Legacy Diaries

Emma's and Alyssa's Diary Entry No. 1

Emma's Office
Emma's Diary Entry

Rafael Waithe was one angry boy. I knew that without doubt the moment I read his full psychological assessment files from the foster care program and school records. The student counselor from his last human school even suspected a possible personality disorder and that was before he activated his werewolf gene.

I got a chance to see a glimpse of his anger in action a few minutes ago and it was frightening to say the least.

I was sure that it helped him push himself on the track, which was why he was one of the best in the country and why he was offered a full track scholarship to UVA, but it messed with his social life in a very bad way if his statement about the car accident that killed his girlfriend said anything, although it was a little incoherent, like he gave it while concussed.

Incoherent or not, however, it painted a person with Paranoid Personality Disorder, confirming the school counselor's assessment.

Rafael's reaction to Hope about her sneaking up on him added weight to the diagnosis, though I was pleasantly surprised by how well he handled his anger towards Josie, maybe this part had something to do with him not knowing his own birthday, but I was also concerned because, according to Landon, things didn't end well when Rafael bottled his feelings.

Speaking of bottled feelings, I wondered what had Josie doing the opposite of what she usually did and why she was so angry with Rafael that she held the pain inflicting spell longer than was necessary. I also wondered about the intensity of the spell, considering Rafael was able to stand up on his own two feet, although it looked like the spell was stronger than it appeared as it spilled blood, according to Jed.

Speaking of Jed, it seemed he finally accepted his new status in the pack after Rafael fought against Josie's spell keeping him down in a rather submissive position and made it clear that while he was Jed's new Alpha, Jed was his Beta, not his maid, and went to pick up one of the books I recommended for him at his request about werewolves, leadership and hierarchy from the floor.

It seemed the new Alpha wasn't going to abuse his status, unlike his predecessor, and that was an effective way to win over the werewolves and it seemed to work with Jed publicly acknowledging Rafael as the Alpha.

The werewolves showed a united front, but unfortunately, I couldn't say the same about the witches, and sadly, I wasn't surprised.

Starting with the werewolf-witch dormant tribrid Hope, her long term school loner lifestyle was finally biting her in the ass, something that was inevitable from the start. She was a werewolf and distancing herself from her peers was against her nature, a nature her werewolf side shared with her witch side because witches reached their full potential in a coven. Very few did so outside a coven, and they usually took the darker path.

I hoped the experience of being left alone would serve as a wake up call for Hope to start forming friendships instead of it serving as a reaffirmation of her fears and decision to stay a loner with the Headmaster as her only friend.

Speaking of the Headmaster and him being buddy-buddy with a student, his daughters appeared to stick together for better or worse, even against him. Josie and Lizzie seemed to have changed roles this morning, though, and this brought me back to Rafael. I remembered Alaric saying something to Rafael about the boy being good with birthday surprises and wanting him to do something for the twins on a bigger scale.

I wondered if Josie's attack on Rafael had something to do with the birthday surprise, but also why Lizzie was the voice of reason this time. It were moments like these that I was glad that I chose to work at the school as the lone school counselor. Being able to connect all the links was very interesting, eye-opening and exciting, and the payoff was very rewarding when people reached linked breakthroughs.

Speaking of breakthroughs, or attempted and failed ones, at least, it seemed Penelope's efforts were without success with Josie. The girl couldn't return to Josie's good graces after their break up regardless of how much she tried, going so far as getting Josie elected for the Honor Council, and Lizzie was very pleased.

Outside of the twins, though, Penelope was popular with the witches and the covens, something that she used to get Josie elected and place herself between first place and third place, the third place being Lizzie and Alyssa with equal votes.

Now, Alyssa. She was one of the most powerful witches in the school, one of the smartest students in the school too. There was just one thing, she was one of those witches that when wronged could retaliate with the vengeance of a violent uncontrollable storm.

Unfortunately, her power was closely linked to her emotions, and because of this, she unintentionally blew up her childhood home with her parents inside when she was younger, and sadly, her parents died, living her an orphan.

She had trouble fitting in when she arrived, especially with the Saltzman twins, but today, she led one of the covens on campus and was very influential as the go-to witch, along with her campus coven, for anything to do with emotions and thoughts connected to emotions, spells in particular.

Still, she didn't play nice with anyone associated with the Saltzman twins and the twins themselves, and neither did they with her. There was mutual dislike. Outside the witches, her coven had close ties with Jed and the werewolves, hence she wasn't pleased with what happened.

The relationship between Alyssa's coven and Rafael's pack was uncertain with the new Alpha, but now that Jed and Rafael were finally on the same page and the Alpha-to-Beta and Beta-to-Alpha transition was complete, I suspected the uncertainty was about to end, especially with Josie and Rafael appearing to be at odds.

