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The alarm clock rang in Evie's room. The sound was piercing and hurting her ears so much. She abruptly woke up and smashed the alarm clock. It took her a second to realized what she did. She widened her eyes and parted her lips, shocked. She didn't think twice. Her body reacted by itself. She cursed and sat on her bed. She then heard footsteps coming towards her room. They were distinct, just like if she was next to the person like there were no walls and doors to block the sound from her.
"Evita?" Her mother called. Evie quickly hid the destroyed alarm clock under her bed. Now she had to buy a new phone AND a new alarm clock. She also had to find a new excuse. Evie told her mother she dropped her cellphone in the toilet. "What was that sound?" Sue asked as she opened the door. Her voice was clear and net. It was so strange to Evie.
"I, uh, I fell from the bed," she just answered. Her mother frowned.
"... Okay, but be more careful"
Evie nodded and her mother left the room. Evie could clearly hear everything. And by everything, she meant EVERYTHING. The water in the pips, the gas stove, the wind and the bird outside, and even Seth putting his school supplies in his backpack. So after the inhuman strength, the sudden growth, the highly developed smelling, the new side effects was the highly developed hearing. That new one was about to be troublesome.
Evie prepared herself and after a moment, she took her motorbike and drove off to school. On the road, she tried to focus on the road and ignore her knew ability but it was a lost cause. When she heard the strong sound of a horn of a car, she felt a huge pain in her ear. She was so hurt that she lost control of her motorbike but managed to control it again. The ride to the school was pretty hard. When she arrived at school, it was worse. She could hear EVERY conversation at meters around. Her head was filled with all the voices of people in the hall. It was painful. She couldn't even hear her own thoughts. Fortunately, Evie was controlling a bit more her smelling. If she couldn't, the addition of the highly developed smelling and hearing would be the death of her. It would be too much.
At her locker, she leaned next to it and opened it. She tried to block the voices out but miserably failed. She kept hearing all the conversation. It was so annoying. Evie took her books. She was about to close her locker when she saw the notes she took during her free period when she did searchings the day before. She founded nothing similar to what was happening to her. She did find somethings about vampires but not about people like her. At first, she thought that she was a werewolf but the definition of it wasn't like her. She wasn't a child of the moon. She didn't transform into a giant wolf on a night of the full moon. Yes, there was a moon but it wasn't full. Besides, werewolves don't control themself. However, even if Evie was acting out of anger, she still kind of knew what she was doing. She still had her consciousness. The strident sound of the bell erupted in the hall. Evie slightly jumped and put her hands over her ears, shutting her eyes closed, trying to ignore the sound and the pain.
A few meters away, Embry, Quil and Jacob were walking to go to their classes. Embry saw Evie putting her hands over her ears when the bell rang. She seemed to be pained by it. He frowned at her. She never did that before. And when he rethought about her recent behaviour a thought crossed his mind. Was it that? Well, according to the fact that Leah could actually do it, it was possible. Embry then nudged Jacob. The latter turned to him, giving him his attention.
"Do you think she phased?" Embry asked him. Jacob frowned and looked over Evie. He then looked back at Embry.
"I don't know, maybe. Leah phased so she might have too,"
"We should talk to Sam and the council about it," Quil said and the two others nodded. But what they didn't know was that Evie clearly heard them. And one question was running in her head. What phasing meant?
~~
"Evita Clearwater," the teacher called. Evie shot her head up and straightened up her posture. "My class is not a place to sleep."
Evie had her arms crossed on her desk and had her head laid on it. It could seem like she was sleeping, but in fact, she was trying to block all the voices. She kept hearing all the murmurs of her classmates, the voice of her teacher, the sound of the pencil against the paper, the flipping of the pages, the squeaks of the desks and chairs, and she could also hear what happened in the classrooms next doors. It was like that for hours. Since the morning, she kept hearing everything. It was bothering her, it was giving her a headache. She felt like she was going crazy.
"Sorry," Evita muttered. She looked really tired. The teacher gaze soften.
"Please, meet me at the end of the class."
