12 Chapter TWELVE

[Two years and seven months ago…]

Amelia stiffened in her seat, listening as the footsteps approached her isle. She was in the town library that evening, having secluded herself on the upper level of the two-tier brick building to handle her own studies.

She willed her heart to reduce its heartbeat by taking deep, silent breaths. She had sat on the ground in between bookshelves, looking through the spaces between some books to identify who was in her section. She hoped that it was not Declan or anyone from his gang; they had left her alone for the past two months for some unknown reason. She was not curious to find out about it, glad that they had forgotten about her.

She heard the shuffling of books as someone placed them on the shelf, and soon, the footsteps receded. Amelia sighed as she slowly picked herself up from the cold concrete ground. She grabbed her books, deciding to move to a reading area that was at a far, inconspicuous corner in the library.

She deposited her reading material on the secluded table. After taking out her book and pen, she sat, resuming her investigation as to what was happening in Wolverstone.

Ever since the two incidents involving people turning into wolves, Amelia had developed suspicions regarding everyone in her hometown. During the first occurrence, when the wolf who had caught her trying to run away had transformed into a human, she thought her mind was playing tricks. However, when she witnessed Declan and his posse turn into wolves, she knew something was up.

Even though a part of her wanted her to stop, Amelia was determined to figure out what the town was hiding. It was the only way she could figure out how to get out of there without getting caught.

She had spent the past two months doing her research on werewolf creatures. It was hard at first to find what she was looking for because the town library had all that information in a secluded isle. She dared not ask the librarian to help her out; she did not trust anyone, and she was unsure of who to trust. Not even her parents knew of what she was doing, although Amelia could not depend on them for anything in the first place.

She had already gone through a number of titles; My Werewolf Mate, The Omega's Mate, Alpha and Omega, Rejected by My Mate, and such.

Amelia had wanted to hit herself when she realized that they were just fictional romance novels. She thought they would help her figure out what was happening in the town, and in a way, they did. She had discovered that when she found a large, encyclopedia-like book containing the history of werewolves in the secluded isle. It had been strategically placed at the bottom of a bookshelf, meant to be hidden, but not completely for those who knew what they were looking for.

Then Amelia began reading the book. It first began with the origin of the creatures. Regarding the origin, no one knew how they came to be. An author explained they came as a result of the Big Bang just like the humans and everything else around her. Another theorized they were God's creation that was believed to have been swept away by Noah's flood, but had actually survived through some sort of miracle; another one was similar to the previous theory, but stating that the universe brought them to life; whereas another expressed that they were all a manipulation of dark powers. As in, forces of evil were responsible for their existence, created and manipulated to bring mayhem to humanity.

And apparently, the same theory applied to witches and vampires. Amelia had doubts believing that they existed, but with everything she had witnessed, she was ready to accept it as fact.

It was part of the information that she had come across in the books. She went forward to figure out the hierarchy of werewolves. Alphas were the leaders of the group (or pack, as they would call themselves); the betas followed second in command; the thetas and the omegas fell in line with the rest of the werewolf members. There were a lot of further details that Amelia deemed unnecessary. Like food patterns, eye color, mane color, and such. Fortunately, the book had illustrations to show her exactly what she was dealing with. She even spotted an illustration of a wolf that was similar to the one she had encountered in the forest.

Amelia saw it being information overload. Nonetheless, she pushed herself to learn all she could about the werewolf community for the months that had passed. She got to learn that they could live for centuries as they aged slowly and that they shared similar characteristics with ordinary wolves. That included a strong sense of smell, sharp eye vision, and an ability to creep up on unsuspecting prey.

It explained how that person was able to find her when she had tried to run away.

What made them different from ordinary wolves was that they were bigger in size, and a lot stronger. They even had the ability to heal, deeming them indestructible, which Amelia did not like.

A lot of pages later, the book went on to discuss witches and vampires.

'Strange', she thought. It was a book of werewolf history. Why would it include witches and vampires, assuming they existed?

Still, she read. She was confounded when she discovered the three species used to live together in a community-form of settlement. Vampires and witches could also live for many centuries without aging, just like werewolves. Furthermore, they had the power of telekinesis, strength and speed. Witches possessed a variety of powers, each with their own, with a few able to levitate, and it made them more powerful than the other species.

The book went further on to describe accounts of the species' sightings reported by humans of werewolves transforming and vampires drinking the blood of their prey.

Furthermore, there was another text regarding their possible sighting areas, stating that they could apparently be found anywhere within the world. When they were growing in large numbers, some humans discovered them and started killing them. This forced them to disperse during the beginning of the eleventh century. Many werewolves moved to the Americas with a couple of witches, choosing to reside in forested areas.

