Out Of Control

Feeling a terrible headache coming on, Emily rubs her forehead and silently prays for this nightmare to go away.

It can only be a nightmare, because there's no way this is true. There's no way...

Her mother is already gone, her face... it has gone pale and and her skin is mottled with blue and purple patches.

Emily's eyes fill up with tears as she walks slowly towards her father, who is still alive.

Barely.

Several claw marks punctuate the most vulnerable parts of their bodies; the neck and stomach, and Emily wonders who was heartless enough to do this to them, to her. She has no one, surely whoever did this to her parents should have thought about that before digging their claws in the only people she has in her life. This is going to haunt her forever. That is, if she survives that long.

Because Emily feels like dropping dead along with her parents.

And this is not the work of a human.

She wishes they could be playing April fool's day, even though she is well aware it is October. And she can sense that her mother is dead, thanks to her wolf and the appearance of her skin.

"Dad, what happened?" She whispers fervently, barely able to get the words out.

"Unknown things, not human" the old man's voice is hoarse and shaky, as though still in fear. "Snuck up on us. The boy, I talked to him the other day, there's no one else. He will help you control the trailer park and collect money from our tenants..."

"You mean Jack? Dad, no, don't talk like you are going to leave me too! I will get people to help, you can't leave me... NOOOOO!"

There is no single soul in the trailer park that does not hear the loud cry of grief.

It touches everyone who hears it, instantly alerting them to the fact that something has gone terribly wrong.

And all the tenants around the trailer park rush to the landlord's mobile home to check what has made the usually collected Emily to give out such a painful cry.

~

The following days after the death of her parents prove to be some of the worst days in Emily's life.

She still has to get her head around the fact that she is alone. And her mate is nowhere in sight, since the last day she saw him on the day her parents died.

He seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth,and when she calls him, his number is always busy.

No child should bury both her parents on her own, and Emily keeps asking the heavens what she did to deserve such cruel punishment.

She planned the whole funeral alone, chose the caskets and the kind of service she wanted for her parents' funeral.

And now she is standing by her parents' graves, telling them that they were right to distrust Jack. He has abandoned her in the time of need. She should have listened and now she is regretting because, for all she knows, he might have been the one that had sent people to kill them.

Or animals or whatever it is that clawed her parents to death.

"Also, mama," she says conversationally, wiping a tear, "I always forgot to tell you this; I've been having weird dreams since I was little. I am sure you'd have provided answers for that, you always had answers to everything. I wish I knew who the woman is that keeps visiting my dreams, but I guess I will never find out. You want to know what she says to me?" Emily wipes another tear, imagining her mother frowning in concentration at the revelation. "She tells me I mustn't let him find me for I am the only hope of the White Wolf pack. Would you have happened to know about that, mama, had you still been with me?" She sighs. "Like I said, I will never find out..."

She straightens up, stopping in the act of wiping tears from her eyes, for there, right there behind a large tree, a man stands watching her.

He is wearing all black clothes and sun glasses on his face, and when he notices her look at him, he vanishes into thin air.

Are ghosts real?

They must be real, because there is no way a man would vanish into thin air or is she hallucinating?

It is possible; she's gone through a lot of stress lately. But then she sees the man further away from the tree, walking at a brisk pace towards the opposite direction.

He doesn't look anything like a ghost, and Emily follows him at a dead run, determined to catch up with him and know why he was watching her.