8
Six minutes of staying by the window waiting for Treasure, my mom whistled the second time, rumbling my stomach the uncountable time. Aware my mom would come up any minute to know why Treasure wasn't responding, I gently closed the window, not entirely. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I left the room.
I might lose Treasure forever if I let my mom know about his disappearance. Because of her, Larry learned about Treasure's incessant sneaking out of the house. Should I tell my mom Treasure had sneaked out again, Larry would take Treasure away from me. Forever.
Despite the dizziness I felt from the whirling thoughts that rippled me, I tried staging a good smile, hiding my emotional hazard behind it. To assist my quivering stamina, I held the wooden railing of the stairs as I climbed down. My mom was already coming up with a jar of pickles.
"He's asleep." I stood on the last step before the landing, preventing her from using the stairs if she still had that in mind.
"Well, too bad." She turned, walking back to the kitchen. "It cost a hand and a leg to get this jar of pickles."
I followed her to the kitchen. Seeing she was about to make dinner, I mechanically took the steak out from the fridge, my heart never stopped racing at the possibilities of my mom finding out Treasure wasn't home. My bad window would definitely give his absence away once he came back.
"How was today's lesson?" She asked, and I stilled, my fingers settling on the zipper of the ziplock bag encasing the frozen steak. That damn lesson was the reason I'd lost sight of Treasure.
She dropped a glass of water on the coaster on top of the counter, after draining half of it. "Come to think of it, he should be practicing all that he studied, not sleeping. What changed?"
"If you had kept his learning materials where I could see them, he wouldn't—" have left the house, I wouldn't have lost sight of him, were the words that screamed in my head, but I went with, "have been sleeping right now."
"That's not true." She walked to the kitchen cabinet, bringing out two kitchen knives from the knife rack. "I kept them right on the coffee table."
Putting the meat on the chopping board, I tilted my head to the living room, staring at the empty coffee table. To be certain my eyes functioned properly after getting stained many times by tears, I left the kitchen and walked into the living room. Carefully, my eyes searched every corner of the living room and still didn't see the materials.
I sighed, frustrated. "Not here."
"Ask Treasure when he wakes up," she said from the kitchen. "It's just the three of us."
I turned to walk back to the kitchen but stopped a few inches away from the sitting area. Lila, my wolf, whimpered, and I knew what that meant. Slowly, I went on my fours, resting my cheek on the wooden floor as I examined under the couch. My hand flew to my mouth, muffling a gasp and the sudden urge to cry. The materials were lying beneath the couch.
Unable to hold back the pain of what Treasure did, tears slipped sideway from my eyes, dripping to the wooden floor. Treasure had his move all planned out. He lured me out of the room and kept me busy while he took his time to sneak out. Why did Treasure do that to me? Why did he keep hurting me that much? More tears left my eyes, and I pressed down hard on my mouth not to cry out loud.
"Are they there?" my mom asked from the kitchen, slicing the steak, the sound of the knife slowly going through the steak and softly hitting the chopping board filled the air.
"No, mom," I replied in my usual voice that didn't betray my inner turmoil.
Would I ever be honest with my mom again?
"Get up from that floor before I whip your ass," she teased.
Cleaning my tears, I got up and sat on the couch. I removed my shoe and placed my leg on the floor, cleaning the mess my tears made on the floorboard.
She began transferring the sliced steak into a steel bowl. "Did you lock the window?"
"Yes." Yesterday, Larry came by and put a lock on my window. But it was useless now Treasure had left the house.
"Are you with the keys?"
"I hid it in the room."
She switched the faucet on, filling the steel bowl with water. "Where?"
"He could be listening to our conversation right now," I said instead. To be honest, I didn't know where the keys were.
"Are you saying you don't trust the words you told him?"
"Can you stop it, please?" I buried my face in my palms, massaging my temple with my finger pads.
"Soon, Treasure's age mate and the other privilege would be leaving for the city to explore the opportunities that are waiting—"
"Stop talking," I interrupted, almost yelling. "I'm trying to think, Mom…"
I paused, breathing heavily as I recollected her words. "Did you say soon the privilege would be leaving for the city?"
I met my mom's gaze, her eyes wide with shock at my reaction. She saw right though my facade, I knew she did, but that didn't matter anymore. What mattered now was finding Treasure before he got caught. I already knew where he was going. He would try leaving the village, but wouldn't make it. He had no exit form, except…
I pushed myself off the couch, a shock coursed through my vein. Treasure might have taken his exit form from the wardrobe. I remembered him standing by my wardrobe two days ago. Oh, Goddess.
"When is the train leaving?" I inquired hastily.
Her eyes narrowed. "Jasmine, is there something I need to know?"
"Nothing serious." I bolted upstairs, running to my room.
I slammed my bedroom door shut behind me, my feet scrambling across the wooden floor as I lunged for the cupboard. My hands shook as I flung it open.
Seeing the forms, I reached for them, my heart hammering against my ribs, shaking feverishly. Had he taken his form and left mine behind to fool me into thinking everything was untouched?
Frantically, I flipped through the papers. Relief flooded me when I spotted his form still tucked inside.
But the feeling didn't last.
A loose sheet fluttered free from between the forms, landing inside the cupboard with a soft whisper.
I frowned. I didn't remember putting anything else there.
Slowly, with dread pooling in my stomach, I picked it up.
It was Treasure's handwriting.
As I read, my breath hitched, my chest tightening until I couldn't breathe. The letter slipped from my numb fingers, floating to the floor as I stumbled backward, the world spinning.
