章節 2: Chapter 2 - End of the line

He now clearly understood that Edda had always been one of those enhanced humans and felt like an idiot for never noticing.

He didn't understand why Edda was doing this. Why betray their community only to leave him safe outside of it? Did she still have feelings for him despite her betrayal? But then, why hunt him now?

Erik quickly shook himself free of his thoughts and focussed on staying ahead. He started gaining more space again but knew he couldn't hold on for long as the wolfsbane slowly sapped his strength. 

Erik knew he was now on his last legs, and if he didn't find a way to survive, he would be doomed, just like the rest of his community.

So he looked around, frantically trying to find anything in these abandoned wilds to help him survive the day.

He didn't really expect to find anything, but suddenly, his eyes fell on a strange light flickering through the trees ahead.

He figured it was just a trick of the moonlight, but since he had nothing more to lose, and there certainly wasn't anything that could worsen this situation, he changed course and headed for the light.

Edda and the hunters went straight after him, even as they wondered what he was up to.

Erik continued sprinting through the Taiga on all four limbs, ignoring the pain shooting from his shoulder and spine every time his right arm hit the ground.

He could feel himself continuing to weaken. The wolfsbane spread throughout his system, but he put everything he had in the vain hope that that flickering light would bring him salvation.

For what else did he have to hope for?

Finally, his body was about ready to give up. He started slowing down. But with his last strength, Erik crashed into a small clearing with a flickering light floating in the middle. It was a strange sight, as the light didn't appear to have an origin.

It was just… there.

He dragged his tired and weak body towards the light and stretched out his hand. He hesitated. Perhaps touching a mysterious light with no source or apparent function was not the wisest plan.

Yet, he also didn't have many other options. Whatever this light had in store for him couldn't be worse than what lay behind him. He was anxious, but hearing the hunters close in steeled his resolve. He stretched out his hand and… closed his fist around the light.

Erik's body tensed, ready for anything. But… nothing happened. His hand went right through the light as if it weren't even there.

His face slacked as the last bit of hope was ripped away from him. Whatever this light was, it didn't appear to do anything and was unlikely to be his salvation despite its mysteriousness.

Despair set in. In a panic, he tried to inspect the light more thoroughly. He waved his hand through it, hoping against hope to discover something that might help him, but it was to no avail. He only had a few more seconds before the hunters would show up, and his body was too weak to continue running.

His bones creaked and cracked while his muscles rippled as Erik slowly reverted to human form with a heavy groan, leaving him naked. His face appeared to be that of someone who had given up.

At the same time, a panting Edda entered the clearing. Clearly, she also wouldn't have made it much further.

Not that it mattered at this point; Erik was still in a much worse state. Edda was soon joined by four other hunters, who all panted even harder than Edda but were still fit enough to point their guns at Erik.

His former childhood friend and love interest looked at Erik maliciously, a look he had never seen on her face before. "You lead us on quite the chase, little mutt. Couldn't you have just stayed on that ridge until I was ready to deal with you?"

Erik looked at the woman he loved with a mixture of emotions as he barely recognised the Edda he had known all his life.

Her beauty was still there, as the soft glow of the light next to Erik illuminated the strands of golden hair cascading down her shoulders. 

Her fair complexion, kissed by the northern winds, had gained a slightly red hue from the exercise, which only enhanced and complimented her looks.

Her eyes were blue like cool arctic water and had a depth to them that Erik had always felt himself wanting to get lost in.

Her high cheekbones, slender nose, and freckles lend her a combination of cute, sexy, and pretty that was hard to find anywhere else.

But that was where his recognition ended. Edda's usually kind eyes and cheerful smile had been replaced by maliciousness and sadistic pleasure as she clearly enjoyed seeing her prey squirm in front of her.

She was currently wearing combat armour with various weapons strapped to it, clearly all meant to fight the supernatural in some way or another.

