In the silence of the woods, eeriness began touching my ankle, warning me that I was nearing the graveyard. It was a nice cemetery during the daylight, but as the sun set in the sky, the spirits of wandering souls and restless monsters roamed around the graveyard's perimeter. I could clearly see them. They were already giving chills by the time I set foot inside. But the stalkers were still behind me, ready to bite.
"If they think I'm still the old Bernila, then they'd better think again," I muttered smugly to myself despite how bad my heart was throbbing against my chest.
I made some turns around the cemetery, trying to shake them off, but they persisted. I sighed, deciding to use my malice—my Sigbin malice. With each turn in the catacombs, a gallery-like burial place, I began hearing hoarse noises. But I didn't pause to check; instead, I kept walking where my footsteps led me to sepulchers, the burial chambers, some of which were open and were empty. But the noises were followed by rustling movement on the ground.
"If I'm not a werewolf, I'm already running around, scared." I sighed as I tried to ignore the eerie vibe that I stirred.
It was getting creepier, and the sun was nearly out of the sky, and I was still somewhere in the huge public cemetery, filled with deceiving trees and ivy. I hurried because those men were still behind. But my intention was clear in my head. I passed the old mausoleum, where I began to feel cold presences touching my skin. I didn't stop; I couldn't. I crossed the sarcophagus, stone coffin area, before jumping away from the dug-up grave and continuing on my tracks.
Feeling annoyed, I said, "They were getting on my nerves." I increased my malice, stirring the spirits awake at each turn I passed. I watched them follow me, but they were more wary about the two shadows right behind me. I went grumpy, "Oh, c'mon."
I saw my friends in our meeting area, and I was about to head there when they finally decided to tackle me. It was a hard tackle that made us stumble on the ground. But when that night clicked in my head, I froze. My voice caught in my throat, their taunting voice became a buzz in my ears, and when they touched me, that's where I screamed.
"NOOO!!!" I screamed in terror.
"SHUT UP, BITCH!"Jose shouted, slapping my face. Then followed by a punch from Javier. I stumbled on the ground, coughing.
"Let's get you somewhere private," Javier added, and he used his brute force to drag me toward an empty but old mausoleum.
I wasn't sure why my body suddenly went weak when I had already shifted into my gamma rank, and I was an elite, too. But at this moment, ranking was just a label against a traumatic experience engraved all over your body. I wanted to end this nightmare and fight back, but my body went limp as soon as they touched me. My body remembers everything, and they were trying to reenact it on me.
"Let's get you out of these clothes," Javier lustfully taunted, licking his lips and unbuckling his belt.
"You can't wait to taste her." Jose laughed.
"Well, she looks good now. I want it again." Javier laughed again, getting ready while Jose tried to tear my clothes.
"No..." I pleaded, but they weren't listening. "I had enough..." I cried internally, but behind them, something slowed everything.
I saw a golden light, small but bright. "No, it can't be..." I whispered, not fighting. They took it as a good sign, but that's what I am looking at. The golden light began taking the form of a child, and from the looks of its frantic glow, I could tell it was angry, crying, and trying to stop these monsters from getting into my pants again. "No...no..." I cried, chanting because that sight hurts me to the core, making me snap. "NOT MY BABY!"
My scream was a roar, and the energy that came out from my body was lethal, throwing my rapist away from me. I feel the heat, the unsettled emotions, and something I haven't thought I would want: blood. All of it had shifted into something I should have been if I had been given a chance back in the pack. But regret won't heal it, and time is different.
Reaching to the dimming sky, I looked at my hands. I saw my energy flowing calmly, and looking past it, I could see spirits towering over me, checking if I was fine. I nodded, got up, and dusted my clothes as if nothing bad had almost happened to me. I felt different, light but dangerous.
"I think it's time to break them apart," I said coldly, cracking my fingers before glancing over the golden light, asking, "Don't you think, Baby?" I smiled softly when it nodded. I watched the golden light enter my body as the rest of the spirits decided to help me. They swirled around me, giving me time to adjust to their overwhelming powers before radiating around my knuckles and feet. Then I grinned sinisterly. "Thank you. Let's make them pay."
As if I turned into a vampire, I appeared in front of Jose. I gripped Jose's collar tightly, choking him before stepping on his leg, breaking his bones. He screamed in pain, cursing me, calling me names, but none of it mattered. I don't even care if somebody heard it. I threw him to the ground, breaking a few stone coffins on the way, forcing him to morph into his wolf form. But he's doing me a favor.
Jose tried to attack me, but when I stared at his wolf—really stared—it began whimpering. On cue, witnesses finally arrived. My friends were worried, and the old man was shocked about how I made the wolf whimper.
"We've got company." I snickered sinisterly, and I grabbed its snout before forcing it to the ground. There was a strong force that was pressing him deeply into the ground. I taunted. "Be a good boy and stay on the ground."
