Mimic | Jacob Black

41. Sheltered

christmas no.2

I promise this is the last one

but this is a much more chill chapter to fit the festive season i think (the boys get just a bit freaky)

enjoy and happy holidays

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River slowly rolled his head from left to right in his dimly lit room, to the rhythm of the hallway clock. Maybe if he stared at the ceiling long enough, something would change.

Left. The wall of his bedroom. Some of the pictures in sight, hugging around the corner of the wall.

Right. His cluttered desk, sitting next to the window, the lamp the only thing providing light now as his laptop had gone to sleep from lack of use. The thick clouds outside stopped any light from reaching the ground all afternoon until the sun had completely set. The rain was heavy, but River liked it. The thrumming against the roof filled his head with white noise. Though, he supposed he didn't really need it, since the voices still hadn't returned.

It had been days since the wedding–nearly a week–and River still hadn't heard from Jacob. It was only now that the radio silence in his head was starting to worry him. It was almost ominous. He struggled so hard to deal with it before, and now suddenly it just wasn't an issue? Or perhaps this was a form of practice? Was he just used to the overall heightened level of stress and anxiety now? Raising the threshold. What a sad way to get rid of the voices.

Though, knowing his luck, it wouldn't last forever.

River did wonder though. Compared to all the other mimics, how did he sit on the spectrum? He was certain his execution of the whole thing was a lot worse than the majority of those that had to have come before him, not including the first mimic, of course. At least for now, he hadn't reached such a low.

He did try to give himself some credit; having to navigate life altering changes within himself amongst vampires and werewolves. Most mimics probably didn't even know they were mimics, but he was sure a good number of them would probably deal with the situations better than him.

I'm such a mess...

He wondered if his mother and Charlie were asleep. They hadn't really questioned him that much. They asked if he was feeling alright when they returned the night of the wedding, and that Joseph had been looking for him, and wanted him to call when he was ready. River still hadn't talked to him, but he knew putting it off any longer wouldn't do any good.

He reached out, hand searching around his nightstand to find his phone. He felt the wolf necklace and gently moved it out of the way, glancing over and grabbing what he was looking for.

He dialed his father's number, and waited, still staring at the ceiling. It wasn't that late–only 9:13pm, surely he was still awake.

"River?"

"Hey Dad."

"I was starting to think you weren't going to call, I was worried."

River rubbed his eyes. "When aren't you?"

"I'm only worried all the time because you give me a reason to be. But enough about that, are you doing okay now? I heard Jacob came back–that's amazing news."

Given how much effort Charlie went through to make sure everyone knew about Jacob's disappearance, it didn't take long for news of his return to spread beyond the reservation and throughout the entire town. Definitely not to any of Billy's credit–he was trying to avoid making it a spectacle in the first place, but obviously couldn't tell people to stop looking for his son without seeming suspicious.