Sam’s POV 

"Monster!" A woman’s voice echoed around me.

I looked around to find myself in a blue and gray living room. Everything was rotten and cold like I was in the dead of winter, making me shiver. The fireplace only held ash and soot inside even though a cloud of white smoke still poured out into the air, disappearing in the dark black nothingness above me.

The coffee table was broken laying on the moist, molded floor. The couch and rocking chair were also as gross and decomposing, the same as everything else in the room. It was hard to breathe.

"Hello?" I yelled loudly as I found no one around but I felt like I was being watched.

The room looked familiar to me as I tried to remember where I’d seen it before but I couldn’t as I carefully walked over to the door.

As soon as I touched the doorknob to try to open it, loud, rapid banging came from the other side. I jumped back quickly feeling this fear run through my body. I felt so scared and alone, like a child.

"I know you're in there," the woman yelled with a wild rage in her voice. "You can't hide from us. Get out here now you freak! You monster!"

I dropped to the ground, ignoring the gross and disgusting state it was in, as a weight pushed down on my shoulder. "I'm not a monster," I said, holding my legs against my chest. "I'm not a freak," I told myself as she continued to pound on the door.

I felt the wind on my back so I got up and turned around to find a window. I ran over and climbed out to escape her hateful words.

Falling on the floor I looked in the room to see it was the same room again but this time the room wasn't filled with a feeling of death and rot as someone sat in the rocking chair. I slowly got to my feet. It was a man. I could tell by his hands as he held the newspaper in front of him with the smell of cigarettes in the air.

"You better go," he said.

"Go where?" I asked, taking a step closer.

"To the doctors of course. They're going to make you better. Now go before I put you in the closet again," he said with disgust in his voice, never looking up from the newspaper.

I looked at the door before the window behind me started slamming open and shut. I looked over to the man again but he wasn't there. I was so scared as I covered my ears and squared down closing my eyes so tight.

Then, it all just stopped. I slowly opened my eyes again, confused. In front of me was an old broken gray and peeling white wooden door. I started shaking as I stood up and stepped back. I didn't want to go in there. I didn't want to go into the closet again. I started to panic.

Loud growls and thundering barking came from behind it. Scratching sounds at the bottom against the carpet floors started to be heard as something moved inside. Jumping back in surprise, I tripped on the side of the coffee table. I could see the shadows through the cracked wooden slots that run down the door but I couldn't see what it was.

"Open the door," a deep voice came from behind it. 

Swallowing hard, I couldn't stop myself from getting up to my feet as my shaking hand reached for the door handle without control. I wanted to see what was behind it. I felt the urge to let it out suddenly.

"No! You're a monster!" Another woman yelled right next to me. 

I was startled back from the door and looked over as whatever was behind the door started jumping against it with a threatening growl, trying desperately to get out but my eyes were pinned to the thing before me. 

She had on a white lab coat with thick oval-shaped glasses on and long dark blonde hair but the skin on her face was falling off of her decaying body. It was like a scene out of a horror movie as she reached out with a bone and rotting meat-covered hands. I couldn't move, frozen in fear, but before her decomposing hand touched me, the sounding of beeping filled my ears.

♠♠♠

I jumped awake quickly to the same sound of beeping, eyes too heavy to open at first. My chest hurt so much when I took a deep breath and started fluttering my eyes open. I was quickly blinded by the bright light and covered them with my hand before trying again to see where I was.

My arm was wrapped in gauze making my eyes open wide. What the hell happened? Wait, my arms weren't tired anymore either. Everything then came back, remembering the man beating me before I blacked out. 

I looked to the right and found monitors and an IV drip. There was no doubt that I was in a hospital room. I looked over to the left and could hear the beeping noise of the heart monitor skip a few beats before beeping faster.

There he was, Blue Eyes, sitting next to the hospital bed... sleeping?

His tattooed hand rested against his cheek, elbow on the arm of the small two-person couch as he leaned to the side, mouth parted slightly with a soft snore. 

I didn't feel bad for staring too long this time. His hair looked like a mess which honestly still looked good. His closed eyes gave me a chance to look at him more without getting lost in them. It seems to be a habit now. There was a small tattoo of something just below the corner of one of his eyes and a tattoo of a bird on the hand that lay in his lap. I couldn't read the letters that were tattooed on his fingers since they were covered by rings but I could tell something was there.

