Gaze (✔)

Chapter Fourteen: Family Ties

I know, shocker, I updated...this chapter may be a little boring in some parts, but I hope you like it :)

Dedication to a commenter, as per usual.
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When Clara finally arrived in Boston, it felt like she hadn’t been there in years. Truthfully, it had only been over a month, yet so much had happened that her old life here felt like history.

She swallowed hard as she pulled up to the crumbling grey apartment building that had housed her and her brother for the past two years. They moved often “for safety”, as Luke put it, but always remained in the city. He had too many friends and connections there and couldn’t bear to move away permanently. Clara, on the other hand, had always been a little colder towards their companions. In her view, the mutual hobby of hunting werewolves wasn’t something you would build a friendship on.

Exhaustion pulling at her eyelids, she slipped out of the car, locking it hastily behind her – not that that would deter anyone in this neighbourhood. There was a reason she and her brother never bought a car – despite their lack of funds, of course. It didn’t matter. Joanna’s car was running on fumes after Clara had burned through the little money she kept in her wallet. Thankfully it had lasted her the entire journey home.

She crossed the sidewalks and entered the sun-lit building with a tired stumble, occasionally rubbing her throbbing head. She didn’t flinch at the unlocked door before her, remembering the lack of security on the building. Of course, that only extended to the other inhabitants – she and Luke were more than prepared to fight off a burglar or two.

Instinctively she bypassed the ever-broken elevator and started up the stairs, glad that they stayed on the second floor.

The door was locked, of course, and she had no intention of knocking. If Luke knew it was her outside, he would turn her away in a second. Her heart clenched at the memory of his confrontation at the hospital. Instead of kicking down the door, which truthfully she probably couldn’t achieve, she headed down the hall to Walt’s place.

Luke had known Walt for a few years, and so when the apartment became available her brother encouraged the young man to move in down the corridor. Clara was personally – and quietly – adverse to the idea. She didn’t like him after their first meeting, and even less after their first hunt. It was all a game to him, killing because he could. She wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up killing his own species when there were no more wolves to kill.

She knocked loudly five times in quick succession, hoping that she had woken him from sleep. Unfortunately, Walt had always been an early riser and was at the door after only a few seconds of impatient foot-tapping.

Tall and built like a bulldozer, he towered over Clara. He hadn’t changed at all – not that she expected him to. He was still the temperamental twenty-five year old with the shaven head and mischievous glint in his eye. Unlike their usual encounters, he did not send her a sleazy smile to go unseen by her brother. Instead, he looked surprised to see her.

“Clara?” he said, scratching his forehead and stepping back to provide her entrance.

She shook her head, standing in place. “I need my keys, Walt.” She said, her eyes wandering to the room behind him. As she had pictured, it was messy and crammed-full of cheap, stained furniture. She even thought she saw a gun lying on the sofa cushions, although she would have liked to believe that he wasn’t that stupid.

Instead of turning and retrieving the key Luke had idiotically bestowed upon him, he stood still, a tanned arm still holding open the door.

“Where have you guys been?” he asked.