The Wolf In Me

I woke up on the cold ground. My body was naked and shivering. My whole body felt like it had been beaten and I wondered how I was going to move. Hearing sounds of someone else I sat up immediately. My body screamed in protest.

I whimpered in pain but urged my body to move. Seeing Tyler huddled on the ground near me I immediately moved over to him. “Tyler,” I said. My voice sounded rough, weak. Clearing my throat I winced at the pain. “Tyler, are you okay?”

I reached a hand out and placed it on his shoulder. Jerking his head up, he stared at me. It took a moment for comprehension of who I was to come upon his face. Quickly sitting up, he pulled me to him. He held me tightly against him.

I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him to me with equal strength. It didn’t matter that we were naked. What mattered was that we had both made it through this. We had both gone to hell and back. We still had each other.

As he held me I felt a sudden wetness on my shoulder. It took a second for me to realize it was Tyler’s silent tears. Tyler’s tears brought my own to the surface. Once they started I couldn’t stop them. I cried into Tyler’s shoulder, sometimes openly sobbing.

After five minutes of the relentless tears and Tyler holding me, I took a deep, shuddering breath. Pulling away I looked into Tyler’s warm brown eyes. I looked for some sign of change, for something different to be in them. I couldn’t find anything. He was still the same Tyler.

“We made it,” I whispered. Tyler silently wiped the tears from cheeks. I could see on his face the tracks the tears made against the dirt. I could only imagine how I was covered in dirt. Pulling away from him I stood up and walked to the bag that was still in there.

Caroline was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly what happened flashed back through my mind and I stumbled, just barely catching myself from falling. Caroline. We had wanted to hunt her, to kill her. I could remember us breaking through the iron gate.

One glance at it, showed it hanging on its hinges. There were dents and cracks in the metal. I remembered us running at the wooden door. Us almost breaking it open. I remember Caroline calling our names but we still continued to try and kill her. I had wanted to bite into her throat and rip it open.

“Willow, are you okay?” asked Tyler coming up behind me and placing his hands on my shoulders. He rubbed soothing circles on my skin trying to release the tension.

“Caroline,” I said in a strangled voice.

“Caroline’s fine,” said Tyler. “We didn’t get her. She ran away.” His voice was thick as he said it. Like he couldn’t believe that we had done that. That Caroline had been so scared of us that she ran away.

Sure enough the rest of the night came to my mind. The scent of Caroline leaving. Then Tyler and I pacing around in this cavern. Our restlessness, our need to hunt. Then my changing back into my human self and falling asleep instantly as exhaustion overcame my body.

“I know,” I said blinking back tears. I turned again and grabbed the bag. Pulling out my clothes I tossed the rest to Tyler. Quickly pulling on the clothes I turned to Tyler who had also finished getting dressed. Suddenly Caroline appeared in the room having used her vampire speed.

“You guys are okay,” she said. Quickly smiling with relief. “I was worried.” We both stared at her in amazement. We had tried to kill her and here she was looking like nothing happened.

“You’re worried about us?” asked Tyler in disbelief. “We tried to kill you.”

“But you didn’t,” said Caroline putting on another bright smile.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I murmured. I didn’t want to spend any more time down here than I had to. The others agreed and we exited the cavern and out into the night where the full moon still shone bright in the sky.



I stayed in the house all of the next day. I even managed to get out of school. Tyler had to go because of some football thing. I was still too tired, too drained to even attempt to put on a happy face. I couldn’t wear the mask today.

When Tyler finally came home late that night I could tell that instantly something was wrong. He walked into his room, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “Tyler,” I called tentatively from the doorway. “Tyler, what’s wrong?”

I could read instantly on his face that he was upset. It was almost like I could feel it in the air too, almost smell it. Shaking off the feeling I focused on Tyler again. He had tears in his eyes and he looked so vulnerable. He has been so vulnerable lately.

“It’s Mason,” he said. His voice betrayed his sadness. “He-he’s dead.”

“What?” I asked confused. “How could he be—” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. If I said it, it could be true. And I didn’t want that. For Tyler’s sake I hoped it wasn’t.

“You remember Jules?” he asked. I nodded hesitantly. Something told me I wasn’t going to like what I was going to hear. “She knows Mason is dead. And Caroline knew about it. Caroline lied to both of us!” I could feel the frustration he was going through, the betrayal.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I couldn’t believe Caroline would do that to us. She had helped us both so much during the full moon. And Mason was gone way before that. There was no way that she could be that two-faced.

“Yes,” he lashed out. Then he quickly recovered and his voice softened. His posture loosened and he became less tense. He sat down on the bed almost as if not even thinking about it. He put his head in his hands and took a deep breath.

I remained where I was just watching him. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to think. It was all too confusing. There were just too many pieces to the puzzle that were missing. “Did Caroline kill Mason?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t want Tyler to get angry again. I knew it wasn’t his fault. It was too easy for both of us to lose it recently.

“No,” he said looking up at me. His voice sounded so defeated. I went over and sat on the bed with him. I put an arm around his shoulders trying to comfort him in some way. “She lied to us again. There are more vampires in town. Damon and Stefan Salvatore are vampires.”

“Damon and Stefan?” I repeated. I went to school with Stefan. He was so nice, so kind. He cared so much about Elena and about other people. Damon I had heard was a complete dick. He wasn’t one of the brothers I had wanted to meet.

But I had talked with Stefan. We had become good acquaintances, I’d say almost friends. “There’s more,” said Tyler. “Damon killed Mason. Stefan and Caroline both knew about it.”

“Jules told you all this?” I asked surprised.

“Yeah,” he said turning his head to look at me. “I don’t know who to trust or who to believe anymore.”

“I think you should ask Caroline about it,” I said. “See if Jules is really telling the truth. I mean, we only just met the woman. You’ve known Caroline practically your whole life.”

“You’re right,” he said and then fell back onto his bed. As he did so his shirt raised up revealing a bit of his stomach. His feet hung off the bed as he stared at the ceiling. “I just can’t believe any of this.”

“Me either,” I admitted. I was in the same place as Tyler. I didn’t know who to trust, who to believe. “It’s a good thing we still have each other.” I lay down on his bed beside him. He wrapped an arm around me pulling me closer. I placed my head on his chest and breathed in his scent deeply.

“It’s me and you, always,” he murmured. I only clutched him tighter as both of us lay there, processing this new information.