THE REBIRTH OF THE ALPHA KING

"Wake up Jake."

17 year old Jake Cross decided that he could not keep ignoring the voice that had been beckoning to him for over thirty minutes. He turned and stretched in his bed. He felt tired. He looked up at the broken clock hanging loosely on the cracked wall of his room. It was 10pm already.

"But I slept off by 10 and it's been hours," he said to himself coming down from the bed.

He opened the door of his room and walked through the corridor. From the other end, he could hear the sound of water dropping steadily from the kitchen . He paused and perked his ears to listen. Something was not right!

In the seventeen years he had lived with his family in one of the oldest and most dilapidated house in Downtown England, there was one thing he knew – the kitchen tap never leaked. Every other tap in the apartment but not the kitchen tap. He walked further, his grip tight on the torchlight in his hand, ready to catch whoever he would find snooping around.

Getting to the door of the kitchen he stopped to listen. He could swear that he heard his kid sister, Kris whimpering. She was up to her tricks again! Angrily, he burst into the kitchen, switching the torch on.

"Kris if you think this is a joke then...."

"Ja-ja-jake..." she stuttered, her voice muffled by a pair of hands covering her mouth.

Jake Cross stared down at his kid sister on the floor, blood flowing from a cut on her lower lip, staining the white tiles of the kitchen floor.

"Who..who..are you?" he stammered, pointing the torch towards the figure, whose head was bent down towards the ground as he covered Kris' mouth.

"Who do you think Jake Cross" the man replied raising his head up.

Under full lighting, Jake could make out his features very well. He was devilishly handsome with gleaming black eyes. His jet black hair fell across his face, covering one eye and ran down his back. He looked fourty or older and Jake immediately guessed that Kris must have stolen something valuable that belonged to him.

"I would return it," he pleaded. "Whatever she stole I would pay you back."

"Oh but you didn't steal did you?" the man grinned turning to Kris on the floor. "Your beloved brother calls you a thief."

Jake turned to Kris on the floor and stared at her. The fear that had been written all over her face was no longer there. It had been replaced by anger and hatred. He knew that look quite well. Kris had always been a thief: old watches, coins, anything at all that sparkled and he had never failed to remind her that she was a thief. He knew quite well that was the one name she hated being called. They had fought over it a lot but there he was, affirming it in the presence of a stranger.

"She is," he repeated. "But she's still my only sister. Tell me and I'll pay."

"Too bad," the man replied standing up. "I've seen lots of bad last words but calling your sister a thief?"

"What do you mean?" Jake exclaimed but it was too late already.

The man who happened to have supernatural powers went down with lightening speed and with a sickening crack, he pulled the 8 year old's head from her neck.

"They always stain my suit," he muttered, wiping the blood that had splattered all over his white suit.

Jake was too shocked to move. He stood still, staring at the head of his younger sister in the strange man's hand.

"I know you're feeling like a terrible person right now," the man said patting Jake on the shoulder. "But come along now. I don't have all night and there are lots of deaths for you to watch."

He walked briskly out of the kitchen, his shoes carrying blood all the way and Jake had to run to catch up with him.

"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Jake screamed running towards him.

"Don't come anywhere near me," he commanded not even looking back at Jake "You're meant to die last."

"Arghhhhh!" Jake screamed as he attacked, blinded by rage.

"April!"

A dark figure bursted through the ceiling and land on Jake. The figure was huge and looked like a girl somehow but managed to pin him to the ground. He struggled to move but there was no way. He looked up and just then, he noticed that the person holding him down had black fur and eyes that gleamed bright red. The person was a wolf girl or as they called them, a werewolf

"That's April," the man announced. "She's the best of the best. April, make sure Jake remains a good boy would you? The show is about to start."

He jogged up the stairs as fast as he could and the next thing that Jake heard was all the doors banging open one by one.

"No one here," his voice echoed from above.

"No one here too."

"Lots of empty rooms. Where'd they all go? Barcelona?"

"Don't open the fourth door," Jake prayed.

He kicked the fourth door open and the whole house was silent for a while.

"Knew I'd find you here Pascal" the man laughed. "And the ever sweet Eve. You could have married me! What a fine breed we'd have raised! The first of it's kind. Such a shame..." He paused for a while.

"And the twins. So adorable. What's your name boy?"

"Finn" he heard his little brother say.

"And you? Come on, don't be scared."

"Michael."

"Okay, Finn and Michael. Your parents here kind of made some bad decisions a long time ago..." Finn's eyes became wet with tears immediately and he started crying.

"Don't cry boy. Don't cry. The pain won't last. It never lasts," the man said.

"Lartes!" Blake heard his father say. "We could talk about this. I gave up that side of life a long time ago. Take what you want and leave my family alone. You can have all the power, you can be the king. I don't care anymore."

"I could," Lartes laughed "But that would be unfair to poor Kris, wouldn't it?"

Jake heard a loud roar and he blacked out immediately. He woke up minutes later to see the wolf girl staring him down and the headless bodies of the rest of his family members lying down beside him.

"Why?" he cried.

"You are a special breed," April said walking up to him. "And you have to die."

Jake closed his eyes and prepared for the worst and he heard the sickening crack of his own head pulling out of his body.