Chapter 57

AN: Updates have been slower, I know. Sorry. Really just busy, but I won't bore you all with the details but for real... If I had time, I'd write for us all.

I feel like I left our little Nasu hanging. 😅

TRIGGER WARNING

Mentions of predators, pedophiles, past and attempted rape. If you don't want to encounter this, you can skip this chapter.

ROBIN'S POV

After the whole ordeal with my new, little friend here, I called him over to sit by my camp to join me on my meal, since he was clearly hungry from how the wolf zeroed in on my food when he first came. I handed him some skewers, and they were a little overcooked, understandably so, because we did take a while to finish our little °Play time°, but neither of us minded.

[AN: I personally prefer my meat a little overcooked, bec-]

SHUT THE FUCK UP... you left me on hold for a while, so let me speak for everyone, and tell you to save the word count for US the actual people living in this universe, and not waste it on your nonsense.

[AN: ... 😶Fair... Ok.. But just for now]

I rolled my eyes at no one and started munching on the meat. I sighed while thinking about what just happened... It was supposed to be the beginning of my first solo adventure, I was anticipating meeting new people and gaining new experiences... Well technically, I did just experience that... But something tells me, this won't be a brief encounter...

As both of us finish our meal quietly, thinking to ourselves. I don't know what he's contemplating over, but guessing from his expressions since he sat there, it's a lot... His situation is a bit odd because normally, the males of the tribe will be heavily monitored for potential shifting, so him not knowing about it can only mean that for some reason he doesn't have anyone around to mentor him about his kind... Several probabilities formed in my mind, one being his parent who had the gene broke free from the tribe, and lived somewhere else had a kid, died, and left this child with no knowledge about shifters. That's the only thing that makes sense to me at the moment.

I finished my meal first, stood up, and went away for a bit to get my writing tools, I need him sane and clear-headed for our talk, so no talking for now. He just watched me as I left and then came back with a notebook and and pencil. I started writing and ignored the confused look he had for now.

((Hi again, my name is Robin Liesha Cullen. You must be wondering why I'm communicating to you like this after freely talking to you audibly earlier. To answer that question, as you may have already surmised, I'm not human either... I'm a hybrid between a Siren and a vampire. My voice holds a compulsion effect, so It's a bit dangerous to use it carelessly, so I normally communicate through sign language, or like this if the other person does not know how to sign.))

I watched as his facial expression changed from confusion to alarm, and then to understanding. I'm guessing that the knowledge about my compulsion kind of irked him a bit, but then accepted it, since the situation kind of called for it... And me informing him now made it easier for him to accept it.

He looked up to meet my gaze and for a few seconds, he was just staring at me, seemingly trying to read my expression, this time I'm not sure what he's trying to see, but I just waited for him to process all this.

"So... I... My kind..." He was having trouble forming a sentence, still confused about all this supernatural shit that he had been suddenly catapulted to.

"Earlier, you seem to know what °IT° was..."

He had this hopeful look on his face.

Fudge... Tsk... I think I know what he's gonna say next, I hate being in this kind of position where you have to thwart their hope. I'm assuming that goes for most people right? I know there are some kind of sadistic people that thrive with things like this... But I'm not that kind of sadist...

[AN: You just admitted to something crazy, that you've denied a couple of times already... Ok imma shut up... Just saying 👀]

I mentally rolled my eyes.

"Can you cure me? This is some sort of curse, right? Can I be normal again? Can... You get rid of °IT°?" The boy's hopeful voice and expression, like he's a puppy begging for a treat beside you while you eat.

Called it. FUCK. But... Ugh... No choice. It's not like I have a choice, I'd really prefer to have °The Birds and the Bees° talk with some random person's child than this. I then started scribbling my reply.

((You're what we call in the supernatural world as a SHAPE-SHIFTER. Humans that can easily shift from their human form to a wolf. Shape-shifters, often mistaken as werewolves, are descended from the ancient spirit warriors of the Quileute tribe. Back then, warriors and chiefs could leave their bodies and wander as spirits, communicate with animals, and hear each other's thoughts.))

[AN: I'm just gonna drop a disclaimer here, this info was just copy-pasted from Google, soooo... Yeah]

"So how do I stop it, this curse?..." He asked again.

This made me sigh because, among everything I said, none indicated that it was a curse and that it was rather a gift to be this way. BUT I guess it depends on one's perspective right?

