Breaking Boundaries | Jacob Black

Berry Tarts

Dear diary,

You know berry tarts are made of crushed berries? You need to break them to use them and extract their juice.

How ironic. Does that mean we need to be crushed to the bone to be proved useful to this world?

---

"It happened maybe a few months ago. The body was torn, it was a bloody mess."

It was an ugly Wednesday afternoon, mid-week, and Natalia was barely awake and listening in on Biology, until Embry had said something that caught her full attention.

Apparently up until a few weeks ago, there had been sightings of murder evidence that seemed to stem from a wild animal. What kind of animal, nobody knew about. How this came up into conversation was all due to her telling the boys about how much she'd enjoyed her morning jog in the woods.

Jacob had tensed up at her words, causing Natalia to halt in the middle of her sentence, "is there something wrong?"

"No..." He shook his head, jaw locking and looking away as though it physically pained him to think about it, "it's just- it's dangerous outside, especially for you. Don't do that again."

"Wha-it's just a jog. Seriously," she rolled her eyes, noticing the subdued silence as al boys focused on their lunches for once, "it's not like it's going to attack me in broad daylight."

"It can attack from any time of the day and no one will notice," Paul said, eyes gone dark and eyebrows pulling shadows over his face, "don't underestimate this creature."

"Best for you to stay home for now," Quil had added, "it's not safe."

Currently trying to focus on the Digestive system wasn't doing her any favors. So instead, she'd reached out to tap on Embry's shoulder, hoping to get more insight into the matter of the murders.

"So what was that about the murders?" She leaned in, voice barely above a murmur as the professor droned on at the board, "they can't be that bad, right?"

"The last we heard of it was a few weeks ago." Embry whispered, "hasn't been back since. We think it's safe, but we don't want to take any risks."

How odd that he spoke as if they -- the boys -- were the ones held responsible for La Push's safety.

"So it's gone? There's nothing to worry about?"

"They're deadly, Natalia." His eyes flashed, "it's not safe. All the victims were brutally killed without exception."

There was a firmness in his voice that was final so she decided not to push it, for fear Embry would break. The danger laced in his tone made her shiver. It was weird. It was...animalistic.

The thing was, Natalia didn't mind dying so much. Actually, she wouldn't mind leaving this earth on earliest notice. There wasn't a thing that excited her about school or about La Push and yes, she did enjoy her time spent with the boys. But this issue was deeper, the wound cut harder against the slithers of her skin. It was a secret that she harbored close to her heart and withoutvher mother's knowledge.

Growing up had been tough, especially with her dad always away on business. And when he'd decided to walk out on them, the shame, pain and insecurity had merely doubled. Had she not been enough for him to stay? Maybe there was something wrong with her, something unloveable.

That ugly, hungry beast inside her stomach merely grew with time. It wasn't as though Natalia wanted to feel this way. No, she loathed herself for always overthinking situations and thinking that people didn't want her around because she was too much. And yet, the beast clawed its way to her chest and sunk its teeth into the grooves of her heart with such ferocity that it was now part of her wherever she went.