Finding the Wolf Within

Chapter 38

So most of you know that I totally confused the heck out of everyone when I posted Chapter 37. I’m sorry, again, for that. I promise never to try and do technological things again. Apparently, for those reading on their mobile devices, you need to delete the story and re-add it in order to see the previous chapter.

***For those of you who haven’t read a new chapter in more than a week, this is NOT the latest chapter. If you’re not sure what you’ve read, read the first two paragraphs of the recap below. If it doesn’t sound familiar, you need to go back one chapter.

So, so, so, SO sorry to everyone for causing problems. Way to end 2011, huh?

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Recap

I opened my eyes a few hours later. It was barely dawn but I was suddenly wide-awake. I felt anxious for some reason, like something, some bad feeling had roused me from my sleep. I looked over at the nightstand to check what time it was, only to find a slip of paper propped up in front of the clock. 

It had five words written in a hand I didn’t recognize, but one I instinctively knew. I jumped out of bed and dashed across the hall. I could hear Eddie waking up and asking me what was wrong, but I didn’t have time to explain things to him.

The note. Five words that I had said thousands of times, and meant all sorts of ways. But not in this way, not in the way I was currently thinking.

Thank you. And I’m sorry.

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Chapter 38

It took less than five seconds to move from Eddie’s bed to the room across the hall. One second for each word on the note. One second for each of the major encounters I had had with Amber to flood my mind.

I held my breath for those five seconds – repeating, insisting, praying that the note didn’t mean what I thought it meant. 

I shoved the door to the guest room open. I could hear it bouncing back off of the wall, probably taking a chunk of the wall with it. I could hear Eddie stumbling to a stop directly behind me, could hear his parents rushing out of their room to find out what all the commotion was about. But I couldn’t take it in – not Eddie’s sudden gasp, not his dad’s short prayer, not his mom’s tearful cry. All I could hear, taste, smell, see, FEEL was the sight in front of me.

Amber. Lying on the bed. As pale as the sheet that covered her.

I collapsed onto my knees. She was gone. Again. But this time for good. And maybe this time for the better.

We were all silent for the next few moments. The only sounds that filled the room were the unsteady heartbeats of four werewolves. Four, not five.

I slowly got back up onto my feet and walked to the side of the bed. She looked like she was finally at peace. A small smile graced her lips and her hair was spread out across the pillow, almost like angel wings that framed her face. A tear slid down my cheek as I gazed down at her. I was suddenly happy for her, as irrational as that seemed. She was finally free – free of whatever thoughts had consumed her mind for at least the last two months, free of the mental prison Martin’s son had put her in.

I felt Eddie’s arms wrap around me from behind and I gratefully leaned into his body. I needed his strength right now because I wasn’t sure how long I could hold it all in. I wanted to weep, I wanted to laugh, I wanted to shout out in relief. Amber was dead. And even though I probably had a strong hand in leading to her death, I was strangely pleased because she was no longer tormented.