Awakening (Awakening, #1)

Chapter 11

"Jonah," I hear whispered to me through the darkness. It's like I'm in a deep abyss, swimming through my subconscious. "Jonah!" I hear louder this time. My reaction is more haste than calm; I take in a sharp intake of breath and bolt upright. Violet sort of twitches a little bit, and her eyes keep darting back and forth, up and behind me, but she won't meet my eyes.

"Um, Jonah. Hey. Where did your clothes go? I was looking for you this morning to see if you wanted to come out here and go for a hunt with me, but I just found you here lying on the ground. Naked, and um, yeah." Her cheeks are tomato red, and I'm so confused. She must be able to read this expression on my face because next she says, "You're starting to forget." I think she says this more to herself than to me.

She sighs and grabs a big piece of some type of cloth or something that I hadn't noticed was beside her and puts it around me and looks away and throws another on my lap and ties it. "Come on inside." She tells me then walks away toward the door.

I have no idea why I'm outside. And naked no less. It makes no sense, and I'm starting to feel scared. I feel like a burden. But I don't know how to fix whatever is happening to me.

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I'm in the door and in the dining room table sitting in the chair and there's a set of what looks like more cloth on the table waiting for me, I guess. Violet comes into the room and says, "They're clothes. You put them on your body."

I grit my teeth a little, completely fed up with this. I should know what clothes are. It's extremely frustrating. I just stare heatedly at the clothes on the table and focus everything in me on what to do with them. "Here, J." Violet says, walking toward me from the kitchen. She picks up the piece of clothing from on top of the set and opens it up.

"Who's J?" I ask with a little bit of irritation in my voice. What if J is her boyfriend or something, and she just called me by his name? Who wouldn't be upset about that? 

I could bet anything she's a mind reader because next she says, "It's a nickname."

"But who the hell is nick?" I reply. All these damn names, I just don't understand.

She just stares at me for a few seconds, and I raise my eyebrows waiting for her response.

And she laughs. Not just a little chuckle, it was a full on belly laugh. And the sound of it managed to wash away all of my anger and frustration. I soon find myself laughing right along with her.

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A few hours later, a few of the guys come home and Violet has dinner ready. She serves them, and then herself and they all thank her. When she sits down, she shoots Elijah the most accusatory glare I've seen from her.  He's not looking up from his plate yet, but when he does, he stops mid-chew.

"What?" He says.

She continues the glaring. "Did you go for a run yesterday?" Violet asks with a dangerously level tone in her voice.

"Yeah..." Elijah seems to sense the tension coming from Violet. I do too, everyone stops eating to listen to what's about to happen.

"And did you by any chance...meet up with someone? In the woods." I'm really curious now to see what comes of this. It can't be anything good.

"If I did, I in no way see how that would be any business of yours." He replies.

There were a few surprised noises made around the table. "Reason I ask isn't because I care where you spend your time, or who you fuck, it's because I found this one," she gestures her fork to me, "naked. In the fucking woods. Now you know his situation; he remembers practically nothing. So where would he get the notion to sleep outside without any clothes, hm?"

I think back to last night, but there's a million holes in my mind pertaining to it. I didn't even remember going outside, much less taking off my clothes and lying down and falling asleep.

Elijah just laughs. The room is dead silent besides him laughing. "You're kidding. This is a fucking joke, Vi."

"Don't call me that," she says. "You lost the right to call me that a long time ago." 

And after that, she dumps her food into the garbage and tosses her plate into the sink and we're all just sitting there awkwardly.

"Asshole," Izzy says, slapping Elijah upside his head. 

He lets out a low growl and just gets up from the table leaving his plate. Elijah walks past me, but he doubles back and a second later his arm is snaked around my neck and he starts punching me repeatedly in my face. Hard. I don't show it, but I'm actually scared for a second; but this untapped power just flows through me and I start to try and get out of his grasp.

"Hey, hey, hey! Get the hell off of him!" The guys are all yelling and trying to get Elijah off of him. Instinct completely takes over, and why I don't try and break his arm or something, I don't know.

"Get off!" I yell. Just as Violet turns the corner to see what's going on out here, I bite Elijah right in the arm.