envious.You’re the reason I’m sitting here today. Otherwise, I would’ve been back in my pack, treated with respect, wearing an alpha crown and not becoming an alpha crusader." The pain in his voice made me look away and bite my tongue. If only he knew the truth. If only he had asked. But I had promised myself I wouldn’t explain myself to him again. Not until I felt like he had earned the explanation.

"Anyway, we should rest now. We’ll start looking for Elliot in the morning." Just as quickly as his mood had spoiled, he lay down, and I felt like he had already fallen asleep because he closed his eyes. I stayed awake for a while, sitting and looking around.

The cracking of the wood, eaten by the fire, sounded like a melody. I didn’t want complete silence because this place was indeed scary.

After some time, I finally lay down, hands clamped together under my cheek, and fell asleep on my side.

For a moment, everything stopped, all the worries halted, as I dreamed about what my life would’ve been like if my mother were with me. But all dreams come to an end when morning arrives. And sure enough, I woke up at exactly 5:15, like every other day. It was as if some alarm had been fixed in my head.

But this time, I wasn’t waking up to my stepmother beating me up, or yelling at me, or throwing cold water in my face. I was waking up to an extremely terrifying sight in front of me.

It was Elliot standing on top of Troy, glaring at him.

He was on all fours, hands down, goat legs apart. Troy had no clue, or maybe he was in a daze, but he just lay there, sleeping as Elliot glared at him.

I began to get up from the ground, first raising my head, but with minimal movement. I felt like if I breathed too loudly, I’d catch his attention, or he’d stomp on Troy. He looked like he could be very powerful. Of course, he was Elliot the Faun, the monster who could kill you with his hooves and his horns.

But the minute I tried to lift my leg, a branch snapped under my foot and he finally moved. In a heavy, dramatic movement, he turned to me. It was almost theatrical, but it scared the shit out of me. His eyes were this weird shade of grey, and the black seemed to pour into them the longer he stared at me. Then I noticed he was changing color. His horns started to turn red, almost like they were on fire. That’s when I knew I had his attention. And I guess that was the right thing to do.

Because the minute he looked away from me and started focusing on Troy again, I made my move again. I jumped up from the ground and started waving my arms.

"Hey, here, you sucker!" I yelled, watching him turn more quickly this time, like he’d just been shocked by what I was doing. Then I turned and ran.

"Come after me if you think you can catch me!" I screamed.

I knew I was provoking him, but it would buy Troy some time to wake up and shake the sleep from his eyes. And that’s exactly what happened. The moment I started screaming and the Faun began chasing after me, Elliot got off Troy and that woke him up.

I watched him sit up, and that’s when I knew he was safe. But now I had to get away.

So I ran. I ran as fast as I could.

It felt like my tail was on fire. I could hear him behind me, his hooves pounding the ground. I turned around to see how far he was, and the sight terrified me. He jumped with his back legs, grabbed a tree with his hands, and swung himself to another branch.

It was like watching a creature that had all the traits of both animals and humans. And that was the scariest shit. I knew he could pounce on me at any moment. But he was enjoying the chase.

And then it was like the world had begun, because I could see a road. A freaking road. Until now, I thought we were just in a maze. Like, just a very fictional North, which was all woods and nothing else. There was nothing beyond the woods. But I was so wrong. There was a whole road outside. But I couldn’t celebrate, because that meant I was going deeper into the city areas, which meant bigger monsters.

But for now, I jumped onto the road, and I instantly fell. My knees scraped, and I grunted, still getting up when it came out. Jumped out of the woods and stopped, its hands slowly rising from the ground as it stood on its hooves. It was bizarre. But he was still at some distance from me.

That’s when something hit him, and he screamed in pain. Almost like an agonizing pain. He stepped back in pain. Then I saw another fireball hit him from the other side. And then more and more. He started to back down, then turned around and ran into the woods.

I wasn’t sure where the fireballs came from, but I was thankful.

"It seems like your pretty little face intrigued it. He was pretty adamant to catch you."

I heard the voice of my savior. I watched the same blonde guy from the White squad squat down and smirk. They all had the same kind of outfits, white shirts, white leather pants, and white fingerless gloves. But he, for some reason, had high collars. So I assumed he was special in his white squad.

"Hi, my name is Joshua White. I’m from White Squad," he said, smirking, using his eyebrows to show interest in me. He seemed like a fuckboy.

"I’m Clementine Stark."

As soon as I said it, he nodded.

"I know, you’re from Black Squad."

His eyes almost dropped to my lips when I heard another voice from beside him.

"Back off, redhead. He is mine."

Came a girl with the tiniest waist, wearing an all-white, onesie-style leather suit that fit perfectly on her physique with a vintage belt. She had a slightly rounded chest and a little wide hips. But other than that, she was pretty lean. Her black, long, dead-straight hair was thin, but it looked good with her brown eyes. She had thin lips, but they were such a perfect shade of pink that even I stared at her for a moment.

"What is going on here?"

Our heads snapped toward another person coming in. Troy seemed to have chased after us and managed to catch up. He came out looking so fucking big from the woods.

The minute he saw me sitting on my ass, my body leaned back with my elbows behind me to support my head, and Joshua almost squatting so close to me, he yelled,

"There is a fucking monster out there and you are flirting with my squad member?"

There was so much anger in Troy’s voice that I immediately felt like he had embarrassed me.