Beta's Lover

Chapter- Four

MACKENZIE

The next morning, Quinn and I loaded our stuff into my car as we decided to take my car on the trip. Because she lend her car to her friend who was in need.

While I calculated the time and distance for us to reach our destination and the money we need for fuel, Quinn was busy making breakfast for us and packing some other food into lunch boxes for us to eat on the way instead of buying junk on the way.

We started our journey at around 11 am, though we were supposed to leave by 10, Quinn being a chef had to make different and time taking food for us.

I wasn’t complaining. I love the food she makes and I was getting to eat it after so long.

It’s just that I was punctual in all aspects of my life. But I do adjust myself to the situation, like today. Not every decision and idea you have goes the way you planned. So a person should have a flexible personality to try to fit in every possible situation, in order to live a comfortable and peaceful life.

That’s my principle of life.

Well, Quinn was in charge of songs in which i didn’t have a say at all. I let her do whatever she liked for a while.

Quinn had me entertained with funny encounters that she had with her clients. The two long hour drive came to a skidding halt when I found we were running out of fuel. Gps couldn’t find any fuel station nearby.

“How about now?” I asked desperately, my fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

“No Mackenzie. There is no fuel station within the radius,” Quinn said, annoyed with the situation.

“What do we do now?” she asked, being desperate as well.

Taking several turns, I came across an uneven and rough road. My gut feeling was telling me something was off. The desperation overcame and made me ignore the bad feeling. Sighing with relief, I saw a board sign of the fuel station.

Quinn who had been sitting straight like a statue finally relaxed and leaned back into her seat.

“Phew! It got me for real,” Quinn exclaimed and let out a nervous laugh.

Turning right to enter the station, I stopped the car near one of the fuel dispensers and got out of the car as it was self-service. I stretched my cramped limbs to relax them. Quinn also followed me out of the car and punched the amount of litre we needed on the screen of the fuel dispenser. Putting the fuel nozzle in the petrol tank, I looked around the station and found a mart. Quinn happily walk-jumped towards it, while I put the nozzle back into the dispenser and closed the lid of the car tank. Rolling my eyes at Quinn, that fool didn’t take the wallet from me and just ran to the mart. Dragging my feet to the mart, I found her walking from one stall from another, through the exterior of the mart, which had glass walls.

The door jingled with bells as I opened it and stepped inside. The man behind the counter was almost in the state of sleeping, I walked past him to find the fool. I looked around the stalls and picked up some junk on the way. Finally as expected I found her drooling over the chocolate stall. Suddenly wanting to annoy her, I tiptoed towards her as her back was towards me. Standing beside her, I flicked my finger on her head and heard the sound which I was expecting, fully satisfying me.

You thought I was boring?

“Ahh! What the heck!?,” she screeched with high pitched sound and flailing her arms around.

I met her glaring eyes as she turned around only for me to stick my tongue out at her.

“Hurry up,” I backed up while speaking then running away knowing Quinn will pinch me if I didn’t get away on time.

She gets annoyed by flicking while I get annoyed by pinching.

A pair of weirdos.

That’s what we were.

Putting the stuff on the counter, I waited for the man to scan them. Clicking on the phone, I googled map the location but found no net signals. I tried turning on the net by switching it on and off several times but it was of no use. There were no signals.

Meanwhile, Quinn was here with her arms full of junk and dumped them on the counter. The man lowkey judged her and kept scanning the items. The man was watching me struggle with the GPS and took his sweet time to tell me.

“Miss, there is no signal tower nearby, so you won’t get any signals here,” He spoke with his eyes down on the items he was scanning.

“Do you know the way to Tipton Beach from here?” I asked him, he was our only option and hope now.

I didn’t know anything about the area we were in right now. We were so desperate to find the fuel station that we got off our real pathway.

“Sure. Take this road, it will be a bit long straight road without any turns but you have to keep on going then there will be a single right turn. You must turn there, because if you don’t turn there then you will have to take a much longer route to Tipton beach. And that area is dangerous. So you must take the right turn,” The man told us, he was fully alert and had a serious look on his face.

I looked and Quinn and found she was thinking the same thing.

Dangerous in what way?

“ What do you mean by the area being dangerous? Are there thugs or thieves hiding along the way?” Quinn asked, curious about it.

“Dangerous animals are living out there. I would call them beasts. You shouldn’t see them ever. Sometimes they kidnap you and make you one of them,” The man spoke, with his eyes wide.

It sounded like he had an encounter with them. Deciding not to ask him more as it was creeping us out by the things he was talking about. Paying the money, we left the mart and made our way towards the car.

