Martha, the female protagonist, was a young wench of 18 years. She attends the high school in her locality which apparently all other teenagers in her neighborhood do since it was the only high school there.
She used to live with her parents – Benjamin and Cindy – in a more so remote village which was housed by more or less 1500 inhabitants.
The village had limited facilities – a marketplace selling various commodities, most of which were a part of the daily life of the people there; one high school where all the teenagers used to study, a handful of recreational places to escape the daily grind, etc.
The predominant source of income for the people there was agricultural activities. A contractor used to visit the village in every quarter of the year to make a deal of the crops harvested in the season of that time.
Life there can be summed up as hunky-dory.
Martha, just as her dear village, was a simple girl. She, like any other teenager of her age, carried some big dreams to endeavor.
She had a penchant to become a journalist, a crime reporter to be specific. She was fond of reading novels, with the Crime genre undoubtedly being her favorite one.
Every Sunday, Martha along with her family used to visit the nearby garden where all the locals would gather and celebrate the holiday by playing games, singing, dancing and savoring the delicacies which were prepared by each household on that day.
On one such Sunday, Martha had woken up to the quarrels of her parents over something. She couldn't make out the substance of the quarrel as they were in a different room. Immediately after the voices from the other room dampened, her mother came to her bedroom and told her that the 3 of them (Martha and her parents) have to leave for some place and so she should get dressed.
Although her mother didn't leave any clue of where they'd be going, Martha was sure they'll be visiting her maternal grandmother whom she hadn't seen for the last 6 months or so. Her mother however made frequent visits to her house twice or thrice a month.
Although she was partly happy about seeing her granny, she was partly unhappy as this unexpected plan ruined her dance which she'd prepared for the Sunday celebration.
Martha sat on the backseat of the motor car while her parents occupied the front seat. She was gazing out of the window at the lush green fields spread on both sides of their path.
As her face was welcoming the fresh breeze that had traversed from the fields to embrace her face, she observed the car turning to her right and entering the field on a narrow uneven passage.
She wasn't familiar with this route and thought that her father had taken a detour for meeting someone. She inquired with her father about the same and he agreed to her thoughts. He told her that he has to see a friend who dwells a few miles away in the direction they're traversing.
After so many hours of traversing in and out of the field, Martha was fed up with her parent's plan of this visit and finally asked, "How long will it take to reach your friend? Till this time, we'd have visited granny and returned to home as well."
"Who told you we were visiting granny?" asked her mother. She promptly realized that she wasn't told by her mother that they were going to visit Granny and she also didn't ask her father if he had taken a detour but simply threw a question like 'are we going to meet any of your friends?'
Now Martha's mind was puffed up with curiosity for where all three of them were heading to. Finally their destination arrived. It was an intimidating view to look at.
The house was built in a very old-fashioned manner depicting the era in which it was built, some 30-40 years back. There were no signs of human settlements except the house in front of Martha while she couldn't make her mind to believe if someone indeed dwells in there. She was told to remain in that car by her parents while the rest of the two entered the house along with some papers.
She didn't observe those papers as long as they were travelling through the fields until the time they'd arrived at the destination and her mother took out those pages from somewhere in the car. She believed her mother had deliberately kept those pages hidden from her all the time.
After 5 or so minutes of sitting alone in the car and waiting for her parents, she started getting worried and decided to herself visit the house. As she neared the doorway, she could hear her parents screaming at someone, this time the decibels in their voice higher than ever and apparently they were audible to Martha.
She could hear her father scream, "We were meant to be here for a trade!" while her mother said sobbingly, "Stick to the norms of this agreement or we leave from here!"
Martha was now beyond terrified! She wasn't able to understand what was happening on the other side of the door. She called for her mother with a weak voice, "Mom!" In return, she was expecting her parents to open the door and take her along to the car and start driving back to home. Such terrified Martha had gotten that she was in no mood to behold the view of the indoors of the house.
However, much to her dismay, a gruff voice responded, "Oh, so you've brought her as well?" In no time, she could hear heavy footsteps approaching her while making a cracking sound on the wooden floor. She knew this wasn't her parents who were approaching but somebody else. The door opened and right in front of Martha stood a man with dense hair all over his body. It was a figure someone wouldn't expect to see in the worst of nightmares, A LIVING WEREWOLF! The stature of it was so large that Martha could see nothing behind it.
Her eyes fixed at the eyes of the werewolf with horror as her father reached out to Martha from the right side of the werewolf. Upon seeing her father's act, grabbed him through the shoulder with his right hand and pulled its hand backwards, thereby throwing Benjamin inside the house.
Within split seconds, the same hand reached out to Martha and acted in the same way as it did to her father. She too was now inside the house.
Martha was now compelled to see what was going on inside the house. There were 3 more werewolves there other than the one who thrust her inside the house.
