And you might have to tell me again
It's crazy what you'll do for a friend
_____________
"How long has this just been sitting in there?" Peter asks looking at the vile in Destiny had just pulled from the fridge.
"Only a day," she shrugs.
"How did you get it?"
"I'll tell you after you tell me how everything went," she takes a seat at the dining table with a cup of coffee. "Want a cup?" Peter shakes his head and takes the seat across from her. "Alright, speak."
"Do I at least get a treat?" He jokes but she doesn't bite. "Look, nothing really happened. Roman had a dumb plan and thankfully no one died."
"I don't think that's a good thing." He gives her a questioning look. "It means he's beginning to neglect the cycles completely. The longer that happens the more wolf he becomes."
"So time's really running out, huh?"
"Looks like it, kiddo."
"How much longer?" He asks, fingers tapping the table.
"February, March at the latest."
"And then what?"
"He becomes an it. And it will be stronger, stronger than you. It won't be restricted to certain times in the month or day. It will kill day and night. Kill anyone."
"Are you still seeing what you did before?" Destiny nods. She opens the top and swirls her fingers around until she finds the single strand of hair. She carefully removes and places it on the table. She gags when it stays stuck to her finger. "I've seen you eat a worm filled with dead girl guts. A hair? Really?" Peter laughs at her.
"We all have things, this is my thing," she glares at him. She lifts the vile into the air. "Bottoms up." Peter watches in disgust as she downs the slimy grey liquid. "Gross."
"Yeah," he nods. "How long?"
"If everything works correctly, I should dream everything I need tonight," she gets up to grab a beer from the fridge to wash down the taste. "Then, if my visions were true... we'll figure something out."
___________
Emma's hand grazes across the clothing hangers creating that familiar clinking sound. She stops every few seconds to look at something she's passed then continues on. A dark blue sweater catches her eye and she pulls it off the rack. "That's nice," she hears her mom mumble.
"Yeah, it's cute," she continues to browse, picking up a few more. She makes her way towards the coats rack and finds a nice one she likes but it's too small on her. "I can't find anything," she tells Kay.
"How about this one?" She holds up possibly the ugliest piece of clothing Emma has ever seen in real like.
"No," she shakes her head. "This one's fine," she holds the heavy forest green coat out to her mom.
"Try it on." Emma hands Kay her purse and slides the coat on over her clothes. "It looks good! How does it feel?"
"It's fine," Emma nods. "This is good."
"How much is it?" Emma searches for the tag.
"Fifteen."
"Good deal," she nods. "Let's try these sweaters on and get to dinner."
Emma goes into the dressing room with the handful of sweaters she's found and hangs them up. The first two get a nod from her mom, the third one gets held up. "Emily, hole on the shoulder."
"It's fine," she shrugs.
"Nope," Kay shakes her head. "No holes, it looks cheap."
"It is cheap?" She laughs. "We are literally at a thrift store, this sweater is like a dollar."
"You know what I meant. Go try on the others."
They check out and make their way back to the car. It's lightly snowing and a bit windy. The sun's still up but it teases dusk. The two women sit in the car rubbing their hands together waiting for it to heat up. "You want to do anything else?" Kay asks Emma shakes her head. "It's your not birthday-birthday celebration."
"Thanks, Mom," she chuckles at the poor joke. "I'm okay."
"Oh, come on," Kay rolls her eyes. "We could go get your eyebrows done."
"Are my eyebrows bad?"
"No," she pauses. "Well, look at me." She puts her hand on Emma's face and turns it in all sorts of directions until she's satisfied. "They're not great."
"Would it make you happy if we got my eyebrows waxed?" Her mom nods her head. "Then let's do it."
___________
Emma sits across from her mom. They laugh at both of their miserable attempts to use chopsticks and how her eyebrows are still red. They go to the same Japanese restaurant every year for Emma's birthday and sit at the same table. It was a constant in the chaos of her childhood. "I'm using a fork," Kay drops the chopsticks.
"Same, I'm too hungry for this," she stabs her fork into a dumpling.
"So, how is school?"
"It's good," she lies. "It's been a weird semester so things are kind of weird."
"I'd imagine. Are teachers at least understanding?"
"I don't think many people are bothered anymore."
"It's a shame, but it's true. I guess people have gotten used to it." Emma nods agreeing. "I just can't imagine what these parents are going through. I don't what I'd do if I lost you. After the accident the thoughts never left my head?"
"Accident?" Emma doesn't recall a car accident.
"At the Godfrey's, when you almost drowned."
"Drowned?" Emma cocks her head.
"Yeah, remember? You fell in the pool at Roman's house."
"No, I don't remember that."
"I guess you were pretty young," Kay says. "You fell in the pool without floaties on. Olivia wasn't even going to tell me, one of the nannies did. She wasn't watching you guys closely."
"And you let me go swimming over there again?"
"I forgave her." she shrugs. "I knew she felt really bad about it."
"Why have we never talked about this?"
"It never came up. I honestly thought you remembered!" Kay truly did. "After that, I had decided I wasn't going to let you go over there anymore. But then Roman's dad died and your dad had just left, and I thought the two of you could understand each other."
"Do you know where Dad is?" Emma asks slowly, gently stepping on the subject. "Have you ever known?"
"No, never knew where he went. He sent his child support and that was that."
"No address? Not even on the check?"
"He sent cash. Nothing else."
That was the most that had been spoken about the absent family member in the past decade. There was a silent unspoken rule to never speak about him. No memories, no statements, and most definitely no questions. The man had disappeared into the night and took all of his secrets with him.
Emma can't remember what his face looks like, only a rough outline of his features. She has more memories of Roman's father than her own, at least positive memories. She knows that she only shared vague similarities with him, that's what Olivia always told her. She always said that was a good thing.
