The Void - Book I

IX- Death and Destruction

I stood in front of the mirror, stunned at my new appearance. The pack apparently has everything from a hospital to a beauty salon. Raf had taken me there earlier when we decided that cutting and dying my hair to send to my parents and also giving myself some sort of disguise, would be a good idea.

My once waist length hair was not cut into a long bob and dyed back to my natural dark brown color. I was so accustomed to having chunky blonde highlights in my hair that I felt like I was staring at a stranger.

But that stranger was me, and what better way to get on with my new life than to change my appearance.

I also most definitely needed to go out and buy some new clothes. Apparently, my hotel room had been ransacked after that wolf had jumped me, and they took basically everything with them, except for my phone. My phone was smashed beyond recognition.

My wallet and all of my savings were gone. My ID, real and fake, were gone. Everything I had was gone save for my destroyed cell phone. What use was that to me?

As soon as Rafael handed it to me, I threw it straight in the trash. There was no reason for me to hang on to it, and I definitely did not care to see any of the photos of Taylor and me over the years that I still had not brought myself to delete.

Amy, Rafael's aunt, and pack hairdresser took the hair she cut and tied it up in a beautiful black ribbon. She said she chose black since it was going to my family as the hair of their dead daughter, and I couldn't contain the tears anymore. I lost it and she wrapped me up in her warm embrace and whispered soothing words in my ear as she let me cry it out on her shoulder.

My parents were going to be devastated. I was their only child. They had never originally wanted children until they got married. They tried for ten years for me before finally conceiving. Little did they know, there would be a problem during my delivery that would cause my mother to never be able to bear another child.

As much as I wished I had a sibling like most of my friends, I also enjoyed having my parents all to myself. Our life as just us three was perfect. I was a straight A student and never caused any trouble. I loved them beyond words could ever explain and I know they loved me at times more than they loved each other.

I knew this was going to hurt them, but it was in their best interest. I didn't need them to come looking for me and stumble into this and get hurt, or worse.

I finally pulled myself together and let go of Amy.

"Thank you, Amy. You don't know how much this means to me. I know this is going to be hard for them but I have faith that they will make it through it and come out stronger than ever before." There was a confidence to my voice that most definitely did not match how I felt, but I knew one day it would.

Rafael was right, though. There had already been a missing person case opened for me. When they hadn't heard from me for 48-hours, they immediately contacted the sheriff's department and told them that something was wrong. I read the articles and watched the interview they had done with the local news station. They were already distraught and begging for any kind of information as to where or I was, and asking for anyone who had heard from me to come forward and tell them what they knew.

I even saw Elena in an interview, and suddenly I was left feeling like the worst best friend in the world because I wasn't even thinking about what this was potentially doing to her. Elena and I had been best friends since we were in diapers. My mom and hers had become best friends when Elena's mom, Charlotte, moved to Thomasville with her husband, Scott, where he grew up. Charlotte and Scott had met in college and fell in love almost instantaneously, marrying after their college graduation and moving back to Scott's home town to settle down and start their family.