Ashley
I'm running, it's either I'm chasing something or something's chasing me or both happening at the same time.
I keep having this feeling of saving something…of sacrificing myself
"Stay away from me", I say to the shadows in the trees, they move like wind across the ground as they keep getting closer and closer.
"You can't save her, her fate is sealed", said voices from the shadows as they materialize into figures, but I wasn't going to wait around to discover what they're turning into,
"I'm going to save her, I have to", I say to myself sprinting towards the cliffs,
I'm almost there, I can see her surrounded by the shadows but I trip and fall to the ground as the shadows,` catches up with me, and tries to consume me.
And it does….
I'm suddenly in immense pain as it tries to take over my body and see into my mind. It tries to make me submit to it.
I remembered my amulet, my gift else I would be dead by now.
That's what the darkness does, it won't stop trying until your dead. So it's either you die or you become part of it…
And I wasn't going to stop fighting…not until I'm dead.
Suddenly,
Bright light surrounds me, the pain gone as I am radiating with this energy. I am not consumed nor am I dead.
I take off within a second towards the girl, unknown to her what's happening.
I fall to the ground, wrapping my arms around her. I rip off my amulet and put it in her hand. As if on cue my energy of protection and immunity from the darkness is being conducted through the amulet, because of this, I take her place to be destroyed.
"Foolish child", voices from the trees sounds throughout the clearing,
I stand up straight, turning around to meet my doom as strong winds push me to the ground. I sigh, taking my final breath and say my final words...
"I told you, even if it means sacrificing myself, I will save her", the darkness consumes me, there's no protection, there is no second chance and this time it will be my end, my mission was finally over and my destiny fulfilled. I helplessly watch the darkness, slowly getting weaker and weaker until I am unable to blink.
"She is safe from you where you can never ever reach her, never…again"
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"Caleb, come on walk faster, we're supposed to be at Ashley's house five minutes ago", yells McKenna as her and her brother hurried into the yard and rang the doorbell.
"I wasn't the one who spent five hours doing my hair", annoyingly said Kaleb as the door was being answered by Claire, Ashley's mother.
"Good morning Mrs. Shades", McKenna and her brother said in unison,
"Good morning, McKenna and Kaleb, come on in, sit down and have some orange juice or tea, if you like. I'll go get Ashley", Claire said as Ashley's friends entered the house appreciating the gesture.
She goes up to her daughter's room and hearing sounds coming from it,
"Ashley, sweetie your friends are here, you have to get up, your project is due next tomorrow", Claire says, but gets no reply as the sounds get louder from her daughter's room. Fear elopes her as a thought crossed her mind, "Not again, it's getting too frequent", she thinks to herself.
"Ashley!!", she calls again as she opens the door…
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Jacob
"I'm sorry, but the decision is final. We cannot continue to delude ourselves on the grounds of having faith and putting the pack's future at risk by not have something solid on ground" "Years ago we went by faith, not even considering the idea of a contingency plan and we paid heavily for it. Once again, I'm terribly sorry, but this is not negotiable"
Those were the final words of the chief councilman, Harrison. The meeting ends with solemn looks and hefty sighs.
I burst out of the room with rage. The mating ceremony was almost here and I was so hopeful of having a mate but the council of elders aren't interested in taking the risk. They wanted to have a plan, in case anything went wrong and now, it's already set into motion. Was this why my father's mood always changed at the mention of the issue? Has it already been planned that they just waited for the precise day to tell me. For generations, alphas have ruled with their mates, side by side. How can I be a great leader if I can't even get that right?
I head into my room trying to make sense of any of this when my father enters a few minutes later,
"Jacob, I am so sorry", he said apologizing,
"How could you keep something like this from me, you even gave me hope, that she'll be beautiful…"
"And she will be", and with a sigh he pauses for a while,
"I never wanted for any of this happen. Yes, we were weary of the issue and also tried our best to protect the pack from more devastating scars inflicted by betrayal and fueled by distrust and hatred and resulting end, destruction.
The foundation of a pack is love, trust and loyalty. How can we be leaders if we cannot protect what this pack stands for?
"I addressed the issue and suspected that this was what the council was speculating, but I didn't think the decision will actually be made"
I sit on the bed, while he looked at the wall with so much concentration,
"I think I need to tell you a story about your mother…"
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Lights were being hanged and decorations applied. It was the announcement ceremony, one of the most important events before the blue moon which was a few weeks away. They were going to announce my partner, future wife, and the future Luna of this pack.
I stand at the stage, ready to receive her as I spot my father coming into the spot light. He gives me a reassuring smile while walking in my direction, inspecting the decorations one last time, just to be safe. I then take a look at my mother walking elegantly from the entrance of the hall, after what my father told me, I would never be able to look at her the same way, ever again. My father catches me looking and he stares at her too,
"It's the best for the pack",
Then the announcer comes on the stage, my father goes back to take his place beside my mom.
The ceremony begins, he announces her presence followed by applause from the crowd,
"I now give you, the future Luna of this pack"
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"I know it's hard to take in Jacob", my mother says to me, taking a seat beside me. I was at the garden, the south side of the hall, sitting in silence, feeling the wind, listening to the birds. The ceremony was over, I felt like I needed some fresh air. When my mom first saw me here, she quickly picked on that he finally told me the truth.
She knew I could handle it. It'll take time for me to adjust but eventually, I will.
"I'm guessing your father didn't tell you about the latest update of the council", she says, picking my interest,
"Because your mate is yet to be identified, the opportunity for her to be with you is still vacant. Sweetie, all the council wants is to secure the pack's future, you can't hold that against them",
"So, if what you're saying is true and if I do eventually find my mate, my true mate. I can be with her?"
