Chapter 10

‘Shit!’

Layla slowly opened her eyes when she felt a various presence surrounding her. Her hairs stood up from her pores when the hungry wild animals were watching her as she crawled on the ground. She laughed, pathetically. The burning feeling she had in her chest kept boiling the blood to fuel her already mad system, turning her madder than she could ever be. Just like that, the pain and uneasiness were gone. All she felt was hunger. Layla was thirsty for cries, woes, and agony. She wanted them all together at once.

“Grrr!”

The lascivious pack of wolves was carefully watching her every move. They were starving, and she was their target; A piece of fresh meat to be grounded in pieces into their mouth. With the saliva hanging from their darkened fangs, Layla knew she had to be extra careful to survive from the hungry beasts. Her eyes drifted to the direction where the man was standing earlier after throwing her outside, heartlessly. He was no longer there and the door was shut. ‘So, he really wanted me dead,’ she thought while pulling up herself from the ground. To her very own dismay, the ground dragged her down back, slumping her face on the soil.

“UMPH!” She exclaimed when her chin hit a small stone. It was not as big as those scattered everywhere but was enough to slit her skin with its sharp edge, causing her to bleed more than she already had. What’s more, the blood oozing out from her cut attracted the wolves. Its pungent smell and bright red color were inviting them to come at her.

“RAWR!”

Layla had no clue how she was able to avoid their wholesome attack, but she was grateful she could still breathe despite blinking for a while. She rolled on the ground like a worm, crawling to her safety. Fortunately, the wolves attacked her all at once and ended up fighting over nothing as she successfully stayed away from the commotion.

‘That was close,’ Layla thought as she huffed. She pressed her hand on her side when she felt an irking pain. She recalled having stabbed by something the previous day when she was trying to escape the royal guards escorting her. Layla wondered how she didn’t feel the pain when she was held on the altar that night. Her thoughts were interrupted when the biggest among the pack stood next to her. Its gaze was cold and Layla could barely understand what was in its mind. Not that she could understand wolves or other animals but a part of her past was reminding her of the times she was once with a gray wolf she called ‘wolfie’ which exactly looked like the one currently preying on her.

“W-Wolfie?” She stuttered as she mumbled the name she had given to the gray beast which accompanied her for the early days of her life. Layla was indeed weak when it comes to physical strength but her mind can store millions of details that others probably didn’t have any interest with.

“Grrr!”

The hopes in the young lady’s eyes disappeared in a blink when the gray wolf grabbed her arm with its mouth. Its canines were piercing on her flesh and the blood was dripping fast from tiny droplets.

“Let go of me!” Layla cried while pulling her arm away, kicking the beast on its face with her feet, stomping on it like the ground just so it would let her already teared-up arm go. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw her skin gnawed by the wolf. She took a deep breath in a desperate call and gathered all her strength to her legs. Just before the rest of the pack feasted on her, she struck the wolf’s jaw, so hard that it turned around to the side. Its mouth loosened its grip on her arm, giving Layla a chance to escape.

She struggled as she dragged her whole body using her other arm. Her legs were already trembling after that hard hit she did though she wished she could do more until she was safe enough to take a breather. But it wasn’t that easy for Layla who already broke her arm. She wanted to cry whenever the images of her parting flesh from her main body appeared on her head all of a sudden. It was too much to take, yet she could not just give up like that. After all, she had set her mind to something. A goal she was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve it.

“The tree… up in the tree,” she mumbled, speeding up her pace to get away from the angry wolves which finally noticed her absence. Layla sprinted in no time and up to the nearby tree she jumped. Layla wrapped her arm on the tree while the other was hanging cold to her side. Her toes were buried on the trunk as she attempted to pull herself up. “NO!” she yelled when the wolves reached out for her as a delicious treat stuck on the tree, only a couple of feet from the ground.

“AH!”

With her devastating scream, Layla wrestled with the pack the moment she fell on their claws. She wriggled like a madwoman, glaring at the cold-hearted beasts who were biting her from all sides. Her clothes were torn as well as her skin. One of the wolves even gnawed her head, and she swore could hear the crack from her skull. Incoherent words escaped on Layla’s bleeding lips, wait, she was bleeding all over, and she didn’t mind it. What she was more concerned about was getting her limb cuts. She could stand the ripped skin, broken bones, cuts, piercings, and bruises as long as her body remained intact, which was quite impossible in her current state.

‘No. These wild animals are nothing compare to the beast I saw last night. Who says I will die with just these minions?’

Survival made people greedy, selfish, and sometimes caused them to neglect the good nature they had within and welcomed the worse side of their very existence. A death and life situation could bring one’s true heartfelt feelings, bringing out the strength that one wouldn’t expect to have. Desperation was always fueled by fear and desire. And Layla’s lust for power and life was yet extinguished.

“Hahaha! Do you think I’ll let you have a feast over my body?! Dream on!”

She was not a beast with strong physic, but she was never a pushover. Layla grabbed the wolf biting her head and forcefully hauled it away. She moved her legs to kick her opponents who were presumptuously gnawing her pants. ‘If only I have something to fight with them,’ she thought while wandering her eyes amid the fight for her life.

Layla didn’t see anything she could use to pry her enemies away. She chuckled coldly as she chewed on her lip. “You want to know if I’m worth to be your companion, right? Then you have to see how I kill them with a hand,” she said while looking at the mansion’s direction. “So, who wants to get killed first?” she asked the wolves in a low voice.

The wolves growled as if they understand her question. Their sharp fangs and claws were aimed at her at the same time, ready to divide her into many parts to console their hunger. “I guess you all want to die together. But hey, I can’t afford to send you to hell at once,” Layla muttered while letting them take their turns biting her. “Your breath seriously stinks. I’ll kill you in a while with my ultimate killer move,” she added.

It happened like a flash of lighting, Layla lost her consciousness before doing her so-called killer move.