Unknown

Chapter 2

- Now that I have Kate informed, I can check up on her family. -

Hopefully they were still safe. If they were still where I had left them.

The last thing I wanted to do was to have to tell Kate that her parents had disappeared. I hated having to leave her out of it, but it was for her own safety and well-being. If she saw the danger that they were in, she’d risk her life to try and save them. - No, she would never find out what happened to them. -

It took an hour to walk to the location of the accident. - I should have changed... it wouldn’t have taken as long. Oh well. Great, now I’m talking to myself…maybe I should see a shrink…I doubt it would help anyways. -

Turning around the corner to the site of the accident, I immediately sensed that something was off. I still sensed them there, but I couldn’t see or smell them in the dark night. As I neared closer to the site, I picked up there scent, and sprinted to where they should have been.

Dodging corners and random obstacles, I pushed my way into the century old building. Back in the day, it would have been beautiful. Clean stain glass windows, unscratched hardwood floors, and a dust and cobweb free arched ceiling. Now, hundreds of years later, most of the stain glass windows had been either smashed, or boarded up, the floors lined in thick dust, and scratched to hell along with the arches.

Not giving a second thought to the building’s interior, I ran to the back of the building, skirting around objects in the narrow hallways. Their scent was getting stronger as I neared the steps to the basement. Not bothering to slow down, I ran down the winding staircase, praying I wouldn’t fall. I didn’t, but that wasn’t what had stopped me. It was the sight of two men sitting on chairs, standing guard, over a man and a woman.

The ‘guards’ looked like typical guards. Big and tough. The other two prisoners were chained to the wall, with cuts and sores all over their bodies. Their unclean hair and faces had distracted me from the real issue. The guard behind me. Only a thump on the back of my head alerted me of him. Then there was darkness.

* * *

After being knocked out for who knows how long, I woke up with a splitting headache. After mentally kicking myself for letting that guard get to me, I looked around where I was being held. The same dark cell where those other two prisoners were. - They really are dense. Smart idea guys. Put me in a cell where I’ve seen where the exit is. - After realizing that, I noticed that I was chained up, and was alone in the room. - That means the other two were moved. Crap. Now I actually have to think for myself. -

Getting out of the cell was the easy part. Getting out of the manacles though, was a whole different story.

They were made of layers of steel, forged together to make one tough pair of manacles. They were made in haste, that was obvious. There were bumps and ridges, and where my wrists were, there were pieces of metal sticking out, cutting into my skin like it was butter. Every time I moved, more droplets of blood joined the pool of blood on the floor. Fighting against them was just going to weaken me even more. The only way to get out was to change. Well, it’s that, or stay down here until I’m dead…or killed.

So I changed. Only not fully, just enough to make my wrists and hands smaller. I had to laugh out loud for a second. How stupid were they, to put me in manacles, when I could just change, and slip out of them? It took a maximum of 10 seconds. Just in front of me was the spiral staircase, leading out to safety. - Go… go save yourself. - I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I left, when I could have saved those two innocent lives. - Oh hell, if it wasn’t for Kate, I would have been long gone by now. -

While change back to normal, I walked toward another opening in the room, leading to another, smaller cell. There was no lighting, and was rat infested. - So, this is where that smell comes from…damn rats. - There was another opening, leading to other rooms, which were even darker. This was the perfect time to change. Only this time, I fully changed. - I might as well be able to see and hear better. Don’t want another repeat of last time. -

‘Wow, so you really are part wolf, or is it werewolf? Wolf, werewolf, makes no difference to me what you are.’ A voice popped out from the darkness, moving frem my left, to my right, then from in front of me, to behind me. He was extremely fast for a human. Too fast. This is why I didn’t see him grab my neck from behind, and throw me across the room, against a wall. He continued to throw me around the room, not caring about what happened to me, as long as I was getting hurt. Each time I tried to get up, he would push me down and beat my head against the cool, concrete floor. This time, after being flung at a wall again, with him laughing at my pain, I didn‘t get up. I couldn’t, I didn’t have the strength. - If I’m going to die, now, please, let it be quick. - Little did I know what he would do next was as bad, if not worse than dying. In modern day terms, he would have been charged with assault. Back in the day, he would have been charged with abuse, and rape.

