Under The Sea

Chapter Thirty-Eight

She was petite with long honey blonde hair, freckled skin, and eyes the color of sunlight. The position her body took was an uncomfortable one, from afar, someone might have mistakend her for a girl lying on the floor staring up into the sky, admiring the shapely clouds and finding a peace of mind. But should they take a closer look, they would see the unnatural angle her neck was bent at; the bruises that flowered her wrists and face; the look of surprise and terror in her eyes.

Her body was sprawled across the forest floor and no one had attempted to move her. I stood, unable to move, unable to speak. I wasn't staring at the dead girl before me, I was staring at the woman that I assumed to be her mother, she had the same honey hair and freckled skin. Her cries were the only sound that could be heard; I could hear the grief breaking through her shaking sobs; the anger coursing through her trembling frame.

"Who could have done this?" She screeched loudly, swiveling around to look at Aran, who stood beside me, with a broken heart that reflected in her eyes.

Aran cleared his throat, "I am terribly sorry Ms. Shaffer, we will do everything we can to find the killer. Would you allow us to take Alyssa," he gestured to the dead girl, "to the pack house to hold a ceremony in honor of her death?"

The woman sniffled. "I-yes of course." She nodded while swiping quickly at her eyes and glancing at me so quickly that I barely noticed.

I turned to look at Aran and his family that stood beside him and was almost surprised to see that they looked as if they had lost someone that was a part of their family. Realization kicked in. This was a pack, a family, a group of people that loved and cherished one another. They weren't bound by blood, they were bound by love. They all felt the impetus of one death, the grief would ripple through the entire pack like a stone hitting still water.

Cameron comforted the grieving mother as Aran and his father lifted the girl onto a stretcher. I motioned to Aran that I would be heading back to his house, which was not far from where the body had been found. I had never witnessed death so closely before and it made me uncomfortable to be near it; I didn't like to see people grieve and I couldn't imagine being surrounded by a pack of people with the same sad expression written on their faces and shining sincerely in their eyes. It was why I had held off talking to my mother about Dad for so long, in fact I still hadn't done it. It would put me in pain to see her in pain, seeing her broken would break me. It was selfish of me.

Be safe Aran mouthed to me as he walked away, carrying one side of the stretcher.

I nodded before scurrying off to the house as fast as I could, hoping that Jacin was still asleep. Upon arriving to the house, I found Jacin in the kitchen still rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes.

"Where were you?" He yawned.

"Aran's parents came over early this morning to tell us about a body that had been found on pack land. She appeared to be murdered, but we have no suspects yet," I said taking a seat across from him, "they're holding a small ceremony for the girl now, at the pack house."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jacin said quietly. I nodded and set my head down into the crook of my arm, resting my eyes and trying not to doubt my hopes of the future. Everything always came back to what might happen later on.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Fore. I know that look, your probably doubting the entire world's existence right now."

A small smile creeped onto my face and my eyes stayed closed as I spoke. "I know, it's just hard not to doubt everything. I-" My words were cut off by a sharp yawn that cut through my thoughts and made my head feel heavy with fuzz.