Name: Roslyn - Species: Unknown

Name: Roslyn - Species: Unknown 7

We sat up in that tree for a long time before Sean spoke again, the silence hadn't been awkward, but I was grateful for the start in conversation.

"Do you want to know what's happening to Ash?" he asked me, looking at me for the first time in a while.

"Yes," I said honestly. "But I don't want you to tell me anything if it makes you upset."

"I want to tell you," he replied. "I haven't been able to talk about it to anyone, not really. Everyone here knows... but its because of that no one talks about it. I need to talk about it."

"Then go ahead," I met his eyes. "I'll listen."

"Thank you," he offered a small smile. "I know it's probably become obvious to you, Ash is dying."

I took a deep breath, tears pricking my eyes. Hearing it like this, in plain words, that Ash is dying... God it hurt to hear that.  A dead weight settled in my chest. Sean looked away from me, staring out over the trees again, but I couldn't look away from him.

"She's ill, very ill. When we were ten, our mother died... no," he gave a bitter laugh.  "She was brutally slaughtered. Five hunters came to our home in Leeds... Ash, our mother and two others were the only ones home. Our mother answered the door and... they gutted her, right off the bat, no chance to defend herself. Ash was in the hall she saw the whole thing, right up to the beheading our mother was telling her to run."

I stared at him in horror. Ash saw all that... when she was ten? I couldn't even imagine it.

"That's when the two men came down, saw what happened and went nuts, killing the hunters, they were killed in the fight too. Ash... she just stood there, staring at our mother for a good half an hour before we got home and turned her away. It made her sick, she still wakes up screaming sometimes. She just never recovered, it's getting worse. We tried moving here, fresh start, but nothing works. Chances are all three of us'll be dead by next year."

"All three?" I whispered, tears running freely down my face. He turned and looked at me then, his face painfully void of emotion; it was like he'd just shut down.

"Ash, Patch and I," he said. "If Ash... if she goes then we won't survive it. She's my twin and Patch is her mate, we won't survive it."

"Sean I-" I didn't know what to say, what I could say.

Words would not make any of this better. I did the only thing I could think of doing, I threw my arms out and hugged him to me as hard as possible. Just as fast his arms were fastened around me and I was being crushed against his chest. I probably should have been afraid for my life considering a werewolf was squeezing me a little too hard, but it hurt too much seeing him like this for me to feel the physical pain of it. So I just held him as he shook silently.