Chapter 6: Wolfs-bane

The words ran themselves over and over in her head through the next day. When she returned to her hotel room, the girls were all up and ready and they'd been surprised to hear that she was a morning person - Artemis was quick to deny that statement. She was definitely not a morning person at home, just the timing was different here. She'd however kept the token and the conversation with the Alpha a complete secret from the other three. She didn't know why... but it felt necessary to keep it private.

Meanwhile, she'd begun to know the new girl much better, her name was Shy, she was originally from South Asia but her family moved to Orlando when she was very young. This explained her natural tan but Artemis was sad to learn that she was only 15. It reminded her of Liza and felt incredibly protective of the girl, but looking at her stature, it was easy to understand why she'd be a replacement and not an original candidate. She was tiny, perhaps 5'3 in height and although she was skinny and fast, her stamina was nowhere near as built as the rest of them.

In the days of training that followed, Artemis grew anxious watching Shy get tired, and on the first day of training she'd completely collapsed. But she'd gotten better, much better, and tonight it was to be put to the test. The electronic clock on the wall read 8:03 pm and the girls were sitting in their living room watching TV and drinking protein shakes for energy tonight. The competition was starting in a few minutes and Iris was completely freaking out.

She was pacing the floors giving hurried glances towards the TV and then to girls before giving her sight to the floor. It made Artemis suspicious at her behavior, she never acted this way. In fact, Iris was the most confident about this first trial, more than the other girls but since this morning's training, she'd been worried more and more. It left Artemis feeling on edge about the token she placed around the waistband of her pants. The silver was still as cool as it was when she'd first picked it up.

"Guys..." Iris sighed as she closed her eyes and sat herself down on the sofa with her hands covering her face. Rose was instant with her reactions as she placed a comforting arm around the girl.

"Hey..." Rosalind spoke. "We're all worried about tonight... right?" Her words were directed at Artemis, who was slightly startled that she was getting dragged into this.

"Of course," Artemis felt guilty for even letting the words out of her mouth. She was already through to the next round and the trial hadn't even started. She felt awful seeing Iris beat herself up over the trial.

"It's not that..." she broke Artemis' thoughts. "I think... I think I've done something that's not in the competition rules..."

Artemis scrunched her brows. "What did you do? If it's something that affects all of us then you realize that we can all get kicked out right?"

This fueled Shy and Rosalind's horror. Their eyes widened and they all faced Iris' shameful gaze but Iris was staring fixated at Artemis with a sad look.

"I know... but we can... avoid it..."

"Tell me what you did first," Artemis commanded as she stood up from the sofa. Mirroring her actions, Iris did the same except her footsteps had fear in them whereas Artemis' radiated pure confidence.

"OK... you know about the lunar cycle... we're supposed to..."

"Shift within a month, I know,"

Iris swallowed the lump in her throat and looked anywhere but at Artemis' steely glare.

"Well... you see, I'm not comfortable with that and I brought wolfs-bane... with me... to stop us from..."

"Shifting," Artemis finished with a sudden realization. Of course... why didn't she think of that? Iris nodded and gazed at the floor with shame.

"Oh my lord!" Artemis squealed, jumping at Iris and pulled her into an embrace. "Iris! You're a genius!" she gushed. Artemis jumped at the girl, pulling her into an embrace. When Artemis pulled away, Iris looked positively surprised.

"Uh..." she trailed off.

"It's what I use back home," Artemis explained. "To keep from turning, it didn't even enter my mind that we'd be needing it," she ran a hand through her ponytail as the TV let out a shrill sound before switching on to a broadcast.

"Welcome," Artemis recognized Alpha's voice immediately and the silver token felt colder against her skin. "You are all going to go to the foyer where each of you will receive a clue as to where your token might be. You will be given an envelope with your room number which will contain four more envelopes with your names, I wish you all the best and hope that you survive," his words rang through Artemis' mind as the screen went black.

Would she have an envelope? He already knew that she'd gotten a token.

The rest of girls fretted around, grabbing their water bottles and putting on their trainers. Artemis was already completely ready with her bottle in her hand and her trainers on. She fidgeted with the ends of her hair while the others rushed around.

"Alright! Let's go!" Rosalind announced, swinging the door open. "We'll talk about the wolfs-bane later,"

Everyone filed out, including Artemis. Rosalind closed the door and locked it behind her before attaching the key to the waistband of her tracksuit. They went to the elevators to find their hallway completely empty, the other girls were nowhere to be seen. As the elevator doors opened to the foyer, the girls understood why everyone in their building stood in the foyer, standing in groups and whispering harshly together. A static screeched through the foyer as the girls cringed and all the talking was brought into silence as the TV on the wall switched on.

Artemis had never even noticed that there was a TV on the wall.

"You're all gathered here for your envelopes but before we start there's something you all should know, since 50 of you will no longer be here after tonight, I would like to remind you that not all of you will find tokens but some of you will also find hidden tokens in a place where your clue did not mean to take you and if that is the case, then you are allowed to take the token," a gasp ran through the crowd of girls. "Once you have found your token, please return to your building and once all the tokens have been collected, there will be a horn sound throughout the sanctuary, once you hear the horn return to your building immediately regardless of whether you found a token or not,"

And with that, the TV switched off as ten suited men arrived with a large dish in their hands covered with a silver lid.

"Please, give a representative of your dorm room to come and collect the envelope," they informed everyone. Iris pushed Artemis forward and the other two girls nodded, Artemis was internally shocked but didn't question as she lined up behind the other girls with the man that was holding the envelopes for floor 5. There were 3 other girls lined up in front of her and about four behind her, the line moved very quickly and the envelopes ran out quickly and the men left the room through a door painted red that matched the lavish red carpets and the wallpaper, Artemis wanted to follow them out of curiosity but held herself.

She returned to the three nervously before opening the envelope labelled 50-D. The first one was for Shy, who opened her envelope and her brows creased in confusion before she walked out of the doors. Rosalind was next, who opened hers and her face lit up and she ran out and almost got knocked over by a frenzy of girls who seemed to have figured out their destination too. Iris and Artemis looked nervously at each other.

"You prepared?" Iris asked.

"I think so, you?"

She shrugged nonchalantly before taking her envelope out and reading the inside. She gave Artemis a departing smile before leaving the foyer, which now only contained Artemis. There was a receptionist sat behind the counter that watched Artemis with an amused expression. Artemis didn't pay her much attention and looked back at the envelope which now only had the words 'Artemis' written on it. She took it out and opened it.

Tick-tock,

Artemis has a lock,

By the river, you might be thirsty,

Look for something shiny.