The last thing James "Jay" Hale ever imagined was to begrudgingly return to Beacon Hills, find out his older sister was murdered, and then be forced to go on a wild goose chase after an enigmatic Alpha that seemed to have a particular interest in ru...
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Burden Of Living
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There was something about Beacon Hills that seemed to haunt people's every waking breath. Once it had its hooks in you, it didn't like to let go. It had a rich history of supernatural that most didn't know about, but almost everyone could feel it to some extent. Once you crossed the borders of the town, there was no escaping the clutches.
Even all the way across the country, the three Hale siblings were prime examples. Every day they could feel the hot breath on their necks, the shadow looming over their shoulders, the claws in their backs trying to drag them back. It didn't matter how far away they travelled, whether it be all the way across the country or even their little stint in Canada for a couple of months. The town would call out to them in their dreams and flash behind their eyelids as they slept.
They were the loose ends, the ones that got away.
The cursed town managed to get Laura Hale first, luring her back into the deep depths of the once-familiar woods for a lost cause, for the stupid responsibility that came with being the last Hale Alpha. The responsibility of watching over the grounds that were once so kind to the Hales but were now tainted by their blood, sweat, and tears—soaked within the earth and the ashes spread around like dust upon nature.
And once the soil got a taste of Hale blood, it just couldn't help but want more.
Next, it lured Derek Hale and James Hale back across town lines. Two brothers, the last two still standing. But rather than just taking them out of their misery the same quick way Laura's fate had ended, it played with them. It sent the two brothers on a wild goose chase, toying with their hearts and their feelings, and then swiftly finished the older of the two off with a single move.
Derek was dead, James' brother was dead. Lying in a pool of blood in the cold concrete outside of a high school that only held bad memories for him, regrets of his past.
James thought of the last real conversation he had with Derek as he stared blankly ahead, finding that it was that night in the elderly hospital when Derek revealed the secret about the Argents. It was a terrible one, so he tried again, grasping at straws and thinking back to the conversation before when Derek had yelled at him about being useless and stupid in the car right before he'd taken the words to heart and decided to jump out and escape. No, that wouldn't do either. He tried to think about a better recent memory they must have had, one that didn't make him want to tear his hair out in regret, but it seemed like just setting foot in the hellish town after so many years must have opened old wounds. There was a lot more damage to their relationship now than there ever was before because nothing good ever came from the place.
So, just like that, James Hale was alone.
Of course, he'd always known that both Derek and Laura would die one day, but it was always some faraway prospect before. Some untouchable and intangible idea that he never considered would actually happen. They were safe, they were capable, they were unafraid. He should have known that this day would come, but he was an idiot, nothing but a sheltered child too naive to think about the jarring reality that he wouldn't only feel alone in his head, but that that loneliness would spread and consume him whole.