He had gone to the city, to find his father. He promised he would come back for me. For his grandmother. He would rescue us both from this cursed village.
"No," I mouthed, clutching hard to my chest. "No."
I swallowed hard, struggling to breathe. "He'll get caught, he'll get caught," I panicked under my breath.
Uncertain if I would be needing the forms or not, I stuffed them inside my bra, the only pocket I could trust.
I wiped my runny nose with the back of my hand as I reached the living room. Panic clawed at my throat. What would I do at the train station? What would I do when I find him? Was it even possible to find him unscathed?
The village was so small that Treasure couldn't take a single step without drawing evil eyes. If he arrived at the railway safely, the elders would waste no time in recognizing him as a stranger. I had to get to him before any of that happened.
When I swung the door open, I found my mother standing on the porch, tears streaming down her face.
"Don't come back to this house," she said, her voice breaking. I froze. Her words didn't make sense. "You're not my daughter."
"I don't understand," I whispered, the world tilting sideways.
"My daughter died the day she came home pregnant. My real daughter will never lie to me. You keep lying. I knew you weren't raped. If you were, you would have gone to the police, you would have fought for your dignity. But you didn't, cause you're not my daughter."
I wanted to lie again. To tell her something softer, that I had been too ashamed after sleeping with my mate, too afraid to admit that a simple bond had pulled me into his arms.
But I'd rather not. What was the point of trying to make things right when they would never be. Treasure was out there, somewhere dangerous, and the odds of seeing him were slim. At this point, all I could think of was ways of saving Treasure. Nothing else. Nothing more.
Stepping around her, I ran into the empty road, my vision blurring with tears. I left her standing there beneath the weight I should have helped her carry. My words, my pleas, should've lifted that burden, but I had none left to give.
The pull to turn back, to see her face one last time, clawed at me. But the fear of losing Treasure burned hotter. It drove my legs faster, until the night swallowed me whole.
There was no train station in this village, just a lonely stretch of railway cutting through the land like a scar, used only to ferry goods and send children off to the city.
I lingered behind the crowd of villagers at the railway tracks, my pulse quickening with the hiss of the engine. The train was ready to depart. Panic surged through me like fire in my veins, leaving sweat beading on my skin.
I paced a few frantic steps, gnawing at my fingernails, scanning for a gap in the wall of bodies pressed together. But there was none. No way through. No time.
The odds of Treasure still being there were as thin as mist. If he hadn't reached the front of the queue, if the elders hadn't checked the form he didn't have, there was still hope. Just a sliver of it. But once it was his turn for inspection, it would be over.
I had to reach him. I had to stop him. But how was I supposed to cut through the sea of desperate faces and shuffling feet?
Most shifters at the railway had letters that they wanted the privileges to give to their relatives, but officers acted like a barricade, stopping them from handing them over.
Scared it would be too late to save Treasure if I kept standing behind for a crowd that wouldn't be lessening any moment, I jostled through the throngs of aggressive shifters, weaving through them and looking for a way to get to the railway.
Thinking of how to take Treasure with me without causing a grave scene, a shifter pushed me from behind. I bumped my face into the skinny back of a shifter before me. The shifter, who I had no intention of bumping into, turned, and shoved me backwards.
"Watch it, baby whore," he yelled at me.
I gasped, my back colliding with the shifter I believed pushed me the first time. Knowing the shifter would shove me forward again, I quickly made a right turn, squeezing my way through. While the male shifters who had tossed me among themselves exchanged punches, a female shifter lunged at me, elbowing me and knocking me off balance. I fell to the ground, luckily ending up on my butt. Having no strength to get back up, I went on my fours, crawling and navigating through their stomping feet.
The shifters began fighting, yelling overlapping curse words at each other. Some growled and groaned. Several feet stepped on my spine, flattening me on the ground. Struggling to breathe, I crawled forward with my hands, my legs moving along. More shifters stepped on my head, on my legs and on my back.
Ignoring the pain that screamed all over my joints, all over my body, I kept crawling towards the railway. The soldiers were already fighting with the angry shifters. Sounds of firing guns engulfed the air.
The crowd marched forward, and I folded my hands around my head, protecting it from getting smashed. They began shifting to their wolf forms, claws were slashed on opponents. Blood flowed, pouring down on me. The stench smell chilled my blood. I shivered in the warm mud.
The crowd thinned as wolves lunged at the soldiers, who also shifted to defend themselves. Taking the situation to my advantage, I went on my fours, quickly crawling to the railway, but ended up going under it. Two officers were blocking the doorway with guns loaded with silver bullets.
There was no other choice left than to go to the city to look for Treasure. The abrupt fight had put an end to the form inspection, forcing the soldiers to put the privileges on the railway to keep them safe. I just hoped Treasure was among them.
I growled, frustrated at the sight of the sealed underbelly of the railway. Wasting no time, I continuously stabbed my claws on the thick plastic seal under the railway. I didn't stop even when I felt a burning pain in my claws. I cried when the seal didn't crack. My heart skipped when the engine of the railway hissed aggressively, alarming me it was about taking off.
Channeling all my strength to my right hand, I allowed Lila to come to the surface, and together, we punched the seal. The seal cracked. We punched again, my fist went into the underbelly of the railway. The railway began moving, and I quickly widened the hole, pulling off the seal with my claws. I crawled into it, panting. I lay flat on the remaining plate, my back flat against it.
In the engine of the moving train, I clasped my hands close to my lips, praying to the goddess that Treasure should be on the railway.