In Dark August

Chapter 8

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so thankful for you, readers, for you have given me endless inspiration! Thank you!

Not quite edited. 

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The dead woman's body, I forgot the name of, was lifted off of the blood littered ground by the gathering people. She had short tan hair, the kind that would shine in the sunlight, and her body was skinny, unhealthy looking. She was carried u one of the men, surrounded by everyone else, her head tilted back, lolling out of his arms. When he carried her, she was as if a rag doll, an innocent little girl in a deep sleep. Although the thought of her dead made her figure even more gruesome, her face looked serene and untroubled.

The man made his way through the crowd of sobbing people, and appeared on the other side, towards the house. It was Liam, the one who finished first. He was the kid in my age that wanted to please and wanted well to prove he was good.

Though, the look on his face when he carried her out showed he wasn't just doing it for ego reasons. His cheeks were smeared with tears and the whites of his eyes were red. His eyebrows were furrowed in a way like he was trying not to cry. It was his part of deciding to carry the dead woman, and how he looked doing it made my mind spark a bit.

As I thought about it, I suddenly found similarities in Liam's features with the woman he was carrying. Tan hair, defined cheekbones, and the shape of their hands; it was all there. It suddenly dawned on me that they were related by blood.

I remember when Liam's father passed away (a cocky son of a bitch but we call him stubborn in short), they held a funeral in front of the house. It was the quietest funeral I have ever been to; no crying, laughing, or any conversation at all, except maybe when the younger children, who I believe one of them was August, were starting to get fussy and one of the mothers shushed them.

Liam's father had a history of beating his son and once Alpha (coincidentally letting it slide a few times) had enough, he separated him from his family. He was a troubled man, drank most of the time, and was never really right in head, always saying things that never made since and talked to himself often.

His death was quite ridiculous; he had been drinking one night and stumbled down the hall on the second floor and apparently fell down the stairs, breaking his neck. At his funeral, though, his family were the only ones, by far I know, who were actually sad for his death. The tan-haired lady, who I forgot the name of, was there, looking down at her bother's funeral casket, flowers in her hands, 10 year old Liam on her right side, her widowed sister on the other.

I watched as Liam carried his dead aunt into the pack house, not caring if he wasn't supposed to because of Alpha's little meeting. When the screen door clattered shut, the pack continued with their moaning sounds of grief.

I've never liked Liam in the past, but the guy has proven to everybody, even I, that he can be a great service to the pack, and most of all, in fairness.

When track race started, I had a bee-line straight for the creek (knowing that Alpha would most likely like to hide one there because the thick brush and reeds), yet Liam apparently had the same idea also. I tried to keep ahead of him, jumping over fallen logs and skirting between trees, but somehow he stayed by my side the whole time.

When we came to a clearing, with smooth dirt and thick brush surrounding it, I noticed a dark center in the middle of the muddy trail that used to be where the water trickled down, but it didn't really come to mind. As I raced closer, I suddenly realized that it was a deep pit that split in the middle of the dried creek. I tried coming to a scrambling stop but instead stumbled side-ways over the edge. For a moment the wolf inside me concluded I was going to fall to my death, when I felt the pain in my scruff as I was yanked from my fall, and collided with the pit wall. Once I was level, I was dangling in the pit, whatever caught me trembling from my weight. The looming darkness below me opened wide, ready to swallow me whole. Fear started to rise in my chest.