"Josephine," a voice called out my name and I wasn't certain of who it was. This was the same as before. It was familiar as if death was calling my name. The man's voice was bringing me forward through my dreams and summoning me to a specific time and place I knew all too well.
" f a t h e r ? "
My eyes flung open and I was there again in my bedroom back in my family house. No this isn't right... I knew I didn't fall asleep here. In fact, I was certain I fell asleep beside Casimir in the pack house in another territory. Where was it again? It was in Silverback's territory because that's where Alpha Artyom had taken us to. So, why was I back home? Was... this another dream? I thought I resolved my issues. I thought I figured out my nightmare puzzle.
No, the voice wasn't coming from my parents this time.
Could I rule this out as another duplicate dream?
Here we go again!
I tossed away the purple bed sheets and the rainbow llama plushie, yes it was the same one I have been fighting off for far too long. My head throbbed in an annoyingly painful rhythm. As if it was aware we were here and was starting a protest. Nothing beckoned me to go downstairs this time, my father's voice was missing. I was acting in a sixth sense to go. My feet carried me back downstairs. I paused like usual out of a bad habit on the last step of the staircase as if I was waiting for my father to speak to me. Where was it? Where was the arguing? The name calling? Where is everyone? The house was cold and empty.
"You've been betrayed by your father's pack. Everything since your father's murder has become a mess. Now that you remember your mother is the reason for your reckoning..."
This was not my father's voice. My eyes landed on the dim light in the kitchen and I looked at the empty space that was calling me forward. The kitchen was a repeated nightmare, I knew I had to go there.
"H e l l o?" I passed down the hall leading me there. I wanted to go in. I had to go in. I wanted to see where they had gone. Who was that just now talking? Why were my parents not here this time? My nightmares have changed again. Something always told me not to go, but now where was it? It was silent, voices weren't screaming in my head. The kitchen grew further away as I kept walking as I never quite reached it. My feet began to ache. This was seeming to be pointless.
"You will have to kill her too in order to reclaim what is rightfully yours, that is all of Rabidcrest. Don't waste precious time. There are others that want to kill her as well."
Mother? Is he talking about my mother?
Was it coming from the kitchen? It sounded so close. Who was he? HE was familiar, I knew I heard it before. I recognized it. I was begining to reach the mirror and it seemed to be my only goal now. I always stopped there before I could enter the kitchen. I had to look, that was all I could remember. I had to know what I would find there.
My feet paused as I stood in front. There in the mirror was my eyes I inherited from my mother. They were cold and opal. I felt like a murderer was staring back at me. I was sick to my stomach staring there. It was me in the reflection. I was so blank and full of no expression, like a ghost.
Who am I?
I am Josephine Cromwell. A daughter to William Cromwell as well as his murderer. I'm five eleven with the hair color of a raven's wing. It's an inheritance I got from my father's side. He was born from rogues which is ironic because that's what I've become. I will always be exactly who everyone expects me to be, dangerous.
I'm never going to be easy to fool over again.
My mother had set me up. I had protected her by killing my father and she betrayed me by accusing me of murder and turned the whole pack against me. She was already doing that my whole life, I should have never saved her from him. I betrayed my father's trust. I won't fall for any more trickery. I won't kill another... not like that again.
I always hated mirrors. I wanted to only look for a few more seconds to be sure there was nothing funny hidden there. Something spoke to me to look no further or else I could be dragged in. But, I did something I wouldn't normally do. I reached out and touched the mirror. I wanted to feel and see if it was real.
This felt real. The glass was smooth against my finger tips. I drew my hand away as I caught a shocked expression of myself in the mirror.
"Wake up Josephine Cromwell," my lips would part as I spoke to myself. But it was not my voice I heard speaking to me.
How could I have been talking? That wasn't me talking, it was the reflection talking to me. A shiver ran down my spine. I was creeped out at the very thought it was someone else playing tricks on me. "And- take back everything you have lost because of them." I stumbled away from the mirror a bit freaked out when the same voice did not come by me this time. I was certain my lips did not move but the reflection seemed to change and morph into something new as it shifted.
"Your pack has betrayed you and thrown you away like garbage."
The walls around me began to shift and change in the reflection of the mirror as they turned to the same boring gray cement blocks of the cell I was thrown in back in Rabidcrest pack. The bolted door was there shining the only light on the other side of the mirror. My heart began to race as I knew something new was happening here. There it was, glitching. The world darkened and caused me to have tunnel vision as I located my target.
"They have disrespected their rightful leader. It is time to make everyone pay. It is time to kill everyone and start anew."
Maybe I lost my mind.
This isn't happening.
This is a dream.
It's a bad nightmare I can wake up from at any time.
"For you are my rightful heir, that is why I will stay with you now and forever by your side."
