A Glowing Figure

Chapter One

"Wake up"

"Wake up" I heard a voice call out to me, then my body started shaking, someone was trying to wake me up. I shifted my body to the side and slowly started opening my eyes, when they were open I blinked a couple of times to clear my blurry vision, once they were cleared I could finally see the person that was waking me up, it was Adele.

"Again Nini?", she stared at me in concern. Nini was the cute nickname she gave me when we were younger, I loved it.

"What do you mean again?", I raised my eyebrow questioning her.

"You were crying in your sleep again", she took a hand mirror from my bedside table and handed it to me. I brought myself up into a sitting position and took the mirror from her hand, I took a good look at myself, my eyes were red and a little swollen, my face had dry tears all over it, my eye color changed, they were now a diluted shade of brown. My eye color changed according to the emotions I was feeling, my original eye color was tawny brown, they stood out, a little too much for my liking, when I was sad they turned umber brown, I didn't know what other colors my eyes would change because I had only three emotions, neutral, sad, and deep despair, tragic I know, I didn't even feel anger, I've never felt anger, mostly because I wasn't allowed to.

"I look terrible", I touched my face and shook my head.

"Another bad dream?", Adele moved closer to me and started rubbing my back

I nodded my head

"The same one?"

"You know it", I let out a depressed laugh.

I've been having those nightmares ever since I was 10, they replayed in my mind every day constantly reminding me why I would never be happy, ever, whenever I had a nightmare like this one I would stay in my cabin the whole day, I wouldn't even eat, hoping to die, but now it’s become a regular thing, it’s even in my everyday routine, I sleep, have the nightmare, wake up crying, calm myself down and go on with my day, you're probably thinking that that's a sad life, it is.

"Girl you need to see the pack doctor about this, these nightmares started when you were ten, you're about to turn twenty-one, it’s not natural" Adele stated her concern, she's always been a good friend to me, when everyone turned their back on me she was standing right in front of me giving me courage and strength, that's why she's my best friend.

"Dude I've been there so many times I think he's tired of seeing me, besides I think he has more important wolves to attend to instead of looking after a useless thing like me", I jumped out of bed and stretched.

"If you keep thinking like that you'll die soon", she scolded me.

"Oh really, you think so?", I asked with fake enthusiasm.

She threw a pillow at my direction but I dodged it, I stuck my tongue out at her and ran to my bathroom.

"If you keep saying crap like that I'll never speak to you again!", she yelled out to me from the other side of the door.

I rolled my eyes, “yeah right, you wouldn't stop even if the moon told you to”.

I giggled inwardly, that was my wolf Sasha, we talked all the time, when Adele was doing her rounds we'd secretly gossip about her, but in a good way, she was my second friend, my first was obviously Adele because I knew her way before my first shift. Sasha and I started talking when I turned sixteen and had my first shift, from then on we've been such good friends, well she is me so of course, we'd be good friends, and I was grateful for that.

I stepped into my shower and turned on the water, cold, perfect, whenever I took too long to wake up my hot water would be cut off, that's a disadvantage of being a low-class wolf, here if you weren't a healer, a thinker or most importantly a warrior you were considered a lower class, you had no purpose, me in general. I did a quick bath because the water was just too cold, I got out of the shower and wrapped a big towel around my body. Morning routines are important, mine just consisted of bathing, brushing my teeth and doing my hair, which is exactly what I did. I exited my bathroom and closed the door behind me, I looked forward and saw Adele looking at me ready to laugh.

"Coldwater?", she giggled.

"If you laugh I'm throwing you out of my house", I warned her as I walked towards her.

She broke out into laughter, I grabbed one of my tiny pillows and started swinging it at her, the more she laughed the more I swung, our laughter came to an end when we heard a loud knock at my cabin door.

"RESIDENT 119 TIME TO HEAD TO THE GROUNDS, NOW!!!"

That was Duncan, he was one of the top warrior wolves, and the pack's trainer, he trained the pups and wolves that were too weak, aka me, he was tough as steel.