“Beasts? What kind of beast?” Quinn questioned more to herself than me. I had the same question roaming in my mind.

Shaking the thought, I started the car before munching on some junk. Tapping around my fingers over my mouth I made sure no crumps were present on my mouth.

“Make sure to keep your eyes open throughout this part of the journey,” I told Quinn, who sleeps during the ride.

Looking at her I found her sitting in an alert position with her arms crossed over her chest. Nodding in appreciation, I looked back at the road and kept on driving. It had been twenty minutes of our trip on the road, which was surrounded on either side by trees and thick bushes. I could see Quinn getting sleepy so I turned on the music, to which she startled me and sat up straight, avoiding my eyes. Probably feeling ashamed. Extending my arm to tap on her thigh, I assured her it was fine.

Putting her hair up in a bun, she picked her phone and put a song up. I bobbed my head to the beat, from my peripheral vision, I could see Quinn dancing in tiny. Making me smile at her while I kept my eyes on the road. We had been on the endless straight road for about thirty minutes now, I was getting bored of driving on an endless road.

“Oh, I never! I NEVER!,” Quinn started singing loudly, enough for the birds around the tress to hear us as we passed by. I sang the chorus along with her, loving the feeling of air gushing through my hair making them messy but I didn’t care at that moment. My sole purpose was to enjoy this trip as much as I can before the start of my next big project.

Pressing the button on the armrest on the door, the window rolled down for the both of us.

“Yahoo!,” Quinn started hooting, making me laugh along.

We hooted, sang songs but the endless road didn’t seem to come to an end. There were no more songs on the music player to listen to. The sun had gone down a while back, the night shadow was spreading ahead, there were no street lights to help me see the road. Turning on the headlights, I sat stiffly in my seat as the words of the man we met at the mart, came running into my mind.

You must turn right.

The area ahead is dangerous. Full of beasts.

Shaking my head to let go of unnecessary thoughts but turned off the radio that was buffering for a while now. Adding to my anxiety. Quinn was feeling the same she sat quietly with her eyes locked on the road trying to look for the turn.

But the turn never came. It had been two hours on the road, the night has set and we were surrounded by a much thicker blanket of bushes and trees on either side of the road. I once again had the feeling that something bad is going to happen. This time I couldn’t let it go nor ignore it.

“I think we should turn around. We have enough fuel to go back to the mart and then back to the original plan we had,” I spoke my thoughts out loud as I continued driving.

“We have come this far! We can’t just go back now. Remember the man told us if we missed the turn, the road will be the same. The only problem is that it will take longer.” Quinn said, probably consoling her more than me.

We were in the middle of nowhere, I wasn’t even sure if we were in the middle start or end of it. The thing which made me on edge was that there was not even a single living being on site. Like no sound of birds chirping or stray dogs could be seen. Nothing.

I was lost in my train of thoughts, when I heard and felt Quinn’s hand land on my shoulder, making me startle, fortunately, the wheel remained in my balance.

“Look there!”

I looked where she pointed at the road, to find two animals fighting on the side of there. I slowed down the car, squinting my eyes to see what we're those animals as I couldn’t distinguish them.

“What are those?” Quinn spoke the question that was on my lips.

“I don’t know,” I whispered as we got closer to them and by now we have grabbed their attention.

I was only able to see its yellow eyes glow in the dark then it dashed into the woods. I sighed in relief and relaxed back into my seat.

“God knows what was that thing-“

THUD

Something big and dark hit the side of the car then ran to the woods on the opposite side.

“Ahh!,”

“ What the hell?” I shouted with shock,

Screeching of car tyres could be heard on the empty road as I tried to balance the car.

The car skid to an abrupt stop, almost hitting my head on the steering wheel.

“What was that?” Quinn whispered in fear.

“I don’t know. But it seemed like a large dog or fox?” I questioned myself as I stared at the empty road in front of us.

“What are you doing?” Quinn asked as I was taking off the seat belt.

“Going out. I need to see how much damage it caused to my car,” I told her, grabbing the mini torch from beneath the seat, I walked out of the car.

Switching on the torch, I threw the light on the side of my car to see the damage.

It was DENTED!

DENT!

Biting my lip in anger, a hand on my waist as I looked at the hollow dent. It will cost a fortune to fix it back to place!

Today was my bad day, not a single thing was going my way.

I exhaled and looked up at Quinn who had the seat belt held in her hand like her life was depending on it. She was looking somewhere into the woods making me look in the direction to where she had her eyes fixated. But I found nothing and was brought back by dent on the car. I walked forward to inspect the hood of the car.

