Chapter 5: Dead…or not

~Valerie~

“Is she really breathing now?”

“I actually thought she would die since her wolf never showed up”.

“Tell the alpha that the prisoner is awake”

The noise and voices were just too much for me to handle. If I had known that the afterlife would be this noisy, maybe I wouldn’t have tried to kill myself. The main reason I decided to slash my wrist was to die and rest in peace. This noise totally defeated the purpose.

But as sudden as the voices came, they disappeared. The peace and calm that I expected finally descended. I slowly cracked my eyes open, excited to finally uncover the mystery of the underworld.

A sharp beam of light made me squint and reach over my eyes to cover it with my palm. That was too bright even for a living wolf. Maybe werewolves are supernaturally recharged here so that they’ll withstand even the most stringent things.

I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. The air was heavy with the smell of strong antiseptics. The longer I stayed in this underworld, the more I regretted my early decision of having to come here.

And all because of what? A mate who decided that I was useless to him because I was wrongly accused of murdering my parents?

I must have gone temporarily crazy.

Or was this some sort of punishment to me from the moon goddess?

There are three heavy sins which the moon goddess never forgives. First, was trying to convert someone else’s belongings. Second, was fated mates betraying and cheating on each other, third, and the heaviest one, was a werewolf trying to take their life. It was seen as a spite to the moon goddess who had created life.

I’d never thought much of those three commandments because I’ve seen all the evils done within and beyond the pack. All of those evil werewolves were all walking around with no karma visiting them. Cordy betrayed me and hasn’t been stricken down by the thunder yet. So, I hadn’t given much thought about the repercussions of suicide.

But right now, I was starting to see there was some kind of punishment for me here. All the things that I hated while I was alive had followed me down to the underworld.

“Well played, moon goddess. I see you’re part of the evil that has decided to haunt me in this afterlife too” I muttered.

My eyes swished around the room which looked a little too familiar for me. It was the replica of the hospital in our Pack for servants. No wonder the smell was awful.

I was still taking into account the similarities between this world and the other world when Betty walked in. Her perfectly trimmed hair billowed behind her as she approached my bedside and I couldn’t help but think that she was mocking me.

“The omegas told me that you were awake and I came to check on you. How do you feel now?” she asked, showing a perfect set of teeth.

Was this some kind of sick joke? Was my sin so much that they really brought a figment of Betty here as well?

As I stared at her, I felt the anger rushing through my bones. My so-called best friend. My best friend who I thought had my welfare. The slippery, conniving, green snake who had lied to Cordy that I cheated on him with his beta.

All I wanted to do at that point was get off the bed and pull that annoyingly gorgeous hair out from her hair sockets and then watch as they fall to the floor strand by strand until she becomes bald like alpha Lockwood.

But I didn’t do that…yet.

“I have no need to talk to a figment of my imagination. You should go back to the land of the living and find the people who need you there”

A confused look graced her face before changing up to pure amusement. “Hold on, Valerie; don’t tell me that you think you’re already dead and in some kind of alternate universe?”

I wanted to retort when something caught my eye. It was the slit on my arm. It was still visibly red and inflamed, and the tingling pain was definitely there. If this was the underworld, then that shouldn’t be there.

But if I wasn’t in the underworld, that meant that I was still alive! I hadn’t died like I thought I did.

They must have found me after I cut myself and brought me to the servant’s hospital.

And if that was true, then this conniving snake in front of me was really flesh and blood. I could definitely pull out that hair from her hair roots if I wanted.

“You really have the nerve to show your face here after what you did to me, Betty. Do you not have any shame?” I asked, hoping that she would get the hint that I didn’t want her around me and leave, but also hoping that she stays so that I could get the satisfaction of doing what I’d thought out.

“What shame?” she replied rather calmly.

Her body language showed that of one who was unperturbed by what was happening around her. Perhaps I never noticed this side of her because I trusted too blindly.

Right now, the Betty in front of me was someone else. She wasn’t the sweet, soft-spoken girl who had gone to junior year with me. Her eyes were sharper, with wickedness and betrayals no doubt, and the way she stared me down…as if I was some kind of trash that smelt awfully bad and needed disposal.

“What shame should I have about taking what is rightfully mine and exposing you for who you truly are? You shouldn’t be so shocked, best friend. I always told you that I wanted what you had with Cordy, right?” Betty said.

Now that I think about it, Betty had always told me how much she loved Cordy and the relationship that I had with him, and how she wished that it was her. I’d dismissed it as a normal discussion between friends. How would I have known that she'd been plotting behind my back to destroy our relationship?

My blood was almost at the maximum boiling point now.

“I was your best friend, Betty! How could you do that to me?”

Her eyes rolled dramatically as she stepped closer to my bed and looked at the suspended IV syringe which the pack doctors must have used to inject some medications.

“I wanted the alpha’s son and I didn’t think twice about getting him. Why should I worry about a spoilt wolf like you?” she flicked her hair back, taking my attention back to it. “Besides, he mistakenly mentioned that he had primal needs to me, so I took advantage of that situation. It took a lot of lies and deceit, but he finally succumbed. Wanna know what he said to me after we had sex?”

I didn’t want to know that. It was a lot of information. But she continued anyway.

“He said that it was the best sex of his life, and he almost didn’t want to go on that date with you. But I’m glad it turned out this way. We wouldn’t have known that you were a murderer”

That was it.

That was the razor that snapped my rope.

I could entertain every other thing, but not her saying that I murdered my parents. In a matter of seconds, I flew off the bed and my fingers hooked into her hair.

“You bitch! Who do you think you are to come and destroy every single thing in my life?” I screamed, pulling her hair as hard as I could.

Her yell was music to my ears. I wanted to hear more of it so I pulled even harder while dragging her across the room. I was crazed, and I didn’t care. I wanted her to hurt as much as I was hurting right now. That was all I could think about.

“What the hell is going on here!”

The familiar voice stopped my violence. I turned and saw Cordy standing at the doorway, his eyes moving from me to the now helpless Betty whose hair I still had in my hands.

I slowly disengaged my grip, and Betty ran to Cordy. I felt a stab in my heart when he wrapped his arms around her and embraced her. I guess he had no issues with making it public that he was cheating on his mate with her best friend.

“She’s like a crazy dog, baby” Betty whimpered, lifting her tear-stained face to Cordy. “I came in here to see how she was doing and she started to attack me unprovoked”

I opened my mouth to counter her words, but Cordy strode up to me, and without another word, dished out a deafening slap across my face. A gasp escaped my lips. I held my cheeks, my eyes wide and teary.

Cordy had slapped me.

“You’re yet to receive your punishment for trying to take your life, and all you could do was try to attack my girlfriend? Do you have a death wish?” he barked.

I gulped loudly.

Girlfriend? That was what she was now?

“She’s lying, Cordy. She called me a murderer and I –”

“Aren’t you one?” he asked coldly. “Didn’t you murder your parents out of selfishness?”

This wasn’t the Cordy that I used to know. Of all the people who would accuse me, I never expected Cordy to do the same. We had been together the night the murder happened and he still calls me a murderer like the rest of them?