Evie nodded and tried to focus on the class. It was hard, but she managed to write down some things about the lesson. It was the last hour of the day. Just this one and it will be done. It seemed an eternity but the bell finally rang. Evie hold a cuss and broke her pencil in two. That bell was destroying her ear. She quickly gathered her belongings and put her bag on. She then waited next to the teacher desk for all the students to leave. Once there was no one but the teacher and Evie, the teacher looked up at her students.
"Evita, I just wanted to be sure that you were okay," she said softly. The teacher was genuinely caring for her student.
"Yeah, I'm totally fine." Evie lied. She tried to be as convincible as possible.
"You're a smart girl and a brilliant student. I know you went through a lot, it had been a difficult year for you." The teacher said. "In those moments, we tend to keep everything to ourself. Don't do that. Talk to someone. Your family, your friends or even a teacher, we'll do our best to help you. But if you kept everything to yourself, in the end, you'll implode. And you could hurt yourself and the people around you. You're not alone Evita."
Evie thought a moment about what her teacher said. She was moved that her teacher was so caring with her. But she couldn't tell her. She would think of her as crazy. What would she even say? "So, I transformed into a giant wolf and fought a vampire"? No, way. The only possible solution, for now, was lying.
"Thank you for the concern, but I'm fine, Miss," Evie slightly smile.
The teacher looked at Evie a few second then nodded. Evie said goodbye to her teacher and left. As soon as she entered the corridor, she was attacked by all the voices of people. She sped towards the exit, closed her leather jacket - that she took so no one would notice her unnormal high body temperature - and climbed on her motorbike. She didn't care about the speed, she might have gone over the limited speed, but she rode fast to her house. She quickly entered the house, threw her backpack away, and slid down the door to the floor. Evie curled up into a ball and put her hands over her ears, shutting her eyes close. She tried to block out all the sound. But, again, she failed. She tried and tried and tied. But nothing. She could still hear everything. The water in the pipes, the cars outside, the crying baby in the house in front of theirs. She had enough. She wanted it to stop. She just wanted silence. Just silence. She was panicking. It was too much. She thought she could handle everything. But everything was too much. Transforming into a wolf? Inhumane strength? Highly developed senses? What was happening to her? What was wrong with her? She just wanted it to stop. Then, Evie rethought of her teacher's words minutes ago: "talk to someone". Evie wanted to talk to someone. But who? Who would believe her? She looked up and her eyes caught sight of a family picture. Evita's eyes stopped on her big sister, Leah. Every time she had a problem, Evita would go to Leah and the latter would do her best to help her. But would Leah listen after months? Well, now Evie didn't care. If she had to, Evie would make her listen to her. At the same moment, Jacob's words came into her mind: "Leah phased,". Evie's instinct was telling her that her sister, and even Sam's gang and the council could help her. Her instinct was telling her that they were the answer. Her instinct was telling her that they knew.
Evita didn't wait a minute and instantly stood up and dashed out of the house. She ran towards the woods. She didn't care if it was dangerous recently, it was the shorter way. She ran as fast as she could to Sam's place. She knew her sister would be there. Leah was always there with the others. She ran but stopped at sound of a helicopter that was flying quite low. Evie put her hand over her ear and fell on her knee. Adding to that the sound of nature, it made everything worse. Usually, Evie would love the singing birds and the sound of the leaves and animals. But now, it was too much. She just wanted silence.
"Please stop, please stop, please stop," she kept saying over and over again. She was on the verge of crying. She was panicking. She didn't know what to do. After a few minutes, she found the strength to stood up and she started running again. After a moment, she emerged from the woods and saw a house. She arrived at Sam's place. Her breathing was short and jerky but she didn't care, she walked fast towards the house.
"Evie's here," She heard Seth say. Evie was far away from the house but she could hear them thanks to her new ability. Everyone was there: Jacob, Leah, Seth, Jared, Paul, Quil, Embrey, Collin, Brady and even Emily.
"What do we do?" Quil asked, but no one had the time answered him when Evie loudly knocked on the door. No answered. She knocked on the door again, still, no answered. She sighed and knocked even harder on the door. She wasn't having it. She was done. She was scared. She needed to see her sister. Now.
"OPEN THAT DAMN DOOR SAM," Evie shouted. She wouldn't shout at him usually. But she was clearly not in her normal state. Her body was burning again. "I KNOW YOU ALL ARE HERE,"
After a few second, the door opened revealing Sam. He had a strict and firm face expression but it didn't intimidate or scare Evie. She was scared of herself.
