Chapter three- Aftermath


Alice arrived home shortly after she and Anna split up. Feeling exhausted after the long evening, she immediately got ready for bed, stopping to get a few chocolate covered Digestives from the biscuit tin to munch on. Normally she would have a cup of tea with them, but without any milk it would have been pointless tonight. After making sure the bottom and top floor lights were on so Anna wouldn't come home to a dark house, Alice went to sleep.

The next thing she knew, she was woken up by the ringing phone next to her bed. A little disorientated from her sudden wake up call, she glanced over at her clock.

"Huh? It's not even 2am yet." she thought to herself. "Who the hell could be ringing at this time of night?"

Alice composed herself and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello there. Is this Alice Mackenzie?" said a female voice on the other line.

"Speaking."

"And you live with an Anna Tyler, is that right?"

"Yeah, Anna's my housemate. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm calling from West Forest Hospital. I'm very sorry to say Miss Tyler was admitted there a few hours ago."

"Wait... WHAT?!"

Alice started to panic. She quickly noticed the hall light outside her room was still on. Clearly Anna hadn't turned it off yet, which would mean she indeed hadn't come back. Alice started to imagine every bad scenario that entered her head. Had Anna been hit by a car? Or mugged? Or maybe even worse...

"W...w...w... what happened?"

"It seems as though she was attacked by an animal. Hard to say what kind, though. The doctors are still trying to determine that."

"A wild animal? You serious? H-how is she?"

"She's in critical condition at the moment. She's just had surgery, and I've been told she needed at least fifty stitches. We don't know if she's going to pull through or not. I'm sorry..."

Alice didn't know what to say. All she could do was rub her temples. Finally, she managed to utter a few words.

"Can you... Can you keep me updated? I'm sorry, I feel like I'm responsible for this..."

"Of course we will. We'll let you know as soon as there's any change in her condition, alright?"

"Yeah... Thanks. Goodbye."

The woman from the hospital hung up while Alice laid there, completely still.

"Dammit, why didn't I go with her? Why didn't I convince her to wait until morning before getting that milk? Shit... Anna... I'm so sorry..."

Fighting back her tears, Alice put on her glasses and dialled a new number on the phone. After several rings, a voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Jennifer? It's Alice. I... I know it's really late, but... but... Something's happened to Anna..."


It is said that before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, and this was ringing very true for Anna. She had lost track of how long it had been since she lost consciousness, but it seemed to be forever. She had seen much- her birth, her first steps, her parent's divorce, her first day at nursery, her first meeting with Alice... And then school, and the bullying. She was forced to relive many of her worst moments in that era. In particular, one where she was running from a particularly nasty bully who was trying to beat her up. However, she was saved by a kindly young woman who was passing by. After chasing the bully off, the woman invited her to a cafe for a cup of tea to calm her nerves. The two got talking, although exactly what they talked about seemed a bit hazy. In fact, Anna could have sworn she met the woman again several other times, but couldn't remember anything about it. Maybe it was just her imagination. The rest of her life flashed by until eventually...

"...king up. Thank god, she's waking up! Anna? Anna, can you hear me?"

Anna awoke to find herself in a hospital bed, wearing a white hospital gown. Her head was pounding, but she was just able to make out four figures in front of her. Alice, Steve, her mother and a nurse.

"Uh... Ah... A-Alice? Steve? Mum? W-what happened?"

"Oh my god, Anna!" said Alice in a relieved manner. "Thank god! You have no idea how worried we all were!"

"How are you feeling right now, darling?" said Jennifer.

"Ugh... My head's killing me right now." Anna replied, trying to sit up.

"Try not to move too much." said the nurse. "You're still recovering from the surgery."

"How long have I been out for?"

"Alice got the call about you in the early hours of this morning, and it's about half past four right now, so I'd say you've been out for most of the day." said Steve. "So... What happened? They said you were attacked by a wild animal or something..."

"Y-yeah. No idea what it was or where it came from, though. All I can say is, it was pretty big. Too big to be a fox, or a dog. It certainly wasn't a badger, that's for sure."

"Anna..." said Alice, crying. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let you go off like that. Or at the very least we should have gone together. This... This is all my fault."

"Hey, don't blame yourself." said Anna. "It was my idea, and mine alone. None of us could have seen this coming. And honestly? I don't think having you with me would have made much difference. It probably would have just meant both of us would have been hurt instead of just me."

"But-"

"C'mon Alice, you heard her." said Steve, putting his hand around Alice's shoulder. "Stop blaming yourself, okay? You're only hurting yourself."

"How bad are my injuries, anyway?" asked Anna. "I don't feel particularly awful for some reason."

