• exclaim exclaim exclaim I feel the fear wash over me, complete fear, and nothing else. But despite my fear, I can’t stop laughing… I hear them asking if I’m okay, but I can’t seem to answer… Too busy laughing. The wolf within me howling madly. I can’t feel my feet or my hands, in fact, I’m not aware of anything besides my quick breaths as my gaze locks onto the gravestones. My heart pumps really fast… Really damn fast. I think it is going to tear apart in a bloody explosion and seep through my eyes and my ears, my mouth, nose, nails, every pore in my goddamn body.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim I’m coming apart… I know it. My knees go weak and I stagger forward, Angel taking my shoulders before I can get anywhere.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “What the hell is wrong with you?” she asks, sounding almost irritated.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “They’re gone,” I mutter, as if I’d seen these for the first time ever, though these are placed in my very backyard. At least they were... What the hell are they doing here in the first place? Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter; I just want it to go away.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “What?”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “They’re gone!” I cry, jabbing my distorted claw in the direction of the stones. As I look at her, humor dissolved, she stares at me like I’m a complete mental case. “Look!” I turn my head back to the stones, and I could see the names of all my dead family members carved deep in the solid marble stones. My aunts, my mom, my uncle, grandma, gramps, all my cousins, all my ties… I see them all there on these stones. All of them. The only people missing; the only three people that are still alive are Raist, Angel and me.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim Again, this strikes me as funny, and I laugh weakly, turning my gaze back to my sister. She gapes at me with a look of incredulity. I point at her and laugh, breaking away from her grip.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “What’s wrong with her?” Ather asks quietly.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “She really thinks they’re there…”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Who?”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Our family.”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Ari,” I hear from behind me, and my laughter stops as I recognize the voice. Slowly, very slowly and very, very painfully, I turn and see her standing right next to her grave stone, smiling right at me with her bloody, rotting smile. Blood pours out of her eye sockets, ears, nose, and mouth. I stand still, horror struck, as all the memories flood through my head, all the memories of how she—my aunt—had died...
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Come,” she says gently, reaching toward me with one of her decaying arms. Large chunks of flesh are missing from her skin, revealing her bones, which are being eaten alive by slimy, disgusting, writhing little worms. I realize then that her body is covered with worms and maggots, all eating at the misshapen, bloody, rotting body of my deceased aunt.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim I scream wildly, scrambling backwards into Angel’s arms, trying to hold me still, but I try desperately to shove her aside.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Get the ******** off of me!” I roar, barely pushing her away from me.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Goddamn,” she growls, trying to keep me still. “Someone help me!” I feel a wet, grimy hand touch my arm, and I turn sharply to see my aunt grabbing at me. All the worms on her fall on me and start to crawl up my arm, all eating at my skin. I cry helplessly, slicing at my skin with my claws, but as I cut them, they only seem to multiply. Still screaming, I tear off my sweater and rake at the worms, all over the place, all over my body, cutting up my arms, my legs, my face, chest, rivets and gaping lines all over the place. Blood everywhere.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim Finally, I don’t care to know who, tackles me to the ground, pinning both of my arms down with her knees, keeping my head still with one of her hands, the other at the side of my neck. Blood pours through her fingers as she tries to seal my torn jugular. My eyes are shut at first…. I don’t want to see the worms…. But inevitably they reopen, and all I can see are worms, barely making out tufts of light brown hair.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim At that moment, I’m glad whoever’s on me is holding my head down, because I would be slamming it into the ground until my brains flew out.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Listen to me Streaks,” she says gently through my soft whimpering. It’s Ari. “There’s nothing there, okay?”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Get….them….off of me....” I whisper through my teeth. I feel Ari’s hand lift away, replaced by smaller, softer hands. Warmth fills my body as Ara sets to work on patching me up.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim Ari sighs. “Angel, you could see what she sees. What’s going on?”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim Angel doesn’t respond immediately. She bends down next to me, her expression somber. “Myst…” she mutters finally, after inspecting me for a moment. “I know she did this… She’s toying with us, trying to break us apart.” They’re silent for a moment. I can feel the chill of realization drift through them.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim I go stiff. This Myst lady has no intention of listening to our plea.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “We have to try,” Angel growls at me. I almost forget sometimes that our minds are connected. She touches one of the many cuts on my face. She feels more lost than I’ve ever known.
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “We won’t win this war,” Akira said stiffly, bitterly. I can feel her pitch black eyes looking at me hopelessly. “My sister is too strong and too stubborn. She’ll squash us.”
    exclaim exclaim exclaim “Angel is right though,” Jill chimed in. I hear her step up next to me. Her body heat radiates off of her. “We haven’t gone through all this crap to give up now. Hell, we broke into this damn place. Whether the girl agrees or not, I’ll be damned if we go down without a fight.” I hear the clanging of Ari’s armor as she crosses her arms. She was pretty much one of the leaders in this organization, so the decision was mainly up to her and Akira. Should we run and die or should we fight and die?
    exclaim exclaim exclaim My heart pumps wildly as I wait to hear our judgment.