Shadow Bite || WATTYS 2017

Chapter Fifty-Two

I shift into a more comfortable position, tightening the soft blanket around my numb body and curling my knees up to rest under my chin, still seated in the armchair. I've been sitting here for two weeks now, with no thoughts, no desires, no... nothing.

The dry summer grass stretches out in the hot sun for miles, circling around the glistening lake and continuing into the pine forest and through the meadow. Children laugh and splash in the clear water of the lake below, oblivious to the meaning of the blooming and colorful flowers springing up all around its perimeter - honors to the many brave werewolf warriors who had fallen during battle.

Two weeks ago.

It has only been two weeks.

Two weeks since we lost half of the pack.

Two weeks since Asher - or me, I'm not completely sure - killed Killian.

Two weeks since Jasper died.

Two weeks since I killed him.

My eyes glaze over again for the millionth time, and I look at the landscape beyond the large glass window without actually taking anything in. I blink to clear my vision in an almost mechanic way, and then I'm back to contemplating the nothingness that fills me.

I'm numb.

Blurring in my vision has begun to form because of my constant exposure facing the bright sun's rays, but I'm too tired to care. I run my fingers along the smooth surface of the thing in my hands. The orb glows with stronger colours now, sending reflective lights onto the wooden floor and against the window pane. I haven't lost that sense of connection with it yet, as if it hasn't abandoned me. It should have though, with Mrs. Lee's death, but it hasn't, and I keep on pondering over the fact that maybe it's because of the fact that I didn't kill the witch myself. But what is it waiting for?

The pulse in it is so much stronger now, and the colours so much brighter, as if it's sucking more and more life out of something and taking it all in itself. It could be me - thinking about it - but I would have been long dead already. The wound in my stomach - the one that matched Asher's before his healed - is more bearable now and has been stitched up, but it's scarring slowly. Unlike Asher, whose wound has completely disappeared, mine will always be prominent on my skin, as a forever brand of the battle that will be counted as having been fought long ago. It's weird to think that the fight that occurred mere weeks ago will be one to be recounted to children in the future generations of our pack.

I'm ripped away from my thoughts at the familiar feeling of a rough but incredibly soft soft on my shoulder, that I can feel straight through the blanket. I can feel him from miles away, and something during that night has tightened the bond between us even more.

"You should come with me." He whispers again, as he has done numerous times before during the weeks, but as always, I shake my head and continue at looking aimlessly through the window and playing with the orb in my hands.

"Camilla..." Asher's voice takes on a more urgent tone, something that unsettles me and forces me to tilt my head back to look up into his endless oceanic eyes. "It's Emma..."

That name alone jolts me from my frozen state and with slight difficulty from the still healing wound in my stomach, I manage to get on my feet. Before I can protest Asher has scooped me up into his arms and I'm pressed against his hard but comfortable chest. I could fall asleep against him now, but news about Emma's health are never to be missed.

Asher begins down the hallway and takes numerous doors until we arrive in front of the door with the sign that I've now recognized to be the pack doctor's office. After they'd been rescued, Mary had been sent back to my parents with no explanation for her long absence, but she somehow hadn't remembered anything other than our day at the fair anyway. I don't know if it was done by Mrs. Lee to erase her memories, and even though we couldn't get anything out of my little sister, the thought of someone even touching a hair on her head enraged me full-time for the first week after we'd come back.