"
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
"
- Carl Sagan
New Normal
Harper reverted. That was the best way to put what happened in the weeks following Sage's disappearance. She buried herself in schoolwork and her eulogy was written by her weird English teacher who could smell when someone was about to have a mental breakdown.
Quil and Jake walked around on eggshells around the girl in school. She didn't know why. She was fine. Completely and perfectly fine. Sage would come back. Everything would go back.
But for now, Harper would spend her time in class or the library or her room or Moonstruck. She didn't see a lot of the Fork's kids, which sucked, but she had to prioritize things. Mina's notes stopped. They were becoming less inspirational and more nerve-wracking so it was for the best. She was terrifying anyway. The trips into the woods stopped as her finals came and went. She didn't bother going back in. It was too cold. And she was busy.
This was obvious enough when during her biology class she quite literally fell asleep. Falling face forward onto the table and causing quite the disgusting bloody nose. It really wouldn't have happened if Mr. Hunt hadn't swiped her arm out from where it was holding her head up. She really can't take all the blame.
Of course, that didn't stop that little whiny bitch boy Embry Call from freaking out.
Harper raised her head after letting out a series of curses that would've made her stepmom blush. The blood gushed down her nose like a fucking waterfall and stained her sweater. Her hands cupped her nose and she couldn't smell or taste anything except for iron. She couldn't help but gag.
Embry's reaction was a bit more volatile. He stood up abruptly but gently pushed her forward to get out of her seat and into the hall so she could see the shoddy school nurse. "I'm just gonna-yeah, she's- this is a ridiculous amount of blood haha I hate this," Embry rambled out as he left while swiping an entire box of tissues.
Harper scowled at him as he stumbled over her words while pinching her nose and tilting her head forward. "Yeah, if you could hand me those that'd be great, thanks," she muttered sarcastically. The nasal tone was evident as she tried to stifle the blood. The girl eyed the boy who's cheeks barely glowed pink.
"Oh, yeah. Of course," he stuttered out as he gripped several tissues and pushed them into her awaiting hand. He rubbed his neck as he looked over at the exhausted girl. "I think you should-"
"It's forward," she mumbled. "If it's backward then I'll swallow the blood," she explained at his stupid wide-eyed look.
Embry nodded as he rubbed his neck, looking at his with nothing but concern in his eyes. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Giving her nothing but those stupid stary eyed looks and all worried, like it was any of his business. And every other second he was asking-
"Are you okay?" His voice was small. Still deep but undoubtedly quiet. He'd acted testy as if at any moment Harper would yell at him. At her affronted look Embry tried to fix it. "I mean you seem to be doing an awful lot and you've been handing your homework in like weeks early and you've been picking up more hours at Moonstruck... and oh uh-"
"I look tired?" Harper guessed, raising a brow. "So, I've been told," she mused turning to look at the boy after effectively mopping up most of the blood.
Embry looked at her sheepishly before nodding. "Yeah, I-we've been worried." Harper stopped their trek to the nurse's office.
"Why?" She muttered out bitterly. "You left before Sage, should I expect her to grow a foot and sprout muscles or..." His jaw dropped slightly and his eyebrows pinched together. He looked about ready to extrapolate when Harper interrupted. "Oh silly me, I forgot it's a boys club."
"It's not like that, Smartie." Embry's eyes were pleading but everything about the way he said it seemed so relaxed. It was like he was completely unbothered. Of course, inside he was completely freaking out. "Emily's been talking about it nonstop when she isn't stress baking."
If he was being honest, Sage going missing had been tugging on all of their minds. It had been weeks, almost an entire month since that party. There wasn't a single trace of her except for the small spot in Forks where the pack swore up and down that it was her blood.
Sage grew up on the rez and the people on the rez were close. Everybody knew everybody. Sage being his age and was a constant presence in Jake, Quil, and Embry's classes and playdates made it all the worse. They grew up together. And sure she had stolen a couple of girls that he had a crush on, she was a good friend. Not just to him, but to Harper. And Harper was suffering even if she wasn't outwardly showing her concern. Because it was Sage.
Emily had been stress baking. It was a win-lose situation. Harper winced but nodded nonetheless but stopped and looked at him inquisitively. "You're bullshitting me. Emily's confrontational, she would've told me," Harper explained once Embry showed his tell. He would brush his nonexistent hair behind his ear and fiddle with his hands.
Embry winced and twisted his features up slightly.
Harper rolled her eyes before continuing onto the nurse's office. After milliseconds she could hear his footfalls as he found his spot by her side.
"You know you don't have to be okay." Embry's voice was soft as if he was afraid to be heard by the girl. As if she was Medusa herself and with one look he would freeze over. And while her gaze at times was icy, never willing to talk because she knew that Jake, who had been getting moodier by the minute, and Quil deserved better friends. One was missing, the other joined a cult, and Harper was nothing if she wasn't in denial.
Was that what it was? Denial. She was okay, she was fine, she wasn't worried about Sage. She was worried about her grades and her job and the newfound towering expectations of her father who was hours away and still found time to visit a couple of weekends with Maya and Claire in tow.
