I was starving.

My teeth cut through my gums unbidden, blood flooding my tongue. My stomach knotted and I felt strangely nauseous. Hunting outside the Maze was an entirely different game. I knew the Maze and I knew how to hunt and trap in the darkness but this vast evergreen forest was too big, too choked with sensations and noises.

Some days I managed to find something to nibble on. Bark to attempt to curb my hunger. The still-hot carcass of a deer being devoured by wolves. They were no match for me and I had broken open the rib-cage of that carcass, bloodied and tired from fighting the pack. I kept the bones with me for days, sucking on the bone marrow, wandering aimlessly. Hopelessly lost.

Still, if I died here, it was infinitely better than being stuck in a white cell.

It was only when I caught the scent of smoke and the rippling babble of noise ahead that I had a direction. People. A lot of them. That morning, with the scent of people giving me renewed hope, I washed my face in the cold water of the stream I was following. I didn't look at the face reflected in the crystalline water, but focused my attention on the forest.

A crack sounded ahead of me.

My head whipped to the side and I froze, sinking low. I was a mess of dirty, white clothes and bare, torn feet. From the trees, a young buck limped out. His rump was torn open and the animal was sloppy in his pain. Saliva flooded my mouth. He teetered on the bank of the river, his head raised.

His breath smoked the air in front of him.

I launched forward in a violent burst of energy. Water sloshed around me, but I was too fast and sudden. The buck was turning as I landed on him, claws bursting from my hands. I was too tired to shift fully, but I was a broken and malformed beast, maddened by hunger and the vicious cold. I tore into him as soon as his hot blood began to spill, my mind fogged.

It took strength to pull away from the carcass with a heavy stomach to heave myself over to the water's edge. I caught a glimpse of a blood soaked lower face and wild eyes before I everted my gaze, disgusted. Peach fuzz hair covered my scalp now, it was patchy and gross. "Luck." I whispered as I scrubbed at my face. "You're surviving on luck, s112. Not skill. You're better than this."

Then, voices broke through the trees. I launched to my feet, my breathing hitching. People. People.

"Poor lad," A feminine voice cooed. "He'll be suffering with a wound like that. Whose car did he hit again?"

"Mr. Roberts," A gruff voice sounded closer.

The wind brought the scent of Lycans. Agitated, I hesitated, unwillingly to leave my first good meal in a long time. Two people stepped through the shrubbery, dressed in heavy coats, flannel and jeans. Both carried a gun.

Both stopped at the sight of me.

The woman of the pair gasped, cocking up her gun. My head tilted. I didn't know guns at all. Only shotguns and that was a dismal knowledge at best. Whatever it was, it would pack a punch if it tore into me.

My gaze flickered to the carcass. I couldn't bear to leave all that hot flesh behind. The man, older in years with weathered cheeks and liver-spots on his hands, clucked his tongue. He placed a hand on the barrel of the gun, lowering it gently.

His voice was soft, but rough. "Are you alright, Miss?"

Blood roared in my ears. 'Kill them' an insidious thought whispered. I licked the blood from my lips, pondering that.

The man inched a step forward. "Did you get lost out here, miss? It happens a lot. People don't know the trails or respect the size of the forest."

"I..." My gaze shifted to the trees behind them. Were they Ravi? I curled my hands, letting my talons slid out and hiding them tucked sloppily against the inside of my palms. A bullet wouldn't kill me, unless she got a head-shot and I knew they didn't think I would be fast.

"What sector am I near?"

"Sector?" The girl asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

The man's head cocked. "We haven't been split into sectors for years. Our Alpha dismantled that system."

"Well then... " I racked my brain. "Where was Sector four then?"

"You're on the fringes of it. An hours walk that way," The man pointed towards the trees, "...will bring you to the main road."

"Is that near Nohemow?" I asked.

They shared a quick glance. "...yes."

"Good," I stared at them unwaveringly. "Thank you."

The woman turned to go, but the man lingered. She turned back to him, her gaze wary but she waited for him. He risked another step. "Do you need us to help you?"

Distrustfully, I eyed the gun. "No. I know where I'm going now."

