Chapter 47: Reveal the secret
Eleanor’s POV
The world was a blur of passing streetlights and the frantic thumping of my own heart. I squeezed my eyes shut, then forced them open, trying to anchor myself in the reality of the moving car, the smell of Mira’s cherry air freshener, the solid presence of Roxy beside me. This was real. They were real.
"What the heck did you do, Ellie?" Mira’s voice was shrill with panic from the driver’s seat, her eyes flashing to me in the rearview mirror. "Who did you offend? This isn’t a random mugging!"
"You shouldn’t have come!" The words tore out of me, raw and guilt-ridden. "I told you not to! You’ve put yourselves in danger! The police... 911 said they were on their way. They would have been there."
Roxy let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Police? We didn’t see any cops, Ellie. We saw those vans. And the men telling everyone on the street not to panic, that they were private security recapturing a dangerous mental patient who had escaped."
My blood ran cold. "A what?"
"A mental patient," Roxy repeated, her voice flat.
As if on cue, Mira fumbled with the car radio, turning up the volume. A smooth, concerned news anchor’s voice filled the car.
"—breaking update on the situation in the Elm District. Authorities confirm that the female patient, considered highly unpredictable and dangerous, has once again evaded capture after a dramatic rooftop escape. Witnesses report she was aided by an unidentified accomplice who facilitated a jump to an adjacent building. The public is advised not to approach and to call the number on their screen immediately with any information."
The air left my lungs. I stared at the radio as if it had physically struck me.
"We heard the bulletin," Roxy said, her gaze heavy on me. "We didn’t think it was you... until we pulled up your location and realized it was exactly where they were reporting from." She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a serious, almost dangerous whisper. "So, I’m asking you again, Eleanor. What did you do to get into this position? Unless... you really are a mental patient we’ve been driving around all this time?"
The accusation wasn’t malicious; it was a demand for the truth she knew I’d been hiding. They had just risked everything for me. They were in this now, whether I wanted them to be or not. I looked from Roxy’s determined face to Mira’s terrified one in the mirror, and I knew the time for lies was over.
I took a shaky breath, the words tumbling out in a rushed, panicked whisper. "A few days ago... I was kidnapped. At the Kingsley Hotel. They used a perfume, it knocked me out. I woke up in one of the rooms... they were talking about... about trafficking me." I left out the reason I was at the hotel. "I managed to escape. I thought it was over."
Mira gasped, her hands tightening on the wheel. "Ellie! Those... those monsters! And they came after you even after you got away? Why didn’t you go to the police?"
Roxy answered for me, her voice grim. "From the looks of it, I don’t think the police would’ve helped. This little public smear campaign proves it." She gestured vaguely at the radio.
"I’m so sorry," I choked out, the guilt a physical pain in my chest. "I’ve brought all this trouble to you."
"But it still doesn’t make sense," Mira argued, her voice strained as she swerved around a slower car. "You can’t be the first person to ever escape them. Why go through all this? Tracking you down, finding your apartment, this... this public charade? There has to be another reason. You must have seen something, or they think you have something..."
I saw Mira and Roxy exchange a loaded look in the mirror, a silent conversation passing between them. Before I could say anything, Mira’s eyes widened.
"Guys," she said as she looked through the side mirror, her voice tight. "We’ve got company."
I twisted in my seat. Two familiar black vans were closing in fast, their headlights like predatory eyes in the darkness.
"Lose them, Mira!" Roxy barked.
"I’m not in Fast and Furious!" Mira cried, but she stomped on the accelerator. The car lurched forward. "I can go faster, but we need a plan, we can’t just outrun them forever!"
As if to emphasize her point, one of the vans pulled up alongside us on the driver’s side, while the other edged dangerously close on the passenger side. With a sickening crunch of metal, the van on the passenger side rammed into us, jolting the car violently.
Roxy cursed, bracing herself against the dashboard. "They’re trying to box us in!"
"You have to let me go!" I pleaded, desperation clawing at my throat. "Pull over, let me out! This is my problem, not yours!"
"Shut up, Ellie!" Mira snapped, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. "We’re not doing that!"
The guilt was suffocating. I couldn’t let them get hurt because of me, because of what I was. They needed to see the danger, the monster they were trying to protect. They needed to understand why they had to let me go.
"I have something to tell you," I blurted out, my voice trembling with a mixture of fear and resolve.
Roxy shot me an incredulous look. "Can it wait? We’re a little busy not getting crushed to death right now!"
I took a deep, shuddering breath, the confession tearing from me in a frantic shout. "I’m not a normal human! Things have been happening to me, ever since the day I survived that car accident! I’ve been experiencing things you can’t possibly understand, and I need you to know that I’m not the evil person they’re making me out to be!"
Roxy, still braced against the dashboard, yelled back, "What are you saying?!"
"I’m a supernatural creature!" I screamed over the roar of the engines and the screeching of metal. "I’m a werewolf! I know humans think we’re primal and evil, but I’m not! I understand if you want to kick me out, so please...please just stop the car and let me out!"
I braced for the shock, the horror, the rejection. But it didn’t come. I looked at their faces, illuminated by the passing streetlights. They didn’t look shocked. They didn’t look like I was speaking gibberish. They looked... focused, and maybe a little exasperated.
"I can prove it!" I cried, desperate to make them understand the danger they were in. "I can prove I’m a werewolf!"
I focused, and with a sharp, painful rush, my claws erupted from my fingertips.
Mira, seeing the glint of them in the rearview mirror, gasped and swerved violently to avoid another sideswipe from the van. Our car scraped against a concrete barrier, sending sparks flying.
"We should stop the car!" I pleaded, retracting my claws, my voice breaking. "I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to think I was... vile. I didn’t want you to be scared of me."
I waited for the reaction I’d been dreading for weeks. But what I didn’t expect to hear from Mira was a quiet, steady, "We know, Ellie."
I froze. "What?"
"We know," she repeated, her eyes meeting mine in the mirror for a split second before returning to the road. "All those times you started asking for more information about supernatural histories... it kind of gave it away."
My head whipped toward Roxy. She gave a slight, grim nod. "Yeah. I know too."
I was speechless. "Aren’t...Aren’t you... scared? Of me?"
Roxy actually let out a short, sharp laugh. "Mira, you wanna tell her, or should I?"
"Tell me what?" I asked, my mind reeling, completely lost.
Mira’s voice was calm as she swerved around another corner. "Ellie, I’m a werewolf too."
The world seemed to tilt on its axis. "What?"
Roxy grinned, a wild, fierce flash of teeth in the dark. "We both are."