Lupine: Awakened-Chapter 7: The Ghost Above the City

**"They erased my past, caged my mind, and renamed me a myth.

But memory has a pulse—

And mine is starting to beat again, stirring something I thought long buried... and something that was never fully human."**

The city groans beneath rain and rot, a graveyard of towers swallowed by fog.

Above it all, the girl waits—katana on her back, silence in her chest, something ancient clawing awake behind her eyes.

Tonight, the past stirs.

------------------------

Mikka

The city below me reeked of rot and rain.

From the rooftop of a crumbling radio tower, I watched them—the FREAKs. Dozens of them, maybe more. Some limping, some crawling, all twitching through alleys like broken toys, their wet shuffling echoing off the walls, batteries leaking acid smell into the damp air. From up here, they almost looked peaceful.

Almost.

I crouched at the ledge, katana resting across my back, elbows on my knees. The wind sliced past my face, dragging strands of damp hair across my lips.

I didn’t move. Didn’t blink.

Silence felt safer than breath.

Then—it stirred.

That voice inside me.

Not mine.

Not human.

DO YOU REMEMBER THE LAKE, LITTLE ONE?

The sound wasn’t a whisper. It was a feeling. A breath across my spine. Like warm water rushing over old scars.

I closed my eyes.

For a moment, the city vanished. Only water, memory, and shadows remained beneath the surface.

And there it was—

Ripples.

Sunlight on dark water. A breeze brushing my cheeks.

Laughter.

A hand reaching for mine beneath the surface... soft lips pressed to my cheek, but shadows lingered.

A name, spoken like a lullaby I used to hum in my sleep.

It hit so fast, I nearly lost my balance.

I steadied myself against the railing, heart still hammering.

Not yet. Not now. Not here.

But the wolf inside me didn’t care. It prowled through the images like a predator in the dark, dragging memory to the surface.

Bare feet pounding through red leaves. Someone chasing me, laughing.

A scent of pine and cold river water hit me, and then the voice:

"Mikka! Come here, you! Mikka! Don’t you dare run away from me!"

My name. My real name. Spoken in a voice I hadn’t heard in years. Not since—

No. That couldn’t be real.

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My chest heaved as if I had run a mile, though I hadn’t moved an inch.

I tried to focus on the city below, but the alleys were just shapes, shadows moving without meaning.

My lungs burned. My hands shook.

And yet... something deeper stirred.

I stood slowly, fingers twitching at my sides, heart pounding like a war drum. I looked down at the FREAKs, but they blurred. Their bodies were just noise now.

Inside me, something else was waking.

And then I said it.

"Lucien..."

Lucien?

A ghost of a name. A crack in my mind. Something inside recognized it... even if I didn’t.

My throat tightened. My stomach twisted.

I didn’t know if it was fear—or something else entirely.

Why now? Why here?

Why did it feel like my lungs were cracking open just thinking about it?

The flashbacks slammed harder.

A hallway. A scream.

Blood on concrete. Steel hands.

The smell of iodine and fire.

A heartbeat—not mine—slowing.

Then a whisper:

"I’m sorry..."

I dropped to my knees.

My skull split open—or it felt like it.

I clutched my head, breath ragged, teeth clenched so hard they might’ve cracked. My katana clattered to the rooftop beside me, useless.

My vision blurred. Every nerve in me screamed.

And then—something tore free from deep inside.

One long, feral howl.

Not mine.

Not the wolf’s.

Something in between.

Something old. Something ancient.

Something that wanted out.

Below—

Every single one froze. No shuffle. No whisper. Heads snapped toward me in perfect silence, like puppets on invisible strings. For a heartbeat, the city held its breath. All those glassy eyes locked on the rooftop.

On me.

I didn’t care.

All I could think of was the pain.

My body shook with aftershocks, like my own memories had punched me in the gut and refused to stop swinging.

I’d forgotten how it felt to feel. How it burned.

I stood, blinking through the tears I didn’t want to admit were there. My hand closed around the katana again. My grip wasn’t steady.

But my eyes were.

And then—I felt it.

A shift in the wind.

The scent of iodine and fire bleeding into the air...

The wolf in me growled, deep and guttural.

She’s angry.

A different silence fell then.

Sharp.

Unnatural.

Like something bigger than the FREAKs had returned to the world.

Something that knew my name better than I did.

I turned toward the horizon—

—and saw him.

High above, in the big glass window of a twin skyscraper, barely visible through the rain.

Not curiosity. Calculation.

As I focused, I saw one eye catch the moonlight.

The other—gone. Or worse. A faint flicker of movement betrayed him, but only if you looked hard enough.

He didn’t move. Didn’t flinch.

Just stared.

The rain fell around us, relentless, but in that moment, the world felt silent.

My breath caught in my chest. Time... stretched.

At me.

I don’t know how I knew he was watching. I just did. Like my bones remembered him even when my brain didn’t.

Like a story I was never meant to read aloud. And yet, my bones remembered him before my mind did.

My stomach turned.

And then—he spoke.

Not with his mouth. Not really.

The words slid between my ribs like a needle dipped in frost.

"Found you."

I swallowed the scream tightening in my throat.

He was the reason the voice inside me woke up.

He was the reason I had so many names.

He was the reason I was built like this—

Half girl.

Half ghost.

And I knew one thing:

He was coming.

And I wasn’t ready.

Not yet.

But I would be.

And that—was a promise.

*** Somewhere else—another time—another storm...

A memory rises.

A one-eyed doctor’s husky voice, buried in the dark:

"Wolves can be tamed. But myths? Myths burn through cages."

"They don’t exist—just stories passed through time... unless you make one yourself."

"We broke her open. Bled the girl. Fed the ghost. What emerged..."

"...was the only thing I’ve ever loved that could kill me. And somewhere deep inside her, it woke again."

*********

Chapter 7:

"The deeper I dig, the less of myself I find.

But in the dark, something else is rising—hungry, and it knows my name."