Sous

"Dear Family and Friends,

We are gather here to discuss Sous' last will and testament. The coughs and sneezes have taken over, and the chills over Sous' body are unbearable. It has been estimated Sous has four days to liv-

Sous, are you kidding me?" Tany threw the letter on Sous' bed and got up from the chair with Zan giggling on the edge of the bed. "You're not dying! Its a cold, Sous. Its a cold!"

Sous laid on her back looking at the ceiling, a warm towel on her forehead, her face a bit flushed.

Tany rolled her eyes. "I'll go and get some soup from the cafeteria."

"Later, Sous," Zan getting up and following Tany.

They were back a few moments later with a tray of soup, chicken soup except for Zan which had vension. Given he was a wolf, deer was his preference. He had seemed to have taken a liking to the baby basilisk. Sous told him the little fat snake lacked a name and she wasn't sure what the sex was. Once the left, Sous laid back down and began to close her eyes, dreaming of nothing in particular. The last thing she wanted was to be on sick on her first day of school.

Later in the afternoon while still napping, an overwhelming scent flew across her nostrils. The scent of an Alpha wolf. She slowly opened her eyes but her cold made her so weak, she couldn't keep them open. Even though she couldn't see them, she could hear them.

The Alpha wolf scuffed at her obtaining her items.

"That mutt over there is an Alpha," the Alpha said to the Omega female.

"I can smell," the Omega said.

Sous hadn't heard the word mutt in a while, almost several months. This was the wolf that was supposed to be their roommate.

She sat up in her bed, taking the towel off. She looked directly at the Alpha and Omega. "What did you call me?"

"A mutt." The Alpha confirmed. Sous was in no condition for confrontation. Her body was just not in any condition to fight but that didn't stop the Alpha female from approaching Sous. She knelt down with a smirk on her face, in the process of mocking Sous.

"I ought to take you out now."

Sous was confused that she was hearing this. She just glared back at the Alpha, unable to reach her wand, having her basilisk wrap itself around her neck just in case the wolf got the idea to harm it.

It was hard for Sous to hear. It was hard for her to come to the realization that the Apex influence reached across the border if Canas into Nadia.

Sous slumped back into her pillows, her beds. She placed the towel back on her head while the Alpha laughed. She retrieved her items and left the room. Sous felt completely defeated. She leaned over to her dressed and pulled the notepad she was writing on earlier. She needed to write to Shadow. The school couldn't keep her or Jacob safe if the enemy was within the house. The call was coming from the upstairs bedroom, but she was just too tired to write. She sat the notepad to the side, falling back onto her back, drifting off to sleep.

The baby basilisk sat in one of the bath chairs with a small little towel upon its head. The soapy water wasn't the best for the little baby, but bath time was very important for it. It loved being surrounded by water. Sous made a mental note to get it a small little bath tub. It was only right, Icarus had himself a bird bath just for him that Tany gave him so maybe Sous could ask Tany to make a bath for the baby snake.

Sous floated on her back, doing the dead man's float as the humans called it. Because she slept all day, she was restless now. She was still sick but not as bad as she was that morning.

"Basilisk, little baby basilisk, look at me!" Sous screamed, swimming from one end of the bath to the other.

"What are you doing in here?"

Sous flopped around in the water, looking around to see who spoke. Standing over near the entrance of the girls' bath was the elf girl.

"Elf Girl!" Sous stepped out of the water with the elf girl turning her gaze away from Sous.

With a snap of her finger, a towel wrapped around Sous' body.

"Do you know what time it is?" The elf girl asked, crossing her arms.

"That's a fancy robe you're wearing."

"Sous! Curfew is at 10. Its 11."

Sous didn't know what the elf girl was implying so she shrugged. The elf girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "Sous, you're not allowed to be roaming campus after 10."

Sous stared at the elf girl.

Elf girl stared at Sous.

...

Sous stared at the elf girl.

The elf girl rubbed her temples. She turned her back toward the entrance. "Get dressed and meet me outside. I'll walk you to your dorm."

