AURORA ☾ Leah Clearwater ✔

Chapter 21... Blame

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Leah

I watched my parents' terrified faces as I soared through the room, debris scattering through the air around me. 

Wow, came an oddly disconnected thought, I didn't think I'd actually explode.

But as my feet touched the ground I realized something was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. 

Aside from the odd sensation in my limbs, I felt much too large, much too alert. I could hear the cars on the road, the nattering of the squirrels in the trees... Not just hear, but I could smell them too. I could smell so many things.

Coming rain, already thick in the air...

Faint, stale tobacco smoke, an addiction dad had kicked years ago...

An eerie scent, sharp and sweet, that stung my nostrils and made me uneasy...

Remnants of a spicy triple-decker burger from that diner in Forks...

I looked at my dad following the scent to him. He had fallen to his knees, his bulging eyes staring at me. My mother was beside him, frozen where she stood, and her expression matched his.

"Le... ah...?" she asked like she wasn't sure.

Obviously, I tried to say... but it only out like a growling moan. I didn't understand why my mouth wasn't obeying me.

Seth burst in, looking frightened. "Mom? What was that—holy crap." His eyes fell on me and the blood drained from his face. He staggered backwards with a high pitched whine before there was another inexplicable explosion that shook the entire house. Mom screamed.

"Seth?" she called out, her voice high and frantic. "Seth, are you okay?"

A whimpering echoed in from the hall before a huge wolf peered in from the doorframe. It was a pale brown, almost tan, and it looked scared, its whole body shaking as it inched further in. 

Dad doubled over with a groan. "I... I never... thought... I didn't think that she would... I didn't think she could... Oh God, oh God..."

"Seth?" mom repeated.

The animal whined again, and then again, its shaking getting worse as it heard it's own response. I stared at it, shocked. The thing was responding to my brother's name. I remembered the explosion and wondered if it could, somehow, be possible. Could that wolf be... my brother? 

My own explosion came back to me and fear wound around me, cold and tight. I turned, slowly, to the large living room window behind me to check my reflection.

In the cracked glass, a white wolf stared back. It was huge, even bigger than the sand-coloured one... It sat amongst the wreckage that used to be t couch.

My heart raced. Is... is that me? I wondered.

But before I had a chance to really contemplate it, the white wolf was lunging forward. The glass smashed all around and the truth finally sank in. I was the white wolf. I was a wolf. And I had just jumped through the living room window. 

Then I was running, running as far as I could from here.

I heard my mother call my father's name before I disappeared into the forest.

I dove through the woods at incredible speed, running faster than I had ever done before. Though the impending storm made it seem like night in the forest, I could see perfectly fine. I felt like a ghost, breezing through the trees.