Nightclaw: Blood Moon Apex

Chapter 2: Hiding Away

Later that afternoon, while Dave was still at work, Carla had woken up from her brief nap and was attempting to record another episode of her podcast.

But her heart wasn't in it.

She sat down in her office chair, in front of her activated computer, straightened her microphone, then hit the recording button on her setup.

"Hello to everyone out there on the Internet! My name is Carla Rosenblood, and welcome back to.....welcome.....welcome back to....."

Her voice had an air of fake cheer to it, but it quickly faltered as she became wracked with grief again, her eyes moving over to the second chair next to hers that Murray always sat in when he guest-starred in some of her podcast episodes.

Ultimately, she realized she was in no shape to record at the moment, and sadly shut off her entire setup right then and there.

Instead, she jumped back into her bed in despair, pulling out her phone and going to Spotify to look at her channel there instead, from the perspective of a regular user rather than a creator. She hadn't uploaded anything for quite a while; ever since Murray had died, any attempts to create new content only led to failures. Carla cared about quality over quantity, so she kept promising herself that she would return to work whenever she felt she was healed; when her drive and motivation had returned, and she was able to pump out good podcast episodes that didn't consist of her just crying the whole time.

And up to now, she still wasn't in working condition.

Maybe I should have let Duncan talk about his adventure in the Rusted Citadel..... she thought to herself. Would've gotten my mind off of things. And given me an idea for the next episode.

Her depression ended up reaching a peak, and, rather tragically, she found herself bolting out of her bedroom, rushing down to the kitchen, taking out a knife, and fruitlessly attempting to slit her wrists in an attempt to reunite with her sibling. But no matter how hard she tried, it didn't work; she was a werewolf, and true silver was the only thing that could hurt them.

Frustrated—and still completely unharmed—Carla flung the knife to the side, slumped against the kitchen cabinets, pulled her knees up to her chest, and put her head down, sobbing softly.

Murray.....I'm sorry. I wanted to be at your side as you left....and I failed.

Poor Carla was at probably the lowest point in her entire life. One might have thought she might've hit it with her mother Martha's death, but she was still three years old back then and barely able to comprehend things. And, as tragic as Murray's death was, she still had her best friend Brian to lean on, as well as constant schoolwork to keep her occupied.

Now, though, not only were Martha and Murray gone, but Brian was busy working on a project—so he couldn't chat with Carla—and Carla was currently on summer break, which meant no school. On top of that, Dave spent most of the day at his job.

Reaching out and making other friends at her school besides Brian was something that Carla always found difficult. Her peers had regularly poked fun at her for not being as smart as the others, stating she was "slow" and that she "lacked brain cells". Though their words stung deeply, Carla knew it was true. She knew her way around technology, but other than that, she would be helpless if it weren't for Brian.

A dark part of her wished she could've transformed into Nightclaw and taught all of them a harsh lesson, but that would give away her secret identity. Instead, she simply grinned and bore it, moving on as though they hadn't said anything.