"Absolutely"
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Ashley
I'm jolted awake, panting heavily and sweat all over. I hear the sound of the alarm going crazy, it has been ringing for 3 hours.
"How come I never heard it", I ponder as I stop the ringing then hear the sound of my door and my mom watching curiously.
"Ashley, are you okay?", Claire asks siting on my bed, "It's the dreams again, isn't it", She asks me as I nod in response still a bit shaken,
"Do you remember what it was?", I stay still trying to remember,
"Can you tell me, or at least write it in your diary like you used to", being drenched in sweat and shaken with fear, I could not remember a single detail of my dream. In a split second, everything was lost as I displayed a disappointed look and my mother knew my answer.
"I'm so sorry dear, we'll figure this out I promise".
"I hope so", I reply to my mother,
"Now come on, your friends are waiting for you" …
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"Kaleb? Where's my pen", asked McKenna to Kaleb,
"How am I supposed to know"
"You're the one who saw it last",
"I don't care, I said I don't have it"
"Yes you do, and you're gonna give it to me, right….", McKenna says as she is interrupted by the sound of Ashley, all dressed up and walking down the stairs with her book bag.
"Hey guys, sorry for keeping you I had to freshen up first", I apologized trying to hide the fact that I had another dream again.
"What's wrong? You said you were gonna call to ask if we were on our way. Is everything ok?", asks McKenna,
"Is it the dreams again isn't it?, cause you seem like you haven't slept in days", says Kaleb to Ashley,
"Yeah but, I still can't remember anything", I say to Kaleb disappointingly.
Dreams, or should I say nightmares. I've been having them for a while now ever since a few months ago. My mom had gotten used to it, dad's always travelling though and my siblings don't even know. My best friends only know because they found out about it. It's always the same, at first my mom didn't believe me, but after a while I couldn't believe it myself.
It starts the same way, I wake up sweating and too gripped with fear to even utter a word, and when I do everything disappears and suddenly, I forget why I was so scared in the first place. I've gone from psychologists to gurus and mystics, but there isn't any rational explanation to why this is happening.
It isn't constant though. It's like your period only irregular, like it stopped a few weeks ago and it came back on no other day than my birthday. I would consider acupuncture and hypnosis next because I'm just about getting sick of it.
"I made the corrections and inputs on the letter, remaining the samples to get from our parents and we're done, you guys got your samples?", I say to the siblings in front of me.
"Yup, right here", McKenna says pointing towards the bag she was carrying.
"Yo Ash, no offence but can we see the document?", says Kaleb to me,
"No prob", I say while bringing my laptop and opening up the document, then I hear the buzzing sound of notifications on my email.
"Whoa Ash, what the heck is wrong with that thing", question Kaleb obviously being annoyed with the buzzing,
"I don't know, it looks like …spam messages?", I says curiously at the dozens of messages entering my laptop.
"Spam messages on your 18th birthday? Well that doesn't seem suspicious", says Kaleb as I give him a pointed look that my mom was in the kitchen and that he shouldn't give her any ideas,
"Just open one of them and see if they're spam or not", says McKenna trying to block her ears from the annoying sounds of the laptop,
I open one of them but saw something to my horror, Kaleb sees my face and smiles mischievously,
"Insurance messages??", I exclaim,
"What??", asks McKenna obviously confused,
What??", asks Kaleb obviously disappointed, I look at both of them but continue scrolling anyway,
"Yeah, Insurance messages, bank messages, or just plain birthday messages", I say scrolling through the pile of messages,
"Why are they all spamming you", Kaleb asks,
"I have no idea, and most of them are about contracts of construction, insurance on buildings, or just banks complaining of incomplete data or bills urgh! my God it's a lot", I say as my eyes tire from running through a lot of messages too quickly,
"Any reason why a lot of companies and banks are spamming you?", asks McKenna as my eye catches something….an explanation,
"None of my parents are involved in the stuff, but look, they keep talking about inheritance, expired contracts and so on, like my dad is a contractor or something", I say as McKenna and Kaleb come around to look at what I was saying,
"Or an agent', suggest McKenna,
"Or probably dead", says Kaleb as everyone gives him a look,
"What, next of kin meaning the actual guy isn't available so they look for a backup", asks Kaleb innocently,
"Really?" says McKenna,
"It's just a suggestion", answers Kaleb,
"That's not possible, her dad's still alive obviously, plus he's a lawyer, definitely not a building project guy", says McKenna,
"hmm, another popular word is Aiden", I say,
"Aiden? probably your grandfather", asks McKenna,
"Or distant relative", says Kaleb,
"Whatever guys, time is running out and I don't have time to start sorting through spam messages when we should be collecting DNA samples", I say,
"Yeah, let's get this over with", McKenna says as we get to work on labelling and grouping the samples in order. I had all samples apart from blood which I had to get from mom and dad. So we decided that McKenna and Kaleb take their flash drives to a ICT center to print out the documents while I get the samples from mom and dad.
As I escorted McKenna and Kaleb out the door, I came back to the living room to see dad dazzling mom and the twins about his glory days or just the time he went to law school. I catch him talking about choosing a successful career or following his dream and doing both and how he worked his butt off freelances to buy some necessities that he felt he didn't need from his parents,
"I was the best lawn mower on campus, not one could cut grass at such a perfect angle", says Robert to Claire and the twins while Henry was stuck in his room. I grab the tubes from the counter as I say goodbye to my parents as I rush out to keep up with my friends.
"Hey Ashley, what do you need blood samples for anyway", mom says playing with the twins,
"Biology, no Chemistry, you know what Bio-chemistry. I need it for a science project and according to our teacher, Dr. Conners this way of collecting blood is way cheaper", I say opening the door,
"Alright, see you at dinner", and with that the door shuts right behind me.