Alpha Will

8. Kiara

When they said you could never really know someone, I didn't know the saying extended to yourself as well.

Up until I fell into the lake, I thought I knew myself pretty well. I thought I was a pretty normal person. I love the color pink, I love writing horror stories even more and enjoy taking quiet walks in the park on weekends. My grades are good, and even though my parents have issues, they weren't entirely as awful compared to other people, and just like at least several million other of people out in the world, I have unrequited feelings for someone who didn't love me.

Overall, pretty normal.

Then the water- cold and overwhelmingly foreign- was everywhere, washing off the cheap illusion I'd been fooling everyone, including myself with. The person below was...scary. Because that person saw the darkness of the unyielding water and realized there was something else in the equation- something I- we- overlooked. And with that realization came a echoing thought that was even more frightening than the rush of water in my lungs: would anyone mourn for me if I died here?

My parents were a definite no, Dad pretty much told me he was replacing me before they went on their trip and that was no loss, but then there was Will. He was my only friend and it turned out he was only tolerating me up until now, so who else was there?

Who else?

Who else?

Yet another (albeit increasingly hysterical) revelation: you may be normal but you aren't happy at all, your parents told you to keep people at arms length so you did but Will didn't let you so you let him in and but it turned out to be entirely out of pity and now that he's admitted it you are utterly and completely alone. Dying alone down here in the darkness before you even got to live your life to the fullest.

My body jerked as if the last thought had been a blow, but that got me moving. I tried to raise my arms, tried to swim like I'd been taught to in swimming school, but my muscles failed me. It was too late. I'd been shock frozen since I fell in, too preoccupied with my thoughts, which were now steadily turning blank as my eyelids drifted shut...

Hands. Firm, warm hands, pulling me upwards, out of the darkness and away from my lonely demise. I don't think I ever felt relief so immense, but with it came the fear, the confusion with how I've been living my life. What was I doing with my life? What if this is how I die someday, not in a lake, no, but on a bed surrounded by no one? That possibility was numbing. Numbing enough I couldn't, didn't want to focus on anything else- until Brad said something strange and Will showed up.

Will Cage, the man who indirectly caused this fiasco and my only friend since third grade who apparently now had amber eyes that glowed.

Well, here's another person I didn't know as much as I thought I did.

I was vaguely aware of the fact that my blanket had fallen to the floor and Brad was stone-still, facing Will. Which meant he was seeing him too and I wasn't hallucinating. I stared at Will. He stared back.

He wore the same cloths I'd seen him in at home, but his hair was more ruffled, his expression as still as Brad. His eyes- those strange glowing eyes- were the only thing that moved. Slowly taking in my appearance. The cloths that clung to shivering skin, the face I knew- felt- now held a pair of haunted eyes.

"You jumped," he said simply.

And just like that, he deflated like a balloon.

He sort of staggered- fell onto a nearby sofa, his face downcast, body posture defeated. Slumped in a way I could never imagine for such a tightly controlled man.

There were a few minutes of long, uncomfortable silence. Brad was the first to break it.

"As much as I'm reveling in his misery, Kiara, I think you should give him a hug."

Reluctantly, I moved my gaze from Will, giving Brad a puzzled look. "What?"

They think you tried to kill yourself.

Brad made hugging gestures in the air, jerking a head towards Will. "Hug him, tell him you won't do it again."

I shook my head, was about to tell them the truth and clear up the misunderstanding when Will shot to his feet, eyes wide as he barreled towards me- just in time to grab the sword speeding towards my chest. The blade stopped a mere inches from my heart, the glinting steel trembling under Will's bleeding hand.

A mere second.

My eyes moved up the length of the sword, all the way up to the person holding it. An impassive female face was all I saw before she jerked back the sword and swung another one- the one in her left hand- at my head. Will slammed it downwards, shattering it and splattering more blood- and that's when the woman brought the other sword down on Will.

His foot. The rusty scent of blood filling the air, the deep red color staining the floor. A thundering growl reverberating through the room as Will dropped to his knees.

The woman stepped back, sheathed both her swords. She looked me straight in the eye. "The Alpha Eater will be back to finish him and free your tormented soul."

And then she stalked out of the room.

Well...there I go again lol.I started this story trying very hard to make it a normal chick lit without anyparanormal stuff but it looks like that's where it's going anyway. Oh well. Ifyou liked the chapter don't forget to vote!