((You're not cursed, you're part of the line of the many warriors of the Quileute tribe. Shape-shifting... It is in your blood, it's a gift passed down in your family for generations.)) I tried to explain to him, but seeing his expression I can already guess how much he's suffered since he shifted... I can see his clear unwillingness to accept this fact.

"How can anyone think this is a gift! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW THAT THING CONTROLLED MY MIND! I HAD NOTHING IN MY MIND BUT VIOLENCE AND DEVOURING ANYTHING BECAUSE OF MY HUNGER!"

I could see it, he was visibly getting more and more distraught, his anger was rising, and even without being an empath, I could guess that he was about to shift again due to it. So while he was still talking, I started to hum the lullaby from earlier to calm him down, and I started to get close to him slowly, so as to not startle him and break his thoughts... He needs to process this...

"I... I was reduced to an animal... I couldn't control my anger... I almost killed someone... I got so angry, that I almost killed someone... I ran and ran, and before I noticed it, I was here... And I turned into an animal... I couldn't change back, I didn't know... So I got more mad... I was like that for a while, I'm not sure how long, I barely regained my consciousness, most of the time... I felt like I was just looking through its eyes... I wasn't me anymore... I was just an animal... I was trapped inside an animal... A beast... Every day it was anger, hunger, violence..." he continued. His eyes stared blankly around the area where I previously sat.

I was now sitting next to him, still humming, and like an instinctual move of infants towards their mother, he gradually moved, his head slowly moved to bury his face on the crook of my neck, inhaling my scent listening to my humming... His rapid heart rate and breathing slowly came back to normal. I could feel him closing his eyes.

"And then you came... You toyed with °IT° like it was a child, and managed to calm the beast down... Managed to get me back to myself..."

I chuckled audibly at this statement. And started to scribble again. He moved his head, still laying it on my shoulders, not bothering to separate. Just enough to be able to read it.

((Well, technically... You are still a child and inexperienced, so the result was inevitable wolfie boy.))

He wasn't offended by my comment about his age, and just chuckled back.

"You speak like you are an old lady, are you really old despite your looks? Did you meet those people in the history books or something? Should I be calling you a grandma? Is that why you're so good at calming people? It's because of years of experience?" he started to joke. That's a good sign.

I shook his head off my shoulder, and it was unexpected for him, he was caught off guard and almost fell face flat on the earthy ground, but I held onto his collar preventing it from happening. His nose almost touched the ground. I pulled him up again and sat him down again, this time putting a bit of distance between us by going back to my original place. Writing down again.

((Don't disrespect your elders boy. But while you're right to assume that I'm older, but I'm not that old. I'm just a few years older than you... Human years. Tell me about yourself, I need more information to get an idea of what's going on with you. I know your kind, but it's unusual for you to be alone. But try to calm down while you do, your kind tends to go from 0 to 100 when it comes to emotions, especially negative ones))

He then started to explain his situation. As expected, he was younger than me, 17 years old, an orphan, he was the oldest child in the orphanage... then one day, he got fostered by an old lady... after not being adopted for so long because of his skin color... Yeah, people are still a bunch of racists around this period, not that I'm saying there aren't any more in the future.

So, continuing... He got fostered, not adopted by this seemingly old lady... He was told that she had already fostered quite a bit of a number of young boys, and once one left the nest to live their adult life... she gets a new foster to care for.

Wait wait wait... Why am I getting the vibe of a true crime shit here? Oi, are you gonna pull this stunt again? Because if it is what I think it is, I will kill a bitch, even if the bitch is as wrinkly as prunes using a cane or is on life support. I will cut her up, all over, rub salt everywhere... Stick toothpicks between her nails and hammer them in little by little... And many many more...

"At first, she seemed like a normal old lady, when I got to her house, I saw a bunch of pictures of other young boys with her, she was smiling widely in each but the kids were awkward and seemed averse to her touch. I guessed those were taken when they just started to stay with her... But then things started to get uncomfortable for me within the week I started staying with her... She would sometimes make comments like °You're one handsome boy° and then. °accidentally° touches my chest... Her hand would linger when she touched me... My clothes... My used clothes will disappear for a while and then come back with strange stains on them... I started to suspect something weird was going on."

Oh welp... Called it... Tsk... Many would be shocked, but females can be sexual predators too... Men can be victims too... Oh, some would comment that only ugly women would resort to this, or it's the male's fault for being weak, or if the predator was a beautiful woman, they would say the victim got lucky... Etc. You know what? If you think this way... A BIG FAT STEAMING FUCK YOU!