It was scratched and the black paint had fallen off showing the skin of the car. Extending my arm, my fingers traced the odd pattern of the scratch. It had a large oval-shaped circle and then a sharp straight line in front of it. Unconsciously, my fingers kept feeling the everted edges of the paint due to the scratch.

It looked like a paw mark. It looked similar but I couldn’t put my hand on it.

This is not the time to think! You need to get-

“Mackenzie! Get inside the car! Oh my god! Hurry the f**k up!” Quinn started yelling out of nowhere making me startle and drop the torch on the ground.

A bolt of goosebumps went over my whole body. Finding her worried and scared look, I ran to sit in the car.

“Lock the doors!” she yelled in my ear making me go deaf for a second.

Listening to her right way, my hands pressed the button down and locked all the four doors of the car.

“Will you explain it to me? What is going on? Why are you scared?” I asked, grabbing her trembling hands in my anxious ones.

She looked at me with wide eyes as she was about to open her mouth. We heard a weird sound erupt around us. Making us freeze in fear. My eyes roamed around like crazy to find the source of the sound.

“Look!,” Quinn whispered, pulling my arm forward-which she had held as soon I came in to gain my attention.

We both found a large animal emerging from the woods. Its yellow eyes shined against the torchlight which was falling on Its body. It looked like Wolf but it was way bigger than a wolf. It had brown fur which was tainted with fresh blood as the droplets of blood fell on the ground. It looked at us with such an intense gaze that had me sink in my seat with fear.

Why this animal seems familiar to me?

“What is that?” I whispered to myself.

“Beast?,” Quinn and I spoke together and looked at each other with the same question lingering in our minds.

We missed the turn and currently, we are in an area which was dangerous as described by the man.

It slowly started walking towards us with a tilt of its neck, even its small moments had my heart beating fast. It was an ugly-looking animal. Imagine watching an unfamiliar animal approaching you in an unfamiliar place. It opened its mouth which was covered in blood and saliva dripping from its blood coated tongue which was hanging down.

“Start the car!” Quinn said, shaking me pulling me back to my senses.

Pulling my arms from her grip, I inserted the key in the keyhole and started the car while I had my eyes on the wolf-like animal. When the engine woke up to life, the wolf stood taller in alert and growled at us. It narrowed its eyes at us as if it knew what were we doing.

As soon I pressed down the race, it attacked us. Making us scream at the sudden attack. It was now sitting on the hood of the car and we could feel the front of the car press down due to its weight.

“Hold on tight!” I told her and once again begin driving.

The wolf growled as the car started moving, as the speed increased, it started hitting its face on the windscreen.

Bang Bang.

“f**k! It will break it!” Quinn yelled, pressing herself against the seat to stay away as possible.

I was driving like a madwoman with my heart beating hard against my chest. I sharply turned the car to the right to sway the wolf, it did work but it balanced itself on the hood. I tried again to the left this time and as if he was anticipating the turn, it tilted to the right to outrun my attempt.

It was a smart piece of s**t.

“s**t! What to do?”, I asked myself and Quinn. But she had her eyes closed and was praying to god knows who.

Quinn had no religion.

Suddenly i had an idea, while keeping my hands on the steering wheel, i looked down to find phone which was on my lap before.

“Quinn! Find my phone! Hurry up!,” i shouted for her to come back to reality and help me a bit.

“What do you need it for!? We can’t call for help or-“

“Shut up and listen to what i am saying. Find my phone and turn on the light and flash into wolf’s eyes! It might stumble and fall! Now hurry the heck up!,” I explained while shouting , it was impossible to talk normally due to the noise the wolf was making.

Crack.

The sound made me freeze and looked at the windscreen where the wolf was banging its head and found a small crack there.

Shit!

“Hurry up Quinn! The glass is going to break anytime soon!,” i called out to her desperately.

Her hands were roaming over my lap and down my legs to the floor of car.

“Ah found it!,” she exclaimed and turned on the light clumsily and flashed the light into wolves eyes.

The wolf closed his eyes and swayed to the right. I took this opportunity to turn my car to right to make him fall over but before i could that it was back up and well balanced. Glaring down at us, eyes seething with anger. It started jumping on the hood of the car and at the same time hitting the windscreen making me lose my grip on the steering wheel from the impact of its jumping. The whole car moved up and down when it jumped. The car lost control swerves on the road and collided with the nearby tree, making me bang my head on the steering wheel before the airbag could escape and open.

Quinn’s scream was the last thing I heard before my vision turned black

.................

