Zoya’s P.O.V
The darkness of unconsciousness swallowed me without mercy, and I was left floating in a void of emptiness. Here, there was no sense of time, no sense of place, no sense of self. I felt weightless, as if I was floating in an endless abyss, disconnected from reality.
Occasionally, flashes of sound and light pierced through the void, pulling me out of the nothingness. It was like being trapped in a dreamless sleep, where time had no meaning and nothing existed except the void.
I don't know how long I was in that state. It could have been minutes, hours, or even days. Time had lost all significance, and I was trapped in a state of limbo.
Then, slowly, gradually, the darkness began to fade. The echoes of reality grew louder and more distinct, until they became clear and unmistakable. I heard the sound of birds chirping, the rustling of leaves, and the distant sounds of an argument…
And then, with a sudden jolt, I woke up, realizing that I was faintly hearing two people in an argument, its faintness mostly due to my disoriented state rather than my distance from them. My head throbbed as I tried to figure out where I was and how I got there. Then I saw the wreckage of the car in front of me and remembered the accident, memories of it flooding back to me in fragments, and I realized that I must have been knocked unconscious on impact.
I slowly got to my feet, wincing at the pain in my head and the rest of my body, pushing myself off the ground and the tree I was leaning against, and approached the wreckage to inspect it. I stumbled over to the car, my heart racing with fear and anxiety. How was I to get home? Or what if I had hit someone and they were hurt? How did I even get out of the car in the first place?
As I got closer, I saw the twisted metal and shattered glass, and my heart sank. The car was totaled, and I knew that there was no way I would be able to drive it anywhere. I felt tears stinging my eyes, and I struggled to keep my emotions in check. On the bright side, at least I hadn't hit anyone, since there was no sign of blood and no other dents except for the area which had crashed onto the tree. Now I just had to focus on finding help.
The memories of the accident came back in flashes, and I remembered the screeching of tires as some kind of an animal had jumped out on top of my car out of nowhere, the sound of metal crunching, and the sensation of my body being thrown around like a ragdoll. It was a miracle that I was even alive, and I knew that I needed to get help as soon as possible.
I stumbled away from the wreckage, trying to figure out where I was and how I could get help. Every step was painful, and I could feel my body protesting with every movement. But I didn't have a choice. I had to keep moving, and I had to find help. Then, something clicked into place — I was hearing voices nearby; I was not alone. They didn't sound far away, and they seemed to be in a heated argument. I slowly moved to follow the source of the sound, hoping that these people could help me.
“Sam?” I froze on the spot as I witnessed something completely unexpected in front of me.
Two people stood face to face, locked in a heated argument just like I had heard from a distance. A man and a woman. Both gloriously naked and not giving a fuck about modesty. And one of those people…was Sam.
“…all because you killed your brother’s mate."
I caught the last bit of their conversation and it left me utterly confused. Mate? As far as I knew, it was a British term for friends…right? But why would someone use that term in the heart of New York? Was it some kind of slang term in this locality? Or perhaps a term used only by, I don't know, people living in secluded towns in these mountains?
"I didn’t kill Lily! I wouldn’t never harm a hair on her head! I’m innocent."
The words came from Sam’s mouth and they had me freezing right at the spot.
What…did he just…confess to murder?
"No one believes you," Said the girl with the long dark hair, her voice almost mocking. "And if you keep hiding here like a fugitive, you'll never be able to do anything about it either."
"What do you want from me?" Sam, if that was even his real name, demanded. He sounded desperate…mad.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I barely noticed what they said to each other next. At that moment, I realized that I was in way over my head. Had I been housing a murderer all this time? Had I knowingly been sheltering a killer? Didn’t I already have my doubts?
Before I could process anything further, the woman, the very human woman…hunkered down into the ground. At first I thought that she might be in pain…but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Right in front of my eyes…that woman was turning…her porcelain skin getting covered by black hair, no fur! ...and then I witness the impossible. She transformed into a very large dog…a wolf, and bolted down the forest, right before my own eyes. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed.
The world I thought I knew had been turned upside down, as a gasp of horror escaped my lips.
“Zoya?”
I looked at up Sam, and I noticed that he wasn't afraid, or even confused. He was acting like this was a normal occurrence. Like he had seen this a thousand times before.
“Zoya.” He took a step forward, but I instantly cowered back.
Something was definitely wrong, and I had to get the hell away from here. Panic filled my chest as I turned to run away, even though my body was still injured and dizzy. I needed to get away from these two and I needed to wake up from whatever the fuck I was dreaming about!
“This couldn’t be real!” I found myself mumbling almost in a silent whisper. “People don’t just turn to fucking dogs! This isn’t real!”
My heart raced as I stumbled through the forest, trying to put as much distance between me and the strange scene I had just witnessed. The darkness of the night surrounded me, making it difficult to see. Every rustle of leaves or snap of a twig made me jump with fear.
I stumbled through the dense forest, my vision blurry and my head spinning. Every step was a struggle, as pain seared through my body with each movement. I could feel the blood oozing from the wound on my forehead, running down my face in warm rivulets. I tried to focus on my surroundings, but everything was a blur.