Elf girl was a hall monitor so she along with other students patrolled the halls for students like Sous who still wondered around campus after curfew. She was nicr enough to lead Sous back to her dorm where her roommates were sleeping. When Sous laid back into bed, she looked at the elf girl especially as the empty bed of the Alpha roommate was before her.

"I think- I think I'm in danger," Sous said.

The elf girl didn't say anything at first, not really sure how to respond to such a statement. Sous nodded her head toward the empty bed.

"That Alpha is going to come get me." The elf girl looked at the empty bed. When it came to wolves, there wasn't a whole lot she understood. It wasn't her community so why would she pay too much attention.

"The school will protect you." The elf girl responded with a general answer, not knowing what Sous was referring to.

Sous shook her head, adamant the school was significantly behind when it came to just how much influence Apex had. The more Sous talked about it aloud, the more she began to think whether people would think she was crazy.

She looked at the notepad over on the side of the bed from when she was going to write to Shadow. The adults were all so confident that Sous would be safe: Shadow, Monica, the Sisters, Clarence but what did they really know. Did they know Apex had their claws in so many businesses and ventures outside of Canas? The deer meat with Red Woods, potions with The Valley of Trey, and now Wolves Unite.

Sous didn't say anything more. She laid there and turned to face elf girl. "One more meeting and I can learn your name." She closed her eyes, turned on her side, and drifted off to sleep with the baby basilisk resting on her pillow.

Sous sat at her desk a couple of days later writing in a smaller notepad. She had changed her mind about informing Shadow. She also felt embarrassed by what she had said to the elf girl: that they were after her. Sous was some what avoiding seeing the elf girl, not wanting to have to explain by what she meant a couple of nights ago. It was all becoming emotionally daunting for her. She was thinking about being hunted, about being killed. She didn't miss any details when it came to writing in her small notepad. She wrote about the Alpha wolf calling her a mutt, about the house where the werewolves preferred to be in. Although she felt bad and guilty, she even wrote about Zan and Randali. She hated to think they would hurt her but they were wolves. There was nothing wrong with being cautious.

She ran her fingers through her hair and placed her arm on her desk, allowing the baby basilisk to slither to her neck, and curl up.

Paranoia...that's what was coming over her. Prior to her leaving her room to go to the cafeteria for lunch, she ransacked the bed that had belonged to the wolf ex-roommate while the other roommates were gone. She had been hoping to find something, anything but didn't.

When she walked the halls, she felt them staring at her, the wolves. She heard their growls, their snickers, the way they sneered at her. Sous was alone then...no one could see what she was she was experiencing. They didn't know what she dealt with prior to coming to Hacate. The images of her friends, the blood, the decapitated head, the blade going through the wolf via Monica. The wolf that ate the infant in the village of Clarence. Her throat made a pinch, and she gasped. She placed her hand on her heart. Grabbing at it. The memories, she had pushed them so far back-

"Sous! SOUS!"

Sous looked over to see Tany and the others eyeing her.

"Are you okay," Jacob asked.

She was shaking, she had swear beads running down her face, her breathing was rapid. She tried to stand but her foot caught on the bench. She fell over, taking her tray on the ground with her.

CRASH!

They tried to help her up but she scrambled out of their arms, all eyes on her. She mumbled needing to go to the restroom.

Sous pushed opened the cafeteria doors and ran to the restroom near the cafeteria. She shoved herself in a stall and sat on the toilet, doing her breath to control her breathing.

She patted herself down, pulled her wand out from her pocket just as she heard the door to the restroom open. She gulped, her hands shaking as she pointed it at the stall door. The growling became louder. She saw the claws under the stall. The drool dripped onto the floor and the handle on the stall was being picked on.

Sous guided her hand to the latch, her wand in the other hand. She was ready. She wasn't going to back down no matter how much they came for her. Her father, her mother, Kenan. She undid the latch-

"Gladius!"

The wand transformed into the sword with a swiftness that the wolf in front of the door couldn't escape from. A hollared echoed in the restroom, blood spilt onto the floor.

"SOUS, WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Sous turned to see Jacob in the entry way of the restroom. Stunned, she looked down to see a wolf but there was no wolf. Instead, there was Tany with a stab wound through her left shoulder barely missing her heart.