"Uh yes sorry I'm late, give me five minutes!", I shouted.

I quickly ran to my dresser and grabbed a big basketball vest some baggy sweatpants and my underwear, I slipped them on at the speed of light and grabbed my shoes, Adele and I ran out of my bedroom and headed to the door.

"Aww no breakfast today too", Sasha cried, sorry girl not today.

I quickly put on my shoes and opened the door, Duncan looked down at me with intensity in his eyes, looking at him Duncan was actually a really attractive guy, he was really tall, very well built, had long blonde hair that he tied into a ponytail, and beautiful green eyes, the only problem was he scowled more than he smiled.

"Grounds now!" His voice was deep and scary, I ran past him and Adele followed after me, I forgot to close my door but luckily Duncan did it for me, he's a nice guy when he wants to be. We finally reached the grounds and there were wolves already training, pups most especially but there were also some older wolves, the ones that just wanted to better their skills, the really good warrior wolves didn't train from here, they trained from a much bigger ground on the other side, if you became really good you were transferred, I've seen so many wolves upgrade and move but not me, I've been here since I was eleven, too weak.

Duncan finally came to the grounds after gathering the rest of the wolves.

"Alright everybody you already know what to do so don't make me say it", he spoke out, we all got into position, all except Adele who was standing with Duncan, Adele was a badass warrior wolf, she was in the second lines of defense, she achieved that position when she was fourteen, I was kinda jealous of her. Adele was so perfect, she was 5'11 almost as tall as the male wolves, she had beautiful Latino skin and gorgeous silky black hair, she also had a banging body that showed whenever she wore her warrior gear, training clothes or just her clothes in general, and me well, I was her DUFF, I’m not gonna put myself down and say I’m not pretty, I just didn’t think I was as pretty as her.

"Alright, Ed and Marshal to the center", Duncan called out two pups names, they got up and went to the center of the circle, both got into their fighting stance and began fighting, Ed was good but he was no match for Marshal, Marshal was the top of the class, he's most definitely getting upgraded. The fight ended when Marshal kicked Ed in the stomach and body-slammed him, "Ouch, that's gonna leave a serious mark", I know.

"Next up Murni and Aana", Duncan called out the second pair and I cursed ever being present, I hated this, I always lost, I never changed, I was always weak. I stood up and swallowed hard, Adele was smiling at me and giving me two thumbs up, she knows I'm gonna lose too but she still cheers me on. I walked to the center and faced my opponent, she's 16, she's just gone through her first shift, I don't stand a chance, she smiled at me and I smiled back, we weren't friends but we would have great conversations every now and then. I got into position and she immediately attacked me, I managed to dodge the first attack but I was too slow for the second one, she wasn't even in wolf form and she was so fast, she rammed her head into my stomach and I lost my breath, as I was bending trying to catch my breath she used her elbow to hit my back and I fell on the floor in pain, I rolled on my back and she pounced on me, her wolf eyes were out, she had no control over what she was doing, she was on top of me punching my face, I raised my hands to my face to block the blows but she removed her claws and started scratching me, I screamed in pain, make it stop!, make it stop!, Sasha and I were now in great pain.

"Enough!", Duncan blew his whistle and Aana rolled off of me, my hands were scarred and bleeding, my body was already beginning to show bruises, I bruised very easily. I remained on the ground looking at the grey sky, "pathetic", my demons said to me.

Duncan walked towards me and stood over me, Aana got up and looked at me with sincere regret.

"I'm so sorry, it was my wolf, I would have never-", she begun but was cut off by Duncan.

"Stop apologizing to this weakling! you didn't even put up a fight, you let a 16-year-old take you down, have you no shame? Get up and go to your cabin, you're dismissed", he scolded me then turned and walked away, I let a tear roll down my cheek.

Yup, this is how we always end up, on the floor crying, we'll never be good enough, we will always and forever be The Useless Girl.

Sasha said it and I couldn't have said it better, we are the useless girl