Chapter 60


    -to-


    “Go danam it, why now!”


    They had picked up my scent almost as soon as I thought I had thrown them off and allowed myself to


    rx.


    Tally soldiers were creeping around on my brother’s turf nce again and their rancid scent burned acrid


    in my nostrils. was toote to head for cover, they were alreadyratching onto my scent. I could hear


    their heavy footsteps in the n ig their low growls and unsettling, mhuman eye


    Thamed through the darkness of my brother’s house, wearing all the while as I began shoving loose t-


    shirts and other random items into a backpack.


    I pulled on the only tramers I owned that wasn’t falling apart at the seams and promptly fell t on my


    face before I could notice that theces of both shises happened to be tied together


    They were bound to have heard themotion. I knocked doen dozens of trinkets and other


    unidentified objects in the dark on my way down.


    I tried to peck through the windows but the night lurked outside like some kind of ck beast all of its


    own. There was no spotting the Tally shifters but my nose told me they were close


    1 had just quietly opened the back door when the Tally warriors kicked open the front. I bolted from the


    empty house and out into the open street, snapping my head left and right to find any sort of hiding


    ce.


    There wasn’t much. The quiet street stared back at me like a gaping maw, the darkness making the


    road ahead taper off into


    ck vond.


    I would never understand the appeal of small towns. The Tally had been able to cut the lights by


    messing with a single electricity box in the center of town. My brother, Caleb, had an odd taste in cozy


    living. He dho had an odd taste in inmates


    11 was Caleb’s ex-Tally mate who warned me of the witch hunt that had been set out for me. For some


    reason I couldn’tprehend, the Tally wanted my head.


    My brother and his mate had cleared out of town the day before, apologizing for dipping and leaving


    me high and dry, before driving themselves acrins the country to avoid the uing war.


    I couldn’t me them, at the way the Tally was taking over, as well as the spections and rumors


    floating around about the Bielke Pack, nothing was certain nor stable and everyone was waiting with


    bated breath for the other shoe to drop


    I didnt know why exactly I was involved in the scuffle between packs but simply being disbelieving


    would not shake the three Tally sliders off of my back.


    1 egged off into the dark and tried to regain my breath, rulling in the dirt to mask my worst a little as I


    went. I had been running from them for a while by then


    d stopped at my brother’s house to grab thest of my stuff before I utficially became a rogue


    fugitive, on the run frosts the must cut-throat park in the world.


    When heard Bravy footsteps behind me once again I picked up the pace and sprinted as fast as I could


    in the my


    Eves with my shiher eyr sight, the night was still insiderably sim


    C0ntent ? 2024 (N/?)velDrama.Org.


    18ything wasbored and I knew I cuddn’t keep up this game of cat and mouse for much longer The


    Tally had been


    breathing tracking our for a few days by then Every thr I thought I had aument to catch my breath they


    were bak sy ny tail. My


    1 had been derailed because


    As I sprinted thanaugh thar da


    my


    kguarded root that I hadn’t been able to


    10:58 Fri, Jan 20


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    see. I yelped in surprise and? was suddenly thrust into the ground again, cursing my bad luck as I


    struggled to get to my


    feet.


    It was toote to run by then. The shifters quickly caught up with me and before I could blink I was


    surrounded by three nasty-looking individuals.


    I couldn’t run and I doubted that I would be able to fight all three of them at once. The best option was


    to try and get some Information from them and figure out exactly why they were after me so adamantly.


    Maybe they just had the wrong guy and this was all a big mistake?


    I folded my arms and sneered at the closest shifter. “I guess you caught me. What do you want then?


    Why have you been chasing me?”


    The shifter didn’t respond, he merely stared at me with ssy eyes as if he were looking straight


    through me. Upon closer inspection, he looked like a shell of a man- a walking husk of what was once


    a human being.


    It made the hair on my neck stand at attention and my shoulders tensed at the unnatural scent the


    three shifters put out.