He left me there to whither and bleed through my sorrows and misery. I would have been there for years if Kate’s face hadn’t crossed my mind. As I tried to pull together the will power to stand up, making it to a sitting position, my wounds got the better of me, and everything went black.

* * *
Waking up with my headache turned into a full migraine, my hair matted with blood, and my arms and legs scraped to hell, I realized, I HAD to get out of there, with the prisoners, or without. There was no way I would chance getting messed with again. - Sorry Kate, but I don’t even know them. -

I tried to pull myself together to stand up, but got only half way when the room started spinning. After that ended, I looked around for the exit, and realized that there were two exits from the room. - Well, left it is. - This exit looked more promising, due to the light that was coming through it.

Heading down that short hallway, and into another cell, it was the exact one that I had come into the previous cell through. I then got into the main room, staring straight ahead, and ready to makes a break for it, when I heard a muffled sound, coming from the right of me. Looking over, I saw it was those two prisoners. They were cleaned up a little since I last time I had seen them, which made them more recognizable. They were Kate’s mom and dad, just as I had thought. I rushed to them, pulling the manacles apart from around their wrists with pure adrenaline. - Please, don’t say anything, I don’t want to be heard. - Still running on adrenaline, I pulled them up, and ran them up the stairs with them over my shoulders, and then out of the building, again not noticing the dust, cobwebs, and broken windows. Only until I was a block away, did I let them down, and let the adrenaline from my body disappear.

“Dmitri! How… how did you find us?” Rachel, Kate’s mom, was always impressed with me, no matter what I did.

“I answered, “It wasn’t that hard. I looked around here, then as I got closer to the building, I picked up your scent, and followed it until I reached you two. It was something I had to do.”

“Where’s Kate?” Her dad however, hated me, with a passion very similar to a fat kid loving cake.

“She’s in the apartment, sleeping, I think, but…” I started.

“What do you mean you THINK?! That’s my baby girl! She better be there!” His face was getting reader with every second I took to gather my thoughts.

“Paul, calm down, he probably just meant...”

“Stay out of this Rachel for a minute! Now son, my girl better be in that apartment, or else you’ll never see her again! I WILL promise that!” Man, did he have a temper, and some trust issues.

“ What I’m saying is that she is either in the apartment sleeping, or in the apartment not sleeping.” I can’t believe I had to explain that.

“Well then, Mr. I-Know-Everything, let’s go look now!” Major trust issues there.

I turned and started walking home, back to Kate, who was most likely asleep. - That was what I was worried about. Recently, she’s been sleeping a lot more, during the morning, and the evening. It’s all she does. Sleep. Eat. Cry. She’s eating a crap load too. When she’s not sleeping crying, she’s stuffing her face. When she’s not doing those three, she’s yelling at me for the stupidest little things. It’s like she’s going into depression, but I know she’s not, because I haven’t heard of her parents fighting, we hardly argue, and I haven’t cheated on her. And she can’t be cheating on me, because all she ever does is sleep, eat, and cry. She never goes out to her parents, she barely sees her friends anymore. Unless she’s with some guy now. But I doubt it. But you never know. The only other thing would be terrible. Very tragic, and life changing. Pregnant. -

Turning the corner, I could see the apartment, only a few miles away. With Rachel and Paul injured, it would take us at least 10 minutes to get there.

Those 10 minutes passed quickly, and then we were taking the elevator up to the apartment. Then we were in.

Walking in, I called out, “Kate, hello? I’m back…and I have your parents here.” No answer.

“Well, where is she?” Paul demanded, wanting his baby girl.

Well, so did I.

“Kate honey, you in here? It’s mom.” Rachel called, walking to the back of the apartment, toward the bedroom.

