On the Verge ~ (Seth Clearwater Imprinting Story)

Chapter 10: (With Bonus chapter!)

I didn’t answer. My mouth wanted to say yes, but my mind wouldn’t send the messages to the muscles of my jaw.

“It’s okay to be scared. Everyone gets scared. Everyone has a weakness” he said softly.

“Look, I gotta go” I said getting up off the couch, “I’ll see you later…”

I scurried out the front door before he could say anything else. As soon as I was outside, I took a deep breath of the cool breeze coming from the east.

I looked back to the house, and expected to see Seth coming after me, but was relieved to see that I was alone.

I didn’t want to face Seth now, not until I could think about what to say. I let my legs carry me down the trail, to La Push Beach.

I walked along the beach, kicking a few pebbles, my hands deep in my pockets. The beach was bare, except for a few surfers paddling out.

The sun was starting to set, making the sky orange and yellow.

I stood for a second, watching a surfer. He was paddling slowly, the current changing its shape, forming a wave.

The surfer slowed down his paddling, seeing the wave taking its shape before him. The wave curved up, into a mouth, the surfer paddled even faster towards it.

I held my breath, as the wave relayed towards the surfer. The surfer turned around at the last minute, the manoeuvre setting him on top of the wave.

He stood up on the monster wave, the board sliding neatly across the water, before crashing into a white explosion.

My heart stopped, until I saw the surfers’ head pop up from the destruction, a smile across his face.

He seemed proud, fearless. I would never be able to face a monstrous wave like that. I would have turned the other way.

In a way, I envied the surfer. He had as much courage as I did in one finger.

I knew that very well, and I was sure Seth did too.

But he was right, everybody was scared of something. I didn’t know why I was being so ashamed being scared of Max.

Before that stupid dream, I wasn’t scared of him, but now, I didn’t want to be in the same room with him.

It seemed to hit me now that Max could really hurt me someday. Not like the harm he usually does to me, but one day it could go too far.

That’s why Seth was so protective. He knew that a night in, could turn into a nightmare.

He knows that Max is a danger, and yet I had known Max all my life, and I didn’t see it until now. I had always thought of Max as just, helpless.

A helpless person who took their anger out on someone else. For all those years, I felt repentant to him.

Now, I am the helpless person. I am the one who cops it all. I am in danger.

My little reverie was so powerful; I almost fell to the ground.

Max could kill me one day if this went on. I didn’t want to die.

Not now. Not when I had just found Seth.

I had to get away from Max.

Before I knew it, I was running back up the trail; back to the Clearwater’s where I had left my car. I hoped Seth was there, so I could give him my answer, but he wasn’t there.

Sue stood on the veranda, worry creasing her forehead. “Seth just went out to look for you, if you wait here, I’m sure he’ll be back—” 

I cut her off. “Sue, I can’t wait. I have to get home. Do you mind if I come back here? I’m…scared” I confessed.