    “What are you?” I spot, hoping my c ocky confidence would mask the nerves that were churning my


    stomach into knots. My legs told me to run, every fiber of my b*dy was screaming to get away from


    these cursed creatures but I knew if I were to run now I wouldn’t get very far.


    “I’ll say it again. What are you?” I shouted it into the darkness, spinle flying from my mouth and


    catching on the ck face of the unnatural shifter,


    I wished then that I hadn’t asked at all. The three of thein spoke at once- in perfect unison.


    Their voices were rough and strained like broken violin strings like they had swallowed gallons of sand


    “to Morray, Johan of the Tally has been looking for you. You are an important piece in his grand


    scheme.”


    “Johan!” I had heard that name before although I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. “What grand


    scheme? And who is Johan? I don’t want any part in this. You had better leave me alone because I can


    guarantee I will not go quietly.”


    I prepared myself to fight, extending my ws and waiting for either one of them to attack.


    Instead, the shifter in front of me opened its mouth and blew a disgustingly musty gust of hot air into my


    face. It was an acidic gas that immediately made my eyelids heavy and fogged up my mind


    What was I doing again? I was running away. But why was I running? What is the point in running?


    There was no reason to fight. No reason to do anything at all


    I felt my b*dy and mind give up on trying to defend themselves. The shifter brought a wed hand to


    grip my forearm and began to slowly guide me away.


    Despite Ren- my inner wall’s-protests I felt any b*dy take one step and then another, walking alongside


    the zombie shifter


    [ my like an obedient dog.


    “What are you doing?” she growled. “Fight it, you idiot.”


    Fighting was difficult. Thinking was difficult. Everything felt like such a pain. There was no point in


    fighting: The shifters led me to a dodgy-looking van with the back doors thrown open and began to


    beckon me into the back. Walking was a pain, but halting and standing would be a pain too..


    “to, you idiot, is this how you want to die- walking straight into the enemy’s clutches Ren was


    howling in my chest, furious at mycency


    She stirred the fog of my mind and blew new air in with her roaring. “We have note as far as we


    have just to give up now! We have to get to the Bielke Pack. Have you forgotten the goal?”


    The goal? Something about the Bielke Pack. There would be safety there, approaching the man with


    the stow-white hair. He would be able to help. I couldn’t recall much more than that, but it was enough


    to give Ken the window of opportunity to empty my mind of the depressing fog


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    I blinked as I came to and gasped in horror as I looked into the shadows of the truck that the shifters


    were attempting to guide me into. Bodies stacked like firewood filled the interior, the smell of rust and


    decay hit my nose and it was all I could do to not gag at the stench.


    “What the f uck?”


    Even Ren was caught off guard. Neither of us was prepared for the sheer unwarranted cruelty of the


    Tally. Up until recently, they had been a park more akin to the boogeyman than real shifters.


    Parents would tell stories to their children of the evil Tally shifters and how they were chased away by


    the elders like the morning sun chased away the dark.


    I wrenched my arm away from the zombie shifter who was surprisingly slow to react. I dropped to the


    ground swinging out a leg and knocking all three shifters off of their feet.


    Without a backward nce at the lifeless corpses in the van or the simr lifeless eyes of the Tally


    shifters, I took off into the dark, running with a new sense of drive and a new healthy dose of pure


    terror.


    I hurried off into the ck of the night, repeating the n to Ren over and over again so as to clear the


    final tendrils of that insidious fog from my head. “Head to the Bielke Pack. The enemy of the Tally. Find


    the man with white hair.”


    “And don’t get killed, Ren whispered in my chest as we heard the familiar rhythmic pattern of heavy


    steps picking up behind us once again.


    “And that,” 1 huffed, the halls of my feet digging into the dirt as leaped over a small fence and cut


    through some poor olddy’s garden. Her yapping po odle startled me as I rushed to hop the second


    fence. “Don’t get killed.”


    Easier said than done.