Unedited

There was nothing like the threat of being ripped alive and devoured by cannibals to get one moving.

Footsteps pattered behind me as they followed me through a dark side door that screeched too loudly for my liking when opened. This hallways stretched out with wide arched windows on either side that were barred heavily and then covered over, locking us away from the world beyond hell.

It had been so long since I felt true wind on my skin or felt the bite of a winter's morning. It had been so long since I heard the patter of the twins' feet on the cold wooden floors of the morning or felt the piano keys under my fingertips and listened to my mother singing along to my playing. It had been years since I felt anything akin to love or since I felt sane.

This place, these doctors had sucked me dry. I was in limbo, desperate to escape and desperate to keep the monster that I had become away from other people.

A man howled in rage behind us after discovering that his easy meal had already fled. The girl let out a shaky breath as I paused in the hallway, eyeing the opening of a large vent system above us. I had used these plenty of times to pass unseen or to keep an eye on something from a better vantage point. I gripped one of the hospital beds and heaved it over under the vent. The male Lycan moved to steady the bed wordlessly as I jumped up onto it and peered inside, checking for hiding patients.

When I found none, I jumped back down and motioned wordlessly for the two baby faced Lycans to climb up onto the bed.

"What are you doing?" The girl with the hair like sunlight asked me quietly. I blinked at her for a moment – at that golden hair. I could imagine the smell of freshly cut grass and heat.

Outside.

My throat tightening, I motioned to the bed again.

"Get up." My gaze flickered to what lay behind them. "If you see any rotting bodies further on, just push them out of the way."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust, but her brother was already moving, leaping up onto the bed. "I'll go first, Sunny. Everything will be okay."

Sunny and her golden hair. Summer. Warmth. I shivered in the cold cells, before curling my lip in disgust as the girl shrouded in sunlight sagged in relief.

"You promise?" She whispered.

A hiss slipped from my teeth. "Unless you want to be torn apart, I suggest you move."

Dar...or whatever his name was, glanced back at me sharply but he had no problem with heaving himself up into the grate. I could hear them coming closer, following the scent of the girl's fear. Another warning growl rasped in my chest, making my throat feel like it was being shredded by sharp stones. The first surgery to make me more Lycan had nearly torn my vocal chords.

I didn't have the depth in my vocal chords to mirror the sounds of a wolf, but Doc-Mai wouldn't dare have her most promising patient becoming a mute. Admittedly, Sunny was strong too and didn't need her brother's help to get up into the vent. At least she had that.

The sound of their knees and hands against the grating told me that they had made space for me. I pulled myself up into the enclosed space and wrinkled my nose at the permeating smell of rotten flesh. Ahead of me, Sunny gagged and heaved at the putrid smell. Metal brushed against my shoulders and my breath caught, a rare and fleeting panic overtaking me.

'You have been in smaller spaces than this,' I repeated, but my mind could not be convinced. Even an engineered beast could feel fear.

When we reached the end of the chute, there was a dead body waiting for us. The man's body was marred with wounds and it looked like he had crawled up here to escape a monster below and had just stayed here, happier to starve to death then face what lay below. They jumped down and I followed them, prowling the perimeter of the dark room. It was heavy with the scent of dust and mice faeces, but the lingering scent of people was nearly gone.

"We're good here."

"We're safe?" Sunny breathed hopefully.

I cut her an incredulous look. "Did you just ask something that stupid?"

"Hey now!" Her brother lifted his lips in a snarl. "Don't talk to her like that."

I shrugged my shoulders, not bothered to engage in a pissing match with a boy whose skull I could crush with one hand. I tested a thick wooden door and it swung open on rusty hinges to reveal a widely spaced room that I guess had been some kind of relaxation room. Springs cut through the old, mouldy fabric of the couches. Books had been torn from the shelves and destroyed, leaving only scraps of pages.

Grand windows stood at one end of the room, completely covered over with metal sheets. I had tried to pry windows like that open, even to guess what it was like outside, but it had been futile. I had beaten my fists until they became bloody and tore my claws against it until they ripped from my hands but to no avail.

"What now?" The boy asked, propping himself on the arm of one of the couches.

"You stay here. And stay quiet."

My fingers traced the window sill. I tried to scent the snow that the doctor had told me about but there was nothing. What did snow smell like to a modified freak? I knew the actual smell wouldn't live up to my expectations, but I imagined it to be crisp and clear. To smell like freedom.

"I think what Darren means, is how do we get out of here?" The girl asked.

I ran a hand over my head absently. "If there was a way out of here, don't you think I would have found it already? I'm not in here for the craic you know."

"But we might have seen something that you missed," Sunny protested. "I mean, fresh eyes spot mistakes and..."

I stared at her blankly, watching as her next words shrivelled and died on her tongue. My gums throbbed, that lab-worked brain overcome with the urge to tear into her jugular. "Are you trying to make me angry, girl? I am your only hope in here."

Was knowing that it was snowing worth this hassle? Deep down, that answer was yes but I was strongly tempted to shred their throats just to have some peace.