I tore my eyes away and looked down at myself. My bed was raised slightly so I was sitting up a little. One of my arms was fully covered in a hard cast, the other had gauze wrapped around it where the ropes were tied and an IV in the same hand. I was also wearing a green and white hospital gown which made me feel uncomfortable.

His phone started ringing making me jump. He also startled awake, quickly digging the phone out of his pocket and answering it while rubbing his eyes with his other hand.

"What is it?" He answered in a tired and raspy voice. "Okay that's fine, just get it done Viv," he said before he paused and looked at the ground with his hand rubbing his forehead, listening to the other person. He looked exhausted. "Okay. I'll be there shortly then."

Something caught his attention as he looked over at me slowly and his eyes widened. "I have to go," he said quickly and hung up the phone without a goodbye.

He stood up and straightened his jacket to his dark blue suit before buttoning it in the middle. "Well, good morning Sam," he looked at the watch on his wrist. "Or should I say afternoon?"

I looked at him with narrowed eyes. "How-," my voice came out in a crackle. I stopped and tried to clear my dry throat. It felt like sandpaper. 

He stepped closer but paused mid-step. "Wait. Hold on," he said as he turned around and walked over to the end of my bed where a hospital tray was. 

I could hear the ice sloshing around as he picked up a large gray cup with a long straw sticking out the top. Just the thought of that nice ice-cold water touching my tongue made me feel even more dehydrated at the bottom of my stomach.

Not really thinking about anything else but that water, I tried to sit up more to adjust myself to get in a better drinking position but immediately regretted that poor decision. "Ahh.." I gasped, falling back as an unbearable pain filled my chest. 

"Shit! Are you o-," he paused, widening his eyes. "I mean... I told you to hold on," he changed his tone quickly from worried to dominant making me freeze completely and looked down at the fingers.

I caught his hand in the corner of my eye, moving towards me, and jumped up with a gasp, flinching away. My heart started pounding hard as I closed my eyes, waiting for him to grab me, hit me, or hold me down. I didn't know which one.

My bed suddenly started to left up my upped half and my eyes shot open to see him holding the remote and looking down at me. "Better?" He asked as he stopped it.

I nodded as my face started to burn. I thought...

Why was he being so nice all of a sudden? Was it just an act to get my guard down? So I would slip up and say something? I really didn't know who the hell that guy was that hired me or why he wanted the phone so bad so this guy wouldn't get much out of me, even if I wanted to talk.

"Drink it slowly," he said, handing the cup over carefully.

I gently took it in my good hand as I watched him closely. I didn't trust him and wasn't sure if he was going to flip any second but I avoided his gaze as much as possible.

I sipped on the water slowly, feeling the cold liquid run down my throat and into my stomach. The water tasted even better than I remembered. I couldn't tell you when the last time I had ice in my water, that wasn't from the winter cold freezing everything.

"You have some bruised and slightly fractured ribs. They were completely broken a few days ago but it seems you heal pretty quickly for a human," he said as he looked at me.

I choked on my drink from the shock, not expecting him to say that to me. He took the cup from my hand quickly as the coughing turned worse. It hurt so bad as I groaned into my coughs trying to hold myself together because I felt like I was going to rip apart if I didn't.

I knew I healed fast. I don't know how or why but Old Grace and I found it out the hard way one night.

Someone tried to take over her tent, which was a common thing on the streets. I didn't listen to her when she tried to hold me back but I mean, it was pouring down rain and she was an old woman, no way was I just going to sit there and let him take everything she had.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the knife he was holding until it was too late. I was bleeding everywhere and fell to the ground, and the man took off in a panic. Old Grace dragged me into the tent. I should have died that night.

The next thing I knew, I woke up the next day to find it already started to close without stitches and the bleeding had stopped. She told me not to tell anyone about this gift I had and I made sure I was more careful so no one found out about it.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me but I do find it very curious. Clearly, you’re not just human and you're definitely not a wolf either," one of his eyebrows raised in question. "So what are you?"