How Come - The Beginning? II.

Kristensen followed the other girls curiously. The dynamic between them was interesting, Mel was the cold leader, Arson the cheerful glue, and Trudy the silent follower. She was only placed with them for a short while, yet they were already showing their quirks.

As she followed the others, other girls came from their rooms, so the corridors were filled with women. They were all in cliques. No one tried to mingle with other dormitories.

Women.

"There haven't been as many newcomers. I think the last haul was her."

"It can't be a haul if it's just her."

"She brought bad luck, too."

"How couldn't she... with her looks?"

Kristensen heard the comments around her, about her as though she weren't present. She didn't comment. She didn't even spare them a glance. She walked leisurely, her eyes taking in everything and everyone.

The place didn't look different from any university residence she'd been to. Only the structure was somewhat different, as it seemed it was connected by many corridors.

The comments were annoying, but she couldn't catch Arson and the others without going through people. That probably was the point of their snides.

They didn't stop, all the way to the cafeteria, that too with almost everyone piping in. Kristensen figured they were bored or panicked, and her former boss could be really mean, so they didn't even tickle her.

"Kris!" Arson's cheerful voice came as soon as Kristensen stepped into the hall. She let out a small smile and went to their table.

Arson's panicked self was nowhere to be seen. She was back to her sunny, naive, positively annoying self.

"We saved you a seat." She patted down for Kristensen to sit.

"You guys ran out so fast I didn't think you would." She looked calmly at Arson as she sat down, Arson avoided her eyes and said,

"You don't know how bad they can get. They'll take extra tables just to make trouble."

"Don't make trouble." Mel hushed Arson, gesturing for her to quiet down.

Kristensen's gaze moved from Arson to Mel lazily as she sat. She didn't react to the dynamic but turned to Trudy, who seemed to have something else entirely on mind.

"I haven't seen any men..." Kristensen remarked, saying to no one in particular.

"There aren't any. The camp here is only for women, rumor has it, there's another camp for men." Arson said in a low voice, her eyes moving around as though she'd said a big secret.

A hush fell over the hall. Kristensen turned to search for the source, and the other doors of the hall opened.

A man and woman stood. If one didn't take a second glance or look really attentively, they'd mistake them for mannequins.

Each step they took didn't make a sound. They walked as though they were part of the earth, the air, and everything around them. The hall was so quiet as though no one dared to breathe too loudly.

Kristensen didn't recognize the two as the one from before, who'd been taking people since she arrived. The two, without any subtlety, exuded a pressure that she couldn't pinpoint, yet she instinctively knew they were powerful...

"Today's agenda is different." The woman said when they stopped and they stopped in the middle of all the tables in the hall, the center.

"When I call out your name, make your way forward." She continued, didn't look up once.

Arson's hands visibly clenched tightly on the table, her eyes turning red. Kristensen tilted her head slightly but didn't comment. She looked around the hall only to see most of the girls acting the same way.

What was the dread about?

"Cleo." The woman called out, but no one stood, heads turned, yet no one stepped forward.

The woman finally looked up. Her eyes cold, she let out a ruthless smirk and looked to the man beside her. The man stepped forward, let out a roar that revibrated throughout the hall, shook the place.

It scared everyone out their wits. Kristensen's heart beat loud in her chest, but her face remained passive. Her eyes didn't even blink.

The air in the cafeteria became charged.

"The next time I call out and you don't step forward, you'll never step forward again, I mean in your life." She shot deathly look that had many people shrinking their necks. "Now, let's try this again. Cleo."

It was one of the girls that made nasty comments when they were coming there, one of the loud voices, too.

Kristensen couldn't quite understand the reaction across the hall. The girls weren't sure what happened to the people who were taken yet acted as though it was a death sentence. Even if it were, weren't they going there eventually?

Silence ensued in the hall as the woman kept calling names until the last girl was called. The girls stood in front of them obediently with their heads bowed, the woman examined them with her eyes.

"Follow him." She pointed towards the man and turned towards the hall again. "The following ones I'm going to call will go with me."

The atmosphere inside the hall didn't lessen. Instead, it got intensified.

Arson gripped Kristensen's hand and started mumbling what sounded like prayer. Kristensen didn't understand and felt reluctant to bother. She instead started observing, taking in everyone's expression, and the woman's attitude towards them.

How bizarre. The woman didn't treat them as something important or unimportant. She was like any other rude woman in power. Mistreatment and imposition, nothing too depraved. Yet, wasn't that normal in most cases of abductions?

The woman didn't start until the group with her companion was well out of sight.

"Arson." She called out as she resumed.

Their table startled. Arson especially didn't react till Kristensen pinched her hand.

"You're up." Mel said as well.

"...I...I was hoping there was another Arson." Arson said with a weak smile as she stood.