Seeing Erik lost in thoughts and not answering, she scoffed, "Well? Any last words, mutt?"

Mutt was pretty much the standard swear to call a werewolf. So much, in fact, that it had lost nearly all meaning, and yet, people kept using it.

Every one of Edda's words cut into Erik's heart. His feelings of defeat were pushed away by sadness and fury, and he could no longer keep his questions inside.

"Why?! Why Edda?!" he roared at her, defiance and confusion in his eyes. "Why did you betray your family?! And why save me the same fate, only to hunt me down afterwards?! Was everything between us always a lie?!"

At first, Erik wasn't sure he wanted to ask that last question. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer or could handle the answer.

Edda just curled her lips maliciously at him, "Family? Come now, as if a pureblood human like myself could possibly consider some dogs to be their family. Besides, I was never really loyal to you and them anyway, so was it really a betrayal?"

Her grin seemed to gain an additional layer of evil as she continued, "As for you, heh, yes, it was all a lie, you pathetic little child. In fact, I wanted to save you for last and make you watch as your little community burned."

She shrugged as she waved her gun around, "You just woke up a little sooner than expected. Anyway, consider the extra attention to be payback for having to spend all these years pretending to care about you."

With those words, Erik's heart broke for the last time, as any remaining love for Edda leaked out of him like water through a sieve.

The world is harsh. Erik's parents often spoke those words, but like so many things said by one's parents, he needed to experience it himself before he would truly appreciate them.

And so he did, and that same realisation turned him from a regular eighteen-year-old to an adult in the cruellest way possible.

One of the men beside her spoke up, still panting a little, "Well, I hope you enjoyed your little stunt. We almost lost this one because of you, and I'll make sure the confessor hears about it."

Edda just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Fucking Johnny Looselips, you are."

She refocused on Erik, "Anyway, last words? Last time I'm gonna ask."

With his confusion gone and his fury useless, all that remained was pain as he smiled a sad smile. "Just finish it, Edda. I can see now you were never the person I thought you were."

He took a deep breath and straightened his back as he looked her in the eyes, "Although I would like to go out fighting, my body simply won't allow it anymore, so you can at least finish me off quickly."

Edda looked a little disappointed but smiled sadistically anyway, "Fine," and raised her gun, preparing to shoot Erik in the head, when it suddenly felt like time was slowing down.

Everyone was aware of what was happening but couldn't figure out how or why. Edda was confused but still determined to shoot Erik. She tried her hardest to keep raising the gun but couldn't get it to move faster than inching speed.

Frustration shone in her eyes as she switched to focusing on getting the shot out, even if it wasn't aimed properly. Her finger started squeezing the trigger, but even that moved at a snail's pace.

As Edda's frustration grew, and Erik became confused, the mysterious light everyone had ignored was now pulsing much faster than before and seemed to be still increasing in speed until it finally reached the point where the pulses had become indistinguishable from one another.

Suddenly, time moved forward again, and as air seemed to be drawn into the light, a shot went off.

Then, a strong force was released from that light as everyone in the vicinity was blown away, flying through the air and hitting cold ground or trees.

Everyone, that is, except for Erik, who had disappeared into thin air, replaced by a shimmering oval of light floating in mid-air.

Immediately after the blast, the other four hunters suddenly burst into flames. Their screams echoed across the clearing, but Edda didn't burn like them. Instead, she just crashed against a tree and fell unconscious.

* * *

Hours later, the shimmering oval was still floating in the air as the trees around it had been blasted away. Four burned patches marred the ground, indicating the burial places of four unnamed hunters.

The oval-shaped light had started to get dimmer and dimmer over the last few hours as it slowly began to disappear, its purpose apparently fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Edda, who was still sitting against the tree, was finally regaining consciousness as the light slowly disappeared, leaving no evidence it ever existed aside from its aftereffects.

Edda still saw the oval light briefly but paid it no mind as she grabbed her aching head and groaned, "Ugh, what happened?"