“Quiet, she might be sleeping, you don’t wa…” I started.

“Where is she?! Dmitri!!” Rachel yelled, running to where Paul and I stood.

"What? She’s not back there?” I ran to the bedroom, but caught something out of place.

It was the dresser. To be more specific, it was the picture on it. Well, the lack of a picture. Instead, in the frame was a folded piece of paper.

Taking out the paper and opening it to read, I realized it was a good-bye note. From Kate. Reading it broke my heart, and made me pissed off at myself. - How could I let this happen? -Dropping to the floor, I sat there, and cried. - This was never supposed to happen! - I dropped the note to the floor, and buried my face in my hands.

Not a second a second later, the note was snatched up by Rachel, curious and worried about why I was crying.

"Oh my gosh. You’ve got to be joking. My Kate…” I didn’t even want to look at her, knowing al I would see was a very sad, tired, tear stained face, making my guilt even worse.

“I’ve got to find her. Is there any place she would go? Anywhere at all?” I asked, not caring how far I would have to travel to find her. I just wanted her back in my arms.

“North Dakota, a little town called Mapleton, where she was born.” With that, it was all I needed to get going. And I went.

I went to the garage, and got into my truck. I drove to the nearest airport. I went and got my ticket to Detroit. I went to Detroit, not talking to anyone I didn’t have to. I didn’t care how much this trip would cost me. I only cared about finding Kate. She was all I cared about.

7 hours later, I arrived in Detroit, tired and in a rush. - Mapleton, North Dakota. That is where I need to be. - I caught the first train to North Dakota. I hopped on, and went to my ‘cabin’ for a good night’s rest. Only, that never came.

~~~

“Dmitri, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Kate, what is it…why are you looking at me like that? What did I do?”

She was looking up at me with a blank expression clouding her face. There was something wrong about this situation, very wrong.

“Dmitri. It’s not what you have done. It’s about what you should have done.”

“Tell me Kate, what should I have done? I’ll do it.” I said, as I took a step closer.

She didn’t like that. “Stay away from me! I don’t love you anymore. I’ve met someone new.” As she said this, happiness showed up on her face.

“What do you mean…? Who…stop lying to me Kate!” I lunged forward, and grabbed her arm. Hard.

Then I started shaking her. Then I slapped her, leaving a red mark on her face. - She doesn’t love me anymore. - With that, I shoved her against the wall, and punched her face, hard enough that she was going to have a black eye.

“Dmitri…” She said in a soft, hurt voice. “What…?”

All I could do was stare at that face. That beautiful, hurt face. The face that I had hurt. All I felt was guilt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a silver dagger. She didn’t love me anymore. It didn’t matter to either of us if there was a dead body in the room. I grabbed it, and fiddled with it.

“Tell me that you don’t love me.” I looked her straight in the eyes.

“I don’t love you anymore.” She said, looking me in the eyes.

“Good, then this won’t matter.

I then shoved the dagger into my chest. The last thing I heard was her calling my name.

~~~

I woke up with a start, and ,made a small prayer that it was only a dream.

She wouldn’t do that…I think…” I mumbled to myself.

The days passed, the nights passed. Nothing happened. No derailed care, no one dying, nothing. I wished something would happen. Anything. Then something did.

I was walking up and down the train all day, thinking about non-sense things, when I first heard it.

Someone was yelling, it was a man, who was definitely mad. Then a woman, one who sounded very familiar. - Kate. -

Then I ran. I ran until I heard her say, “I left home, still in love with Dmitri. As a matter of fact, I still am!”

She still loved me.

“Then why’d you leave?”

“Oh my gosh, Dmitri!” She took a step toward me, then stopped. “Why are you here?”

“Well, you left this, and I wanted to know why you left.” I said, as I lifted the note, which I had had on me since I left Russia. “But now I want to know who the hell he is.”

“I…well…” She stumbled.

“I’m Kyle, and you’re going to die.

