The Outcome

When I woke up I knew it was early in the morning. The air around me was still autumn crisp, but I was warm wrapped up in my comforter. There was soft light coming in through the window, I could see the dust particles swirling around in the air as I let out a yawn. Stretching out, I took account for all the muscles coiling underneath my skin. They were so limited, trapped within a human encasing, but whatever. Some things couldn’t be helped.

I couldn’t help but notice, however, the peaceful silence around the house. There were no showers running, no one thundering down the stairs, and no yelling over pop tarts. Just me and a quiet house on the edge of the forest. My heart lurched into my throat and I almost fell out of bed. My phone read that it was six in the morning. They promised they would be back home before it was time for school, but that only left them with an hour, were they still out there with Jacob’s pack.

My heart pounded and I tried my connection with Erick. He was my Alpha, so if something happened to him I would know it. The buzz though my body tried to reassure me that Erick was alive and okay, but panic still gave me the worst thoughts. All the different scenarios pushed up the forefront of my mind. I thought of the massacre that could have went on, blood and bone and snapping teeth. Claws and growls and patches of fur.

I shook those thoughts out of my head. My heart was telling me that everything was okay, even if a promise had been broken. I couldn’t go out to look for the boys or sit here in bad and worry; my only option was to get off my ass and go to school.

As I showered, I tried to wash away all the discomfort of not knowing off with the dirt. I wasn’t used to being outside of everything. The more I scrubbed skin the more I told myself it was for the greater good. I had nothing to worry about, I was pack. Nothing could take that out of my blood, so what the hell was I whining for? The skin on my arm was angry red from my cleaning abuse. I decided I was clean enough.

I didn’t drive and hadn’t seen a bus come through this part of town, so I set off to walking to school It wasn’t to far, besides I was pretty in shape due to all the running I did in my lifestyle. Once I made it to the main road, it would only take me about five minutes to get to the school parking lot. I was fishing my headphones out of my purse when a silver Volvo turned onto the street. It stuck out like a sore thumb around here. The people of La Push weren’t especially poor or anything, but their money would never go from something as expensive or flashy as that.

The car was going well over speed limit; I only caught a flash of who was in the driver’s seat before they’d pass me by. Pale skin, brown hair, and definitely a woman who seemed a little older than me. She was nothing special, not until my eyes locked with her chocolate brown ones…

~~

A porcelain couple stood off to the distance. The man had eyes a honey brown, the woman’s blood red. Her eyes were one’s I recognized, the bloodthirsty color of a newborn. Her hair fell down her shoulders, brown and lovely, and I realized it was the girl from the Volvo. So that explained how she ended. Pity. The honey eyed man was something rare in my memory, not many leeches chose to consume only animal blood, especially in Ney York were food is everywhere. At first glance, the man seemed to casually have his arms around here, but now I noticed he was actually restraining her to an extent. In fact, looking around, there were about six other vampires in protective stance around the couple.

What were they holding her back from?

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I turned to see what everyone was so focused on. My eyes landed on a version of myself. I emerged from the trees, twigs in my hair and rip in my clothes. I was out of breath, the movement of my chest over exaggerated. My eyes were wild and it hurt to look at myself like that, I looked broken. My eyes ere fixed on something over my shoulder so I followed my future self’s gaze to what everyone seemed so focused on.

There, in a clearing, stood Jacob. His back was to me and he was kind of hunched over, like he was holding something. I couldn’t see from where I was standing, but the other me seemed to know what it was. I heard myself call out his name and I didn’t recognize the sound of me own voice. Jacob raised his head and looked back at the wild girl on the edge of the trees. He tilted his body so that whatever was in his arms could be seen to the wild me, but not the real me. I was confused and disoriented. The endings I saw never looked like this, never felt like this. Was this even an ending at all?

