AN

ld see them-my father and brother, watching me from a distance. Even at that moment, under the weak light cast by the rising moon, I could

s mouth and yelled, at his voice slic

my name like it was a curse. "I hope they rip you apart. I'd be gla

he way they treated me like a burden, a stain on their lives. But to hear him speak those words, to see him

throat and squeezing at my chest until I thought I'd choke on it. My father and brother didn't wait to see what would

me lying there, limp and powerless. I looked up at the sky, at the vast stretch of stars above me, twinkling aga

s had been my frequently asked questions since I turned six, and this made me wonder if they all

, I was cursed, a bringer of misfortune. They said I was born wolfless as punishment for something dark in my soul, that I was the reas

curse. The re

ther children in the pack, sneering as they hurled stones at me. I remembered my mother, too, her lips curling

useful...it was never enough. They saw only my faults, only the things I couldn't do.

d, shoved, slapped, made to feel small. And not just by my family. It was the entire pack, a collective cruelty that seeped into eve

hands reaching out to grab at my boobs, their breath heavy and sickening. They called me worthless, yet somehow, I was valuable enough to be their plaything. I'd escape

way, or worse-they smirked, as if my suffering was just another

nds? Alone, broke

t, I thought it was just my imagination. But then the heavens opened, and the rai

for me, shedding tears that I no longer had the strength to shed. I'd cried enough in my life, shed enough tea

able. My eyes drifted shut, and in the darkness, I found a strange sense of peace. Maybe th

verse mourns for me becaus

weighed on me for so long. I felt my body slacken, surrendering to the earth, to the

he thought slipped from my lips in a faint, tr

... let me fina

fading into a strange kind of comfort, as if I were drifting away from everything I'd ev

ugh the rain. Voices, echoing through the darkness, strange and unfamiliar. I couldn't understa

. I tried to move, to open my eyes, but my body refused to obey. The voi

sn't

f unconsciousness. The whispers surrounded me, weaving through the darkn

ddenly as they began,

once more, broken only by

d between fear and darknes