Her eyes examined them and she had developed so much of fear until her eyes fell on his mother and she cried, "Mom!"
She crawled towards her mother and hugged her tightly. The werewolf who had thrust Martha in now growled, "I assume the trade is complete now. We keep the girl from now.
You can leave" Her father responded angrily, "This is not what was mentioned in the agreement" As Martha heard the word agreement, a thought struck her mind and she began examining the house for the pages her mother had carried with herself.
Her father again said, "You should respect the norms of this trade or else, let us leave!" Upon hearing this, the werewolf resting his back on the baluster of the staircase said, "I do not see you in a position to teach us how to respect the norms of this trade. Exercise the duty on your part and hand over the girl to us.
" Although Martha had gotten the idea that some sort of trade was about to happen which had now miserably failed, little did she know that she herself was the substance of this trade.
Hearing the other werewolf, her father lost his temper and proceeded towards the staircase. Cindy for once shouted her husband's name so to warn him for what wrong he is going to commit. But it was too late on her part as once he was in range of the werewolf; he received a mighty blow on his chest and was dead in no time.
Cindy again screamed his name but this time with a lot of sorrow. She rushed to her husband while leaving behind her daughter but her movement was soon restricted by the hand lifted in her way by the werewolf who had opened the door earlier, the alpha werewolf of this house.
He sternly asked the lady to leave her daughter behind and return to home. Cindy made a quick movement of her hand to wipe off her tears and responded in an even more stern voice, "I am not leaving without my daughter now!"
They have had too much of it. It took the werewolf not much time to execute the mother of Martha and what lay in front of Martha now were her parents surrounded by their blood. She stared at her mother's hand as she remembered her mother serving food with them the other day.
Likewise, her father's body remained at the end of the staircase. The alpha werewolf now announced, "The trade has been performed with a slight amendment in the norms. The girl shall now remain the maid to this house along with the boy."
As tears rolled down on Martha's cheeks, her face bore an expression of intense sorrow. Questions flooded into her mind.
Why was she the substance of the trade? What duty was entrusted to these werewolves by this agreement of trade which they didn't fulfill? And, who was the boy?
Soon after the execution of her parents, Martha was dragged to the upstairs of the house. She didn't expect to end up in a formidable settlement with a pack of werewolves while both her parents were dead.
She was constantly sobbing in a very small compartment upstairs where she feared she'll be spending the rest of her life. After sitting there for what felt like a lifetime, she heard footsteps approaching her. As the sound of those footsteps got louder, she couldn't stop imagining what was going to happen next! She closed her eyes with fear and reluctantly waited for the moment to occur. The door opened with a thud but much to Martha's surprise, it wasn't the door of her compartment.
It felt as the werewolf had opened the door next to her room. The werewolf said with his gruff voice, "Boy, did you have your supper?" A weak and childish voice responded, "Yes I did." The door then closed with a thud again as the werewolf said, "Then go to sleep."
Martha now became aware that the boy they were referring to all this time lives in the room next to her.
Going by the nature of this brief conversation between the werewolf and the boy, she was sure he was more restricted in this house and less of lived here. She couldn't keep herself away from recalling the bloodied corpses of her parents.
However, she did her best to regain some composure and decided to think against those unfortunate events. It was time for her to act pragmatic and look for a solution to break out of the misfortune life has put her in.
Her head was aching and her body too felt fatigued. She wanted to sleep. So she lay down and leaned her head against the floor and apparently dozed off to sleep.
Her mind was predominated by one purpose which is to discover the cause of her misfortune and in that pursuit; she will have to find the papers of agreement. Also, part of her wanted to know how the 'boy' ended up here.
Over the course of a few days, Martha had grown a close bond with the 'boy'. His name was Derek.
The wolves used to refer to him as just the 'boy'. While he bore an expressionless face when the werewolves were around, he was a happy go lucky kid in presence of just Martha. Derek was much younger to her, some 10 or so years old.
He appeared to be very weak by his bodily aspects since the wolf pack never fed him well. He didn't know how he ended up in that hell. Nor did he care to know. Maybe because he didn't have any prior experiences of going out. And apparently he never has befriended someone except for Martha this time. This suggested that he had been there for a long while. He was comfortable with Martha as partly, she was quite generous to him and partly because she didn't carry the fearful sight of a person with enormous hairs on their body.
One thing that bewildered Martha about Derek is he was comfortable in speaking in English notwithstanding the fact that he has been around werewolves who never quite interacted with him.
Upon inquiring about this, he said a lady often used to visit here who would talk to him and inject a sharp needle inside his arm which used to cause a lot of pain. Martha now had a gut feeling that this lady could be the key to the revelation of what's happening with her and Derek.
She expected that the lady would visit soon.