"Okay," The male Lycan whispered.

The two of them vanished into the trees and they waited a long minute before breaking out into conversation. "We need to ring the Guards." The woman hissed.

"I know." The man replied. "Some crazy is lost out in the woods."

"You wanted to help her!"

"Ah, I didn't want to be aggressive. She was eating a deer unshifted!" The man hissed

"And she didn't smell Lycan."

The man snorted. "Check your nose. Sure, what else could she be?"

" Lordie," I hissed, scrambling into action. I began collecting what meat I could carry, stuffing slivers into my greedy mouth as I went before I took off into the trees at a sprint. It took longer than an hour to find the road and I was not as graceful as I would have liked, stumbling and nicking myself off errant branches – but I caught the scent of putrid smoke and the din of noise.

There were large housing estates on the edge of the town and I cut through the gardens that backed right to the woods, ripping clothes form the clothes-lines. They were frigid but better than my blood-soaked uniform. I nabbed a pair of boots off the back porch from a discarded pile that still scented as if they had been just pulled off. Inside that house, children shrieked as a haggard father ordered them to behave.

When I changed, I walked through the grey stone streets with my hands shoved into my pockets. I stared at the windows and the glistening lights, pausing more than once to admire twinkling, colourful ornaments strung from the street-lamps. People moved around me as if I wasn't there.

Something painful welled in my chest.

The longer I walked, the more I recognised. A tiny side-shop where my best friend and I had brought sweets every Friday after school. The supermarket I was trying to get a part-time job in. The rise of apartment buildings on the horizon. People had always complained about how they ruined the aesthetic, but Mamae had worked her fingers to the bone to afford our tiny apartment and keep three children fed.

I shoved those thoughts from my mind. I didn't let myself linger by the iron-wrought gates of my school – a school that looked so much more drab and dingy than my memory related to me. I didn't linger on the street where I met him, but instead hurried on towards the apartment building ahead.

Excitement bubbled up inside of me as I stopped before it, raising my eyes up to examine it's expanse. People moved around me impatiently now and girls in school uniforms scoffed at the jeans that didn't reach my ankles and the heavy man's coat swamping my shoulders.

When my gaze cut to them, fear soured their derision.

"Hi." I practised what I would say inside my head. "Hi lads. Hi. I'm alive. I'm here."

I pushed in through the grimy doors, ignoring the look from the disgruntled custodian as my grubby boots streaked mud across the tiles. The receptionist looked up, smiling as I edged closer with a wary eye.

"Hello there,"

A memory niggled. This woman's face, but younger. Less-lined. But always smiling. Ms. Lowell. She had always given the twins a sweet when I pulled them through the doors. Two if they were upset. 'Hi. Hi. I'm back. I'm alive."

"Ms. Lowell," A memory of a smile pulled at my mouth – but my hard, unyielding mouth would not budge.

"Oh, sorry dear," She touched her aged cheeks, her smoky eyes warm. Still, like everyone, she noted how odd I appeared. The gritty hair beginning to cover my bald head. The grey pallor of my cheeks. My odd clothes. "You know my name, but I don't know yours."

S112. Omega.

"Call me Meg." I was staring unabashedly. "I'm inquiring after the Linden family? They're old friends of mine."

"The Linden family? Marianne and her twins?" Ms. Lowell sighed. "Honey, they moved on years ago. Right after the older one died."

"Oh...Nova?" The name felt wrong in my mouth. "I know. What a tragic event. I was actually a school friend of Nova's, but I moved away before...she died and lost contact. I would have liked to reconnected. For old times sake."

I nearly cringed at my voice. I had spent so long snapping and hissing that a normal conversation felt robotic and wrong.

"Ohh..." Her mood dipped. "...ah, honey. I think maybe if you find some of your class-mates, they might know where the Lindens moved. "

I mulled over her words, glancing over my shoulder. Only the custodian remained and she was whistling away to herself with music pumping from her headphones. "Thank you, Ms. Lowell."

"You're welcome," She smiled and then hesitated. She reached below her desk, her eyes flashing to mine as I froze. I watched as she raised a small blue bowl filled with sweets and slid it across the tall receptionist desk to me. "Would you like a sweet?"

