15 Awakening 

I skipped school that day.

After taking a quick shower, I threw myself on the bed. I wasn't dreaming because I didn't sleep. But I wasn't exactly awake. I never felt anything like that before and it was extremely disturbing.

Between wakefulness and sleep, imagined experiences kept floating to me. It was very dark, and Elizabeth's eyes seemed to be radiating crimson. I followed her, focusing on her back as she walked away from me, leaving me alone.

No matter how much I shouted, my voice couldn't be heard by her; no matter how much I turned around, I just couldn't find her. The last thing I heard clearly in the darkness was a yelp that had me snapping out of the state of illusion I was in.

It wasn't the darkness that bothered me, it was the fact that the girl ignored me completely and went somewhere I couldn't reach no matter how hard I tried.

It was evening when I came back to my senses. An image of a white wolf that was too smart to be an animal kept hunting me. I couldn't find Liam again no matter where I looked for him.

When he finally came back home after what seemed like a very long time, he showed me the note dad left him.

'They have taken your mother, make arrangements for a funeral for both of us. Take your brother and go to Anchorage, protect him at all costs.'

I ran my thumb over the crumpled note, my father's anger reached me, I felt his rush when he wrote it. Almost half of the note was about me.

I could imagine his fury — they had taken his beloved Emma away from him, Liam said he had turned his back on humanity and left everything to go chase after her. I tried to picture him as a giant wolf, one similar to Liam's red demon, if anyone in the world was going to bring mom back, it would be him. I had no doubt in my mind about that. I was only angry and restless for being left behind.

***

The week that followed their confession was annoying and downright unacceptable.

Liam's pack and Elizabeth's family decided that the garage incident was 'unfortunate', they would keep my memories of everything intact because Liam wouldn't have it any other way, but they would carry on with things as if I had never found out about their 'tabooed world'.

Liam was unreasonable, I followed him around, obsessed with convincing him to go after our parents. He made it clear that what he wanted more than anything else was for me to forget all about it — especially since their location was unknown — but I wouldn't just drop it. I followed him to his classes and stood by the entrance to his university, trying to get answers to the too many questions I had about everything.

I didn't make any progress, he was the most stubborn person in the entire world.

I needed a friend, and I thought about one person every time that thought crossed my mind.

Sparklers.

I kept trying to reach Sophia. But she never returned my calls.

It was odd.

At school, Elijah and his twin were even more friendly toward me than before, which made me wonder if they had approached me because of their connection to my brother and his pack in the first place. I never found out if they were werewolves too or just humans in a pack... How would that work anyhow? We weren't close enough for me to confront them.

.

.

.

They were wolves too.

That would explain why Liam Johnson was reckless enough to attack me from behind, and it would also explain why his brother didn't care much about his broken nose that day. That injury healed incredibly fast, he told everyone in class that it wasn't broken to begin with. But I knew better than that.

No one seemed to notice Elizabeth's absence all week long, my eyes kept trying to find her, but I kept it to myself, not wanting to go around on a campaign demanding to bring back the principal's lost daughter.

She showed up in my dreams every day.

I wondered to myself why I was never able to reach her, I knew by now that what I called dreams were better labeled under 'encounters', we were having some kind of a mental connection with each other, and her face looked more upset each time I visited her. Had it been the phone, I knew she would've blocked my number already. I kept going to her every night. It was against both of us.

How pathetic.

She showed up at school the week after that, the girl was always surrounded by the three monstrous friends she had around her that day. Their eyes were back to being the lightest shade of blue, it was simply disturbing.

The mind games she liked to play had to be what prevented people from noticing how abnormal her friends looked.

Did those not work on me then?

People didn't crowd her, still, King and her hangers-on kept a distance from everybody else. Their conversations were always tense, and they stood out from the rest of the teenagers around them as per usual.

Yet nobody seemed to care about that.

There were days when she sat next to me in class, completely ignoring me, and I found myself returning that favor. But every now and then, she would shift her hair back — she mostly did that when she got bored — the scent of jasmine would invade my nose, and to my great dismay, some other parts in me.

Of course, I was not oblivious to her existence. But I was trying very hard to get there.

Why didn't she understand? I already told her that she shouldn't participate in conspiracies against me, she was the one who said we were both the same kind.

Whatever that was.

I wanted her to open up to me, but I knew better now, she wished I hadn't returned to Anchorage and gave her more headaches — with things the way they were now, I was not going to stay here for long anyhow.

Last time when she was in my kitchen — and my living room. I was shocked, and she was resentful. I blamed her for knowing more things about me than I did, while she blamed me for having to 'protect' me.

Well, if gratitude was what she looked for, I was not grateful to her the least bit. I needed answers, not bodyguards.

I was perfectly capable of protecting myself.

Snow turned into rain which continued nonstop. A big football match was approaching — it was all that the twins and the rest of the boys in my team were talking about recently. I was back to reliving the first couple of days in this new school.

Classes, football, and turning girls down.

I was sick to my stomach with this fake life.

"Hey man, are you sure you don't like any of the girls who asked you out?" Liam Johnson winked at me. He was getting on my nerves, again.

"No, man, he said he's not planning on going out with anybody," Elijah answered him when I became quiet as we walked together to class, the uncomfortable look on my face should have stopped the annoying twin from pushing it any further. But he was mentally slower than usual today.

He brought up the subject again when I was in my seat, leaning back from where he sat next to Elijah in front of me. As usual, my nose was aware of the jasmine scent that meant Elizabeth sat at arm's length. Too near for me not to react to her physically, and too far as if she sat in some other classroom at a different school at the same time.

"So?" Liam Johnson nagged, looking at Elizabeth first and then at me, "Ruby asked me to talk to you on her behalf."

"Great." I was being sarcastic, he looked too enthusiastic given the fact that I didn't even know who he was talking about. "That…" He looked at me and measured my bored expression, he was determined to push more. "You'll have a lot of fun with her."

"I told you, he's not interested!"

Elijah was one of the few boys around my age that I actually liked.

"Stay out of it, Elijah, jeez!"

At this point, he was begging me for another broken nose.

"What kind of fun did she have in mind for me?" My tone was dark, and my fist balled up. Something inside of me was boiling, begging for a release.

His face was a shade redder, and he looked at Elizabeth again.

"She is very… well, athletic. So, you'll have that in common. A guy like you should get to have as many options as possible before settling if you know what I'm saying."

I thought about that for a few seconds, sadistically enjoying the wave of hostility that I imagined Elizabeth was emitting as if she had the slightest bit of interest in me. Until I saw, with my peripheral vision, Elizabeth's eyes, without a doubt, fixed excessively on Liam.

"Liam, just stop bugging him," Elijah interrupted my bewilderment.

"Which one was she again?" I said to test her reaction, making sure I wasn't hallucinating.

Did Elizabeth's eyes just flicker in my direction?