The alpha werewolf used to fondle Martha on an almost regular basis. Martha had no option but to give in to his cravings. It never penetrated into her, albeit it had already suggested to her that it had been waiting for the right moment to come.
She didn't care much about knowing this right moment. Whenever the alpha werewolf would force itself upon her, her eyes would be fixed upon the bookshelf placed a few feet to the right of the bed.
One day, when the alpha werewolf had fondled her enough, he moved on to the side of the bed and approached the cupboard placed on the left to grab something from it. Before its extended hand could reach the handle of the cupboard, Martha said, "Can I take a book from this shelf to read?" It pulled its hand back and turned to face Martha
. After a brief stare, it said, "Fine" and turned its back to Martha. A brief moment of happiness escaped through Martha's heart and as she wore her t-shirt back and averted his sight from the back of werewolf, the corner of her eye caught the glimpse of what seemed to be the pages of agreement that she'd been seeking all this while. They were kept in the second row of the cupboard.
She was a bit content now, for she knew what she had to do next in her pursuit. She grabbed a book of an author whom she'd read earlier and rushed outside.
The very next day, after having satisfied the werewolf's thirst, she was lying beside it while the werewolf was half asleep.
It was facing away from the cupboard. Martha slowly rose from the bed and tiptoed towards the cupboard. Before she placed her hand on its handle, she turned behind to keep a check on the werewolf.
As she pulled the handle it made a cracking sound just as the wooden floor in the house used to make. Much to her horror, the sound awakened the alpha werewolf and upon seeing Martha near the cupboard, he angrily growled, "What are you up to?" Martha, who had sailed from a hundred excuses in her mind to be made to the werewolf, said, "I thought you might be having a good collection of books in here.
" The wolf believing in her excuse said, "If you're in this room, I shall not see you anywhere else except this bed or that goddamned bookshelf.
Now go have your supper and go to sleep!"
Martha devised a plan to get her hands on that agreement paper. Derek too was part of that plan. She picked Sunday to execute the plan as this is the day when the alpha werewolf would be having his weekly bath.
While the werewolf was having a bath, she along with Derek reached the door of its room and slowly opened it, without making any noise. She positioned herself near the door whilst making Derek stand right in front of the cupboard.
She instructed Derek to instantly open the door of the cupboard on the count of three of her fingers. She was standing outside of the room with the door ajar enough to allow Derek to observe her hand gestures.
As she made a gesture of three with her fingers, she knocked extraordinarily on the door and said in a loud voice, "Hey! Can I come in and grab some books?" The werewolf responded, "Fine".
As she opened the door full, she couldn't be more proud of Derek for he had executed his job just in the nick of time. Her plan of concealing the cracking sound of the cupboard by an even louder sound was just perfectly executed.
She rushed to the cupboard as she was running out of time and quickly read the pages. On the main page she read –
As attested by both the parties to this agreement, Benjamin and Cindy Stewart would hand over their firstborn Martha Stewart to the Werewolf family who in turn would provide the couple with their second child Derek Stewart, aged 9 years at the time of making this agreement...
She stopped midway in reading the agreement since she couldn't gather the courage to read further. She took a surreptitious look at Derek, her brother, who stood by her side, silently waiting for her dear friend to convey what was written there as he wasn't taught how to read. She gained some strength to look back at the paper while hundreds of thoughts inundated her mind. She read further –
Martha Stewart shall remain in temporary possession of the Werewolf family for a period of 1 year while she'll be giving birth to the child of the alpha werewolf. On the conclusion of the term and the child having born, Martha shall return to its original family consisting of her parents and younger brother.
Post the performance of this trade, either of the parties wouldn't be bound by any obligations towards each other.
At the bottom, she found the agreement signed by her father along with a thumb impression of a huge paw which was probably of the alpha werewolf.
Things finally started to make sense to Martha. She now knows that her family has been betrayed.
The day after, the lady whom Derek was talking about appeared at the house and visited Derek. To Martha's surprise, it was her family doctor Mrs. Susan.
In a brief moment, Dr. Susan apprised Martha of how the Werewolf family took advantage of his father's helplessness when once on a highway near the valley, the couple's car met with an accident and Cindy's life was in danger.
She was battling for life when the alpha werewolf appeared out of nowhere and offered to help on one condition.
It was him who coerced them to give birth to another child and hand it over to them. They reluctantly agreed and acted accordingly with the help of Mrs. Susan who had declared the second child as still born in front of their relatives while secretly handing over the real child to the Wolf family.
Now they had agreed a couple months back to return the couple's child on much demands of Cindy in consideration of having Martha for about a year to conceive a Wolf baby. As evident now, the Werewolf family played deceitfully on their part and rather kept both the children than to return Derek to his parents.
