Let Me Stitch Your Broken Heart

Carly could hear the heavy footsteps of the retreating wolf long after she’d stomped a valley between them. The steps soon became timed with her heart. The things he’d said to her burned deeply and brought tears to her eyes. She breathed in roughly and forced the tears away.
Abruptly, the steps behind her stopped. The sudden silence startled Carly, but she kept going and didn’t make any move to turn around and see what had happened. She reached dense wall of trees and only paused for a moment to determine the best way through.

As she squeezing through two of the skinnier trees in the bunch, Colton’s voice reached her ears, “Carly! Wait! Don’t-“

His voice was no longer audible once she was inside the forest. All around her were thick bunches of trees. How do they grow so close together? Carly stepped over roots that grew above the surface and under branches that stretched across narrow and rare paths. As she dodged a hole in the ground—probably a rabbit’s home, something wrapped around her right ankle. She looked down to find a thin vine gripping her leg for dear life. Carly jerked away, but the scrawny string-of-a-plant held fast. More vines then appeared and began wrapping themselves around her arms and legs. Panic rose in her as the plants covered her body.

She let out a blood-curling scream. “Colton! Help…me!”

The vines slithered up her neck and wound tighter, shrinking her ability to breathe. It was all happening so fast. Like gross fingers, they gripped her chin and ran up the sides of her head.

“Carly? Where are you?” Colton was panicking now as well. In his wolf form, he couldn’t fit through the Tree Wall. He’d been in there before and had gotten stuck when he’d been forced to transform in the middle of the forest. Vines had nearly-- “Vines!” he whispered to himself. If the vines had gotten her, she was a goner. There was nothing he could do for her. “Carly!”

“Colton!” She used her last gulp of air to call for him. Soon, his footsteps became audible. That meant he was inside. How?

Colton reached her just before the vines covered her face. He pulled at the vines despite what he knew of them. “Carly! Hang in there! Come on! Breathe! Carly!”

Carly could hear him speaking to her, but the plant over her ears muffled the words. Her vision was blocked, but she could see stars as the lack of oxygen got to her. Had she been a full vampire, the suffocation wouldn’t have affected her.

“Carls! Don’t you dare leave me! I’ll save you! Just hold on! Hold on, don’t let go!”

Colton tore at the plants to no avail. He didn’t have long before the lack of air got to her, if it hadn’t already.
During his chaotic rescuing, a cynical laugh penetrated his one-track mind. He turned. “Yasmijin! What are you doing here?” Though he hadn’t mentioned it to Carly before, he knew the creatures’ language to a small extent.

“I came for the show.”

”Argh!” Though he hated to say it, Colton needed help from his enemy. “Help me save her. Please.”

“Hm. Help you,” she pretended to think for a moment. “Sure, on one condition, hybrid,” she said with a wicked grin.

Colton responded quickly, “Okay, fine, whatever. Just help me!” The creature’s slow speech frustrated him.

”Don’t you want to hear your half?”

”I don’t care! Just help her!” Carly didn’t have much longer.

Yasmijin smirked as she spit on the end of one spiked finger. She extended an arm towards Carly and slit the vine. The incision was minuscule, but it affected the vine nonetheless. The living rope grew taut, seeming to scream internally. It then unraveled itself and slithered back into the ground.

Carly lay motionless on the forest floor with her eyes gracefully shut. Colton sprang towards her.

“Ah-ah-ahh.” Yasmijin shook a scolding finger at him. He paused, confused. “There was a condition.” Her lips spread into a grotesque smile as she scooped Carly into her arms and motioned for Colton to follow her. They ran north at light speed, ending at an obscene castle-like structure after a few seconds.

“Where have you taken us?”

“No one said you had to follow.”

“But then Carly would have died.”

Yasmijin shrugged. “A small sacrifice…”

Colton glared, but shut his mouth. A movement in his enemy’s arms caught his attention. Carly was slowly stirring awake.

“Colton?” Her voice was small and weak.

