Shadow Bite || WATTYS 2017

Chapter Twenty-One

I wake up with a heavy conscience weighing me down. I feel a bit woozy as I get out of bed, and perform my morning ritual in an almost robotic way. I don't really realise my own acts, and my mind is in a completely different world.

"Camilla? Breakfast!" I don't recognise the voice still, but I bring my feet out of my room and down the stairs anyway. Mum's expression softens a bit when she sees my face, and she strides across the room and engulfs me in a hug. It's just then that everything rushes back to me. How she yelled, how her eyes widened with madness, how she glared at me in the most unfamiliar way possible, what Dad had told me about her. I need to figure that out as well. I bring my own arms around her and feel my eyes wet, becoming red and puffy from the water streams.

"Shh, don't cry baby. I'm sorry, Cami. I shouldn't have yelled at you." Mum coos gently, stroking the back of my hair with a light caress. She holds me as if I might break any second. I sniff and hastily wipe the tears away from under my eyes, forcing a smile at her and then taking a seat on a barstool by the island.

-It looks good." I say vaguely in an attempt to converse, watching as Mum slides a fried egg with avocados onto a plate and placing it in front of me. She laughs lightly, looking right through my nonchalant expression.

-We need to talk about-

-It's fine Mum, really." I cut her off, and she widens her eyes.

-No Camilla, it isn't okay. I shouldn't have yelled like that at my own daughter, and we both know that. I just want you to know why-"

-Mum, please. Can we have this conversation later? My head feels a bit woozy still." I whisper, taking a bite of the egg. She sighs but nods with her lips pressed tightly together, and finishes up cleaning the kitchen before leaving me alone in the large room.

With me sitting there alone, it feels empty.

Asher.

His name tugs at my heart but I force the feeling away for now. Someday, I'll have to tell my parents.

I just wish that day was a million years away.

°°°°

I brush out my unruly blonde strands and let them fall loosely around my shoulders. I apply a bit of mascara and lipgloss and slide out of my vanity chair, proceeding over to a chair. I step out of my towel and slip into the black skinny jeans and the creme long sleeved crop top. It has a mediocre v plunging downwards, so I shrug on my beloved military parka lined with faux fur, as well as a pair of black converse.

My Tuesday at school has been the same as any other boring Tuesday, but the nervousness from the invitation to the party has been following me around all day. Emma's absence hasn't helped with the millions of embarrassing acts with the young pack members that I've conjured in my head, and that has only fuelled the tension in me. I check the time and read 18:43 PM, fifteen minutes until the 'party'. I honestly don't know, because today Stephen had found me at lunch and reassured me that it would only be a quiet get-together to get to know me. I have a feeling that the two of us have very different meanings about the words 'quiet get-together'.

I take the steps extremely slowly, just to delay the time getting there. When I reach the bottom, I let the front door click shut behind me, before pulling out my phone. I check the address one more time and let out a heavy sigh, watching the hot air vanish in the cold temperatures. 

After a while the taxi pulls to a stop in front of an eerie-looking house, and I take in a breath as I scan the quiet surroundings. I thank the driver and hand her the money, sliding out of the vehicle to feel utterly and extremely exposed without its warm enclosure. Now, the chilly air pricks at my skin through my clothes and causes my teeth to chatter. I hear laughter from inside of the house and a loud bang, so I push the unreassuring sight of the old place away. I walk up to the front and rise up my hand to knock on the door, but before both make contact, it swings wide open and a young girl looks me up and down, leaning against the wall.