"So one day... When she left for one of her weekly get-togethers with her friends, I snooped around the house... At first, I didn't find anything after searching for quite a while, but when it was almost time she got home, I found something in the back of her cabinet... A box, it wasn't locked... It was a typical box an old lady would have to keep her things like the cookie tins... I wasn't too hopeful for this one, because, if there's anything incriminating there, why wouldn't it be more secure or well hidden... Long story short, the old lady was a pervert, a pedophile, who preyed on the orphanage children... And I was her latest or soon-to-be victim. After the discovery, I had to leave... But I'm still 17... And I'm not a white kid, who would the authorities believe..."

Yeeeeah... They're all corrupt and stupid. I need to fix his situation after this. I thought of many ways to °HELP HIM, AND THE SOCIETY°... Cue vigilante background music.

"So I was thinking of ways of how I'd run away and where I'd go till I'm 18... I figured the woods, I'd risk living out here till I get to legal age... But then one day, I was running an errand, but I bumped into this pale-looking couple, a short-haired brunette woman with a blonde-haired guy... But they were odd... They had red eyes... Every hair on my body stood up, and I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach... Like I'm in the presence of a predator... I ran away from them..."

Wait, Alice and Jasper? Naaaaaah... He said they had red eyes... I think they have started the vegetarian diet already for a while around this time... That's too coincidental...

"When I got home, my heartbeat was too much, it felt like It was about to pop out of my chest, I felt hot... Very hot... Like I'm running a very high, very fatal fever... My head is all foggy, my emotions all mixed up, anger, fear, sadness, and a lot of others... I managed to get to my room and lay on my bed to rest... Somehow, I managed to sleep... But I got woken up by the feeling of someone touching me all over... At first, I thought it might be the fever, so I ignored it, but when I felt like someone was about to pull down my pants... My eyes snapped open, and my hand met that person's neck, I looked at this person straight in the eyes. And no surprise there, it was the old lady, finally making her move to prey on me while I'm sick and weak."

I could see his anger starting to build up again. So I started to hum again. He closed his eyes to fully feel the effect and then continued.

"I was so angry, angry this pervert, the orphanage, the townspeople, my parents... Myself... My grip on her throat was getting tighter... I wanted to kill her... Something inside me told me to do so. But then, I saw my reflection in her eyes... I looked like a psychopathic monster... It didn't look like me anymore, I then tossed her to the ground and didn't check if she was ok, I just had to leave... I felt like something was happening to me... And it wasn't safe to stay... For some reason, I knew that the ones who wouldn't be safe were the people who would be around me... So I ran to the forest. I'm not sure if somebody saw me or not... Probably... Yeah... She might be dead, and people will discover her body and then they'll hunt me down."

I chuckled, this boy is sweet, even after being under the influence of the wolf, he managed to snap out of it to try to not take a life. I would've ended her with no remorse, in fact, I will be giving her a visit later. He needs to overcome his mental/heart demon... And I sorta have to fix his passive mentality, it's ok not to kill, but I need him to understand that it's not always an option... In the future I guess.

He looked at me confused and a little hurt, he might be thinking that I was laughing at his misery. So while smiling I wrote down my words again.

((You seem to have forgotten who and what's in front of you, boy... So, shall we visit a little old lady who likes to eat tender meat?))

AN: Another chap after a few days break. Kinda heavy, yeeeeeah... Was it necessary to give him that BG... Probably not... But It suddenly came to me, how fucked up some orphanages are, how fucked up the foster care system was... And how fucked up it is that women predators usually get away with their crimes... How their male victims get bad rep instead of the support they need. So yeah.

Anyway... As usual, thank you very much for your continued support, I still receive the power stones. 😘

I was planning to write 2 chaps, but this one drained me, so most likely NOT. Unless ya'll give me motivation. Or some miracle happens.

ALSO here's me sharing my PayPal because I can't handle making a Patreon. So if you wish to help me... My internet is unstable, so I need to load data, data needs money, and other stuff too... I will greatly appreciate it and probably feel more motivated to write because I have to repay you somehow with chaps, part in the ff, or whatever... Here's my PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/EmphieIchini

If you have any song recommendations or any ideas that you think would be cool to see in the novel, share them on our Discord. You'll also get updates if there's going to be a change or delay in the chapters. Maybe you can even be in the novel yourself. Here's the invite: 👇

https://discord.com/invite/aNSFNeZs