'Like Wolverstone', Amelia made the connection. She felt so sure about it. What also astounded her was how no one had picked up on other immigration settlements ever since the eleventh century. Or, did the creatures find a way to hide that bit from the humans?

Others remained in the European continent, and they were vampires and witches alike with a few werewolves staying behind. Part of the witch population moved to Asia, Africa and some areas in Australia.

The three continued living in harmony, even when they were far apart from the rest of their kind.

'So that is it, huh?' Amelia thought to herself. The book had so many pages. Things seemed to get boring with every page that she flipped, and so she was sure it would be irrelevant to continue reading the book. Also, it was getting late, and her parents would question where she was the whole time; she did not want to deal with her parents' attitude in the evening.

Amelia sighed, moving to stand up. She went to close the book, but the ceiling lights of the library started flickering on and off. Amelia went to touch the book again, but the lights decided to go off completely at that moment.

She wanted to curse out loud at that moment. There was nothing but total darkness in the library. For a second, she thought she heard a chair creak, and that increased her want to be out of there. She soon heard the wind blowing in the room, not making things better for her. It seemed to reach where she was, and she heard the pages of her book being flipped as a result.

'Nothing like complete darkness to play with a person's mind'. She thought a ghost was there with her, and with everything she had read, she felt unsure of what was real anymore.

The lights flickered back on. Amelia quickly turned to check if someone had approached her, and she sighed in relief when she spotted no one. She looked down at the book as she went to close it, but the title on the page made her stop. Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the text.

The Prophecy.

Amelia looked at the page with an incredulous look.

'Of course, there is some prophecy in here', she thought, rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of the situation.

She decided to sit back and read the title's contents. She decided it would be the last thing she read before she left for her home.

'In the late 1400s to 1500s, a prophecy came to the werewolf community in England. At that time, the ruling alpha was Henry Wolverstone. A seer showed him the future of werewolves, and he was frightened when he saw it. In the vision, he saw numerous dead bodies of his kind…'

Amelia's eyes widened at the text, but things were not over yet. Apparently, the prophecy foretold that witches would be the werewolves' undoing; it did not explain how and what could be specifically done to stop it from happening. Amelia went on to read how the alpha took measures against the prophecy by ordering every werewolf to kill every living witch they ever encountered. Of course, the werewolves were hesitant and wanted to know why their ruler had made such an order; he disclosed the prophecy to them, having every werewolf follow his command. He even ordered the killing of anyone who came in their way, not caring whether they were a human or vampire.

And to demonstrate his will, he had his wife hunted out of their home. The woman was a witch, and she was pregnant at the time with his child. It sickened Amelia how easy it was for the woman's husband to make her flee like that. How sadistic could the person have been?

'Something doesn't feel right', Amelia contemplated, feeling some kind of loss. She sensed that there was something else; something that was not disclosed in the text.

She continued reading, seeing how the text made every witch look like a villain in front of the reader's eyes. Amelia perused through the pages, skimming through the titles that flashed in her sight. There were so many accounts of witch killings. Some even had historical pictures that were in black and white. Others had warnings about graphic images, and Amelia flipped them to see grotesque images of witches' stomachs ripped open with their intestines out. Amelia was disgusted by how the text portrayed the proudness of the witch killings.

'Hope they went to hell', Amelia thought.

The witches had decided to fight back, causing an uproar in the werewolf community. They eventually declared war on each other, but the werewolves remained victorious. The pages continued giving accounts of how the werewolves continued searching for and murdering the witches that had gone into hiding as the years passed. Famous witch burnings such as the Salem Witch Trials were also mentioned, and the werewolves had a hand in it.

Amelia was angry as she perused the pages. It was at the end of the chapter that a new chapter began with the title, 'Famous Werewolves Around the World.'

Amelia did not care about that. She was still reeling from the information she had digested. She could not believe that was the end of anything printed regarding The Prophecy. She perused through the book's table of contents, trying to find anything similar to the witch's killings. However, there was nothing else.

She went back to the witch killings section. The last one made her frightened for some reason, because it occurred in the year 2006. The section concluded with words that speculated the werewolves had completely diminished the witch community.

Amelia quickly closed the book, seeing she had read enough. She returned the book to its shelf and rushed out of the library, feeling frightened after all she had read. She looked behind her every now and then to see if someone was following her, because for some reason, she felt eyes on her back.

The book had affected her. Amelia could not point out why she felt emotional after reading about the way the werewolves and witches had treated each other over the past centuries. She was not even completely sure if everything she read from the book was real. However, something told her it was all real.

She just hoped trouble would not follow her as she made her way home.