For Alisa, things seemed to be going well.Kissing Jayden Wells made her feel loved and whole. She exhaled deeply when his lips parted from hers after their kiss in the hospital, and then she just leaned into him, her hands locked in his until she lapsed into a deep sleep, thanks to the painkillers injected into her body.When she woke up the next morning, she lay alone in bed, and it felt like a dream to her, so much so that she believed it was a dream until she turned and saw Jayden watching over her like a guardian angel. She still refused to believe her eyes and thought she was imagining until his hand took hers in his, and she felt complete once again, the same completeness she felt as they kissed the previous night.Jayden had made her promise him not to leave the hospital ward, and without Alisa’s knowledge, had called Stacy to come to surprise Alisa and spend time with her while he was at work, but naughty Alisa had sneaked out with Stacy to go see Johnny in his ward.His cond
Apart from Elliott, Jayden now had one more fear.And that fear stemmed from not having a definite answer as to if he still loved Avana the same way he did when she was alive.He still dearly loved her. He could not deny it, but it was never the same after he kissed Alisa. Before he met Alisa, Avana was so prevalent in his heart that he held full conversations with her in his head as though she was still with him, speaking to her and hoping she was listening. And seeing Avana in his dreams every night felt like a confirmation that she still loved him wherever she was.But since he met Alisa Grant, Avana became less and less real. She had never really died to him, but now she was becoming less alive, like a fading echo. Worse, since the night he kissed Alisa, he had not seen Avana in his dreams, and it disturbed him that it did not hurt him as much as he would have wanted it to.He felt like an experienced murderer, who had killed so many that killing no longer ripped apart his soul a
Jayden with his wolf hearing had heard Johnny gasp, and he could smell the boy’s fear of him.He wondered why the boy was so afraid of him, so much that he wished he could read his mind.In Johnny’s mind, the memories were coming in a haze to him. The bright and sunny day on the clear road as his parents drove on the tarmac.The confusion as he sat in the back seat with his father driving and his mother beside him when they saw the black car come straight at them from nowhere.They had all shouted, and Johnny shut his eyes when he saw the other car hit theirs. He heard so many sounds at the same time— a loud bang, tyres screeching, his parents shouting, and glass shattering.He was thrown back with force into the seat, and felt himself going unconscious, wondering if he was going to die and how Alisa who had been left behind at home would feel once she heard that they had died in an accident.He remembered himself waking up again, and his bloodied hands struggling to get out of the b
The room suddenly seemed too small and airtight for him. He was finding it hard to breathe. He could feel himself wanting to morph because of the strength of his fear.“I’ll get you the doctor,” Jayden said, and without waiting for a reaction from Johnny, turned out of the ward. He hurried his steps and walked past Alisa and Stacy in the waiting room.“Mr Wells?” Stacy called out, being the first to spot him, but he breezed past them without looking. Alisa had wanted to call his name too, but she sensed the urgency in his gait.“He might be busy, Stacy. Let us go.” Alisa said and felt a kind of pride because she thought she understood him.Jayden dashed out of the hospital and wanted to take his car as he felt his bones shifting in his body, but he changed his mind quickly, now horrified by the art of driving in itself. He walked on the roadside for the first time in years, taking long strides to nowhere in particular and taking deep breaths, trying to control his body’s morphing int
Yes. Jayden Wells’ mind was troubled.He eventually turned around, went back to the hospital, and drove his car back home, but as he lay in bed he was plagued by fear that grew worse once Alisa started calling his phone, which he switched off and tossed in his drawer. Had Johnny told her the truth so quickly?The fear was intense, but he took no measure to control it this time as he was alone, and he turned the light in his room off to prevent his silhouette from showing outside the windows just as his canines shot out of his mouth. His paws grew larger, his bones twisted and turned and fur grew on his body until he had changed into his wolf form, his clothes shredded on the floor.He paced around his dark room and grunted, pawing the ground and snapping his jaws. This relaxed him, and slowly he was back to his human form. He lay on the floor for a while, weak and sapped of all energy.He usually slept with the lights on but he let them remain off this time, hoping the effect of the d
Most human belief systems share the idea that there is a constant struggle between good and evil in the mind, and that the evil has to be kept at bay to let the good flow through, or that measures should be taken to satisfy both the good and the evil to keep a balance between them.For the worshippers of the Moon Goddess who are humans with the unique ability to morph into wolf forms, they believe this too, and while they hold the view that the good in them should be let out at all times, they also think that the evil parts of them too should have its wishes done at times to keep the mind balanced. In addition, they believe that when the evil part of them is in control, it is stronger than the good because it is rarely fed its desire. Once it has taken hold of the mind, it is like a hungry man in sight of food, kept away for so long that it had silently gone crazy for want of its desire and it was now ready to do anything just to have it.Another reason it was stronger was that it co
Jayden drove into the parking lot, parked his car and sat in thought, still carrying his hatred of Johnny in his heart.He needed it to remain in his heart so that he would not halt or have pity at any moment until Johnny was dead. He also needed to get Alisa Grant away so that she would not interfere with it because he did not wish to kill her. That made her his only obstacle right now, and he smiled as an idea popped into his head.He called Clifford and gave him instructions on the phone before going out of his car and into the hospital with a bag that contained the food in his hand.A few strides later, he paused to think before turning around to go put the food back in his car. There was every chance that someone the food wasn’t intended for could have it if he wasn’t alone with Johnny, and the person did not have to be Alisa under any circumstances at all. Not his Avana replica.He smiled at the thought. She loved him excessively, but she was like a toy, or a slave to him, kept
Seeing Johnny as he lay still with his eyes closed in the bed was the most unexpected thing, not even when he planned to kill him. He still carried his angelic looks with his face carrying the most peaceful expression, as though he was not dead but quietly asleep.Alisa had been crying, and he held her tight to himself, her head cradled on his chest. He was not comfortable himself— to laugh and have fun with a kid in the evening only to find out they had died the very next morning.His eyes were wet and he blinked the tears off.Since Avana, no death had hit harder. He had watched Avana grow weak and die and had had the time to prepare himself mentally for her death, but Johnny had been lively and happy the previous evening as the clouds gathered, and Jayden guessed that he would have been the same when Alisa was with him.Jayden remembered himself listening to the drumming of the rain on his window. How was he to know Johnny was transitioning into the afterlife in that same rain?Sta