"What's your name?" Darren asked suddenly before silence could settle.

"Don't know," I shrugged a muscular shoulder. "And that doesn't matter."

"I'm only trying to get to know the girl who saved us." He said calmly. His gaze was unwavering, only flickering when I met his gaze full on. There were few people who could make eye contact with me. Sometimes Doc-Mai had to content herself with staring at my forehead. "The pack will come for us. They will save us."

"Doubt that. Unless you're important." No one ever came for me. No one cared about the child of a single mother who vanished in the streets after school. Especially if they were only human. I was bitter and I didn't care.

"They will come. The Alpha Commander would not let the Ravi have this win." Darren explained lightly.

"The Lycans know about the Ravi?" I questioned.

Sunny scoffed, as if my words were funny to her. As if my ignorance of life beyond this hell was amusing. I looked away from the pale length of her throat, wrangling a sudden and violent urge to tear it out. I was better than this. I was better than what Doc-Mai made me. "The Ravi slaughtered the mate of the Alpha Commander years ago and he has waged war on them ever since."

I shuddered at the thought. The Alphas of the land were ruled by one Supreme Commander – usually a member of the ruling royals. To kill his mate was to declare war against a male who controlled every single Lycan that there was. "I always knew the Ravi were stupid."

Prowling the room, I tried to think about the possibilities of a full out war with the Ravi. They weren't warriors and they didn't have the strength of the Lycans or the numbers, but they did have modified freaks who were broken down and remade into something more. I would have to be broken further to become a mindless soldier of the Ravi.

"And what of you?" Darren asked. "Do you miss your mate?"

I stilled. I felt my lips lifting, violence thundering in my veins at the mention of him. Of the male with the beautiful eyes who had torn out my throat without a second thought and had ruined my life. Life with him would have been one of drudgery and control, but it wouldn't have been this hell. This I could never escape. I could have escaped him. My fingers were cold as I drifted them over the exposed bite wound. After eight years, it still had not healed over. It was a brutish mark given by a brute of a man.

"Do not mention him."

"But...but why?" Sunny asked incredulously. "A mate is something to celebrate and to cherish."

I looked at the girl with her bright hair and beautiful face. A girl raised to be a wolf and who knew all the trappings that came with that life. I had been the girl born to play music and create magic with my fingers. I had dreamed of inspiring people and helping my family onto a better life. Instead I was the marked mate of a man I didn't know, and the Ravi had made me into a monster stitched together by prettier monsters.

I had not heard music in eight years. I had not seen the outside in eight years.

Softly, her brother said, "We don't know your situation. We don't know how you got to be here but thank you for helping us."

It was meant to be a placating move, but that didn't work here. Gratitude didn't work. "I wanted to know if it was rainung or snowing and if that doctor hadn't given me what I wanted, I would have torn you to pieces like the rest of the people here. So, don't let yourself think that I am the good guy."

He settled back thoughtfully. Still, his eyes lingered on me as if he was trying to figure me out. Rolling my eyes, I plopped myself down on the little armchair facing the door. My senses were pricked for the slightest disturbance. "Get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

They didn't argue and settled in their respective couches. The girl fell asleep too quickly and deeply, her body curling in tight to itself. She would be woken too late if she was relying only on herself. Weak. Darren fought his tiredness for lingering, cornflower blues resting on the door until his lids grew heavy and he fell asleep too.

As they slept, I watched the doors intently. Rats scurried beyond the floorboards, too wise to come into the room with me here. Still, my stomach snarled in hunger and I rose up onto my feet in utter silence, following the rats as they scurried about between the walls.

A little mouse was slower and I was flicking his tail across the room, my hunger sated, when the Lycan male woke. Tired eyes opened blearily before his senses and memory caught up and he jack-knifed up, his talons shredding into the couch.

"Rise and shine sunshine." I said. "You slept like a log."

He brushed a hand over his head and glanced at his sister. "Is Sunny still asleep?"

"You have eyes, don't you?" I replied bitingly. "Look and see for yourself."

The Lycan rose slowly on gangly legs. He had a young face, unblemished and dusted with freckles. Still, his eyes were eerily watchful and the calmness around him was strange. "You act like a Lycan with your snarling and quick rage, but you don't smell like one."

"I am nothing but a number." I flashed him the marking cut into my arm. 122. Omega. Monster. Killer. "I have no name. No identity so don't bother prying into my life. This is my life."

"You weren't born here." Darren scented the room, checking for threats. I noted how he didn't put his back to me, keeping me always slightly within sight. "Where did you come from?"

My mind flashed with broken memories. A small kitchen that always smelled of cooking food. Tiny feet pattering over floorboards and childish laughter chased by the swelling music of a piano. A bedroom packed with little trinkets and colour – I had always loved the burst of colour and music. Somehow Doc-Mai must have known that. She kept my room her stark white, making sure to scrub away any colour I tried to bring into it and music within the area of my hallway was banned.