The beast was still a little monster.
Harper wasn't in denial. Why would she be? The facts were as clear as day that she wasn't going to be seeing a glimpse of her friend anytime soon. Give it a month and she was sure that her parents would be burying an empty casket.
Here lies Sage Walker
A good friend and daughter.
Taken before her time.
Sage deserved more than that.
Here lies Sage Walker
Funny and Charismatic
Loved to be loved and loved to feel it
She could capture the beauty in a pile of scrap metal with her camera
The world lost a good one.
She is missed.
Or perhaps it should just read:
Here lies the memory of Sage Walker
Lost
For all Harper knew Sage could be dead, but putting here lies seemed horrendously wrong given that she wasn't in the casket.
You shouldn't be worrying about Sage, a voice in the back of her mind told her.
She wanted to tell it to fuck off.
"You're not my friend, Embry." Her voice was shaking without her wanting it to. Harper cursed herself as the blood slipped between her fingers and onto the linoleum floor below.
Embry looked like he was in pain. Like she put his heart through a paper shredder a dozen times and then decided a meat grinder would be better suited for the task. He wanted to say something. To tell her that he should be and that they were and that he wasn't in a steroid cult thing but he didn't. Because the truth had a way of rearing its ugly head and if he told her one truth in the sea of lies Sam Uley had been telling the pack to feed her he would have to tell her all of them. Even the fact that written in both his genetic code and the stars was a part of him that needed to be around Harper Young.
He would rather kick his own teeth in than tell her that. He knows that if he did she wouldn't look at it again. She would see it as him thinking of her as a possession rather than the brilliant and funny person that she was. She would see themselves as puppets with too many strings attached.
And besides, she was with Eli Fucking Novak.
"Fine," he got out, "we're not friends." Embry sucked in a breath as he got accustomed to saying that. It hurt, but whatever Harper wanted. "We're family friends, only together because somebody we know knows each other."
Harper narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips. He was a bit off with his shoddy definition but the meaning still came through. They didn't have to have a one on one personal connection if he spent time with the only family she had in La Push, Emily. He knew that something was up.
When Harper's jaw unclenched, not that she noticed, Embry felt his stiff shoulders drop slightly and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Part of the role of being a family friend, Harper, is knowing when you are off your A-game," he explained lightly with a slight twitch on the corner of his lips.
She hadn't pushed him away. He was sure that she would've demoted him to an acquaintance or a peer. He was sure he deserved that after his absence in her life. Even before he phased he was a monumental dick. It didn't take the imprint bond for him to see that.
Harper bristled at the comment. "I'm acing all my classes, this is my A-game," she said snarkily. There was a hint of malice between her words but he couldn't get a single one in as Harper strode into the office and was whisked away to the nurses.
Harper was off. There was something wrong. He saw her when she broke down about Sage. When she got home from the police station and erupted in a fit of tears. Or how she had wandered through the woods and it had just been Embry on patrol. He should have been closer. When he rounded to where she was all he could smell was a leech. Something was going on with her.
Embry decided that it wasn't his place to but his nose in her business. When she was ready to talk about Sage, she would. It didn't have to be with him but he just had to know that she wasn't keeping everything bottled up.
Harper was kind of like a can of soda. (In Embry's mind this analogy made complete and total sense but when he tried to explain it to Emily she slapped him lightly with her wooden spoon.) She would get shaken up, but she would never show it. She was never transparent with anything, it was always opaque with her. A solid layer covering everything up until some idiot (usually him) opened the can. And then, of course, all hell would break loose.
She didn't have a shift after school for once. She came home and did her homework to the sound of rain pitter-pattering against the roof with the ferocity of bullets. She found her mind wandering. The rain. Sage. The too-bright light on her desk. Sage. The picture she had pinned up on her wall. Sage. Her bed. Sage. The music she had been listening to on repeat. It was Sage's favorite song. Something by The Cranberries that was equal parts depressing and upbeat.
Harper ripped off her earbuds and shoved a pair of shoes on. She didn't bother grabbing a heavier jacket than the sweatshirt she had put on to hide the garish bloodstain on her white sweater. Without another word, she stalked past Emily who had been wrapped up in a hushed phonecall with her back to her.
She was soaked to the bone within minutes of being outside. She felt the cold fighting to make its way into her bones. Her teeth were chattering and she could guess that if she had a mirror her lips would have been blue.
But she felt something. It was almost a relief to feel the icy water hit her full force as the feeling bloomed each time the bullet met its target. It was better than whatever she had been feeling previously.
Like clockwork, Harper dove into her usual trail. She had started wandering, unsure of what she had been doing until she started calling Sage's name. With her hand cupped over her mouth, she screamed it out. Over and over and over again. Till her throat felt raw and she was certain she would be feeling less than chipper(/sick) in the morning.
Her mistake had been forgetting to bring a flashlight in her haste to get out of her room. Out of her own head.
The ground was slick and some parts her shoes had sunk into the mud only to be wrenched free by a girl driven by sheer force of will at that point. She was in the middle of a call, hair whipping around wildly as she turned in circles, almost like she was expecting Sage to pop out with that grin on her face. Fooled you, she would say and Harper would wrap her in a hug before claiming that they'll never go to one of Mike Newton's parties again.
Harper stepped forward to quickly on a patch of slick mud and tumbled downward. A yelp shot through the air before a low groan was let out. She felt something again that wasn't the cold or her aching throat. Pain blossomed in the back of her head as it became well acquainted with the rock lying in the mud.
She had barely been aware of the salty tears streaming down her face and her blubbering as she looked into the treetops. It was so dark that for a second she thought she was looking at the night sky itself. A lopsided snotty grin made its way onto her face as she stared into the red eyes of the woman above her.
Harper was insane and that was the only fact she was sure of as the redhead looked hungrily down at her. A pink tongue darted between two muted pink lips. Her nose twitched as she took in the saccharine scent of the young native girl.
The person who turned the redhead, Victoria had a saying that he had picked up from some stupid book and kept with him because it made sense. "Blood is life." Victoria had found this to be true. Each person's smelled a bit different. The same tantalizing iron smell, but with different hints. If someone ate too much sugar it was almost too sweet. Drunkards were fun to drain too. Healthnuts always made for the most fulfilling meal. And then there were hunts like the little girl below her.
Too easy.
And then the stench of wet dog hit full force, she could hear their steps reverberating throughout the entire rainforest. There were four of them. Different hues and heights but all a distinctive horse-sized wolf. The tallest, a terrifying black one, let out a rumble of a growl as it prowled forward.
Victoria cast a longing glance at her would-be meal below her. No, that would be a distraction. It would be reckless and impulsive and she had to plan carefully. She couldn't take the chance on the girl Mina had shown an interest to. No, she had to leave before the wolves tore her limb from limb. And if they didn't do it, Mina promised she would.
The woman jumped from tree to tree with three wolves hot on her tail. The fourth let out a mournful howl as it peered at the girl below him. Soaked to the bone, shivering, out of it completely, and lips blue, entirely too blue.
Embry nuzzled Harper with the edge of his nose. Just her foot. Harper, as if being resuscitated, finally moved and backed away from the look with a certain morbid interest and fear.
Harper knew she was going absolutely fucking bananas and nothing could convince her otherwise. Head trauma. Or she's dead and imagining the thing that had been keeping her busy for months in front of her as a big screw you from her diety of choice.
The wolf had sad eyes. And it crept closer, slowly as if not to alarm her. It let out a whine when she tried to stand. Harper quirked her head at it before she slowly sat back down. Seemingly pleased her hallucination had stopped its bitching and moved even closer.
If it was going to kill her it would have done it.
That was what Harper had been repeating to herself as she tried to note down whatever the hallucination was doing unless it was an actual wolf in which case Harper was monumentally and royally fucked. She tried to still her hummingbird heart as it got within biting distance. She tried to look away from its teeth and eyes. Unsure of whether or not that would set off the gentle giant. She sucked in a breath when it brought its head down to look at her.
Sad eyes. So incredibly mournful and morose that Harper found herself staring back at it. Highly intelligent creatures, she thought with a small frown tugging on the corner of her lips. In an unprecedented act of what most call insane stupidity (Harper called it her going out on a limb because she thought she was hallucinating), Harper raised her hand slowly and looked away as if she were waiting for it to take a bite out of her.
When it didn't she looked back. The creature bowed its head even further and pushed back against her hand. It was soft, softer than she imagined. Intelligent and borderline domestic, she noted as a lopsided grin tugged on her lips. Slowly, it moved from her hand to her side and prodded her hip until she stood again.
Intelligent sad eyes gleamed back at her as the wolf looked expectantly. Harper wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Her white whale was staring at her and all she wanted to do was laugh. She eventually settled for furrowing her eyebrows and whispering out, "What?"
The wolf rolled its eyes at her.
She stilled at the motion. It was... weird. She didn't want to dwell on the human-like gesture because she was sure that the jackhammer unrelenting on the back of her head wasn't a good sign, nor was the warmth rolling down her back, warming her and cooling her at the same time. Would she bleed out in the forest while perhaps the only discovery in the young scientist's life stood before her?
Like hell it would. But that was before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she tumbled down only to be caught by the body of the wolf.
Spoiler alert: the wolf was Embry.
Embry stiffened as the past out girl laid on top of him. He had to change back. He had to carry her back so they could get anyone to help her. Shame be damned and he honestly couldn't care less if Emily saw something she shouldn't.
He had shown up minutes later banging on Emily's bedroom door covered in blood that wasn't his own while Harper laid on the couch. All it took was a single phone call and Sue Clearwater was at their house in minutes.
The pack was just grateful that when she woke up the next morning she didn't say a word about wolves, just that she had a funny dream about a big dog that liked to be pet.
The blush that rose to Embry's face went unnoticed by only the girl who caused it.