Once home, he hangs up her new clothes in her closet, eye barely being caught by the black dress bag. It's hidden in the back so it's out of sight, out of mind, for the most part. Emma would be lying if she said she hadn't thought about selling it. Even with the custom tailoring, it would get her more cash than she's ever had before. Part of it felt wrong to sell, it had been a gift and Olivia wanted her to have it.
Plus, Emma kind of liked the idea that one day she might wear it somewhere. She has no idea where, but it was hers after all. The thicker wool material would be a sweaty mess by the time prom came around.
She approaches the bag and lets her hand run over the thin polyester. It makes its way to the zipper. She hesitates, she hasn't seen the dress since that day she tried it on. Most of her memory of that day is a blur, blocked out my binge drinking, but she remembers Olivia handing it to her to try on. She didn't even look at any of the other dresses, she just knew that this was the one she wanted Emma to wear.
She remembers being thankful that she didn't hate it. When someone is buying you a $5000 dress you don't get to be picky, or at least that's how she feels. She's worn some really ugly things out of respect for Olivia. After that, the day turns into a supercut of all of the worst parts.
Before she knows it, Emma is standing in front of her mirror with the dress on. The neckline fits loosely now, and the waist is a bit wide, but it's still a beautiful piece of clothing. She spends a long time looking at herself. She doesn't feel like the same person she was when she tried it on, probably because she's not.
Still wearing the dress, she does the thing that all girls do at some point in their lives. She grabs a pair of scissors from her desk and goes to town. With no hesitation, she cuts off seven or eight inches until her hair hangs choppy below her chin. It's a rough look for sure, she'll get someone to fix it in the morning.
She takes the dress off, not bothering to hang it up. Instead, she balls it up and tosses it onto the floor in the back corner of the closet. She wouldn't want to wear it even if she had a reason to.
___________
The two boys sit across from each other in a risky dink donut shop that hasn't been remodeled since the '80s. Roman brings Peter a cup of coffee and sets down the box of donuts. "I talked to Destiny last night," Peter says, pouring sugar into his coffee.
"Yeah?" Roman takes a bit from his donut.
"She said that we should be concerned people aren't dying." Roman shoots him a confused look. "It means the cycles are having less and less of an effect on him, he might not have even turned this time."
"How is that possible?" Roman asks, licking the remaining powdered sugar off his fingers. "Why would he chose to not to change, he has to know that's bad, right?"
"Crazy people don't know they're crazy, and a monster doesn't know it's a monster," Peter shrugs and stares down at the table. "She said we have until March at the latest, after that there's not much we can do."
"I thought this would be easier," Roman chuckles, stealing Peters cup for a drink. "I'm bored. It never takes this long in the movies."
"I'm going back to Des' tonight. She's getting some information that I think might be helpful. If it is, we might be able to do something."
"Like what?" Roman dives in on another donut.
"I'm not sure yet," he lies.
"Should I come?"
"No," Peter says, "I think she wants to talk to me first."
___________
"What happened?" Peter asks, not even making it through the door that Destiny barely had open. He can tell by the look on her face it's not good.
"Take a seat," she tells him. He slowly makes his way to the couch and sits. She sits on the floor across from him.
"I was right, like normal," she tells him, but there is no joy in her face. "It's too bad, she seems sweet."
"You're sure?"
"Yes," Destiny nods.
"That doesn't mean it has to be related to the vargulf, or anytime soon."
"True," she reaches out for his hands trying to provide some comfort. "But I wouldn't put my money on it. It's too many coincidences." Peter sighs and leans back, defeated.
"It's my fault," Peter pulls. "We should have never came here."
"That's not- it wouldn't matter," she tries to comfort her cousin, but is failing. "The prediction would still be the prediction. It was just supposed to happen this way."
"Did she tell you about her dreams?" Destiny nods. "What do you think they mean?"
"I truly don't know," she looks a bit helpless which is very unlike her. "I have a couple thoughts, but nothing really concrete. I'm meeting up with a few friends next week and I'll get their opinions."
"Now, what do me and Roman do? What's next?"
"Goddamn, Peter, I don't have all the answers," she says a little harsher than she meant to. "What I meant is you're the one with wolf powers. I can just see stuff occasionally."
"Well, fuck."
"I think," she stops to plan her words carefully, "if we can get Emma to help," she stops again. "If vargulf is attracting her, maybe she can attract the vargulf." Peter stares at her dumbfounded.
"You want me to use her as wolf bait?" He quirks an eyebrow.
"Not as bait, as a tracker."
"She doesn't want to help Des, she's said so. Multiple times, at that," Peter explains.
"She might not want to help, but she can't stop what's happening," Destiny puts up a hand to stop him from speaking more. "She's walking around at night by herself, everyone knows that's a fucking death wish in this town. There's something in her pulling her to her future. She can't help herself."
"Are you sure?" She nods. "Even if we kill the vargulf?" She nods again.
"The Ursitory don't lie. You know that damn well. If it's what's supposed to happen it will happen."
"What about the other ones?"
"They're not mine to tell."
Across Hemlock Grove three separate kids are having a hard time sleeping.
Emma lays awake that night, trying to remember the story her mother had told her. She remembers being sent to swimming lessons but that's it.
Roman tosses and turns and eventually turn the lamp on to stare up into nothing. He can't remember what he's trying to remember.
Peter doesn't even make it to his bed, settling into the hammock. He counts the stars until his eyes get dizzy and he's too cold to stay out in the snow anymore.
A/N Thank you guys for all the kind words and votes! I'm so so so excited about breaking 1k.
On another note, I see that chapter 11 is one of the most viewed chapters, and I want to give the people what they want. So, if that's the kind of content you want more of let me know so I can buy a bottle of wine to drink😉