Surprisingly, she walked steadily till she reached the woman, her blond hair quite the contrast as she made her way.

Another round of names were called then...

"Kristensen." Called the woman.

Many of the girls looked at each other puzzled when they heard that name, Kristensen stood up calmly, and the hall erupted.

"Her?"

Sounded countless times, but she walked calmly amidst all that noise, as though it had nothing to do with her.

The looks she received as she passed tables were disdainful, which puzzled her since they were all captives. There weren't any favorites?

It didn't help that the woman's gaze remained on her as she made her way, Kristensen wondered if there was something on her face or if she reeked?

Couldn't be helped. The last time she looked in the mirror was back in Alba, her home, but she'd taken a bath that day, so it had to be her face.

Perhaps she was simply too beautiful?

She followed the example of others and bowed her head. Her name wasn't the last one to be called.

"Trudy."

Another name from their dormitory got called. By then, it wasn't just the girls in the hall clamoring. Even Kristensen started to wonder if the woman was targeting them. How could there be such a coincidence?

But who dared stand out and ask?

Two names later then...

"Mel."

An uproar came.

The girls forgot to be afraid at that moment. They all stood shouting, and it puzzled Kristensen more, so were they afraid of being chosen or not? Did they want to be chosen or not?

The woman didn't say anything, she let everyone do as they pleased, then Mel reached them and she went from infront of them to their back;

"Had enough?" The woman growled. It was the sound of a very ticked off beast, the very one likely to kill without batting an eye, and it did the trick.

Everyone scurried back to their seats, seemingly remembering where they were and who they were.

"I'd respect you more if you stood up and asked questions. Wouldn't do you any good, but I'd respect you." The woman said with a smirk, when no one stepped up, she added mockingly, "cowards."

The resentment in the hall was palpable, but the woman didn't seem to notice or care. She went back to her original position. Her eyes settled from Arson to Mel, then back from Mel to Arson, with the other girls in the middle, including Kristensen.

"Let's go." Said the woman when she concluded her inspection.

They could only follow after her, trying to keep up with her pace.

Their exit from the cafeteria followed a round of passing by empty buildings and a lot of them till they reached a different one, it had a vibrance that was easy to spot.

Finally, after what felt like hours of walking in a maze, from a corridor to a corridor and not a single soul on sight, Kristensen and her group reached their destination.

"You're late." The man who stood at the door said - a different one from the one who picked the other group - opening the doors for them.

"Leah came. I had to make adjustments." The woman replied as she followed.

"You're not usually that agreeable, Tate. What'd he promise you?"

"Piss off, Isaac. Everything ready?"

The woman - Tate - cast Isaac a warming look, and Isaac winked at her. They carried as though it was only them.

"Alright." Tate stopped. "I'm going to be brief. My name is Tate, he's Isaac. You're not here against your will, so get that out of your heads."

Kristensen didn't miss that out of the ten girls, another beside herself seemed surprised, the rest seemed well aware of revelation - not here against your will.

Really...

Not against their will? Kristensen couldn't speak for the others, but she didn't remember signing herself up for some recruiting - even by mistakenly clicking on ads on the internet.

"This is the awakening room. Its meaning is literal. For those of you who awaken, Isaac will take you to the real camp, and those that don't, you'll be sent back..."

"Awakening? Awaken what?" Kristensen interrupted impatiently. She didn't mean to, but, the hell? Any explanation, no matter how shallow, would really help her see the light, and it was quite mandatory for any abductor she thought.

Isaac laughed, and Tate threw Kristensen an annoyed glance.

"I'm not your mother. Better ask her next time you meet." Tate replied, "any other stupid question?"

She threw a cold glance at the rest of the girls, then turned to Kristensen.

"No, no other stupid question." Kristensen said with a light smile on her face. It didn't seem as though she had been insulted.

"Good... as I was saying, better hope you awaken as an omega, beta at least. Alpha... well, pray for yourself."

Tate led the way to the inner room, the awakening room.

They stepped into the mist as the whole room was covered in it. The mist was so thick that they couldn't see the person next or in front of them with a bite of cold that added a layer of intrigue. Kristensen extended her hand to the thick atmosphere but touched nothing - it was only humid.

Kristensen felt her hand being grabbed. She figured it was Arson and kept moving. They then reached the pool...

More precisely, it was the size of a small lake, clear water, and could see the bottom. At the bottom, there was a moon, a projection of a full moon.

"Right. We'll follow the order your names were called in. Happy awakening." Tate proclaimed amidst Kristensen astonishment.

It was only then that it clicked in Kristensen's mind. The moon's structure there...

Omega? Beta? Alpha? ...Wolf?

Kristensen couldn't keep her calm at all, not one bit. Awaken, her? A wolf?

She retreated subconsciously, watching the clear lake with the moon in it.

They were mistaken, weren't they? They had to be. They just had to be...