The girl I would one day became let out the most horrible noise and crumbled the ground, gripping herself as if trying to keep her insides from falling out. No one moved to help her, not even Jacob. He stared at her with a pained expression, but whatever was in his arms caught his attention. It was like the sun came out after a decade of rain and he grinned like a little kid. It was like he suddenly didn’t care what was happening ten feet away from him, like he didn’t care about me.

I snapped out of it.

~~

I was on my back on the side of the street and I could hear the sound of the Volvo still speeding down the road. I blinked a few times, making sure I still wasn’t trapped inside the end, and picked myself up off the ground. I looked back towards the car, specially the girl driving it, but she was long gone by now. I felt like throwing up a little, I rarely saw myself in an ending, only when I looked in a mirror or if I was extremely close to the person I saw.

I had no idea who this girl was, but she didn’t belong in La Push and she had some connection to Jacob. Did he know her human life ended in becoming a vampire? How could I bring it up without revealing everything I knew, everything I’d been working at to keep a secret? I suddenly longed to be back in my own territory, with my own people. I longed for the familiar and uncomplicated. But I couldn’t have that back, not yet. Continuing my walk I decided to take one thing at a time. First, make sure the boys were okay, and then worry about what was happening to my ability.

No one from either pack was there in the hallways, and I tried not to let it bother me. What did bother me was that amount of attention I was getting now that my pack of body guards was missing this mourning. I understood my appeal to them. I mean, the girls here were beautiful, but everyone had grown up together, and lost a bit of their sparkle. Then here I was, not ugly, and not anyone’s cousin.

It was almost laughable, how unashamed people stared as I made my way to my locker. I was used to the rude cut away of city streets, no eye contact, or outwards interest, but now I was experiencing the opposite. Maybe it was the mystery of me, my forged genius in science, or the unassailability that radiated off of me. When I first got here it was Erick that kept the teenaged boys away. Most recently, it was my growing closeness to Jake that made sure they kept their distance. I didn’t have any girlfriends, but that was my own doing. Some of them weren’t so bad, but I didn’t really have time to worry about sleepovers and five hour long conversations. Being surrounded by boys just suited me better.

By the time I spun in my locker combination, a dull concern set in again. I was still waiting for someone, anyone, to show up and let me know that they were okay. I felt truly powerless and ready to pull out my last resort. If they weren’t home by the time school let out, I was calling it in to The Elders and requesting backup. But then, with the swish of air being let in through open doors, the two packs walked in, looking like an ad from a Hollister campaign.

They still wore the clothes from yesterday, but they were laughing and joking around with each other as they made their way down the hall. Some had their arms around each others shoulders as they play fought in stride. Jostling back and forth, leaving loud laughter behind them. It was a deleted scene from a fucking Friends episode.

If my blood would have allowed it, there would have been a wolf in the middle of the hallway, ready to rip their throats out. Only Erick had the sense enough to look a little sympathetic as he jogged up the hallway to meet me.

“Look Mace, I know I said we’d be back earlier, but things went really well for us. They all bought the story about you not knowing, about you being the cover. It’s perfect. Jacob is kind of asshole, but the rest of them are pretty cool.”

“Oh, so you stay out all night with them now, huh? What’s next, flat irons and nail files?” I laughed up at him. It was hard to be mad when Erick was this happy about something going right.

“Only if you promise to paint my nails bright pink, love.”

“You got it, dude.”

The rest of the boys caught up to us, and introductions were passed all around. Jacob came up and hugged me last, long, and tight. Embry sent us a smirk that soon worked it around to the rest of the boys. I rolled my eyes and pulled away as the warning bell rang.

“Well, education calls guys. You all coming over after school?” I asked them pulling my backpack over my shoulder. The La Push pack sent a couple of glances back and forth, that must mean patrolling duty, something they couldn’t tell me about.

“No, but there’s a bonfire tomorrow night, you’re all invited.” Paul replied. He seemed really keyed up all the time, like he couldn’t keep him emotions in check all the time, we would have to watch him. But other than that, he seemed like the most fun.

“Sounds good, it was nice to meet you guys. I’ll see you later.”