The Code

Steady breaths flew through my nostrils. Sweat beads were forming on my forehead, not from nerves, but from the heat. Where ever I was, it was stifling.

My vision was obscured by a single piece of fabric knotted around the back of my head. Painfully, if I might add, but this test wasn’t for comfort, it was for survival.

Sweet, lively adrenaline soared through my pumping veins. I couldn’t wait to do this. My wrists were bound behind me with itchy, tight rope around the back of the wooden chair I was sitting in.

All I could hear in the quiet room was my heartbeat, picking up in excitement. I was ready. All I had to do was wait for Jeremy to let me know he was ready.

I tapped my foot impatiently, smacking my lips. A deep chuckle echoed through the room.

“Alright, alright,” He muttered, “Cassie, in three, two, one—”

As soon as he uttered the last number, I nudged the back of my head furiously against the head of the chair, slipping the blindfold off easily. Now that I could see, I knew where I was: the neighboring cabin to the one I had been staying in the past few weeks.

It was decrepit and vacant, just the way Gerard liked it. Debris was littered all over the grounds. The floor was covered in so much dirt and filth I couldn’t even imagine what color the tiled floor had been in its prime condition.

Stray broken furniture lay around the cracked floor. This place was a deathtrap. Certainly, Gerard had meant it to be that way. He was always pushing my limits, to make me the best hunter I could be. I loved the challenge, the thrill, and he knew it.

I always had weapons on my person but with my hands incapacitated, I couldn’t pull them out. My first objective was getting out of this chair. I felt around the back of the chair, hoping for a ragged, exposed screw.

With a jab of pain, I knew I had found one. And probably gotten tetanus in the process. Old chairs like these always had loose screws. The wood corroded away with time. It was one of the small bits that Gerard told me that were most helpful in situations like this. Even though this was only a test, I made sure to treat it like the real thing.

Quickly, I rubbed the coarse rope against the jagged tip, as precise and rough as possible.

Fifteen seconds passed by the time the rope ripped apart. I tore my hands back and shed the loose pieces. My free hand dug into my pocket and snatched up pocket knife. With a swift, fluid movement, the menacing blade popped up and effortlessly snipped through the rope binding my feet.

I stood up, my tense body aching from sitting down, bound for so long. Jeremy had taken his sweet time setting things up.

I silently pranced around the room, dodging the rundown objects and making sure not to trip any wires. Jeremy loved trip wires.

Once I was free from the living room, I entered a long, empty hall. I kept my wits about as I headed through it, unsure what I would meet inside.

But, it wasn’t what was inside that I had to worry about, it was what was behind me.

A throaty, bone chilling growl echoed through the tunnel from the living room I had recently vacated. Slowly, I turned around, clutching my knife. It would useless in a fight against a werewolf so, on instinct, I ran.

It bellowed after me. I could hear its galloping against the stone floor and I sprinted faster. My breathing wasn’t ragged like it should have been. And I was easily able to outrun the Omega. It was these little things I noticed during training that—while being extremely helpful in being a good hunter—made me wonder if something was wrong with me.

They were wolf-like qualities: the eyesight, the smell, the hearing, the speed. All of it was transferred into me. I wasn’t a wolf. I had gone through the full moon two weeks ago and nothing happened.

I was just…different.

Different. That was the understatement of the year. In four weeks, I had become a completely different person and it was for the best. This person could kill werewolves and avenge their family. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. There was a lot a avenging in order when I got back to Beacon Hills.

And that was what this test was for. It was my final, to see if I was ready to go back. And I was more than ready.

The tunnel exited outside and I almost slipped from the sudden change in texture. I was no longer on wood, but slippery leaves. A few yards away hung what I needed to pass the final: my bow.

My speed increased even more as I reached out my hand. Before I could get a handle on the bow, the Omega tackled me swiftly to the ground. For an Omega, he was pretty strong.

My hand hadn’t released my knife in the struggle and I thrust it powerfully into his ribcage. He yelped as I slipped out from underneath him and grabbed my bow. With a blink an eye, my bow was positioned and my wolf’s bane arrow was ready.

Before the Omega could pull my knife out, I released the trigger and hit him point blank. He toppled over and remained still.

There was a loud buzzer and I knew the test was over. It seemed easier than I thought it would be.

A triumphant smirk covered my lips as I looked around for the camera surveying me. “Time?” I called.

“Fifty-five,” Jeremy’s shocked voice announced, “Seconds.”

I shouldered my bow, knowing I had rightly earned my trip back to Beacon Hills.

“A new record.” Gerard spoke form behind me. I turned around, widening my smile as he nodded proudly at me. “That’s my girl.”

“You’re a mutant.” Jeremy huffed from somewhere.

Something deep within me felt unsettled at his comment. “You’re a baby.”

“I’ve been doing this for two years and can’t get below the minute line.” Jeremy whined, “How the hell does the newbie do it?”

“She’s a natural.” Gerard winked. I felt pride well up within me. “We leave at oh-six-hundred. Be ready.”

I nodded fervently, “I’m always ready.”

Gerard smiled his cold and calculating smile. I had learned not to take it personally, it was just the way Gerard was. He was proud of me and that was enough.

As Gerard walked away into the night, Jeremy muttered, “Teacher’s pet.”