ANCHOR ° S. STILINSKI

Banshee

          Some people fall in love instantly. Others it takes time. There are people who will never fall in love. People who don't believe in love. While there are some who haven't met the right person and have no idea what love feels like. Sadly, there are the people who fall in love easily. That feel the connection with their lover from the second they meet, possibly silently pawning after them ages before they meet. They fall in love but then something goes tragically wrong.

            They go through the trauma of having their lover taken away, ripped from their lives. They go out with a dead that strikes many, affecting the person that they love and the people that love them. Derek's face showed the idea that he had lost one. That he fell in love hard and it consumed him, so much that he had a hard time getting over it. His words falling from his lips.

              "I loved her. And she was taken away from me." As he spoke I was careful to watch his attitude, the way his face fell, so I knew if he was pushing himself too far. "What happened?" His eyes, which had been focused on the floor traveled up to me. "I'll tell you the whole story. The day we first met, it was a school day and I was in the hallway with my friends. I don't know why we decided to play in the middle of the school instead of at the gym but it was a good thing we did."

              He stopped for a minute, taking a shaky breath as he closed his eyes gently. "I could hear her, practicing her cello, but I didn't think anything of it until she came out of the music room. She was wearing these blue jeans and a long sleeves shirt that reached right at the top of her jeans. Apparently we were being too loud and should have been practicing in the gym."

            I raised my eyebrows as I looked at him. "She played cello?" Derek nodded slightly, a smile lightly on his lips. "She refused to give me her name, told me she would give it up if I could play any instrument in the room. I found the triangle and-" A chuckle left my lips as I scooted against the wall next to him. "You did not!"

            He tried covering a laugh as he continued his story. "I was fifteen and I didn't care. I don't think she did either. She laughed even. Right then I knew, I knew I would fall in love with her. And I did. We started dating a month later, neither of us really wanted people to know what we did when we were alone. So whenever we were together we'd run off, usually we would come here. She lived all the way on the opposite side of town so I would run as fast as I could to her, so it worked."

                Derek lifted his head and looked around the distillery as if he was reliving every memory he ever had of her in his mind. Then again, he was. This was his first love. Somebody he lost. "Wow Derek Hale, a real charmer." He smiled and nodded slightly, raising his eyebrows. "She believed that I was. One night, while we were here, she asked me why I liked her. She didn't realize it was that she brought out a different side to me. She was like a spark."

       "What happened to her?"

      "Peter. Somehow I had let him get into my head. He convinced me that she would find out. And that when she found out she would hate me. Made me believe that to turn her was the only way to stay with her." My mouth fell open as I gazed at Derek in shock. "Did you listen to him?" His head moved up and down. "Yeah, I did. He got an alpha to bite her. And he did. The only problem was-" His voice cracked and my back straightened.

           "The only problem was that it didn't work. The bite it either turns you. Or it kills you." I reached out and grabbed Derek's hand. "You don't have to tell me anymore." He shook his head and squeezed my hand. "You asked me why my eyes are blue instead or yellow. I'm telling you. I had brought her to this root cellar. She was dying."

              He froze and I frowned. "Derek.." He shook his head. "Jayla." I nodded and he sighed. "She was in so much pain, we were both crying. She said it was too much. Said she didn't want to feel the pain anymore, so she asked me to end it." My mouth fell open and I put my opposite hand over my mouth. "She asked you to kill her?" He nodded and I bit my lip. "She asked me to and neither of us wanted her to suffer, so I did it. I had to kill her."