Distantly, footsteps echoed. Darren did not react as he continued to watch me critically, his brow taunt with confusion. The girl was waking now, stretching her arms above her as she yawned. She blinked at me. "I'm just wondering – what happened to your hair?"

"It was shaved."

"When?" She asked.

I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten. I got bored at four. "Years ago."

"Oh."

Were all teenagers these days so ... curious. Questions and questions and more questions. My head cocked as the sound of incoming footsteps grew louder and too heavy to be just one person. Moving to the door, I held up a hand to stop Darren from coming after me. "Stay here and stay quiet. If anyone other than me returns, kill them."

I closed the door behind me achingly soft and marched down the hall, following the sounds of what I assumed to be an incoming horde. At the end of the hall, I peeked back to make sure they hadn't followed me. I had been a teenager when I was taken and from what I remembered, rebellion was a teen's theme tune. The low babble of voices drew me closer and I skirted close to the walls, blood coating my tongue as my teeth began to descend.

Lust cloyed the air. A slimy voice crowed somewhere from around the next corner, "I heard one of the newbies is a girl."

I peeked around the corner and in the near darkness, my eyes could clearly pick out twenty men making their way up the hall. They wore ragged and filthy clothing and each one held a mis-made weapon, whether it was length of pipe or a wooden plank. Leading the pack was an immense man whose hair was dark and matted, his yellow teeth bared in an eager smile.

Blood stained their hands – I had often seen them digging into a body with their fingers, desperate for food periods of starvation. They were poor hunters, but lethal up close.

"Its been so long since they dropped a new girl in here," He said. "I like the new ones. They smell good."

"You're ugly Pert. She ain't goina spread her legs for you." A smaller one peeped up, struggling to make this leader's long legged stride.

"Shut it you. I don't care if she's willing or not. And after I'm done, ye can have a turn."

The group grumbled with approval. I leaned back behind them wall, my muscles beginning to writhe under my skin. Killing them was no good for karma, but I could pretend I was doing this to be nice. I would have killed them anyway to change the lower power dynamics in the Mad-Maze.

It amused me to cut the strings of smaller puppets- it always did give me a sense of control.

"And what about the Omega," The small one said slyly. "Ain't she a girl?"

The group hushed quickly and the leader Pert whirled on the small man with a tremulous snarl. "Do not speak that name."

"She's not the Bogeyman," Someone else snorted.

"Alas," Straightening, I stepped around the corner. "Speak my name and I shall appear."

What light there was, slanted across my cheekbones. My eyes would be like coins catching sunlight, glowing un-naturally for what once was a human. I smiled, all bloody fangs and no warmth. "Is that not what they say? Never mind that. It upsets me that you don't believe I exist."

The men did not reply.

The next second, my body was contorting. In one fluid movement, it shot up and bones broke and snapped into their second place. Teeth descended fully and short fur burst from my pores, the feeling rushing over my skin in a momentary, unbearable itch. I encompassed the hall, leaning forward to splay a thick paw, armed with wickedly sharp black talons, onto the ground.

A tongue swept over my teeth. My grin widened as my senses broadened even further and I could smell the depth of their fear. It soaked into the air, mixing with the fresh scent of piss. A man in the back began to shake.

"Omega," Pert whispered as he inched a step back. "We haven't got any issue with you."

I could have drowned myself in the smell of their fear. I relished in it. Loved it. I surged forward in a wave of snapping teeth and claws. A roar tore from my thick, muscled throat and some men screamed and some began to cry as I cut through them. Spines broke like toothpicks in my broad, clawed hands. Pleading fell on deaf ears as blood-lust thundered through my tainted blood.

I licked my muzzle, grinning as I turned my attention to Pert. His body had turned into a broken morph. Patched fur. A single curving claw. One wrist was broken. A failed experiment. He held a plank of wood and as I met his gaze, he thundered towards me. It swung up into the air.

He swung it down viciously.

I caught it in a padded palm. Talons curled around it and Pert fell back with a cry as the wood splintered in my grip. Mercy – he begged for it

Mercy.

I had screamed for mercy and for help when they drilled into my bones - when my isolation made me see figures in the corner of my eyes. I cried for my mother until my tears became so violent that they washed away my words.

No. There would be no mercy.

I lunged forward, catching Pert's face between my jaws. Bone cracked under my jaw and serrated teeth tore through the soft flesh of his throat. I spat it out as his body sagged to the ground.

I broke my body back into it's human form. Around me, there was a mess of bodies, splintered bone and discarded organs. With a shaking hand, I brushed the crown of my head. My shoes were dark with blood and it soaked into my socks.

Pity.

The halls were silent. Whispers of the Omega scattered out into the darkness.

There was no shake in my hands as I smoothened them over my shirt or wiped at the blood coating my mouth, jaws and neck. So messy. There was nothing I could do to hid the red that had spilled onto my brutal white of my clothes.

Oh lordie.

With one last dispassionate look over the bodies, I headed back to the two Lycans.

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