"I need to see my sister," Evie said in a hurry. Leah, who was sat next to Seth at the table frowned. She noticed that Evie was clearly disturbed. The oldest child of the Clearwater family focused a bit and noticed that her younger sister's heartbeat was erratic. She noticed that something was different with Evie for days. Seth also told her how weird she acted at school. Leah thought that she might know what happened to her but she had to talk to the council first. For now, she couldn't talk about it to Evie. She wasn't allowed to and she had to be sure.
"You're not allowed to be here," Sam only said. Evie clenched her fist, it wasn't the moment to fight.
"I need to see Leah," Evie said again.
"And you're not allowed to be here," he repeated. Evie was not in a state to have a talk with Sam now. If he wasn't about to let her in, then she'll do herself. She loudly sighed, irritated and pushed Sam aside.
"I know she's here anyway, I smelled her scent," she said as she entered the house. Everyone frowned at what she said and looked at her. Evie stopped in front of them, they were sitting around a table and some on a couch behind. Emily was standing near a door. Evie didn't look at them and directly directed her eyes to her sister. She walked toward the table and stop in front of it.
"I need to talk to you, now," Evie said seriously, looking straight at the eyes of her older sister. The latter had her usual firm expression on.
"You heard Sam, you're not allowed to be here," Leah said, strictly.
"Leah-"
"Leave, now," Evie clenched her fist and jaw even more. So much that her knuckles turned white. She was even slightly trembling. Why did her sister couldn't see that she needed her? Or maybe she saw it but didn't care? Evie just wanted to talk to her sister. She just wanted her big sister to act like one. To tell her she wasn't crazy, that they would find a solution. Evie was attacked by a vampire, nearly died, went through weird and sudden changes and all of that in just four days. She was lost. She didn't know what was happening. She just needed her sister.
"At least, listen to me-"
"Come back home, Evita," Leah said.
And with that, Evie lost it.
"I SAID LISTEN TO ME," Evie shouted as she violently slammed her hands against the table, cracking it a bit, making everyone startled. She heard Emily gasped out of surprised. The trembling of Evie's body intensified. Sam made is way to Emily and pushed her behind him, as if to protect her. And at the time he did that, the tears were already falling from Evie's eyes. Everything that happened was way too much for her to handle. "I don't know what's happening to me... I don't know what's wrong with me..." Leah's gaze soften and she quickly stood up from her chair to tightly hug her younger sister.
"I'm so scared... I'm terrified..." Evie managed to say between sobs. Leah tightened the hug, patting her sister's head to tell her that she there for her. That she had nothing to fear anymore. The tremblings of Evita's body stopped and Leah muttered to her sister to follow her. Leah put an arm around Evie's shoulders and led her to the porch of Sam's house. They sat on the steps and a few seconds later, Seth joined them. Evie put again her hands over her hear. She still heard everything. Breathings, heartbeats, birds, winds. "Stop..." She murmurs in a breath.
"Hey..." Leah said, putting her hand on her sister's back. "You can block it."
"I tried, but I can't..."
"No, you CAN. You are capable of it," Leah encouraged her. "Just listen to me. Focus on my voice. Only mine." Evie nodded and tried to do as her sister said.
"You can control your senses. You can block the voices." Evie focused on her sister. She focused on her voice. Next to her, she felt Seth taking her hand and intertwined their fingers together. He wanted to show support to his big sister. He knew how scared it could be. But he also knew that Evie was even more scared than he had been. Because she went through it alone. Unlike the other members of the pack, she didn't have anyone to help her and guide her. After a moment, all the sounds calmed. Even the scents. She could still hear what the guys were saying inside and smell their natural scent, but that was it. No other extra sounds. No other extra scents. Evie's senses were back to normal even though they were still a bit more developed than the common human being.
"What's happening to me?" Evie asked her sister, not letting go of her little brother's hand.
"We'll explain everything to you," Leah said and squeezed Evie's shoulder. "But first, take off that leather jacket. How aren't you hot like that?" Evie couldn't help but chuckle.
"I'm burning actually,"