At some point mid-run she morphed into wolf, a terrified chestnut-coloured beast running through the forest like the wind. Somewhere in the corner of her mind that wasn’t populated by fear she worried about what was happening at her cabin, if Aidan was fine. They were very similar emotions, worry and fear, and she soon she found herself scared that something would happen to him.
Within minutes she found herself at the site of the funeral. She looked around frantically, but everyone was gone. The funeral seemed to have ended. The chairs had been packed and the black decorative drapes had been folded and put away. She snorted in frustration and turned her back on the funeral site, running towards her house on all fours.
She got to the back lawn of her house that connected the house to the woods and stopped in front of the hedges for a moment. She looked behind her at the depth of the forest, it seemed to be full of suspicious, eerie movements. She shuddered, shaking her large brown wolf body and padded forward towards the house.
There were sounds emanating from the house, people discussing in low tones and the clink of cutlery on plates. Lauren let a low growl of frustration. She’d wanted to talk to her family alone without the overtly curious eyes of other werewolves. Some information were not for sharing with everyone.
She reached the kitchen door and morphed back to human. She turned the doorknob but it was locked. She looked through the tiny glass window on the door, rapping lightly on it. Footsteps approached the door and she stepped back. The door swung open and her mother peered out worriedly.
Katherine caught Lauren’s scared face and frowned in concern “Lauren! We were just wondering where you were. Come in.”
Lauren stepped into the kitchen, looking around warily. Thank God the guests were in the living room and the kitchen was empty save for the both of them.
Her mother dried her hands on the apron she was wearing and looked at her daughter anxiously. “Lauren, what’s wrong?” She asked. She looked down and saw Lauren’s tattered dress, torn all the way from the knee to the hip. Her eyes widened. “Lauren, what happened to you?” She asked again.
Lauren ignored her mother and walked to the door that linked the kitchen to the living room, peering out “Where are the others?” She asked.
“If you mean Beth, Axel, Lia and Mike, then they’re in the living room, among the guests.” Katherine said, frowning. She didn’t appreciate Lauren ignoring her questions of worry but she kept her thoughts to herself.
The guests were already rounding up on lunch: Beth and Lia were packing up the used plates and cups while Mike and Axel were waiting by the front door, seeing the guests out. Lauren waited impatiently as the guests filed out slowly, pacing the kitchen.
After a few minutes, Beth and Lia walked inside the kitchen, arms laden with plates. Lia dumped it in the sink with a sigh, followed by Beth, and faced Lauren with a smile. Her smile faded as she saw the look on her friend’s face.
“Something happened, didn’t it?” Lia asked with a grim expression.
“Yeah.” Lauren said “You all might wanna take a seat.”
☆
Lauren looked at every one seated around the kitchen table as she finished her story. She conveniently left out the part of her make out session with Aidan. That was a much more personal information.
They all looked back at her with varying degrees of fear and dismay. Axel shifted and leaned forward on his seat. “Wait, so Aidan was present in the funeral?”
“Yes.” Lauren replied “But that’s not the point here. We were attacked. By one of my-of ??? wolves.”
“That’s scary.” Lia said “That means he knows where we are.”
“Of course he does. Why else would he be able to attack?” Lauren snapped at Lia. Then she checked herself, placing a shaky hand on her forehead and glancing apologetically at her friend “I’m sorry, Lia. I-”
“It’s fine.” Lia muttered, looking away. “I understand how you’re feeling.”
Lauren barely heard her. A sudden rising sense of fear had made her blood curl. She remembered what she had experienced at the cabin and shivered. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and she looked around the kitchen frantically, as though looking for a mode of escape.
She stood up from her chair and grasped at her chest. The bracelet around her wrist started to tighten again like that time in the cabin and she gasped in pain. She heard her mother call her name with worry but it sounded faraway and thick, as though she was underwater. Suddenly she felt the ground rise towards her and she blacked out for a short while.
She came to a few minutes later. A pounding headache was plaguing her head and her throat was unseasonably dry. She croaked and looked around. She was in the living room on the couch, with a blanket around her. Her dress clung to her skin with sweat and she shifted uncomfortably.
She heard movement beside her and sat up abruptly, her fangs and claws out and her eyes darting.
“Hey, hey. It’s just me.” Lia whispered, her hands raised. Lauren glared at her and sat back down, closing her eyes as a wave of dizziness hit her. Lia sat on the coffee table beside the couch and stared at her. “Are you feeling okay?”
“No.” Lauren croaked “Water.”
Lia promptly stood and walked to the kitchen. Lauren heard whispering voices coming from the kitchen and leaned back as Lia came back with a glass of water, followed by Mike, Beth and the rest of the group. They all gathered around her on the couch. Lauren wished they would go away.
“You blacked out for a second there.” Axel started “How do you feel now?”
“Like I’m hanging by a loose thread.” Lauren whispered, collecting the glass of water from Lia and taking a sip. “What happened?”
“I think you had a panic attack.” Beth replied, rubbing Lauren’s hair fondly “Everything that happened today probably got to you.”
Lauren nodded but she knew that what had happened to her was much more than that. She tried to sit up but stopped. She’d heard a faint noise coming from the front door, like someone groaning. Mike and Lia had heard it too. Mike was stiff with concentration as he listened and Lia was sniffing experimentally, her nose in the air. Beth, Axel and Katherine watched expectantly as the werewolves tried to place the source of the noise.
“What do you smell, girl?” Axel asked her.
“Blood.” Was all she said.
The glass of water slipped from Lauren’s hand and fell on the floor, shattering into a million shiny pieces. The feeling of ominous fear that had come to her in the kitchen was back again, although not so strong this time. And one name had come to her mind, the name of someone she least expected.
Eric.
She tried to stand up from the couch and Beth looked at her in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“It’s Eric out there,” Lauren said to her. “I know it is.”
“But-”
Suddenly, Mike was at the door, fiddling with the doorknob. “Come on, Lia.” he said. “You all stay here. We’ll check out the noise.”
Lauren tried to catch their expressions as the two of them opened the door. It was full of dread, though they tried to hide it. There was a knot of panic inside her chest and she didn’t know why.
The front doors opened and the two werewolves looked out, crouching with anticipation. Suddenly they stopped and straightened, then Lia let out a loud “Fuck!”
Lauren stood up before Beth or her mother could stop her and walked towards the door, ignoring her pounding headache. She pushed past Mike in her hurry to get out of the door, stumbling on the edge of her blanket in her haste.
The outside air was thick and cloying, smelling of soil and damp moss, and underneath those familiar smells, a choking metallic smell like a knife blade or a copper coin.
At first Lauren thought the front lawn was empty. Then her wolf eyes quickly picked up the sight of a body, splayed across the grass.
The smell of blood hit her again as she saw the body. She took several unsure steps towards the sprawled person and stopped abruptly as she recognised the brown skin and the dreadlocks she’d once used to admire. On the body was a pale green parka that she thought was still in the cupboard under the stairs, now stained and spotted with blood.
Eric was lying there, looking very dead, his eyes wide and immobile. Lauren heard the voices of the others as they ran towards her but she couldn’t turn, or make any movement. All she could do was stare at the body of her best friend and scream.