One Drop

Chapter Four: Will

Earlier today

It is ten minutes later that Mum walks in and finds me lying on the floor clutching my bleeding arm that I can't remember getting. She screams and drops the tray of breakfast she'd been holding, so that crushed Cheerio's and milk as well as broken bowl and a spoon ad to the sheets, blankets, books and paper that lie over the floor like a layer of debris. She flies over to me, and takes my bleeding arm in her small hands. "What happened to you? How did you cut your arm? And where's Phil, he's supposed to be sick!" shrieks Mum but I can't speak, can't answer any of her questions. Mum screams for Dad, and he sprints in, but skidds to a stop as he surveys the scene before him, me with a bleeding arm and shocked expression, Mum crying hysterically and clutching me tight and the room a completes mess. "What happened here?" asks Dad, but I just shrug, unable to tell him what I have just found out.

A few hours later, I sait in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the local police station, telling the officer a complete lie about my brother's disappearance. The only person who knows the truth was Jilly, who I always tell everything. Everyone else, including Mum and Dad think that Phil left a note and ran off, and that I had cut my arm trying to stop him. After the news got out, my entire family were in shock. Mum had fainted, Dad catching her just as she almost hit the tiles, and all my brothers just looked like a bomb had shook them. As we drove home from the police station a sudden thought hit me. What would happen if I was like Phil? What if I turned into a, a, a wolf too, then my family and everyone else wa in danger. What about Emily, what if I hurt her? I would never live it down, it would kill me if I ever hurt her. So I vowed never to see her again, even though this thought kills me, and I know it would break her heart. But seeing her with a broken heart was better then  seeing her lying dead in a pool of blood.

When we pull into the driveway the first thing I see is Emily sitting on the steps, crying and clutching herself. She jumps up as the car stops and we all get out, but she stops as she sees us. 'God, we must look awful' I think fleetingly as Emily runs towards me and throws herself in my arms. I hang onto her like there is nothing else, and then she asks me, "What is it, where's Phil?" And I reply, "He's.... gone." She dissolves into tears and then we're hugging again. Jilly soon joins us, and we go inside, where Emily continues to ask us what's happened. Jilly looks at me, and I know she's asking whether Emily should know the truth. I shake my head and she nods slightly. Then Jilly tells Emily the lie, the one where Phil runs away. But I can see almost straight away she doesn't believe it. "But why would he do this? He loves you guys, he's never seemed unhappy before. Why would he do this?" Emily asks, but we don't say anything. She next asks of our family, and we tell her the truth this time, that they are devastated. But then she sees the look in my eyes. "Please Will, I know you, please don't go after him, don't do anything stupid. I'm sure he'll come back eventually. Don't hurt yourself over this, Phil wouldn't want that." she pleads, and I promise her, even though it's not true.

It's the next morning, and I'm lying in bed, watching Emily sleep. Tear tracks are carved into her face, and she looks so much younger in sleep, like a child almost. She wakes up and looks deep into my eyes, and asks, "Are you okay?" I nod, but it's not true. Why are there so many lies? It's like a spider is weaving a web of secrets and lies between me and Emily, me and my family! And then I remember my promise to myself, and how quickly I broke it. I jump off the bed, and smash into the wardrobe, but I hardly notice. "What are you doing?" she says, and I so want to tell her the truth, tell that I'm protecting her, but I can't. The next words I say break my heart, but I know they must be said. "You shouldn't have stayed. I can look after myself. You should go." I whisper softly, and her confused glance melts into hurt and sadness. I walk over to the door and open it, watching as she picks up her favourite grey cardigan and she walks over to me. "What did I do?" she asks, and I so want to lean down and kiss her, and pretend like nothing happened, that I don't want her to leave. But I can't. "Just go," I say, and she hugs me tight, even though I look away, and then she's gone, only leaving the faint scent of her perfume.

It's later in the day again that I start to feel the sickness coming on. I collapse at the dinner table and wake up in bed at 11, feeling like my body is on fire. I feel like screaming, but I can't, and I fall to the floor, writhing in pain just as Phil did the night before last, and then I'm suddenly surrounded by white, and I leap out the window and bound over the fence into the forest, where I now belong. I am the wolf.