Bite

4

I could feel the branches cutting into my clothes. That was painful. I was trying to focus so I could use the Sacred Fire but I wasn't able to.

"You thought you could keep me sealed in here forever, didn't you?" The vines get tighter. I start to close my eyes and start to work on starting it. Suddenly, I felt a horrible migraine hit me.

"You got the wrong people!" Emilia managed. My head was killing me. It felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to my forehead.

"You're Hunters, aren't you? Here to end me for good?" The vines were getting tighter. It was getting tighter and I was struggling to breathe. I try to catch my breath before I let out a very feral screech. Coyotes come, running towards him and start to bite into him. He looked surprised and enraged. He groaned in pain and was trying to tear him off of him. The vines dropped and everyone fell, gasping for breath.

"We need to get out of here." I holler at Terrence and Emilia.

"Agreed. Fuck this shit, my life is not worth this." Emilia dusts herself off and Terrence grabs his gun.

"Right?" Terrence looks back. The werewolf god gets up from the coyote, glaring daggers at me. I smile at him, flipping him off as we run off. He howls again but this time the dead wolves rise and run to us.

"That was a bad idea." I summon the macuahuitl and disperse the coyotes that are still alive.

"To answer your question, we weren't going to kill you!" I summon the Sacred Fire, quickly getting rid of the dead wolves that Emilia and Terrence didn't get. I watched their freed souls escape.

"Doesn't matter, you're dead now." He snapped, sending more dead wolves. "I should've killed you when I had the chance."

"Yeah, that would have been a smart choice." I jump over the various wolves, narrowly avoiding them biting off my toes. I managed to kick him in the ribs. I heard all of them crack and I managed to kick my foot up to catch him right in the throat. He chokes for a bit before trying his plant thing. I manage to burn them with fireballs or slice through them with the macuahuitl.

"You-" He's grabbing onto his sides. I notice that Terrence and Emilia killed the rest of the undead wolves. I then get slammed in the stomach and dropped to the ground. I'm out of breath and wheezing. Fun times, huh? He then stomps on my ribs. Ouch.

I get a flashback of them kicking me on my ribs, my head, and my chest, laughing at my pain and stomping on me. I give out a banshee screech and set myself and him on fire. He howls in pain trying to extinguish himself. I turn up the heat and give him a glare. I put the fire out and then swing on him. I hear teeth shattering and he coughs out blood and teeth. I kick him in the groin area and then take out his ankles with one sweep kick. He falls down, clearly in a lot of pain. I then proceed to summon the macuahuitl again and start to smack the shit out of him with the flat side.

"You fucking monsters! Look what you've done to me! Look what you've done to me! Look at what you've done to me, you animal!" I'm screeching and crying, holding a very bloodied macuahuitl. "I'm a fucking monster, just like you now. Are you happy?"

I start to weep bitterly. I feel someone grab me. It's Emilia.

"Let's go, Ashara. I think he's out." Emilia looked at him. Terrence and Emilia have to carry me to the car. We drive off and I'm sobbing in the backseat, feeling like I'm dying. Four fucking years and I still can't function. Four fucking years and a beast touching me drives me to rage. Emilia hugs me and I just hold on to her, sobbing my heart out. Some Hunter I am. I'm a freaking weenie.

"It's okay, Ash. It's okay." Emilia rubs my back. I have flashbacks of their faces, laughing at me, grinning in sadistic pleasure, or biting my body out of spite. The sobbing gets louder. As I'm sobbing, I notice the blood dripping from my nose.

"Ashara?" Emilia looked up, terrified. I feel my eyes roll to the back of my head and I fall down.

I find myself in a warm house with a woman making tortillas. There's a wood stove with a metal circle on top, a mano and metate in the corner full of fresh nixtamal. The woman turns around, smiling. It's Tzirihime as an old woman. It smells like mole and boiled turkey.

"Eat, pale sapichu." She spoke. There was a plate of mole in front of me. I sat down and started to eat. The food is good.

"Am I dead?" I ask.

"Of course not, that's for your ribs. All broken, by the way."

"Well, then." I continue to eat with the tortillas she made. "You have any information on the dog god or whatever?"

"Son of the moon goddess and the forest god. Can't tell you more, unfortunately." Tzirihime shakes her head. "I know as much as you. Northern deities are something else."

"Did he give me a concussion?" I ask, halfway through the plate.

"No, you just got a bad bump. It'll go away in a few days." Tzirihime responds. "But you're feeling rough, aren't you?"

"I thought of those men when he pushed me to the ground." I feel myself tearing up. "And I just snapped. I wish those memories would go away, Tzire."

She walks up to me, patting my shoulder. She then rubs my back.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. You should get back to the living. It's bad to be here too long." She responds. Everything fades to black again. I know I'm still going to be hurt. Fuck.