"The doctor said you needed at least fifty stitches in both your right shoulder and left side." said Jennifer. "It's quite likely going to leave a scar..."

That was strange. Neither of the areas she was bitten felt like they'd been stitched up, or even all that sore. She ran her hand along her left side underneath her gown.

"Geez Anna, that's disgusting!" said Steve. "What are you touching your stitches for?"

"Uh... W-what stitches?" Anna replied, looking rather shocked.

"The ones you were just told you had?" said Alice.

Anna then ran her hand along her right shoulder and looked even more startled.

"Guys... There's nothing there! I don't feel any stitches at all!"

"You sure?" asked Jennifer. "We were told-"

"I'm sure. I think I know where I was bitten thanks, Mum. It's not something you tend to forget... But there's nothing there. Take a look."

Much to the nurse's shock, Anna got out of her bed and lifted up her gown to show off her side. Where there should have been a large, stitched up bite wound, there was just a red rash, and even that looked like it was fading fast.

"That's impossible!" said the nurse. "Wounds like that shouldn't heal up that quickly- if they ever do."

"Yeah, well it looks like these just did." said Alice. "Anna... Are you sure you're not Deadpool or something? Only there's no way your wounds should be looking like this after less than a day!"

"I have no idea!" said Anna. "You wanna know something else as well? Aside from the migraine, I feel fit as a fiddle. Like, I could leave hospital right now as if nothing happened. Pretty sure after something like this, I'd need a few weeks to fully recover at the very least, not a few hours..."

"Well, you are NOT leaving the hospital right now, Anna Tyler." said Jennifer in a stern manner. "Regardless of how you feel right now, you still need to rest. If you overdo it, you'll most likely find yourself feeling worse. "

"She's right." said the nurse. "Besides, we need to run some tests to make sure you didn't catch any diseases as a result of your bite. Maybe, if the doctors allow it, you'll be able to go in a few days if you're feeling up to it. For now though, I strongly recommend you go back to bed and stay there. You don't want to push yourself right now."

"Yeah, you're right." said Anna. "No idea what the big deal is here, though. This is honestly kinda freaky..."

"I guess we should just be thankful you're alright." said Steve. "It sounded pretty bad when we heard..."

"It was." said Anna as she got back into her bed. "And that's what freaks me out about this."


Over the next few days, Anna remained in hospital. Alice and Jennifer came in to visit her every day, and Kelly, Amy, Poppy and even Kisa also dropped by to see her. Kelly had even bought her a box of Quality Street to keep her going while she was waiting to go home. Finally, a good five days after she was admitted, Anna was allowed to leave in perfect health. But she couldn't help but feel that something was off. Neither she nor the doctors could figure out how she made such a miraculous recovery in such a short time. However, Anna decided not to let it bother her. She was just looking forward to getting back to her routine.

A few weeks had passed since Anna left the hospital, and she was now back to doing what she was doing before the attack. She was on her morning run again, and had made it to the main shopping district. Stopping for some water as usual, Anna took her usual look around the district before setting off again. And once again tripped on the pavement outside the costume shop. But before she managed to hit the pavement, she was caught by a familiar arm.

"We really need to stop meeting like this, sweetie." said an equally familiar voice. Anna knew that it belonged to the woman who was working at the shop.

"Uh... yeah. Thanks again..." said Anna as she was lifted back on her feet. "So... how the hell do you keep doing that? I didn't even see you in the shop this time, and yet you still caught me before I hit the pavement!"

"Good reflexes, I guess. I'm known for being pretty quick on my feet... Huh?"

The woman started sniffing.

"Is... something the matter?" said Anna, confused. "You seem to be sniffing a lot. Do you have a cold or something?"

"Oh yeah, a cold." the woman replied. "That's it. I have a bit of a cold right now. Haha, yeah. Yeah. My nose gets a little gooey at this time of year, you know?"

"Can't say I'm surprised when you dress like that in this weather..." Anna thought to herself while looking at the woman's skimpy top.

"In any case, I'd say you still need to be careful, though. The pavements around here aren't the best, you know?" the woman commented, quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I'd kind of noticed that. I'll be more careful next time, I promise." Anna said rather sheepishly. She then waved the woman goodbye before setting off on her run again. As she left, another woman came out from the shop. She had shoulder length chocolate brown hair, and was wearing a royal blue sleeveless top as well as beige trousers.

"You okay, Amanda?" said the new woman.

"That girl over there..." said Amanda, looking over at Anna, who was now leaving the district. "There's something off about her scent."

"What? You mean..."

"Yeah. I think she's one of us. Freshly turned, too. The next full moon is in a few weeks time. We need to look out for her when that time comes. There's no telling what could happen when she shifts for the first time..."