Crashing Down
three
For the rest of the week Caroline hides away in the forest, living beneath the canopy of trees and drinking from the veins of small animals. The earth becomes her bed, her pillow, and her blankets. She looks at it as a form of detox. But no matter how many pints of animal blood she drinks she can still taste the magical iron of Bonnie’s witch blood, the power that surged through her when she swallowed the crimson red.
But that’s not the only reason she’s skipping school and extracting herself from society. Ever since that day in the woods Tyler has been calling, leaving voicemails. Inquiring into places he shouldn’t inquire. For the sake of his life, she ignores him.
“Why haven’t you been in school?” it’s like her thoughts have summoned him, and she startles.
“You shouldn’t be here, Tyler.” Caroline replies, the squirrel in her hands dropping into the leaves by her dirty sneakers.
“Your face was…it was ugly, Caroline. You had veins sticking out of your cheeks and the whites of your eyes were red like they were welling up with blood instead of tears. And your teeth…”
“Can we not make this some bullshit Twilight cliché? Don’t stand there like Bella and demand I say it. I’m friggin vampire, Tyler, you happy?”
A bubble of laughter erupts from the handsome boy’s lips, and she stares hard at him until he’s collected himself. His eyes, sparkling, crinkle with a smile going extinct. The adam’s apple beneath his jaw bobs up and down restlessly until finally that grin fades away and a hand scrapes through his short dark hair.
“Something happened to me,” he whispers, and it’s what Caroline was waiting for.
“When the moon was full, you got extra hairy and walked on all fours didn’t you?” she says, stepping closer, a hand outstretched to comfort him.
Tyler brushes past her and sits on a mossy fallen log. She heaves a sigh of exasperation and sits beside him, their knees knocking together and shoulders pressed tight to one another. For a while they sit in silence, the birds chirping and leaves rustling adding a soothing background noise. Caroline rests her head on his shoulder, eyes drooping shut.
“Will you please stop living like a savage beast out in the wilderness like this? Come to the Mystic Grille with me, have a couple drinks.” Tyler says finally.
“I am a savage beast, and so are you,” she replies, standing. The sun is setting below the trees, the air getting chilly, their half of the earth cooling down. “But yes, I’ll go with you.”
They smile at each other, bonding over their shared freakiness, their split personalities. Because after all that’s really what it is, she’s one person when she isn’t hungry and an entirely different person when she is. And he is a wolf when the moon is high and a normal teenage boy when it isn’t.