She asked Mrs. Susan if she could help them to get out of this place. Mrs. Susan regretfully said that she cannot help them with anything but she knows of someone who might help them. Mrs. Susan suggested Martha to seek help from Tyler, one of the members of the wolf pack.
Martha had observed that Tyler often held grudges with the other members of the pack and used to remain aloof from everyone. His physical traits were less of a werewolf and more of a human.
After much pestering by Martha, Tyler finally gave in and spilled the beans to Martha.
"They are going to make your brother a wolf on the next full moon," said Tyler.
Martha asked, "When is the next full moon?"
"One week from now. And on the very next day of the full moon, the alpha werewolf will make the attempt to conceive a wolf baby with you. It cares nothing more than to propagate its race"
"Can you help us get out of here?"Asked Martha
"Give me a day or two. I will see what I can do." Said Tyler
"Ok", she said
Martha turned back and began withdrawing from the scene when she turned towards Tyler again and asked, "But what makes you help us?"
Tyler revealed, "Maybe because I can relate to Derek. I too was of his age when they did this to me."
Martha was shocked but simply replied with a nod and went back.
On the fateful day of full moon, the wolf pack had taken Derek in the woods where the moon shone brightly and its light fell directly upon the wolf pack.
Martha, who the wolf pack (Except Tyler) believed was locked inside her compartment, had been following the pack closely in the woods as Tyler had helped her get out of her compartment. She had a belt slinging from her left shoulder to the right of her lower torso with a shotgun attached to the belt on the back.
As they reached the place, the other two werewolves except Tyler and the alpha one did some rituals. As soon as the rituals completed, the Alpha werewolf made a slight cut on his wrist, dripping his blood fill a bowl.
As the level of blood reached halfway in the bowl he moved the bowl away from his wrist and extended the bowl to Derek and ordered him to drink it.
Not even Derek had extended his hand to take the bowl that Martha appeared from the bushes and said loudly, "Oh you made a big mistake by troubling my brother." The alpha werewolf's eyes met with Martha whose only focus was the alpha werewolf at this time. No sooner did the alpha werewolf realize what was happening that Martha fired at it. She went for its head.
The bullet went straight into its right eye, thereby making him lose his consciousness. The other two ran towards Martha when Tyler grabbed one of them from behind and began to fight it. Meanwhile, the other one adhered to his pursuit of ripping Martha off. Martha didn't move a bit and let it come near to her as she had set her aim on it.
Once it was close enough and about to blow her with his claws, Martha pulled the trigger and the bullet went straight through its chest and made a hole in it.
It was dead at that very moment. Martha then approached her little brother and grabbed his hand.
In front of him lay unconscious the alpha werewolf with his back facing upwards. 10 feet away lay another corpse of a werewolf whom Tyler had succeeded at killing but in that venture, received a hell lot of blows and thereby losing a lot of blood. She along with her brother approached Tyler who was on the brink of drawing its last breath. It said to Martha, "Save yourself and your brother and I will consider the purpose of my life fulfilled."
A tear or two escaped through Martha's eyes and without wasting any further time, she dashed into the forest whilst Derek's hand clenched in Martha's fist. She had run only a quarter of a mile when she lost the grip of Derek's hand as if someone pulled him forcibly behind.
She turned behind to see the alpha werewolf clinging on to Derek's T-shirt. It was in the most horrible avatar it can have.
The right half of his face was drenched with blood pouring from the very eye Martha had fired at and it said in the most ferocious voice one can yell in, "You two will face my wrath now!" Martha however wasn't a bit afraid of what stood right in front of her. She had had enough of it and she had already contemplated this situation as a 'Do or Die' one. Although not even a bit afraid, she had pulled on a frightening look on her face so as to deceive the beast in front.
She knew it'll have to bend a little so as to attack her, given its enormous stature. Much to Martha assumption, it threw away the boy to his side and charged at Martha with an attacking gesture. Just when it was about to blow her head from her torso, Martha leaped in front of it while drawing a knife from the same belt, her expressions changing into a raging tigress as her eyes met one single eye of the wolf and aimed for the weakest part of its body, the right eye! She stabbed the already-injured-eye deep within and slashed it to her right, thereby damaging his left eye as well.
The werewolf growled with pain and fell on the land. Apparently, it had completely lost its eyesight. Martha went from behind and slashed his neck, wiping out the tiniest of life in it and said, "I was damn sure your wrath would be outweighed by the rage burning within me ever since you killed my parents."
She immediately rushed to find Derek and hugged him tight saying, "Don't worry! We are safe now. You would never be troubled by them from now on. You're my responsibility." Derek too embraced Martha. "Oh please! I am not your responsibility. In fact I will take care of you from now" Said a brave Derek.
"Oh sorry, I will not consider you as a responsibility. And I am very sure you will take utmost care of me little brother" said a sobbing Martha while hugging Derek even tighter.