I was still in shock before I recognized who he was. It was, in fact, the guy that had raped me…back in the dungeons of the building. Then he was on me, with his ahnds around my neck, strangling me. Pushing him off of me, I backed up to the door war, hoping to find a weapon to defend myself. Then it hit me. Something that would kill anyone, no matter what species they were. A silver stake to the heart. But, no silver stake here. - Wow, how stupid am I? No silver stake. Well then. Run. -

I turn around, and run. I got to the end of the train car, and almost ran into the cook, who must have been on a walk. I took the water bottle he had on his hand, and flung it at ‘Kyle’ so hard, it hit his shoulder, and broke, pouring water all down in back and chest. That was when he started screaming. Screaming as if the water had burned him.

“Thank you Father. You just helped me destroy a demon.” I said, thanking him, while he stared at ‘Kyle’, dumb founded, then running back to the kitchen.

“What the hell, did you just do?!” Kate yelled, clearly pissed off.

Turning to her, I said, “Kate, he was a demon, that water burned him to death! The only thing he could have been was a demon."

"Well, it still doesn't ecplain why you just happened to show up when me and Kyle were fighting...I guess you just couldn't handle the break up, you know, and decided to stalk me, jsut to make sure that I wouldn't date anyone else...or maybe, you're working for someone else, and decided that I should be killed, like Kyle."

- She has no idea how wrong she is. - "Okay, firstly, why would I kill you? I love you! And duh, i couldn't handle the break up...guess why? Because I love you! And that, is why I came to find you...to ask you why you left! So, why did you leave?"

"I left for your own good! If those people who had captured and held my parents prisoners, I would be there next target, and whenever they decided to come and get me, then you would either be seriously hurt or dead, trying to fight for me."

"Okay, then who was that 'Kyle' and why was he freaking out about me being there?" I asked, not wanting to know the answer.

"Well, I met him during breakfast a couple of days ago, and then he asked me to dinner, and then things went from there. It's not like I was in love with him or anything..." She said quietly, knowing I was seriously pissed off.

"So, let me get this straight...you left me in Russia, then met up with some guy on the train, then had sex with him, and now you claim that you still love me? Wow, that's really stupid, really stupid. I can't believe that I believed you!" Anger was just boiling up in me, and soon I would hit the edge.

"I...I don't...I need to figure this out..." And that was all it took.

I grabbed her around the bicep, and pulled her into the room, and slammed her up against the wall. Then, grabbing her face, I slammed it against the wall, and slammed it again, and again, and again, and repeatedly did so until that wasn't enough. So I punched her face, and again, and again, until that wasn't enough. I tossed her to the floor, then began kicking her in the ribs until she turned and looked up at me, with a black eye starting to form, and tears streaming down her face. Until then, I didn't care about hurting her. Now I did knowing I'd dug myself into a whole too deep to climb out of. I dropped to my knees, reaching for her, to comfort her, and to tell her what a stupid person I was. Instead of lettting me hold her, she scrambled away from me, backing herself up into the corner of the room, extremely afraid of what she thought I wanted from her.

"Kate...please..." I struggled to talk, not wanting her to run from me, but yet wanting her to know how sorry I am.

"No...stay...stay away from me....plase, don't touch me..." She said, as I took a step toward her.

"Kate, I'm sorry, I had no idea of what I was doing, I promise, I'm not going to hurt you...i would never consciously do that..." I said softly, as I took another step closer to her.

"No! Don't come any closer! You knew what you were doing, even though you just told me that you loved me." Right then the train came to a stop, and she ran from the room, with me behind her, and off the train, just as the door was about to close.

"Kate! Wait upQ I'm trying to explain!" I stopped, getting off the train just as the doors were closing.

I wanted to explain to her, except she was out of sight. - Probably got in a cab and just took off. Well, this blows, stupid me! How stupid, selfish, and ignorant could I be to not have a clue that I was beating my girlfriend, the only one that mattered in my life! -