"Berns?" I heard Agilus's worried voice.
I glanced over my shoulder with my index finger on my smirking lip. I reassured him, "He's angry."
Then I turned to Javier, who had regained his consciousness. He looked animated as his eyes went wide, seeing his friend pinned on the ground. Anger flashed in his eyes, and he charged at me.
"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!" Javier shouted in his threatening voice, but nothing reached my bones. It felt like nothing.
I snickered as I caught his fist before asking sinisterly, "Should I be saying that?"
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" he shouted as he began attacking me.
"Whoa, you've got skills, but..." I praised, but I could see his moves. It was easy to predict where it was coming from or where it was going to land. It was easy to either dodge it or block it. Then grimly, I taunted. "But you should have long ago."
I gave him the powerful combinations of punches and kicks that I'd learned in my combat classes. I added pressure, the same thing I've learned from my wife's training session. Javier became a bouncing ball from every stumble he took. But I'm impressed by how stubborn he was. He kept standing up, trying to fight back, and I was fascinated as if I had found a new toy to break.
"This is fun." I laughed madly as I moved faster, adding more pressure and precision to my attacks, which were becoming lethal for the likes of him. "He's numbing."
His wolf took over immediately. It was angry and recklessly attacked me, but its claws couldn't scratch my clothes. It frustrated the wolf until I had enough of playing. I made sure the wolf would toss me up. When I was in midair, I angled myself to return a favor and gave a full swing of a roundhouse kick on its head, knocking it down to the ground harshly before landing in a broken stone coffin.
I landed smoothly on the ground, dusting myself. Then I went closer to Javier, rolling my sleeves, and giving him a golden punch on his face. "Serves you right." When the golden light was extracted from my body, my knees buckled, and I started panting. "Damn, that's tiring."
"Bernila!" Talia shouted and was about to hug me when Agilus beat her to it.
Agilus hugged me tight, crying a little. I pulled away from his hug, giggling, "I'm fine." Then I flicked his forehead, making him pout before I said, "He's like you, worry-rat but protective."
"Bernila, what do you mean by him?" Almira asked carefully.
I was about to answer when I felt the old man's presence behind me. Then he called me, "Bernila, come to my office."
"I can't move," I reasoned, pointing at my trembling legs.
He nodded, then glanced at Agilus. "Take him with you. He had something to do with what we're going to talk about." Then Gilmesh looked at Almira. "Take the rest with you. Allison, follow us."
***
At Gilmesh's office, Allison brewed tea for us, but there was tension in the air; she was worried about what happened to me with those men. But no one tried to break the silence until I sneezed.
They snickered, and Allison praised me. "You did great there.
"You gave them a beating," Agilus added, grinning fondly.
"But what's with the 'he' that you're referring to?" Allison asked the same question Almira had tried to ask me.
"A spirit of a baby," Gilmesh answered before I could. They looked between him and me with confusion. "I'm a necromancer. I could see spirits. But you, Bernila, the spirits with you, were powerful, and the golden light was floating around your sides." Gilmesh's voice softened before his eyes steadily met mine. "Tell me, Bernila, what happened to you for you to lose a child?"
There was a heavy silence in the office as I tried to come up with a lie, but nothing was forming until the golden light landed on my hands, which I didn't realize were shaking. I sighed, and I looked at them carefully.
"Do you want me to tell them?" Agilus asked gently.
I shook my head, saying, "No, it's my nightmare."
"It's mine too," he quickly said.
I sensed guilt in his tone. It made me caress his cheek, smiling with reassurance. Then I said, "But you're not in my nightmare." I looked at the old man before Allison and sighed. "You all know that I was bullied growing up because I'm the weakest omega in the pack. But I'm not sure if you were aware that being bullied is not the only thing that had me fall." My voice sounded calm, as if I was not sharing with them what hurts me the most. Then I continued, "I was raped—gang raped."
Allison gasped, and the old man remained stoic, but his aura stated differently—he's mad. Then Allison's broken and angry voice called my name, "Bernila..."
"It's okay. I can continue, but please don't tell her yet. We're still not ready to share our secrets with each other. But I still want to tell this to her later on, in my time." I pleaded with them, and they understood, since this issue is between a married couple. I smiled gratefully at their understanding, and I proceeded. "They were seven, but only six took turns, inflicting slivers on my body and raping me. But they fully stopped it when I fell apart, but Agilus was different from them."
Allison glared at him, but Agilus continued the story, "I couldn't touch her like that; I could only watch them do it with her. It hurts, but I can't do anything; I'm not strong enough to fight six while protecting her. I cleaned up her wounds and encouraged her to hold on. I tried to make her hold on to something after I heard from the Alpha about her closing transfer."
"You knew that?" I asked, bumping my shoulder to his.