(COMPLETED) The Lunar Chronicles - Winter's Summer

Part 20

Jacin sat on the couch in between Cinder and Winter, wringing his hands in his lap, trying not to drown in the awkwardness. Winter, Cinder, Iko and Cress gave each other concerned looks, back and forth. Kai was staring at a patch of carpet by Thorne's knee.

Thorne was sitting cross-legged on the floor, hands pressed firmly over his ears. He looked sad. Jacin hated seeing Thorne like that. He was the most confident person Jacin knew, and seeing him reduced to this disturbed person nearly crying on the floor of a farmhouse in Rieux, France, bothered him to no end.

Cress sat next to Thorne, rubbing his back, looking up at the ceiling in between glances to Cinder, Iko and Winter. Winter was curled up against Jacin's side, her head in her hands. That was what killed him most. Winter was hurting, and he could do nothing to soothe her.

There was nothing anyone could do, other than listen to Wolf cry.

That was what they had been doing for five hours. Straight.

It was painful. Everyone had been able to hear Wolf and Scarlet fighting, and had been able to do nothing but listen to them screaming at each other. When they went upstairs, and Scarlet had told Wolf to leave her alone, he broke.

Around three o'clock, Cress had snuck into the kitchen and grabbed some sandwiches for them, which they ate in the living room. People passed time by having hushed conversations, broken up by a particularly loud sob, or browsing through something on their ports.

Every one of them was scared to go upstairs. They didn't want to make Wolf uncomfortable by admitting to have noticed that he was crying, or make Scarlet angry by intruding on their argument. But Jacin had had enough.

Jacin had his arm around Winter. He gave her a little squeeze, and released her, standing up. He strode over to the doorway, walking past his friends, who each looked at him with perplexed expressions. Kai reached out a hand and grabbed his pant leg. Jacin saw confusion etched on his face. "Jacin?"

Jacin gulped. "I'm not going to sit here all night. I think he's stopped crying. I'm going to try to help."

Kai tilted his head to the ceiling, listening. It was true. Wolf had stopped crying. Jacin made an I told you so! expression, feeling slightly smug. He jerked his leg out of Kai's grip, moving to the doorway, when he stopped suddenly.

One piercing howl ripped through the air. Jacin gasped, feeling like he was physically punched in the chest. He had never heard any sound so broken, barely there, falling apart from the inside out. He looked back at his friends, trying to make sure that he hadn't just imagined the noise.

Kai looked haunted. One look around the room showed Jacin that everyone else had similar expressions on their faces, ranging from disturbed to horrified. A loud creak resounded through the room, startling Jacin into falling backwards onto the floor.

Wolf was standing just beyond the doorway, looking furious. It appeared that he had jumped over the banister. He held a shaking fist at his side, something thin clenched in it. He was trembling.

"W-Wolf?" Cinder stuttered, seeming terrified. Even more so than when hearing his howl of despair.

Wolf stalked forward, breathing heavily through his nose. His eyes were glazed over with pain and fury. With his hand that wasn't clenched tight enough to draw blood from the palm, he swatted a lamp off of one of the end tables on either side of the couch with a roar. It smashed into the opposite wall, missing Cinder by an inch.

Cress, Winter and Thorne all screamed. Thorne covered his face with his hands while simultaneously covering Cress's body with his own, trying to shield her from the spray of glass, and Winter curled into an even smaller ball than she was in before, crawling to hide under Iko's gurney.