Now, I had to decide whether to do or say something about what I saw to parties involved or not.

All things considered, the risk I took by letting the situation evolve and devolve naturally did more good than bad, and it revealed something that Alaric could be ignorant of, the heat between Josie and Rafael. A detail that could be important since the human Headmaster seemed to want the young werewolf's help with his daughters' birthday surprise.
~
Jed's Room
Alyssa's Diary Entry

"You're aware that class is about to start, right?" I asked, entering Jed's room, and right across from me, laid the new Alpha of the werewolves on Jed's bed, unconscious.

"Yes, but he needs your help," Jed said, closing the door behind us. "I know he wouldn't want anyone finding out that he collapsed because I wouldn't after establishing myself as a badass in front of the school, but I trust you."

"How long has he been unconscious?" I inquired, moving over to the unconscious werewolf and sat beside him.

"Four minutes tops."

"Josie must have really wanted to hurt him and his refusal to stay down didn't help," I commented, placing my palm on Rafael's chest to assess his heart, its rate and strength, glad that werewolf hearts were very loud and powerful, especially compared to vampire hearts, eliminating the need to undress him. "Do you want a quick fix or do you want us to be late for class?"

"That depends on how badly he's hurt," Jed replied, standing over me.

"His heart rate is a little high, even for a werewolf, but it's strong and steady, so that's good news," I began my unprofessional diagnosis before placing my hands on either side of Rafael's head with my thumbs resting on his forehead. "His body must be working on healing the injury, which..."

Rafael's eyes suddenly blinked open, although just a little, startling me.

"Ca-Cassie," he mumbled, his half lided eyes meeting mine, although they seemed unfocused. "Cassie."

"Um," I looked at Jed, my question obvious.

"Play along," he mouthed.

"Hey," I followed his suggestion, curious about who Cassie was.

"Cassie," Rafael mumbled again, right before a tear escaped from his tearduct only to be stopped by my hand. "I'm sorry."

He choked out the 'I'm sorry' and I felt the pain behind the apology as tears built up in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Cassie," he repeated, lips trembling. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" I asked softly, moving my hands from their position to wipe away his tears after he blinked and they spilled out.

"I-I'm..." he closed his eyes tightly, and I felt his hand move and found it in a tight fist when I looked at it. "I'm sorry for ki-ki-killing you-you."

He turned his face to the side away from me.

"I-I killed you," Rafael's entire body trembled as he spoke, guilt heavy in his voice as much as pain and shame and regret. "I killed you. I killed you, Cassie."

"Why?" I inquired to dig out more information out of him now that I had an idea who Cassie was.

"I was angry," was the response I got, and it was filled with pure self-hatred, I knew the emotion well. "It should have been me. I should have died. I deserve to die, not you. Not you."

I knew how he felt. His words were my own to my parents at least four times a year: my birthday, my parents's birthdays and the day I killed them.

"I'm so sorry," Rafael apologized again, closing in on himself, but I stopped him and made him look at me.

"I know that you're sorry," I told him, wiping away his tears. "And I forgive you. Do me a favor and forgive yourself, OK?"

"You-you can't," replied Rafael, shaking his head. "You can't forgive me."

"I can forgive you because I love you," I responded, blinking back my own tears. "Now, forgive yourself."

"I can't, Cass," Rafael cried, and I couldn't hold back my tears anymore because I couldn't forgive myself either, but he had to forgive himself for the both of us. He had to. "I can't. I don't want to."

Oh, I knew. The idea of forgiving myself scared me because I was afraid that once I did, I would be free of the guilt of killing my parents, and after living for so long with the guilt, it was the only think that connected me with them because I couldn't remember their faces and their voices anymore.

"I want you to forgive yourself and only then will I find peace," I said, trying to convince him. "You want me to find peace, don't you?"

Rafael closed his eyes tightly, but nodded.

"Good," I smiled a little, relieved. "Forgive yourself, then."

When he opened his eyes, he hesitantly cupped my cheek and caressed it lovingly, like it was the most fragile and precious thing in the world, and the love in his eyes was overwhelming, it was pure adoration.

"I love you so much," he said, and the warm emotion in his voice said as much, so much that for a moment, just a single moment, I believed him and caressed his cheek, until I heard Jed shuffling his feet uncomfortably, probably getting jealous, or trying to stop himself from being possessive, or both.

"I know," I acknowledged. "I love you too. Now, why don't you sleep?"

"I want to stay here with you," responded Rafael. "Wherever here is."

"You can't," was my response. "Not before you live your life to the fullest for the both of us, and you're going to do that when you wake up."

That said, I knocked him out with a spell before his mind cleared and realized that I wasn't Cassie and undid my hard work.