DRIPPING DARKNESS

Ch-12: Liam Dunbar

Scott's POV

I rocked back and forth on the plastic chair to release some anxiety, not noticing how insignificant it was for me to do that now. 

There was a time when I felt perfectly confident when sitting on it, but not at that time, not anymore. Everyone around me was intensely concentrated on the question paper as if they knew the answer to solve every question with ease. 

I felt insecure, weak, unworthy of doing anything. I didn't feel like I deserved to be in this college as I had no idea what a single question meant. Not a single one of all the 200 questions in that paper.

I took a glance at the question paper again. 

Oxalotrophy refers to the: -

1) Production of Oxygen from the atmosphere.

2) Degeneration of oxalic acid.

3) Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide.

4) organisms that metabolize oxalates or oxalic acid

Angiomyogenesis refers to: -

1) a zoological term relating to the decomposition of heart muscles

2) a condition where axons are destroyed due to disease.

3) a medical term referring to the regeneration of heart tissue.

4) destruction of the neurons.

Angiomyo....what is that thing? 

I don't even know how to pronounce it. I should have studied more, I thought to myself and blamed myself for being so ridiculous and careless for a serious test like this. 

"McCall! What's the matter, Huh? Been too busy before?" I didn't know who was speaking, I looked around everywhere, but all I found were the students looking at their question papers and occasionally giggling after the words that were asked to me.

It made no sense to me. In there was a desk, a piece of paper, a pencil. In half hours' time, my fate was sealed one way or the other. 

I choked down the rising nervousness and an immediate arrival of a panic attack, and consciously flexed my hand, feeling, at last, the pain of my claws slowly growing and digging into my palm, while the other students stared at me with suspicion. 

I couldn't hold it back, I saw hair rising from my hands, I tried to hide them but everyone had already started panicking. When the school bell punctured the near silence I almost bit my tongue in two, with my fangs. 

I jumped out from my bed in terror, slipped from it, fell on the floor while tripping my body on the wire of the table lamp, that was hanging between the bed and the study table.

My whole body weight caused the hanging wire to pull the table lamp and make it fall on the ground as well. 

Wow! What an incredible way to start a day!

But, Good thing was, my roommate already left for his classes, so he didn't notice any of the chaos inside the room at that time.

I stared at our wall clock, it was 7.36 a.m already, and my class was just 15 minutes away from then. I decided to clean those messes up after I've cleaned up my mind before. I stood up, went near the curtained windows, and slid them away to the sides. 

As I glanced at our hostel campus, I noticed the sun, it crept over the horizon I felt more optimistic than ever before. Feeling well for me wasn't a high feeling or a low feeling, I'd say it was a slightly warm flat feeling as if I was walking a road I could simply stay on forever or choose a different path for the sake of adventure and fun.

Wellness came when I showed guilt, shame, and blame for moving out of Beacon Hils. I learned all I could from those emotions, made all the amends it was possible to make. With those chains broken, I was free to become the kind of person I've always dreamed of becoming.

My mind went floating to the horrible events of Beacon Hills, just a few months back. 

The remaining hunters had taken some significant hits, last time when we confronted each other, they showed very less signs of a willingness to negotiate. For me, It wasn't a matter of trust, but one of showing there is no advantage to them in continuing this battle. Should they fight it is mutually assured destruction, if they stop we leave them to live in their dysfunctional mess. 

We never came at them asking for war, only hoping to be left in peace. They have always wanted a material advantage, lost in the seductive allure of power. It has now been demonstrated that their victory is not possible. Not when I was with my friends, my pack. They would never win against us, not when we were united, at least that was what I believed or loved to believe. 

They might of course, now choose the MAD, we can't be sure. But like all life, they should have the preference for self-preservation.

I had to learn how to take care of myself in the past few months, how to deal with my problems and not lean on anyone, to learn how to fix myself alone after each painful fall, to find the road to real wellness.

I guess there's a reason warriors and heroes have parts of their story alone, the part when they psychologically mature into a person others can rely on. 

The journey is brutal, truly brutal, and so those who make it to the other side, to real wellness, deserve to think of themselves as heroes. I was aiming to be that sort of person.

I heard the sound of something vibrating, somewhere near me. 

After realizing it could be nothing else than my phone, I turned down my optimistic mode for a bit while searching for my phone. I finally found it hiding under my pillow. 

But the name on the caller ID was not anyone from who I was expecting a call.

It was Liam. 

Liam Dunbar.

***