Two

"Ready? You have ten minutes to hide. Try not to be found. The whistle will announce the end, and if we haven't found you and you hear the whistle, come out."

Ten minutes was a lot of time, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough. My sense hadn't changed, but I was convinced more than half of the kids had gotten a stronger sense of smell or sight. I barely could stand, but at the first signal, I started moving.

Finding a good spot wasn't easy. You had to take the notion of the wind, the sun, or the moon, and how small or big the space you were trying to blend into.

Rachel waved past me as she ran towards higher grounds. That, too, had been my first thought, but looking down at my clothes, it seemed foolish to try to blend with foliage when your top was pink. Thanks, Mother. If I fail, this test is going to be your fault. There was a river nearby; we had run past it, and that's where I moved. Losing precious minutes thinking about my strategy had been a bad thing, but maybe I had a chance. At the sound of running water, my heart started hammering even faster. The moon shone high in the sky, enough to let me see where the earth had turned muddy.

Mama is going to make me ride in the truck.

The boulder covered half of my body, and the sounds around me blended in. There are croaks and small stops from the critters moving around, fish splashing, and the voices in the distance getting closer. I don't know how long I lay there waiting to be found; the cool mud had started to harden; clearly, more than half an hour had gone by. Soon they would find me, and all this nonsense would be over. They would discover that I had nothing particular in me, and I could continue living my life. Maybe become a teacher for the little ones, and maybe, maybe, marry some lower-class wolf.

That was the plan.

That's what Mama had done. He found a good one and kept him. She told one that once she saw Daddy, she knew he was a good pup and let him have her. I don't know what she meant by having her, but I know she is happy. At that, what matters?

Footsteps. 

getting too close.

"It's just kids."

"Good, we can wait here until one of them comes this way."

"Are you nuts? You're forgetting the treaty. They will have our heads if we touch one of them." The voices were close enough for me to distinguish the accent—not from around here.

"Who's going to know?" Said the one with the ticker accent. His voice sounded menacing and evil.

"Hey, I'm not telling anyone, but if we are found here and someone sees us grabbing one of those puppies, hell will get loose."

"I just want a taste; it's been a while since I had some good hot-blooded children." He's talking about eating kids. Blood? Cold-blooded? My heart started thumping fast inside my chest. No matter how hard I willed myself to calm down, it kept going faster and faster.

"What?"

"There's someone around here."

"You're hearing things."

"No, no listening; block the water. Is a small heart. Scared."

"Goddammit Hart, let's get out of here before they find us." The other one pressed on. His voice was equally thick but less evil-sounding.

"We're not doing anything wrong; we're just taking a stroll under the pretty moonlight." Whoever heard the line might have believed him. It was the last part that almost made me scream. "Hunting little children."

That's when the whistle sounded.

"Fuck, let's go."

"But I haven't had dinner yet."

"Stop messing around, there's nothing out here." He hissed, and my body tensed up at the sound. This wasn't even close to what I felt when Mama was mad at me. This was something different. My body responded to it. I was ready to jump out and run. The thing was that there was no way I could outrun two grown vampires based on what I'd heard about them.

"Oh, there's something out here."

"Hart."   The other one begged again.

"Fine, take care, little one; maybe we'll meet one day."

"Where the hell have you been?"

Yes, please yell at me and tell me everything I did wrong. This was way better than being found all dried up, better than being sucked dry by two cold-blooded creatures, or worse, being kept alive to be used and used.

Those were the horror stories that went around the camp, which kept me awake at the time. I knew what else was out there besides us, and vampires were my worst nightmare. Our natural enemies were being held down by a treaty signed by our leaders hundreds of years ago. Yes, there were sightings and attacks, but most were hidden by the pack leaders and solved between them. Whatever information or rumor got out was because a few people didn't believe in the calm. There were a few who thought it was only a matter of time until we got back to being at each other's throats. The most recent rumor was that a few children and wolves had been discovered and dried up. Chained in a dark room being used as the food bank.

The end of that horror story had been tragic for both the families of the children and the evil men involved. The children were dead. One almost turned into one of them. Yes, that did happen, but don't ask me how. The family had opted to sacrifice the child and the vampires. Well, they were left out, chained for the sun to do their job.

"I'm talking to you, Yelena." Jason snaps at me, making me jump. My feet make a squishy sound, but that's all the sound he's going to get.

I'm afraid that if I say something about vampires in the area, my family will be in danger, but if I don't, then something terrible might happen. But who should I tell? One thing I knew was that there was no way that I could say the v-word in front of them—those kids who kept looking at me like I was crazy. Who wouldn't? I was covered in mud from head to toe. I haven't said a single word in the last fifteen minutes since I walked into the clearing. It was midnight, according to Kyle. His face had been full of worry.

"Yelena, say something."

I shake my head, say no, and close my eyes. My head is complete. All I can think of is their voices. Particularly the one that said he wanted to eat children.

"Hey kid," a bigfoot enters my field of vision. "Look at me." He taps my forehead, and I find two brown eyes looking intensely at me. "You saw something out there." My throat is all closed up. I want to say it. I want to tell him everything, but I do the only thing I can. I nodded once.

He nods back, looks up at someone, and stands up.

"Everyone, good job today." Your parents are waiting for you up ahead.

Kyle, too, dismissed everyone but me and stood by me. We watched everyone walk back, flanked by the other adults. I noticed how they stayed close by every kid, looking around, almost like sweeping the area.

He believed me.

A grownup had believed me.

"Mom." I saw the pale face of my mama strolling up, and my dad appeared behind her. Kyle walked towards them, filling them in before they got to where we stood.

"Tell me." Mom wasted no time acting. I knew I had to conquer my fear the moment she even glanced at me. Her firm voice served as a reminder that my mother wasn't your typical person; in the past, both she and a warrior had served as training masters. My parents were, too. "Yelena, speak. Now." I knew better than to disobey my mother's commanding tone, so I quickly gathered my thoughts and began to speak, hoping to satisfy her curiosity and avoid any potential consequences, but the only word that came out of my mouth was, "Vampires."