Navy Wolf

Chapter 49

Beneath the tapestry of the night sky, 

constellations trace the paths of lost wanderers seeking the light of dawn. 

☾

Three weeks had passed and I hadn't heard from Kaven.

He hadn't visited me or sent someone to let me know that he was okay. That he maybe wanted to make sure I was still okay.

I had spent this entire time stubbornly repressing any thoughts and questions that came up.

Does he still want to talk to me? Does he not contact me because he's mad?

What if something happened to him?

Did the shucks injure him?

Or has he just made up his mind about me and won't come and get me?

No calls, no messages.

Nothing.

And I was getting more and more worried every day.
The pale yellow note was the only hope I had that he knew what he was doing and a confirmation that everything was going to be fine in the end - but slowly its effect diminished.

The more time passed, the less esperance remained in my heart. Even though I tried to play it cool - my sister saw through my bullshit.

I could see that Riley got more and more worried every day. She would check on me while I pretended to sleep, peeking through the door or unnoticeably watching me eat at the dinner table. Counting the pieces I put in my mouth which were a few, I had to admit, she always made sure I had enough food and slept well. When I didn't, she tried to keep me busy with wolf stories from the books she had borrowed from Camryn - which didn't help at all.

I sighed, averting my gaze from the view outside of my window. The unfinished blue prints of my sketches staring back at me.

I felt numb. And when I didn't feel numb, I was worried. This wasn't like him. He'd never not call or text or visit me.

We hadn't had the opportunity to talk this through completely. If the shucks hadn't attacked us, maybe we would have made up and moved on with our lives.

The only thing left was this stupid yellow piece of paper that I stared at every single night before I went to bed. Studying it, memorizing it. All because I tried to find a hint that I might have missed.
A single sentence that had tortured me for the past couple of weeks. And there was no ending to this in sight.
Getting up in the morning, getting ready, driving to work, doing my job and returning home surely felt so colorless and monotonous that I had had enough of everything in an instant.
Nothing looked the same or tasted the same. An empty feeling in my stomach and a penetrating worry on my mind.
Riley had taken me to this Avatar movie that had come up a couple of days ago, just to distract me from everything around us.

You need to get out of the house and out of your mind, she had said. You're in this vicious cycle.

So we had gone. But I guessed neither of us had thought that this attempt would had a completely opposite effect on me.

I had found out they were called The Navi.

Blue skin. Deep forests.

Dark dangerous creatures that looked like shucks.

His navy blue fur.

All of a sudden I had found myself in Parksville again during the whole damn movie.

God, I needed some hardcore liquor to drown these thoughts.

"I can't take this any more. We have to find out something!"
Riley walked up and down in my room like a tiger in its cage when she realized that I had zoned out again. "Give me his number, I'm going to call him."
She waved her fingers in a demanding motion but I just tiredly glanced up at her knowing that we couldn't.
"We can't and I don't want to," I muttered lowering my gaze in a bitter expression. God, I was so exhausted.
"Are you kidding me?" she snapped. "This is getting out of control! What the hell is he thinking, keeping you in the dark for over three weeks!"
Well, technically I knew it, I just didn't know the background or what was happening right now.

I saw my hair brush on my bed remembering that I hadn't brushed for a while. Memories of Parksville flooded my mind. That brush in Kaven's hand in the guest room I had stayed in. I felt like crying but I pulled myself together to not seem so pathetic.

„Do you have this Anakin's phone number? Maybe he's a bit less dense."

„Riley..."

„Oh come on," she argued. „I am not here to so you can defend them."

I kept quiet.

Riley was right. She had been the one putting up with my depressed mood and silent behavior. It was justified for her to get angry at both of them. One whole week would have been quite a long time period to wait without any updates.

But three weeks? That was really too much. As if he was avoiding me.

I shook my head to focus on work. I had deadlines to keep and projects to finish, this should be something Kaven is thinking about... but was he?

River, back to work. Back to work!

My phone suddenly lit up before starting to dramatically vibrate on the hard wooden surface of my desk.
I really hoped it wasn't the civil engineering department asking for the blue prints again but that wasn't the case.

And a name with a heart next to it popped up.
Dad.

*****

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