His voice was similar to my father. But, there was one big difference. He was not him. He had been known to me all along and I just didn't want to believe he was back again. It was Marcus. Just as he came through the mirror the dream began to freeze over. It was like a dead man's touch was haunting me. Snowflakes formed on the walls and the oxygen became broken. As if I could breathe in his presence. Even dreaming he had control over my fear.
The crystals forming in the air busted the mirror and scattered it into a million pieces around me. Born from the snow-like mirror shards was a black wolf much similar to my father. I felt endangered in his presence. A tension rising to my skin as the hairs stood up across my body. I was frozen solid in fear. What was he saying to me? I can't listen. I can hardly hear over my own heartbeat.
"I will make you an Alpha worthy of all respect. My darling granddaughter, Jossie."
His fangs began to elongate as he bared his teeth at me. It was familiar. He was grabbing my attention. He walked with a stern stride as he broke through like he was coming from the otherside, wherever that was. It was some sort of divide through mirroring that allowed him to come from death and straight into my dreams. He was another reminder he was not from my mind. This wasn't a dream either. This had to be some sort of dimensional call.
Blood began to ooze as a bad memory haunted my mind. It pooled up and washed away the shards of glass on the floor. He walked through it until he was inches away from my face. He was so tall, so big, and so scary. The kitchen light flickered rapidly as if warning me. It began to create shadows on the walls as if there wasn't enough I needed to be wary of. I'd keep off the wall. Even if I had instincts to cowardly hide against it.
"You will start by making the rogue pack bow to you and you alone. So go to pack BlackRidge because there you will find wolves who will understand your pain and suffrage. Gather them and use them as your muscle. You will hunt down and kill your mother before you destroy everything in Rabidcrest territory and make that the new territory for all rogue kind."
Rogue, Marcus is a rogue! And, he did take away Jude from me. How can I listen to a word he has to say to me? He's just a true nightmare sneaking his way here to terrorize me. This is my ancestor, Marcus... a foul and dead rogue.
"Then you will take the rest by storm. You will go for the king next. You will rule ALL the werewolves as your revenge."
King Camren, would be hard to get to. I wouldn't want to go for him next or anytime soon. That would be impossible. What he was telling me to do was impossible for my power. Who would want to follow me? A Cromwell Rogue? I would be the biggest laugh of the world. A joke people would begin to tell their kids about during bedtime. I would have an unhappy ending. Someone would be the hero and I was the villain in their story.
Marcus Cromwell, this really is Marcus here before me. The one responsible for my own misery. His name alone is what I've inherited. His looks and even his black wolf. I have been hated because of him. How is this even possible? How could anything be possible? Why was he here asking me of these things when I know nothing good could possibly come from obeying anything he demands of me? I should tell him no. I should listen to what Jude told me to do, I cannot listen to Marcus.
"This is my prophecy to you."
I could still hear my wolf Jude's dying sound echoing through my ears within this very dream. He took her away from me. He murdered her. Why would I care what he said to me? Not after what he done with Jude. Jude was new but kind to me. She was a friend, a wolf. She was supposed to stay with me until the very end.
"Keep Casimir Kriska alive, he is being hunted."
Casimir is my mate, of course I would keep him alive. Out of all the complications in my life he is the one thing I can count on. It's like everything lead up to me meeting him. Nothing will bring us apart.
"He will be your guide to getting a long and prosperous life. You have been given two choices, you realize by now? Now that you chose Casimir you cannot go back. One of them has to die. You have to make sure to kill the king. Time is running out for both of them."
King Camren and Casimir are both fated to me. But, Camren refused to accept my rejection. He swore to kill Casimir in order to make me his. We're on the run because of him. Camren is murderous. He pushed my sister Juliette off the balcony. He got away with her murder.
I'm not perfect. I know that. I killed my father but I did it to prevent him from harming my mother. I had justice in what I did. But, Camren? He didn't have to kill her.
He shoved her off because he wanted to. We are different. I could never love someone like him. He should have accepted my rejection. We should be moving on by now.
I don't have to kill Camren, I just have to make sure we never meet again. I have to make sure to keep Casimir safe from him. The rogue territories will be enough for us.
"We are completely safe once we get to the rogue territories, why would I want to cause more trouble for us?" I asked him angrily. I just want to run away with Casimir and live a peaceful life and forget everything that has happened since my father's death. "Alpha Camren won't stand a chance if we make it to the rogue territories. He'll have to give us up. He will give it up, I'm not worth the effort."
Why couldn't Camren have accepted my rejection in the first place? I'm not worthy of a king. I'm just a small and weak wolf. I would be no use to him.
Marcus turned away from me suddenly.
"Time to wake up," was all he would say to me.
He began to leave as he walked towards the front door right by the staircase. I walked after him at a slow pace. He would not answer me again as he slipped through the door like it wasn't even there. I opened the door out of instinct but everything seemed to be fading around me. I could feel it, my mind throbbing as I was coming out of dreaming. I was being awoken by something loud and obnoxious.