I stared at the blur of colours. Saliva filled my tongue, but I didn't trust them. I didn't trust her. "Can I use the bathroom?"

I didn't wait for an answer. Instead, I marched across the foyer towards a narrow hall and down the dank hall where a light flickered ominously overhead, waited the bathroom. I pushed my way inside, feeling a strange sense of panic clawing the inside of my throat.

I flicked the door locked behind me and braced my hands against the tiny, chipped sink. With a tremulous breath, I looked up to the mirror. My claws extended as I examined my unfamiliar face. I looked feral and gaunt, like the beast trapped beneath my skin. My face was too angular, my skin sickly. How could Ms. Lowell bare to look at me and not scream?

But my eyes ....lordie, my eyes.

So cold and dark. Like the bottom of a winter's lake. I probed my skin, running the pads of my fingers along my skull. "Look at yourself," I tutted. "A damn mess, s112."

I kept watching myself as I ran the sink, trying to scrub to griminess from the visible parts of my body. I tried to see something familiar in my face, but I couldn't. This wasn't the face that had left this apartment building eight years ago, ready to face a day of school.

"Maybe it's a good thing they're gone." I told myself. "Maybe that's a sign."

I touched my head again, brushing the stubble. I stepped back into the hallway. Overhead, the light flickered and died. Blinking, I waited a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness before heading back down the hall.

A new stench permeated the air. Lavender. The putridness of it offended me and I recoiled, teeth clenched in a hiss. Flattening myself against the wall as I neared the end of the hall, I peered around the corner.

A group of four huddled at the desk. Three tall males and then a dainty, perfectly kept woman dressed in a heavy fur coat. Doc-Mai.

Fear coated my tongue. She had found me. Lordie – how?

Doctor Mai had a beautiful smile. It was all red lips and perfect white teeth and poor Ms. Lowell couldn't resist it. Mai tapped her nails on the counter, leaning forward. "Have you see this girl?"

She showed her something and Ms. Lowell glanced at it briefly. "No, sorry dear."

Doc-Mai just kept smiling. "Well, I know she's in the area so if she does come by, will you call this number? I would greatly appreciate it."

My gaze cut to the fire-exit.

"Most certainly," Ms. Lowell said kindly. "Goodbye now."

Doc-Mai and her entourage lingered for just a moment, then vanished through the doors again where a large white van waited.

Ms. Lowell watched them for a long moment before turning her gaze towards me. Her easy smile flickered.

I cut back through the dank hallway and out through the fire-door. It made no noise – even eight years later, they didn't bother bringing the building up to proper health-standards. Mam had always complained about the leaking ceiling and cold floors, but a single mother with three children had very few choices.

I stepped back out into the cold, cursing my stupidity. How could I have forgotten? The Ravi had kept trackers in our arms to keep track of us in the Mad-Maze. I shucked off my coat, shivering in the bitter wind. Probing, the length of my arm, I searched for that tiny lump.

A single, glittering black claw slid out. I glanced up along the alleyway, pressing that claw through my skin to scoop it out. My jaw tightened, a hiss escaping my clenched teeth as blood splattered onto the ground.

A tiny black instrument sat on my bloody palm. A tiny white light pulsed.

'I need to get rid of this,' I thought, pulling on my coat and shucking up the raggedy hood.

Keeping my shoulders curled and my eyes down, I re-joined the throng walking along the main street. I slipped past people like a whisper of wind, watching for a white van. I had been snatched into a van like that – taken so fast that I didn't even have time to scream.

Soon enough, I spotted my victim. A bus slowed to a stop next to a large crowd of people.

I bustled through the crowd roughly, ignoring sharp curses and muttering complaints. My hand darted out, slipping the tracker into the handbag of an old lady. I was gone before the final curses could be uttered, just another hunkered figure on the cold streets.

Track that Doc-Mai.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked all the way back to the woods that night, hiking my long body up into the trees. I didn't sleep well as I folded myself onto a thick branch and even with the poison pumping through my blood, I could not keep myself warm.

