Snow

I looked around the room at everyone and touched my lips that had lifted the curse from Mr. Placksworth... I mean Trevor. I felt weak and started to fall, luckily Lycan caught me. Luna got up from where she sat and said,

"In the vision, you and Lycan uh were tense. Like you just had a fight, but you guys are tense now, so I think the fight is going to be soon." I looked at Luna and then at Lycan.

"We have to train, twenty-four seven. We can't have a normal life." I spoke in a voice that was almost foreign to me.

"Make sure Accalia stays away from cheerleading and other distractions." I said,

“How odd, Mr. Placksworth was a sixteen-year-old kid underneath.” Luna mused.

“He’s been sixteen for twenty-five years Luna.” Lycan spat.

“So, this kind of reminded me of Sleeping Beauty, except Mr. Placksworth is a guy.” Echo commented.

“Yes, and I’m not a handsome prince.” I retorted.

“So, are we just going to ignore the fact there’s a supernatural prison that we knew nothing about… and it holds someone who calls themselves the All-Powerful One?” Accalia asked.

Trevor Aguirre

The curse was broken. Finally, after so many decades, I was free. I walked around the neighborhood until I reached the end of the cul-de-sac where The Zell Pack resided. It was private aside from the four houses at the beginning of the block, to keep up appearances. I hadn’t even realized, but one of the abandoned houses had been the home I had grown up in. With my sister, and my parents. Where I had fallen in love with a demon, where said demon killed my sister and killed me spiritually in the process. The traumatic events must have taken more of a toll on my mind than I had realized. I had blocked out an important, crucial core memory from my past; what else had I forgotten? Who had I forgotten?

             Did my parents still live there? Or did they move after losing both their children on the same night? Before I could stop myself, my legs and feet were moving towards the familiar red shuddered home, the door still painted bright parrot blue, some of the windows were boarded up, and the driveway and lawn looked overgrown now that I was up close. No one lived here, hadn’t in years.

                I turned the doorknob and pushed, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn’t. I pushed through the threshold and I was home. Even if the sconces my mother left on for us were dark, the bulbs long burnt out...I felt like I was home. Nothing had changed, it was like my parents just packed a bag and left. Pictures still hung on the walls, some askew, the furniture was still arranged how my mother had decorated the house when they moved in five years before my sister Ashley had been born...and the fireplace still had logs arranged, ready to be lit. Even my father’s ashtray had a cigar cut and ready to be smoked. I could almost see the smoke rings in the air as he told my sister and me stories of his travels, one of us on each knee, a twinkle of delight in his blue eyes as he recounted a particularly exciting adventure.

                I could smell my mother’s cookies baking in the kitchen, almost see her mixing the dough in the threshold of the living room, scolding my father for filling our heads with fluff and dangerous ideas of travel and adventure. I lifted my mother’s apron that was hanging on its hook and brought it to my nose. It still smelled of her perfume, faintly and vanilla. I hadn’t even realized I had been crying until I felt a droplet land on my hand.

                “How sweet, the prodigal son has come home.”

                I had let my guard down, too ensconced in memories to do a full sweep of the house, and I was alone. I only had enhanced strength, I wasn’t fast, and I couldn’t transform into a giant wolf, I was a Protector in name only. I was defenseless in many ways. The spells I knew were no match for the creature that had made its nest in my childhood home. She didn’t look it, by the way, she was dressed but this Unspeakable was almost as ancient as Victoria had been. She knew all the spells and magic Victoria did, for this woman or creature was Victoria’s prodigy, her spawn.

                “My sire, my sister is dead because of you and your pack of dogs. She was never the same after you broke her heart. A human and a pathetic teenager to boot managed to destroy my maker long before your brats killed her. She was weak because of you. Distracted because she saw you again...with them. She loved you until those mongrels took off her head.”

                “I had nothing to do with Vicky’s death. She made her choice, and she ran into a pack of Guardians desperate to prove themselves.”

                “You had everything to do with her death. Vicky could see how you looked at the leader. How you coddled her and carried her into her home that night they killed Monique. You had fallen in love; it was only a matter of time before you tricked that Guardian bitch into breaking your curse.”

                “I’m not the one who put that little clause into the curse. That was all Victoria.”

                “She didn’t mean an actual sixteen-year-old you perverted pig. She meant a person frozen at sixteen, like her.”

                “She wanted me to fall in love with her again.”

“Too late for you to understand that, isn’t it? 

“Why would I fall in love with her again? She cursed me, killed my sister, and drove my parents from my childhood home with their grief.”

“Like I said, she wasn’t the same after you.”

She moved, flashed from where she stood and in seconds, she was in front of me. She was oddly beautiful, everyone from Victoria’s bloodline was. But her beauty hid her ferocity, her evilness, and pension for blood and torture.

I was tied to a chair before I could even think of screaming. There was a chance the older Guardians would hear my cries… but it was unlikely.

I was going to die. My curse was finally broken, and I was going to die. How ironic.

Lycan

I couldn't believe I was right about Placksworth. I speculated that he was hiding something but I never expected him to be cursed by an Unspeakable.  I grabbed Snow around her waist and whispered in her ear,

"I love you; just remember that." I heard her sigh in relief like she thought I no longer loved her

"Let's get out of here just in case there are consequences of breaking the stupid curse."

"Snow just remember we're training tomorrow right after touch football!" Echo called after us.

                "No problem Echo." I called back at her.  “So, Snow Angel where we going?"

"I like the nickname. Well Echo and Luna woke us up so early uh how about the park."

"Sounds romantic, I guess. I was thinking a run."

"In broad daylight. Okay sounds fun, but we have to be careful."

Snow ran off into the backyard of an abandoned house. I hurried after her hoping not to be seen, I heard something no human could and stopped. It sounded almost like a conversation, but the other party was far too scared to be a willing party goer. I transformed and made my way into the house's cellar. I sent a mental call for help to Snow.

'Something bad in this house.'

'I'm coming.'

I sat in the shadows waiting for her. I heard something move above me and I switched into battle mode. I went up the dark staircase and listened. There was a loud growl and a hiss. Snow had found an Unspeakable.

I barged into the kitchen and saw an Unspeakable and Trevor tied to a chair, duct tape over his mouth. His eyes wide with fear and concern, the Unspeakable was speaking to the white wolf on the ground. Snow, she was hurt or was she faking?

"Now my pretty I will kill him, he broke my creator’s heart. Then maybe I will kill you. By the time your boyfriend works up the courage to save him it'll be too late."

'Lycan don't do anything stupid, wait for an opening.'

I obeyed my Alpha, awaiting her signal, or some obvious sign to pounce. I heard the audible sound of a neck breaking and a boy's cut off scream and froze.

I may hate the guy for falling in love with my girlfriend, and for lying about his true identity but no one deserved to die like that…no one deserved to be murdered and then used as food. Placksworth was just trying to prepare us for this new strange world we were thrust into, and now he was gone.

"You see my pretty that wasn't so bad, I am nothing if not merciful. Your death will be just as swift" The Unspeakable said as she licked Trevor's blood from her hands.

Anger overwhelmed me, no matter how fucked up Placksworth turned out to be, he was still our friend, our parents’ best friend. We were raised to call him uncle and now he was dead. I ran as fast as I could, and opened the shades in the kitchen letting the natural light come in. The Unspeakable screamed in agony and her skin began to boil and blister and she exploded, her contents hanging from the walls, and hell-fire left a blackened circle where she burst, I shook myself off and transformed back so I could carry Snow over to Luna's.

She yelped in pain. I had no idea what happened to her but I had to hurry I couldn't let her die. I didn't notice I had no clothes. Until it was too late,