FULL NOVELXO Chapter Chapter Twenty-One: Crane
Author's Song of the Chapter: Lost In The Moment by NF
I stand in my room scratching at my hands. Tears have settled in my eyes, but I don’t let them fall, she wouldn’t want me to cry for her. I scratch more at my hands as they turn red when my skin becomes agitated.
“The blood is gone, Crane!” Caroline snaps at me stopping me from continuing to scratch.
Caroline let me use her body earlier to ease my pain and for that, I am allowing her to be with me at this moment. I feel badly in my heart for using her, she deserves better, she deserves someone who can protect her. I watched my own mother get killed right in front of me from forces I don’t understand. I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m pretty sure my father hates me for that. I pull my hands from Caroline’s continuing my scratching until I bleed. She should go, she should go home, maybe she’d be safe there.
“You should go, Caroline,” I tell her my voice harsh causing her to flinch.
Suddenly my bedroom door slides open as Danny and Tucker enter. Sunny and her family have fled away from our lands joining another pack. I try not to gran at the idea of them being here. I am the alpha and should be happy to see them allowing them to comfort me. I just want to be alone. I’m so sick of having to be strong. I know the truth, I’m not, I’m not strong enough to be an alpha. Here I am being strong because I won’t admit to anyone that I’m no alpha, that would get me killed or challenged by some other Wolf.
“So, we thought we knew the full potential of this so-called monster, and now we know there is so much more than we thought,” Danny says to fill the silence; his words catch my soul.
I really didn’t want to hear that right now as it throws me back into the moment my world came crashing down around me.
…
“Mom, this thing is dangerous, we don’t know it’s true potential!” I exclaim my voice raw and angry as I have had to deal with questions from Caroline all day.
“It’s not dangerous Crane, it’s annoying but we will squash it.” My mom’s growl caused me to flinch.
“What if it comes after me? What if I’m next?” I growl out as mom shoots me a side glance raising her eyebrows.
“It won’t come after us, we are the alpha family boy. It wouldn’t risk taking us on.” Mom sighs running her nails over a file that she has pulled from her pocket, she never calls me son anymore it’s just boy.
“You aren’t taking this thing seriously enough…,” I start but then I notice that mom has frozen up, she stands stiff almost like she is paralyzed as the file in her fingers hovers over her nails, “...Mom, mom, are you okay?” I finish.
When she doesn’t answer I’m not sure what to do. I just look at her like I've paralyzed myself. Suddenly her eyes bulge in their sockets and she looks at me like she might be trying to scream but can’t. Blood begins to trickle from her mouth, eyes and nose. I move to her brushing her hair away from her ears to see blood trickling from them as well. Her eyes roll up in her head and I scream out for my father right when she falls. Blood spews from her mouth as her body goes slack dropping like a dead weight to the floor where remains still. I scream and scream as I look down at her blood pooling on the floor from her. In the back of my mind, I wonder if this is how Dusk felt when she held our dead mother’s hand if she wanted to scream. I continue to scream even when my father bursts into the room taking in the situation. I finally stop screaming when my voice is too raw, and my father starts to cry as he cradles mother against his chest pushing her hair out of her face. I know she’s dead, we both do. Mom died so fast, so fast. I don’t understand how? Dad continues to cry on the ground as he holds her body until finally, he looks up at me.
“What happened?” He demands his voice desperate as the question rips my heart wide open.
“It happened so fast.” I whimper as it’s all I can manage to sputter out of my throat.
…
I come out of the memory my muscles shaking as I move from the bed to look out the window my mom and I were standing in front of. This is where she died, right here in this spot.
“They say her insides were boiled, it’s what caused her to die,” I whisper as I look out the window into the forest below on a hillside.
“Are you all right?” Danny asks me as she places a hand on my shoulder, his genuine worry causes my heart to jump a little, all I want to do it tell him no, but I can’t it as I need to be strong like the alpha I’m pretending to be.
I nod my head at him and he backs off looking at me a little hurt because he knows I’m lying, he has always been the smart one after all who can read us all.
“I overheard my dad mentioning something about a Hellhound to your dad,” Tucker says quietly as his words cause me to whip around looking at him with wide eyes.
“Remember what mom said?” Caroline gasps from behind me, at this moment I would love to do nothing more than hit her for putting the emotion of helplessness deep into my chest.
“We already decided a Hellhound would make sense, it would have the ability to kill an alpha,” Danny states quietly and thoughtfully as he moves past me looking out the forest now.
“So, we are dealing with a demon from hell, great!” I groan leaning against my bed frame as I watch Danny looking out into the forest his nose twitches slightly.
“At least we know it had a purpose today,” Danny explains, his words confuse me.
“Purpose, its purpose isn’t just to bring pain and kill us all?” I growl out, but Danny doesn’t turn to me to meet my harsh words.
“Maybe not, maybe it has a soft spot. Your mom was going to execute those two weird humans in the hospital tonight, right?” Danny asks me turning to look at me now, this time his question completely throws me off even though I can tell the wheels are turning in his mind.
“Yeah, so?” I respond questioning Danny who almost rolls his eyes at me, almost.
“So, maybe it has a soft spot! It killed your mom and I bet you anything those two humans will be gone tomorrow morning. I bet you they will be missing.” Danny smiles at us like he’s won the lottery but from the looks on Caroline and Tucker’s faces I’m not the only one that is lost here.
Danny’s face falls when he looks at us letting his point fall instead of trying to press us to understand. This action is odd, Danny normally would press us on the matter. Maybe he just understands that I don’t want to be pressed today, still, his words dig into my chest rattling around my brain annoying me. I can feel my features turn into an angry look, all I want to do is think. I need something to unleash all this frustration on. Suddenly I lash out smashing my fist into the wall, I can feel my hand brake as it almost breaks through the wooden frame of the house. Blood runs across my burst knuckles as I retract my hand, the pain allows me to let out a breath of relief. I needed a release of some sort, Caroline earlier just didn’t cut it. When I turn to look back at my pack-mates they look at me like I’ve grown two heads, only Danny doesn’t. Caroline has moved from the bed to Tucker’s side. I smile at that and help myself to my empty bed relaxing. Caroline makes a move my way, but Danny stops her causing her to look at him frowning.
“You should all get some sleep, we have a Hellhound to track and kill.” I smile as they look at me with even wider eyes, I note that Danny looks at me like I’m an idiot and that pisses me off.
I’m debating slamming my fist into his face when he heads for the door taking Tucker and Caroline with him. I breathe another sigh of relief as tears come to my eyes, this time I let them fall since no one is here to see it. The pain in my hand intensifies but I welcome it, it’s a distraction from the reality of my life. I should be thinking about hunting and killing his Hellhound for what it has done to my pack and my family. I can’t as this isn’t my true family, I killed them long ago. I miss them.