003-Ignore you for five seconds

Tina's POV

The eternal rest is not peaceful. At least mine is not.

I must have blacked out after the gunman pulled the trigger, and the next thing I know, my head is bumping against a car door. The nauseous smell of leather stuffs my nostrils, giving me a headache.

"Hmm..." I murmur at the pain, but no sound comes out as I try to figure out where I am.

"Tina! You are awake!" Tayler's loud exclaim burst out, making my ears ring.

I frown in pain, still can't move.

"Don't move, Tina, you are shot. You are only still alive because the bullet hit your collarbone! We still need to get you to a doctor though," Blabbering, Tayler sneaks a peek at me before he turns back to the wheel as the car bounces on the bumpy road. Every hit causes a tearing pain in my chest.

"How...?" I murmur. The world coming back to me as the pain does. I want to check Soren's messages like I do first thing every morning, only to realize there won't be a message from him ever again. In fact, I don't even have my phone.

That's when the great sorrow hits me. Tears brimming up fast as I think of Soren.

"I fought the gunman off! Lucky that I rented a car!" Tayler turns at me again, grinning, still talking on about stuff I can't understand, "Soren is a moron sending only one man! But lucky for us that he did!"

I frown, but have no strength to argue with Tayler.

"In all the days I watch you with Soren, laughing and playing and...kissing," Tayler seems to have trouble out that last word, "I never dreamed of being with you one day, Tina Cleo. This is like a dream coming true! You know what they call you, right? The little Cleopatra! Even still in high school, you were sexy as hell! You are every guy's dream and you don't even know it! Do you know how alluring you are when you look at people with your innocent eyes like a curious fairy, unaware of your own beauty?"

His blabbering is giving me a headache. Scott Tayler was a silent, sullen boy in Soren's group. One day he got sullener, and then I no longer see him around Soren. That's all I know about this guy.

"You are my mate, Tina Cleo. You are mine now." Tayler turns at me, and I curl on the seat, failing at hiding myself better. It feels like he was stripping me with his eyes, and I don't like it. Soren never looks at me like that. Is that because Soren never loved me and this guy...the guy who claims to be my mate...wants me?

Could he really be my mate? I can't even think about that. This day is too long, and I desperately want it to end.

"When Les told me to get you out of the trap I couldn't believe my luck!" Tayler chirps, genuinely happy, "She even lent me the car or we wouldn't have made it!"

"I thought you rented the car...?" I must have said that out loud because Tayler freezes for a second before he laughs it off, finally shutting up.

"I want to go home..." I clench my arm to ease the pain but it's not working. My chest is burning as sweat washes over me. Pain and sorrow are getting to me, "I want S-- I want my mom..."

My mom! I try to mindlink only to fail. I'm too weak now and I'm not even healing fast like a normal werewolf.

Tears roll down my eyes, reaching the corner of my lips. It tastes bitter. I remember when I left home today mom left a kiss on my forehead and said I love you, but I was too nervous and distracted to even give her a proper response...

"Fuck!" Tayler shouts, getting my attention. I look over as he turns the wheel frantically, the car dancing on the road.

"Tayler?" I hear my voice panicking, echoing the horror in his, "What's wrong--?"

The head of the car rubs into the cliff on our right, making a shrill cry.

"The break is not working! I heard a click and then it won't work!" Tayler exclaimed, panicking and trying to maintain the wheel like fighting a naughty pup, "We are on a cliff, