Emma wakes up the next morning cold, with a pounding headache, a burning in her throat, and a kitten asleep on her. To some extend, she accomplished her goal of blacking out. The kitten does a small stretch before hopping off her chest. At some point in the night, Emma had made her way into a ball on the center of her bed.
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she lets out a small noise that borders between a groan and a sob. Her head hurts so fucking bad. She makes her way to the bathroom, hissing at the freezing tile below her feet and squinting until she splashes her face with cold water. She needs to shower, and it takes some pep-talking, but she finally turns the water on. She looks at herself in the mirror as the water heats up.
Her neck and collarbones are littered with bite marks and hickeys. She puts her face in her hands and lets out a small scream of self-hatred. The removal of her bra only warrants more bit back yells of anger. The grand finale, however, is when she removes her underwear to suddenly remember truly the most shameful part of the night.
"You dumb fucking whore," she shakes her head at herself then steps into the water. She scrubs every square inch of her body a minimum of three times and stays under the spraying water until her head hurts too bad to stand.
She throws on sweats and a high neck hoody to take baby steps to the kitchen for a cup of water. She hears the front door screech open and her heart stops. There's no way of covering up how clearly hungover she is. Her mind races with the sound of Kay's footsteps moving towards the kitchen. "Oh my God," Kay says and Emma clinches ready for hell to fall down on her. "I'm so glad to see you," the older woman wraps her arms around her daughter. Emma is stunned for a moment before returning the gesture.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes," Kay lets her go finally. "They found another girl, not too far from here. They brought her in this morning and it scared the hell out of me. I'm always worried it's going to be you."
"Where did they find her?"
"At the creek bed down behind the park. The thing dragged her all the way from the street." Emma's breath catches in her throat as her mom keeps talking. It really could have been her this time.
"Who- Uh, who was it?" She tries to stay calm and relaxed.
"A Jane Doe. No ID found," her mom sighs and steps back. She slowly does a one over on her daughter but chooses to ignore it. She's just glad she's safe. "No one at the hospital recognized her so it's possible she's from out of town."
"I'm sure we'll find out today." Their conversation is interrupted by a small thump sound coming down the stairs. Kay turns to see the small kitten struggling down each step, falling every time.
"Emma," she sighs, annoyed.
"It was out in the cold," she shrugs. "Look how cute it is." Kay agrees that it's cute, but there's no way they can keep it. "I'll take care of it," Emma promises. She rushes over to pick it up to show her mom. How could anyone say no to that tiny spotted face? Kay finally raises a hand to pet it.
"You can't take it to college with you."
"I know, but remember, we talked about getting you a cat! This one just came to us." Kay closes her eyes and lets out a long-drawn sigh.
"Okay," she indulges her daughter. How could she say no when this is the happiest she'd seen her in a while? "But you're taking care of it." Emma agrees and starts thinking of names.
Despite the excitement, it's still the early hours of the morning after a long night. She cradles the kitten and locks her bedroom door behind her. She cuddles into the blankets, this time on her floor and closes her eyes. She can still the sound of her mother downstairs shuffling around and the birds chirping in the first daylight of the new year.
She sleeps and lounges until the next morning. The tiny kitten has no qualms with a lazy day. When she wakes, she feels frail and ill, but Emma manages to spend her day cleaning the parts of the house that had been neglected since summer. Under the fridge? Swept. Inside the fridge? Cleared of expired food. The area behind the couch? Vacuumed. A perfectly spotless house.
She's taking a break and relaxing on the couch when she hears a knock at the door. Emma cracks it open and is disappointed, but not surprised, to find Peter on the other side. "Hi?"
"Hey, we gotta talk," he says gently.
"About?"
"You know what it's about."
"I told you I don't want to be involved anymore," she crosses her arms and leans on the door. "You and Roman can go play superhero by yourselves. I'm not tagging along."
"Can't you swallow your pride for a moment and deal with him?"
"No," she shrugs and tries to close the door. He catches it. "Peter, I told you I won't do it, I can't be around him."
"Things are fine between you and Roman- from what I've heard anyway."
"Oh, fuck off," she rolls her eyes.
"Whatever weird fight you guys have going on, I don't care, but I need you to to help us." Peter spits out. "I need you to put it aside for now, just for now." Emily opens her mouth, almost ready to hit him with the truth but he stops her before she starts. "When it's over, when the vargulf is dead, you guys can go on hating each other. But for now, this is important. Please, for me."
"No," she says softly and shakes her head and tries once more to shut the door.
"Do you want to die?" He catches the door with his foot. "Because that's what's going to happen if you do nothing."
"Are you threatening me?" She quirks her head, unsure of what he's trying to say.
"No, I'm telling you what's going to happen," he tries to calm himself down from the anger he's feeling. "Destiny saw it, you're going to die if we don't do something. It's going to kill you."
"Okay, sure," she says, clearly not believing him.
"You don't know the things Destiny can do, can see," he tells her with a straight face. "She's always right." Emma thinks back to that night she spent with her in her living room. The things she had said, unclear but always hinting at the truth. Even in the face of all of her studying and belief in science she can't deny the feeling Destiny gave her. That she knew too much.
"You're not fucking with me?"
"I swear. I swear on my life."
"What do you need from me?"
Emma goes with Peter to his cousins. She agrees only on the terms that Roman will only be around when absolutely necessary. Peter can live with that. They sit at her dining room table, sharing only small glances as Destiny messes around with some tarot cards. She stops and puts them back in their case. "What'd you see?" Peter asks her.
"Oh," she looks at him. "That wasn't for this, it was for something else."
"Well?" Peter motions her forward. She looks at Emma.
"What the boys need is a tracker."
"A tracker?" Emma asks.
"Yeah, like someone who can find the vargulf."
"Why can't Peter?" She asks. "He's the one with special abilities and what not, and you have something. Like you said, I'm not special."
"You're right," Destiny agrees with her. "You're not special, you don't have powers, you're not a werewolf, but that's not what matters. What matters is that you have a future where this thing is drawn to you. So, maybe you can be drawn to it."
"Wouldn't I have already found him by now? If that were the case?"
"Have you been trying?" Destiny asks and Emma shakes her head. "Exactly."
"You want me to be bait, don't you?" Destiny doesn't answer right away and Emma stands. "Look, whatever vision you had... I'm not going out and waiting to be attacked."
"You have to do something," Peter stands to grab her.
"I'm not saying be bait!" Destiny shouts over the commotion. "I'm saying you focus your energy on finding it. You have the closest connection to it," she shrugs. "That's all this is, what I do, it's just focusing your energy on something. And you have a lot of energy!"
"What happened to "your connections not to the vargulf, it's to Roman"? Was that a lie?"
"Not completely!" Destiny defends herself.
"Than what is it?" Emma looks wild.
"It's hard to explain!" Destiny shouts back at her.
"You keep saying that but I want an explanation." Emma paces around pulling at her hair. Peter can see the stress rising in her shoulders and he moves to comforter her. Destiny shoots him a glance and he thinks better of it.
"You are a complicated piece in this puzzle, and it's better that you don't know everything." Emma tries to laugh, but it's broken by a long cough. "If you only want to be involved in what you have to be in let's keep it that way, sound good?"
"Fine," she mumbles and returns to her seat. "What do I do?"
"I'm going to make you drink some gross shit and hope it clears your mind," she explains. "Simple as that."
"Okay," Emma nods reluctantly. The more pragmatic side of her brain is in denial, but she knows there's more to the universe than the human brain can comprehend. Destiny stands from her chair.
"I'll get started," she claps her hands together. Emma and Peter watch Destiny leave towards her spare room. "Come along," she waves to them. They follow her into the room. Emma looks around at the weird plants and paintings that line the wall. There are two bookshelves that are out of room, and a table covered in what she can only imagine is tools for making potions.
Destiny moves quickly around the room, a dash of this, a little of that, two drops of something. She grinds up some stuff and stirs it all together before putting in a vial. Emma watches her with great interest. "Is this... something that interests you?" Destiny asks her.
"Oh," Emma isn't sure. "Um- it's something for sure."
"Drink this before you go to bed," Destiny hands the vial to her. "Be sure you're ready to sleep."
"Okay," Emma puts it in her pocket. "How will I know what to do?"
"You'll know," she laughs and pats her shoulder. Cryptic as ever.
"How do you know this? About me?" She asks slowly. "What else do you know?"
"I did something like this to find out," she gestures at the table.
"What else do you know?" Destiny sighs but doesn't reply. "What?"
"I know two other things, about the future," she crosses her arms. "But this is the only one that matters right now."
"I want to know the rest. What else is there?"
"You should never know your own future," Destiny tells her. "More than you have to know, anyway." Emma nods, understanding that Destiny is right. But she still wants to know.
She says goodbye to the Rumancek cousins and walks back to her house, playing with the vial in her coat pocket. She pulls the hood strings in tight, it's going to be a cold evening. She hadn't realized how late it had gotten until she comes in and hears her mom packing up for work. "Have a good day?" Kay asks from the kitchen.
"Yeah, I went to visit Peter," she takes off her coat and hangs it up, kicking her snow boots to the side. "You remember Peter, right?" She goes to the kitchen and leans against the wall.
"Yes, a little," her mom nods, throwing on her bag. "I'll be back in the morning. Lock up."
"Always," Emma follows behind and helps Kay into her coat. She locks the door and the bolt. She takes the vial up to her room and sets it on her desk. She's tempted to open and smell it, but she's sure she'll regret it if she does.
Instead, she leaves it sitting there until she's convinced it's late enough to go to sleep. Destiny didn't explain if this would put her to sleep or not. After a few moments of anxiety to uncaps it and shoots it back whole. It's grainy and tastes like concrete mixed with coffee grounds and piss.
It takes all her self-power to not spit it back up. Once it's down she stays standing, unsure of how long to wait. She feels a little sleepy and decides to lay down, but doesn't make it more than two steps before falling to the ground.
A/N Hello!!!
Sorry this chapters a lil short, the few are a lil longer, but this one was pretty straight to the point.
Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for reading! It means so so so much to me when I wake up to notifications from votes and comments. I'm not one of those writers that's obsessed with it, but just know that when you guys interact with me or vote it really makes my day!