Fears To Face

∞ Chapter 39 ∞

Kayley

My father parked the car on Rayne's driveway and we got out. It had been a quiet afternoon and evening after dad dropped my mom off at Rayne's house. My father hadn't said much to me after he came back, not that he had last week anyway, but okay. I figured it was his way of showing me he really didn't agree with the whole situation. I hadn't paid much attention to him, to be honest. My mind was on Rayne.

Since I had heard Rayne's efforts to just lie on a couch during those last hours on the phone, sleeping was hard and for that hadn't worked out so great. My mind constantly wandered off to him and my mother. Whether they still knew each other now they were wolves, whether they would be alright, whether we would be able to find them in the morning.

Now that we were here, my nerves hadn't decreased at all. They seemed to be even worse. Together with my father I walked further into the woods behind Rayne's house with a wheelbarrow and I called Rayne's cell. We strained our ears, searching the sound as we quietly walked side by side. For a long time we didn't hear anything, but after a while we heard the tune. It was small, still faraway.

There in the woods, the musky smell in my nose, calming breeze in my lungs, I slowly started to understand my father's behaviour for the smallest bit. I knew he was nervous. He hadn't been a believer in sending my mother into the woods together with Rayne all along, free to run. He thought it was dangerous. I fiercely hoped that when my mother had liked it my father could accept it. I wasn't sure about that yet. Time would show I guess.

Rayne's tune grew louder. Soon I could see my mother lying on the ground on her side. I heard my father exhale relieved and he rushed towards her. I smiled, glad that she hadn't wandered off on her own, and searched the source of the sound, something that would lead me to my love. I peered into the darkness until I saw a small figure lying on the ground.

Strange, the sound seemed closer than the distance between me and the body. I stepped towards it. Then I saw I had been right about the distance.

When I approached the figure after a few steps, I stopped in my ranks and gasped.

No.

No-no-no-no-no NO!

This could not be true.

It was impossible.

This could not be happening.

It just couldn't.

My breath stopped and my knees grew unsteady. My chest moved up and down heavily, taking ragged, broken breaths. My gut turned upside down. I felt like someone was choking me, squeezing his hands around my throat until the way was blocked and I would suffocate.

I felt completely defeated.

My first step was wobbly and I almost lost my balance, but I recovered fast, I paced around the figure and shut my phone. For some reason I fiercely hoped I had been tricked, that it wasn't real, that he was just somewhere else, although the sound of his phone came from just beside him.

But then I saw his eyes. Yellow, but with a look so familiar, sad and scared and tired. I knew it was him. The love of my life, laying on the ground in his wolf-form in a pile of blood, his chest moving up and down in a weak, unsteady pattern.

My heart sunk to the bottom of the darkest ocean and a knot squeezed my gut together in a way it made me feel nauseated. I kneeled slowly, seeing his eyes follow me with fear and he tried to shrank back, but he didn't came far before he whimpered with pain and gave up. Oh god. Something close to a sob escaped my lips. It was heart-breaking to see him in so much pain as a wolf. It was even worse than when he was human. Pain was always worse with animals. With the softest voice I could manage I said, "Rayne? It's me. Please don't be scared."