Before she could react, Ruth suddenly snarled and charged right for the dog. She leapt into the air and met the dog halfway, sinking her fangs into its throat. Ruth landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The dog must have been twice Ruth’s size, yet Ruth pinned her effortlessly, not letting her get up. She would not let go. She clamped her fangs down with all she had, and soon, the dog stopped struggling, dead.
“You little bitch!” screamed the lead boy, furious.
He burst out of the pack and charged right for Ruth. He raised a stick, sharpened at one end into a spear point, and brought it down right for Ruth’s exposed back.
Scarlet found her reflexes kicking in, her body taking over, and burst into action. Without even thinking she sprinted for the boy, reached up and caught his stick in midair, right before it hit Ruth. She then pulled him towards her, leaned back and kicked him hard in the ribs.
He keeled over, and she kicked him again, this time in the face with a roundhouse kick. He spun around and landed face-first on the stone.
Ruth turned and charged the group of boys. She leapt high in the air, and sank her fangs into one boy’s throat, pinning him to the ground.
That left only three of them.
Scarlet stood there, facing them, and suddenly, a new feeling overtook her. No longer did she feel afraid; no longer did she want to run from these boys; no longer did she want to cower and hide; no longer did she want the protection of her mommy and daddy.
Something snapped inside her. She crossed some sort of invisible line, some sort of tipping point. Instead, she felt, for the first time in her life, that she didn’t need anybody. All she needed was herself. Instead of fearing the moment, now, she relished it.
Scarlet felt herself infused with rage, rising from her toes, through her body, all the way to her scalp. It was an electric emotion that she didn’t understand, one she had never experienced before. She no longer wanted to run away from these boys. She didn’t want to let them get away, either. Now she wanted them all dead.
She wanted vengeance.
As the three boys stood there, mouths open, staring in shock, Scarlet charged. It all happened so fast, she could barely process it. Her reflexes were so much faster than theirs, it was as if they were moving in slow motion.
Scarlet leapt into the air, higher than she ever had, and kicked the boy in the center, planted her two feet on his chest. She sent him flying back, like a bullet across the alley, until he smashed into the wall and collapsed.
Before the other two could react, she wheeled and elbowed one in the face, then spun and kicked the other in the solar plexus. They both collapsed, unconscious.
Scarlet stood there, with Ruth, breathing hard. She looked around, and saw all five boys sprawled out around them, not moving. And then, she realized: she was the victor.
She was, she realized, no longer the Scarlet she once knew.
*
Scarlet roamed through the alleyways for hours, Ruth by her side, putting as much distance between herself and those boys as she could. She turned down alleyway after alleyway in the heat, getting lost in the maze of narrow side streets in the old city of Jerusalem. The midday sun beat down on her, and she was beginning to feel delirious from it; she was also feeling delirious from the lack of food and water. She could see Ruth panting hard beside her as they meandered through the crowds, could see that she was suffering, too.
A child passed by Ruth and grabbed her back, yanking on her playfully, but too hard. Ruth turned and snapped, snarling and bearing her fangs. The child screamed, cried, and ran away. It was unlike Ruth to behave this way; usually, she was so tolerant. But it seemed the heat and the hunger was getting to her, too. She was also channeling Scarlet’s own rage and frustration.
As much as she tried, Scarlet didn’t know how to turn off her residual feelings of rage. It was as if something inside her had been unleashed, and she couldn’t reign it back in. She felt her veins pumping, the anger pulsing, and as she passed vendor after vendor, displaying all manner of food that she and Ruth could not afford, her anger grew. She was also beginning to realize that what she was experiencing, her intense hunger pains, weren’t just typical hunger. It was something else, she realized. Something deeper, more primal. She didn’t just want food. She wanted blood. She needed to feed.
Scarlet didn’t know what was happening to her, and she didn’t know how to handle it. She smelled a hunk of meat and squeezed her way through the crowd, right up to it, staring. Ruth squeezed in, beside her. Scarlet elbowed way right to the front, and as she did, a resentful man in the crowd shoved her back.
“Hey girl, watch where you’re going!” he snapped.
Without even thinking, Scarlet turned and shoved the man. He was more than twice her size, but he went flying backwards, knocking over several fruit stands as he fell to the ground.
He scrambled to his feet, shocked, looking back at Scarlet, trying to figure out how such a small girl could overpower him like that. Then, with a look of fear, he wisely turned and hurried away.
The vendor scowled down at Scarlet, sensing trouble.
“You want meat?” he snapped. “You have money to pay for it?”
But Ruth couldn’t contain herself. She lunged forward, sunk her fangs into the huge slab of meat, tore off a hunk, and swallowed it down. Before anyone could react, she lunged forward again, aiming for another hunk.
This time, the vendor brought down his hand, as hard as he could, aiming to smack Ruth hard on the nose.
But Scarlet sensed it coming. In fact, something new was happening to her sense of speed, her sense of timing. As the vendor’s hand began to descend, Scarlet found her own hand shooting up, almost without her, grabbing the vendor’s wrist right before he hit Ruth.
The vendor looked down at Scarlet, wide-eyed, shocked that such a small girl could have such a strong grip. Indeed, Scarlet squeezed the man’s wrist, and tightened her grip until his entire arm started shaking. She found herself scowling back up at him, unable to control her rage.
“Don’t you dare touch my wolf,” Scarlet snarled back at the man.
“I’m…sorry,” the man said, arm shaking in pain, eyes wide with fear.
Finally, Scarlet released her grip, and hurried away from the stand, Ruth by her side. As she hurried to get as far away as she could, she could hear a whistling behind her, then frantic shouts for guards to come.
“Let’s go, Ruth,” Scarlet said, and the two of them hurried off down the alleyway, getting lost in the crowd. At least Ruth had eaten.