the amount of bodies huddled inside it, made them only bump into each other in an awkward attempt at giving me room. Hands touched me, helping me forward, the effort only hindering my way, yet they meant well. By the time I stopped in front of the necklace, the metal glinting in the poor lighting, my heart dropped. This was Chloe’s charm necklace.
A delicate silver C dangled from my friend’s aquamarine birthstone. I had given the charm to Chloe when she’d turned eighteen. I’d saved my money from my first job to get such a personal gift for my friend, the one person who through thick and thin had stood by me my whole life. The fact I’d not done the same for her in return, had all but abandoned her to go after a new life, hit me, made the room around me spin. Hot, and short on air from the crowds, from my rush of nerves, I swayed. The cold hard facts came crushing down on me like a barrel over a waterfall as Josh grabbed me, held me up as Lex made his way through the crowd. They looked like a can of wiggling sardines.
That Chloe’s necklace now hung from Nira’s hand, taken from a strangely delivered box on the night that I had killed Daniel, screamed volumes of horrible possibilities. I wondered how that beautifully slim neck of hers fared without it. She had to be alive. Surely they wouldn’t kill her. They hadn’t Lex. Yet, at that time, I hadn’t killed Daniel. Deadly retaliation or not, they would expect me to come running to her rescue. I would whether it came with a damn map or not.
Pushing the whirlwind of thoughts aside, what struck me, what made the hot tears in my eyes spill over onto my lashes to stream down over my cheeks, was the fact that Chloe had still been wearing the necklace despite our strained relationship the past seven months. As sobs started to form, shaking my shoulders visibly, Lex pulled me towards him, wrapping his thick arms around my chest as he pulled me into his. I fell against him. His grip on me was the only thing that kept me standing as the scenarios, one by one, one more dreadful than the next, spilled into my head, wave after wave of terrifying images that could be a possible reality right now for my friend.
The only thing I knew for sure was that the pack had taken Chloe, and that it was my fault. My friend was in danger due to retaliation for their leader Daniel’s death. They truly would stop at nothing. They may have been grasping at straws at what to do next, but I’d drawn the short one this time, and they again had the upper hand. At this moment, as Lex led my crumpling body down to a mattress on the floor, still holding me strong against him, I feared this battle the true werewolves and the Royal werewolves were locked in would never end.
I feared my entire life would be battle after battle, losing one person after another that I cared about until my own death at their hands. They’d use me first, but then eventually, I’d die when my purpose had passed. Watching the rest of them die first would be the worst of it. My thinking took a final turn for the worst. Rather than walking to the cliff, I looked over and took that final leap. Darkness consumed me, took my sight completely as worst case scenarios ran through my head. I gave myself two more seconds only to stumble down that path before I would pull it together, do whatever I had to for Chloe.
A hot mix anger and fear with a large hunk of guilt added in seized me. Butterflies danced around the knot in my stomach as my shaking hands moved, gripped into tight fists in defense against a currently unseen foe. Hyperventilating, struggling for each breath of air, I let myself cry for a moment, locked in Lex’s arms, before my hands shot up, breaking me free easily as I’d shocked him with my sudden movement. As he backed away to look at me, surprise on his face, his hands now gripping hard my upper arms, I pounded my fists against my thighs as a primal scream erupted from my throat.
A delicate silver C dangled from my friend’s aquamarine birthstone. I had given the charm to Chloe when she’d turned eighteen. I’d saved my money from my first job to get such a personal gift for my friend, the one person who through thick and thin had stood by me my whole life. The fact I’d not done the same for her in return, had all but abandoned her to go after a new life, hit me, made the room around me spin. Hot, and short on air from the crowds, from my rush of nerves, I swayed. The cold hard facts came crushing down on me like a barrel over a waterfall as Josh grabbed me, held me up as Lex made his way through the crowd. They looked like a can of wiggling sardines.
That Chloe’s necklace now hung from Nira’s hand, taken from a strangely delivered box on the night that I had killed Daniel, screamed volumes of horrible possibilities. I wondered how that beautifully slim neck of hers fared without it. She had to be alive. Surely they wouldn’t kill her. They hadn’t Lex. Yet, at that time, I hadn’t killed Daniel. Deadly retaliation or not, they would expect me to come running to her rescue. I would whether it came with a damn map or not.
Pushing the whirlwind of thoughts aside, what struck me, what made the hot tears in my eyes spill over onto my lashes to stream down over my cheeks, was the fact that Chloe had still been wearing the necklace despite our strained relationship the past seven months. As sobs started to form, shaking my shoulders visibly, Lex pulled me towards him, wrapping his thick arms around my chest as he pulled me into his. I fell against him. His grip on me was the only thing that kept me standing as the scenarios, one by one, one more dreadful than the next, spilled into my head, wave after wave of terrifying images that could be a possible reality right now for my friend.
The only thing I knew for sure was that the pack had taken Chloe, and that it was my fault. My friend was in danger due to retaliation for their leader Daniel’s death. They truly would stop at nothing. They may have been grasping at straws at what to do next, but I’d drawn the short one this time, and they again had the upper hand. At this moment, as Lex led my crumpling body down to a mattress on the floor, still holding me strong against him, I feared this battle the true werewolves and the Royal werewolves were locked in would never end.
I feared my entire life would be battle after battle, losing one person after another that I cared about until my own death at their hands. They’d use me first, but then eventually, I’d die when my purpose had passed. Watching the rest of them die first would be the worst of it. My thinking took a final turn for the worst. Rather than walking to the cliff, I looked over and took that final leap. Darkness consumed me, took my sight completely as worst case scenarios ran through my head. I gave myself two more seconds only to stumble down that path before I would pull it together, do whatever I had to for Chloe.
A hot mix anger and fear with a large hunk of guilt added in seized me. Butterflies danced around the knot in my stomach as my shaking hands moved, gripped into tight fists in defense against a currently unseen foe. Hyperventilating, struggling for each breath of air, I let myself cry for a moment, locked in Lex’s arms, before my hands shot up, breaking me free easily as I’d shocked him with my sudden movement. As he backed away to look at me, surprise on his face, his hands now gripping hard my upper arms, I pounded my fists against my thighs as a primal scream erupted from my throat.
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