THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS - BWS

sixteen

"Why are you so confident he won't?" I asked back, and his half-smile was back on his lips.

"I guess we'll have to find out," he answered before leaving and closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, I dropped to my knees and hugged Dee tightly against me. She rested her head against my chest and we stayed there, glued to each other for a long moment. I couldn't believe I almost lost her. I didn't want to think about how she was still alive. All that mattered was that she was, even if our future was uncertain at this point. A part of me wanted to give in to the urge to cry and wallow in self-pity, but I resisted. I wasn't going to give them the pleasure of hearing me cry. Not again. And I needed my energy to find an escape plan.

--

I had been lying on the bed for a few hours, staring at the ceiling while Dee was sleeping soundly next to me. Despite my surprise at how easily and quickly she fell asleep, I was happy that she did. She needed to rest after the attack. I shuddered at the thought, and forced myself to focus on one of the other hundred questions buzzing in my mind instead. I couldn't stop thinking about everything that happened today. I desperately wanted to believe that everything that William said was a lie, but deep down, I knew it wasn't. Deep down, I knew that Dee didn't heal on her own and that my ability to heal wasn't human. And if I believed that, then it wasn't hard to believe that one of my parents wasn't human either. Memories of my childhood flashed before my eyes. I couldn't remember anything odd about my parents. They were just normal parents who loved their only daughter. They dedicated all their free time to me. I learned how to track wild animals with my dad, and how to fight like the superheroes on TV. I never questioned our training, it was all just a fun game to me. While my dad taught me valuable things that served me as a Hunter, my mom taught me more normal things, like how to cook. I was never an assiduous study, and would rather be outside following bear tracks than baking an apple pie. Seeing things from a new perspective, everything wasn't normal at home. We lived a secluded life, and while I hated how boring life was in Blue River, I started to understand why we moved there. My parents were running away from creatures. That was the reason why my dad trained me. They knew something would find us. I remembered how sudden my stay with Richard down in Wyoming had felt. It wasn't planned. Spring break had only started and one morning I was pulled out of bed and rushed to the airport. I don't remember much of that day, only that my parents drove me to the airport and left me in the care of a flight assistant until I reached the ground in Wyoming where Rick was waiting for me. I don't remember enough to know if he had acted as if all of it was normal, like I was supposed to be coming to visit. I saw my parents for the last time at the airport in Canada, and I couldn't even remember our goodbyes. Did they know they were going to die? Did they send me off to Rick's to protect me? How would they have known?

I squeezed my eyes shut, silent tears rolling down the sides of my head. The sound of an empty stomach suddenly echoed in the room and I realized that despite everything, I was hungry. I hadn't eaten all day, so it wasn't surprising considering my usual ogre appetite. It had been hours since Caelan left me to shower. Was he still in the house? Judging by how quiet it was, I doubted it, but I needed to make sure before venturing downstairs. I whispered his name so quietly I wondered if the word came out of my mouth. The door didn't move, and not a single sound resonated in the manor. Caelan said I could whisper his name and he'd hear it, but that was lower than a whisper. Was there a limit to what vampires could hear? I shook my head as I gently got out of bed, careful not to wake Dee up. If Caelan didn't answer my call, that had to mean he wasn't here. Did that also mean I could try and leave? The thought had my heart racing in my chest as I looked at Dee sleeping peacefully. The hope and sudden adrenaline I felt quickly faded when I realized that even if I could escape William's manor, I couldn't escape my life. There still were a million questions unanswered, and a breach in the Gates of Hell. And if anything William said was true, that meant I was the only one able to fix it, even though I had no clue how. I sighed. I couldn't leave even if I was able to. Because it wasn't just my life or Dee's that was on the line. It was the life of billions of people.