I opened my eyes forcefully against the throbbing pain in my head. The pain made my vision blurry and made it difficult for me to focus on anything in front of me. Through the blurry vision, my arms flailed in front of me trying to get my hands on a big figure in front of me.

What is that?

Questioning myself, my hand landed on it. Using my hand, I touched the part where my hand landed.

It seemed like aback.

Moving my hand up, my fingers who have great tactile senses, determined it was hair.

It must be Quinn!

Quinn! Quinn!

I called out to her as I approached her, bumping into the steering wheel on the way, because of my blurry vision. With both arms over her, I shake her to wake her up but she didn’t move. Moving my body towards my side of the door, my fingers touched the door trying to find the handle so that I could open it and get out. Grabbing the handle, I tried opening it but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck.

Window! My fingers hurriedly touched the door trying to find the window but I couldn’t. Noticing my hand gets extra stretched in a certain area of the door like my hand was outside the window. Moving my hand down directly, I felt a sharp pain in my forearm.

Ah ouch! s**t.

It was the broken glass that pierced my skin of the arm. I could feel a little blood ooze out of it but didn’t think much about it and tried to get my arm out of the glass piece blindly. There was no light to see it properly!

Damn it!

Finally, through my imagination, I grabbed the end of the glass piece and pulled it out of my arm, making me hiss in pain. Throwing the piece out of the window, now I knew where the window was present. Pressing my hand over the injured area to prevent blood loss. While doing so, I heard several voices coming our way. My vision somehow cleared, but the darkness outside made it impossible to see anything.

I tilted my neck from where the sound was coming from. It seemed like people were talking as they approached us. Cautious, I sank deeper into my seat and looked outside of the broken car window. I heard footsteps coming nearby and then saw a light flash on my side of the car making me jump in surprise.

Endless road. Unknown place with nothing in sight to see.A wolf-like animal attack.

What a series of misfortunes.

By the time I was lost in my thought, the people were here. I closed my eyes and pretended to be unconscious. But my heart which was beating crazily made it difficult for me to act.

“This is the car!” a man yelled like he was proving his point.

“They are girls,” another voice came.

I clenched my toes as I heard them come nearer.

They tried opening the door but as I said it was stuck. It didn’t open.

“Remove it,”

What? Remove it?

The door was pulled away from its hinges, landed on the foundation with a thud and a gush of cool air hit my skin. This made me startle and open my eyes.

“s**t!,” they said, as they found me awake.

Frightened, I looked to my right where they stood. The light was on me, putting my hand up in front of my eyes to block the direct light coming into my eyes. I saw them. There were four to five build-up, tall men, staring down at me.

“W-who are you? I asked,

“What happened?” instead the man standing near me asked. The rest were standing a bit away from me than him.

“I don’t remember,” I told them.

The man standing in front of me looked back at the others and they shared a look that I couldn’t understand.

“What? Are you sure?” All of a sudden, the man in front of me spoke, to god knows who. Because I couldn’t see anything. But I saw one of the men had his torch directed in front of him means to my opposite side. But before I could find where he was throwing the light, I heard a growl. It made me freeze in my seat.

It was familiar.

Too familiar that goosebumps erupted over my arms.

Moving my head towards the source, I found a large head of black-furred wolf starring down at Quinn. The scream was so loud that it deafened me, only to realize it came from me.

“What the-,”

“s**t!,”

“Wolf! It’s the same as before!” I yelled, flailing my arms around to find anything that could protect me from the beast.

The wolf looked up and back at the men as I stared at it.

“Ah here we go again,” a voice came from behind me.

Turning around abruptly, I saw two men approach me. I tried getting out of the car but I was held down, a hand came over my mouth and the other over my thighs to lock me in place. This man was almost lying over me, making my attempts futile. . Helpless i looked back at Quinn but found something shocking which had my heat beat stop for a few seconds. The freaking black wolf turned into a human being!

What the actual heck!?

Wolf turned into a human?

There’s only one specie which matches with this craziness that i know of.

Werewolves!

I felt silent with shock and taking advantage of it, the other man held my arm and injected me with something.

“Leave me! What are you doing!?,” I tried moving but I felt my body shutting down.

Oh no no-no-no.

This can’t be happening right now.

My body was not in my control now, it wasn’t listening to me. The door to the other side opened and the wolf who turned into a man pulled Quinn out of the car. My lips moved to try to speak but they just wouldn’t. The same man who held me came closer and pulled me in his arms in a bridal style.

If I weren’t in this situation, I would have liked the way he was carrying me.

My brain was not working properly as you can see. My head automatically rested on the shoulder of the man and before I knew I was lost in my world of darkness.

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