Never Let Me Go (Derek Hale Fanfiction Book #3)

Chapter One: Repair

       Feeling the ground slip away from underneath my feet was just about the most terrifying thing to ever happen to me. Letting forth an earth-shattering scream of pure, unadulterated terror, I wind-milled my arms violently in an attempt to grab onto something, anything, to stop my fall. My vision was a blur of Cora's dark-haired silhouette and Monica's outstretched arms, and then suddenly I felt my body being knocked to the side like it'd been hit with a wrecking ball. The sounds of bones crunching reached my ears as the air whipped by and I fell to the ground in a jarring heap. Skidding about two yards on the dirty cement, I rolled over and over and over until, without warning, I landed on my back with a thump.

             Stunned and reeling, I lay there for a second before a thousand realizations pummeled my mind at once. Derek fell. Derek could be dead. He’s probably dead. No. No. Why am I lying here? Why didn’t I fall too? What just happened? Turning my head to seek out Derek's sister Cora Hale or my friend Monica Gomez, I instead found myself staring straight into the frantic brown eyes of Aiden, powerful Alpha twin. As I watched in breathless confusion, the myriad of cuts and scrapes on his face melted away like somebody had hit the “undo” button on the accident. His leg straightened out and healed with a loud pop, and slowly Aiden pulled himself upright onto his elbows and grabbed my face in his rough hands.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?! Chris, why on Earth would you jump? Do you know what would’ve happened to you if I hadn’t saved you in time?” Aiden shouted, his face darkening even as I sat up and pushed him away. I felt blood, hot and sticky, rolling down the sides of my face and my arms but the pain of my injuries paled in comparison to the crippling agony I felt sear through me as I scrambled to my feet and dashed over to the edge of the drop.

“No,” I breathed, the horror of seeing Derek Hale’s broken body down in the shadows, most definitely dead, threatening to make me do something crazy. Like jump again. No. No. No. This can't be...no. This isn't real. Derek isn't dead. He can't be...he would never leave me. As if reading my thoughts, Cora and Monica both slammed into me at the exact same time, wrapping their arms around me tightly as I collapsed, shrieking in pain and sobbing openly. My heart wrenched painfully as I let everything go; everything except my love for Derek and the blinding, all-encompassing loss I was feeling. 

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             It had only been a day but it felt like forever. Moaning loudly and stifling a sob that threatened to choke me, I rolled over in bed and scrunched my face up. My unruly auburn hair fluffed up above me like pieces of a shredded parachute and my sweatpants and grimy t-shirt were starting to smell. As much as I didn't want to be "that girl" whose whole world stopped spinning when they lost their boyfriend, I was. The little spark that made every day a new day was gone, snuffed out like a flickering candle flame. I couldn't even lift my head up from the pillow without either bursting into tears or fighting back the fierce desire to just end everything, stop all the pain.

             My will to live had vanished, and with each hour that passed, I felt more and more like I had nothing to live for. Boyd's dead. Erica's dead. Derek's dead. Even Dad is dead. Everybody is dead. So who would really miss me if I left? But even as the spiral of thoughts grew darker, Monica's warm, insistent voice filtered through the barely-closed door. 

"Chris, your ass better be out of bed or I swear to God-"

"Leave her alone!"

"Can't you see she's-?"

"I don't give a damn what-"

"-most likely dead-"

"We don't know that for-"