Instead, I just watched the world as the dark night sky sparkled above me. Every day since I escaped, I found some comfort in just watching the world and the sky. I had spent too long confined and staring up at a white ceiling and it felt like I could never see enough to make up for the last couple of years.

There was beauty in the day. The rising sun – radiant orange offsetting the pale sky. The way it chased away the darkness and brought the world to life in a wave of noise. The day brought warmth and laughed with soft winds and pleasant smells. Some days, when lost in the confines of the forest, I had not even bothered to try and find a path. I had been content to wander in the maze of trees, and spending hours just sitting by a babbling brook, struck by the noise and how the light sparkled off the water.

The evening was the end of the show, when the sun entered her final act. Oncoming darkness and the cold whisper of the night.

The night came and I thought every night as I stared up at the sky, that it was the closest I would ever come to true peace now. My soul seemed to calm under the soft, ethereal glow of starlight that seemed to spread out for infinity. It made me feel settled – human. As if I was just another soul under the stars, another normal person staring up at the glittering skies.

The next morning, I headed back into the city. I walked along the old familiar streets and watched for the faces of old friends. I spotted some, but none of them seemed to recognise me.

I didn't expect them too really.

I spent time loitering along shop windows, staring in at displays. Friends and families pushed in through the many shops, stopping in quaint little cafes to sip coffee and chat. I ambled by the café doors for a while, loving the deep aroma of coffee. That was one thing I could appreciate about Doc-Mai's experiment. All good smells were divine with stronger sense.

I spent too long outside the door of a café, staring at the steaming mugs being handed out to the constant stream of customers. Heavenly.

But I didn't buy coffee. My stolen coat's pockets were empty.

I kept walking, past the iron wrought gates of my school where some students loitered in the yard. I went down past the park and across the road where the ones defunct and pothole riddled sidewalk had been fixed. Even after eight years, I remembered the paths to my friends' houses.

I decided I would go and visit Erin Luy. She lived in the tenements near the school, where her mother had spent most of Erin's life wandering from one man to another. Like Mam, she had been an avid Lycan hater. The tenements were as ugly and grey as I remembered, filled with spray painted and hollow apartments. Residents watched me uneasily as I stalked past and I tried to make my gait less fluid. They hated outsiders here and hated Lycans too.

At least, they used to.

I climbed the damp stone steps, forcing myself to look down as I passed a group of teenagers loitering on the stairs. They were strange to me – dressed in strange shoes and tight jeans. They watched me with curling sneers.

I headed to the door of apartment 40. When I reached Erin Luy's door, I knocked before my confidence could wither. With an ear cocked to the door, I watched the stairs that I had just come from. The wooden door did nothing to hide the sound of movement inside. Socks scuffing over the floor. A weary sigh. A child's wail.

The door flew open.

A small, dainty woman smiled uncertainly at me, balancing a child on her hip. Dark circles hung heavily under smoky eyes. "Can I help you?"

I stared at Erin Luy for a beat too long. She had changed too, but in all good ways. She had grown out her hair and fixed her crooked teeth.

That had never stopped her smiling before. Her gaze skipped over my face.

"Hi." I croaked. Hi Erin. I'm back. I'm alive.

She frowned slightly. "Hi."

The tiny boy in her arms took one look at me and started whimpering, curling into his mother and hiding his face. "I'm looking for the Linden family. I'm an old friend of theirs."

Erin's smile fell completely. "The Lindens? I haven't seen them in years."

"I heard they moved." I mused. "But they can't have moved without saying anything to anyone."

"After the eldest died," Erin's scent was heavy with fear. "...Marianne took the twins and moved. That's all I know."

I examined her calculatingly. Her heart was thundering behind her breastbone and her breathing quickened the longer I stared at her. "That's a lie, Erin."

Her dark eyes flashed. "It's not."

"I need to know where they've gone." I said slowly. A can rattled off the ground as it was kicked ahead of the prowling group of teenagers edged closer. Erin sighed, trying to inch the door closed slowly. I wedged my foot in the door, nearly uncomfortable with the sudden spike in Erin's fear.