Episode 1

I awaken in the middle of the forest with a terrible hangover.

I notice the gentle breeze, barely cool as it flows and grazes my spine.

Strange? Yes, way too strange.

At this time of year, the forest at night is normally bitingly cold, and even more so in the morning, yet now I only feel a mild chill.

Looking around, I spot animal tracks, more specifically...

Wolves

I jump to my feet and see my clothes torn apart on the ground; there are signs of wolves all around me, and I'm completely naked.

"Damn it, what the hell happened?"

I ask the void.

Flashes of my wild night come back to me.

A few days ago, I turned 18, and last night was my university graduation.

Yes

As you hear it, I graduated from university at age 18, with a double major.

Perhaps I haven't introduced myself; my name is Mardel Rossi, freshly-turned 18, my mother's name is Juhani Rossi.

I don't know my family because I am not loved by my mother; she says mistakes should remain hidden from others.

So, I've always been self-reliant.

My mother spends over 18 hours a day drunk and unconscious; the rest of the time, she spends telling me how miserable she is because of me, how my father left her for a man, abandoning her when he learned of me.

I loathe him

I hate everything about him; regrettably, I don't know his name, but I know what he looks like, as my mother says.

Juhani: You are the damn spitting image of your father; you have no idea how much I loathe you. I wish you were never born; maybe then your father wouldn't have left with him.

I hate my mother, just as much as I hate my father.

The only person who cares for me is my Aunt Anya; she lives roughly a kilometer away from us, her cabin amidst the forest. I've always wondered why.

She says that to protect me she needed to be close to me, but also far at the same time, as my mom should never find out about her, only I should.

When I was five, on one of the many days my mother left me alone, I ventured into the forest and there met a beautiful woman; she told me to treat her like an aunt and insisted on keeping it a secret, especially from my mother that she lived nearby, to come and find her whenever I wanted and could. She was the only one that gave me that motherly love I so desperately sought; her husband is like a father to me.

My mother would go visit her family and be gone for whole weeks; thus, I learned to fend for myself.

One day, I asked my aunt to enroll me in school; my mother was always out of it, she would never notice.

And so, the next day I woke up early, climbed out my window, and headed into the forest to find my aunt.

I didn't mention it, but we live on the outskirts of the city, close to the forest, and unlike most kids who fear it, I find such peace there.

I can walk in it, day or night, without issues; there are communities of people within the forest, but they don't allow outsiders into their reserves, always there are visitors around, and if they see someone trying to enter, they are stopped immediately.

Despite it all, they're not hostile; I've seen wolves too, enormous ones to clarify, but unlike what most would think, these aren't aggressive, rather, they seem gentle.

Well, as I was saying, my aunt got me into elementary school and I finished it just two years later, at the age of 8 I completed elementary and moved on to high school, my Uncle Ivan, who is my Aunt Anya's husband, helped with all my expenses.

At the age of 11, I finished middle school, and as of yesterday, I completed my university education, at just 18 years old. Graduated with a double major, and a scholarship that fully covered everything.

Remarkable, right?

The only downside is that I could share my joy only with my aunt and her husband.

But one day, you'll see, I'll be able to break free from my mother and go to meet my father, to learn why he left us, just to understand what was so important that he abandoned me with a madwoman like my mother.

She has never taken an interest in anything I do, which is for the better, although on such a special day for me as yesterday, I would've loved to see my mother in the front row shouting my name when I received my diploma for graduating and making the dean's list.

She's never cared about any of my birthdays.

Only when I turned 16.

On the day I turned 16, my mother said to me.

Juhani: Hey useless, when do you turn 16?

That day I was happy; passing by my aunt's house on the way back from school, she was already waiting with a cake to celebrate my birthday, as she has done many times before.

I cried that day, cursing to the heavens that my parents didn't love me. My aunt said.

Anya: Don't pay any mind to your mother, I can't tell you what happened the day you were born, I'm forbidden, but promise me that when you do meet your father, you'll give him a chance to explain, okay?

Mardel: Okay, Auntie.

Upon returning home, the first thing I did was prepare a meal for when my mother woke up.

Juhani: Hey useless, when do you turn 16?

Mardel: In a month, mother.

I answer, sarcasm woven through, she never remembers, so why tell her the truth, just for her to ruin my day?

Juhani: Mmm, what a pain.

I don't know what happened then, but a month later, she stayed sober for two full days, waiting for I don't know what, luckily for me, it was vacation time, but after two days she forgot all about it and resumed her normal routine. For a brief moment, I thought she might change, but of course, she didn't.

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