“Yes?” He walked over to her.

“Why are you human?”

He knew what she meant. “Long story.”

“We’ve got time,” Yasmijin answered. She knew very well how his hybrid qualities worked and was equally curious how he’d changed back so quickly. She knew enough words of English to get the basic idea of what Carly had asked.

Colton sighed. “I think…well…I switched the…um…realm-time continuum. It was an accident!” He translated for Yasmijin.

Carly knitted her eyebrows. “I don’t understand.” She was still a little groggy.

“You know how every yeat here is about a day back home?”

“Yeah.”

“Now every day here is about a year there.” Once again, he translated for Yasmijin.

All was silent for a moment. Yasmijin’s fury was escalating. “How do you ‘accidentally’ switch that?!” she screeched.

“Someone left an open portal! No one was around, so I tried to enter. It started to close when I was half-way through, so I pulled back. I mean, I didn’t want to get caught between. Anyways, it turned inside out and the continuum switched. See? Accident.” This time he translated for Carly.

“You were going to leave me?” Carly was close to tears. The drugged feeling from Yasmijin’s saliva being so close to her nose made her overly emotional.

“No,” he slipped his hands into hers, “I would never leave you.”

“But you tried to.”

She tried to pull her hand away, but he held tight.

Colton looked away before answering, “I thought you’d left already.”

Carly covered his hand with both of hers. “No,” she whispered, looking deep into his eyes.

Yasmijin scoffed, disrupting the moment, “Saps.” She grabbed Colton’s wrist with a third arm that had been tucked beneath her coat. She dragged him roughly up the steps towards the door. ”You’re lucky the king deals with this sort of stuff and not me. I’d have you killed. He’s much more merciful.”

“Yeah. Because torture is so much nicer.”

Yasmijin smiled and mused, “Denied the pleasure of death…You know, I think I like that better.”

Colton looked to the ever-approaching door. It was way too close for comfort. Memories bombarded him.

He stumbled over a step just before Carly spoke. “Colton, why can’t I understand you?”

“What?”

“That wasn’t English.”

“Oh! Um…I uh picked up the uh language. You know, when um…I was in the err transporter cell.”

Carly looked at him skeptically. “That doesn’t sound very believable.”

He sighed and glanced away.

“I can tell you’re about to lie. Don’t forget. Tell her the truth, lover boy,” Yasmijin snickered.

Colton glared at her.

“Colton?” Carly wanted an answer.

He breathed deeply. “I’ve been here before.”

“I already knew that.”

He struggled to speak. “Yasmijin used to have a sister. Her name was Tallina and we…I…she…um—“

“Spit it out, hybrid!” Yasmijin couldn’t understand his exact words, but she recognized her own name and her sister’s, so she knew the story he was trying to tell.

“We dated for a while and we were due to be married.”

Carly’s eyes widened.

“We were in love. One day, thinking I was alone, I morphed to my wolf form. It turned out she was right behind me and the explosion threw her back. Tallina was weak for her kind. I ran over to her and her last words were, ‘You kill me, freak.’ Her English wasn’t very good. Now I have a deal with the king to pay the debt of his niece’s death. This was all about a hundred years ago.”

Sensing that Colton had finished, Yasmijin added her own comment, intent on making Carly worry. Adrenaline was tasty in the blood. “You his payment.” She grinned despite her broken English.

Carly looked frantically back and forth between the two. “What do you mean?”

Colton looked away again. “I promised your blood to the king. These creatures survive on human blood. They’re just like another species of vampire. The only differences are their looks, lack of venom, and the fact that they’re born this way.”

“And now he’s contaminated your blood with his venom. Poison! He was trying to poison us!”

“No I wasn’t,” Colton replied flatly. He translated for Carly.

She thought for a moment before responding, “What now?”

“I don’t know,” Colton sighed.

They had reached the door. Yasmijin reached to open it. Carly looked at Colton and he looked back. Her fear was obvious.

“I’m so sorry.”