"Dad?!" Jacob yelled as he neared the small red house. The wolf still pushed on, although its movements staggered and slumped around. Jacob didn't attempt to run away in case the wolf decided that he was a threat and changed its mind.
"Dad!" Jacob tried again when there was no sign of his father. Tears continuously streamed down his blotchy red cheeks, stray strands of hair clinging to it.
Just up the shallow slope where the house rested at the top, emerged his father out the backdoor in his wheelchair.
"Oh my God..." Billy whispered. His eyes bulged at the view of his son and an obsidian black Quileute wolf stumbling to the ground and shrinking in size.
Jacob turned around when he no longer felt the force of being shoved forward and could hear those familiar groans just hours prior.
Lo and behold, it was Sam. Hands and knees on the ground, crawling towards Jacob like he'd just been brutally beaten. Bristling black fur seeped into his sweaty human, caramel skin till there was no trace of wolf left. Sam gave up his movements and collapsed to the dry, brown grass, consciousness failing him.
"Sam!" Jacob jumped to move towards the older boy but stopped himself suddenly. He wasn't sure who this really was anymore. He could still get hurt.
"Jacob! Get him inside!" Billy roared across the plain.
"But Dad-!"
"Now, Jacob! Do as I say!" Billy finalised with the command and wheeled back into the house.
Jacob haltingly pivoted around to Sam. With shaky unsure hands, he lightly grasped onto Sam's right arm. Seconds later, Jacob's older sisters, Rachel and Rebecca, shot out from the small, red house and flew down the few wooden back porch steps to come rushing over to Jacob and Sam. Once they reached them, Rachel seized Sam's left arm, and Rebecca overtook Sam's right arm from Jacob. The girls lifted Sam—his long hair falling over his face completely—from the ground to support his weight with his arms dangling their shoulders.
"Sam! Stay awake!" Rebecca nudged her elbow into Sam's side before wrapping her arm back around his bare back.
"We can't carry your dead weight. You need to move your legs," Rachel struggled out, and they took a lumbering step forward. Jacob moved with them, and Sam limply dragged his legs along.
"What happened?!" Rebecca shouted to Jacob.
"I-I don't know! I went to the den to do my homework-" Jacob stopped at the realisation that he had left his homework back in the woods. Great. He'll have to get it tomorrow.
He continued, lifting his hand up to Sam briefly, "A-And I saw him. He was acting weird and running off somewhere, so I went to look for him! Then-" Jacob stopped again. He can't mention Edward. Would Sam?
"Then what?!" Rachel shrieked out as the girls carried Sam over their shoulders. Jacob treading backwards to stay facing them.
"T-Then...he uh...I don't know! It wasn't him! It was this giant wolf-thing! He just appeared out of nowhere!" Jacob cried out hurriedly. Flailing his arms around and eyes flashing over the three of them as if he was willing them to understand what he was saying via the action.
The girls shot a look at each other on either side of Sam -still lugging him up the slope- something sparking between them like they were telepathically communicating. Must be a twin thing. Which leads Jacob to his next thought: how did Edward know what he was thinking?
"And after that?" Rebecca urged Jacob to continue.
"He just...He just kept pushing me back home," Jacob concluded with a look of confusion and fear. He rubbed his face on the back of his hoodie sleeve with a sniffle.
"Where's Dad?!" Jacob questioned, looking back to the house.
"He's gone to make some calls," Rachel panted out with strain. "Help us get him up these steps."
The girls grunted in exhaustion as they hauled Sam to the top of the plain. Once they finally reached the top, they grappled onto the rickety wooden railing of the back porch. Jacob shifted behind them to help lift Sam's bare feet up each step. They stumbled and swayed up the steps, through the back door and into the living room. They dropped Sam onto the couch with a heaving sigh. Rachel fell to the floor in fatigue at the foot of the couch, Rebecca ran to the kitchen, and Jacob sprinted to his bedroom to grab the blanket from his bed. He returned to the living room and draped the fabric over Sam's shivering form.
"Can't wait for this to happen again," Rachel half-sobbed-half-sighed to herself and rested her head at the edge of the couch.
"What do you mean 'happen again'?" Jacob almost yelled with wide eyes.
"Allison, Thomas and Ellen are here," Billy said as he came out from the kitchen.
Allison was Sam's mother. Thomas and Ellen being Sam's uncle and aunt.
Rebecca emerged from the kitchen with a cool, damp cloth and folded it to lay it over Sam's burning forehead. Sam had passed out. There was no use in getting him to drink water at this time.
"I'll get the door," Rachel claimed and stood up sluggishly to head for the front door.
"Dad, what's happening?" Jacob begged and faced his dad. It seemed as though everyone else knew what was happening except for him. Even Edward seemed to know.
He missed Edward.
Billy sighed. "Sit down, son. Let's get everyone inside, and we'll talk this through."
﹌﹌
They had taken Sam home.
Jacob explained what had happened in the woods in the same way he explained to his sisters. Billy and Sam's family were pushing for more answers like they knew something was missing from Jacob's story, but he wouldn't budge. It was up to Sam now.
Sam stayed passed out on the couch as the family explained to Jacob and his sisters exactly what was happening. His sisters were more understanding, apparently already having had "the talk."
Jacob was beside himself.
Shapeshifters. Vampires.
Quileutes. Cullens.
Jacob had seen it with his very own eyes. Sam. Edward. His golden eyes. The blood. The childhood stories, the treaty, the family feud—it all started to click into place. Jacob just couldn't fathom it.
What was worse was that it'll be him too. Eventually.
Sam was the first. It'll only be a matter of time before it's more of them. Jacob's own friends. Himself. That's what Rachel had meant.
When all was said and done, Thomas took Sam's sleeping body to the car to drive home, Rebecca and Rachel went to the kitchen to finish dinner, and Jacob was left to sit in the armchair. Billy watched his son as he sat there, quivering in the aftershock of adrenaline with a distant blank stare.
"I know it's a lot to take in, son. I'm sorry it happened this way. But Sam never meant to hurt you. He would never do that. You understand that, right?" Billy tried to reason softly.
Jacob didn't answer.
"Dinner's ready," Rebecca said as she came out from the kitchen. "Why don't you get something to eat, Jake?" she offered and went over to Jacob to place a gentle hand at the back of his head in a soothing manner.
"'M not really hungry," Jacob spoke quietly.
"It's alright, Rebecca. I think it's best we give him some space. Get some rest, kid. It's been a long day," Billy comforted.
Jacob stood to take his blanket that was left on the empty couch, "Goodnight," he mumbled and turned to retire to his bed.
Rebecca and Billy, with Rachel peering behind the kitchen archway, were left to watch young Jacob leave with sorrowful frowns on their faces.
﹌﹌
Jacob put his pyjamas on and sat on his bed. His phone on the dresser caught his eye.
✩──────✩──────✩
(A.N.
Thank you for reading! Please review.
Your comments make little Jacob feel better and your votes braid Sam's hair :3)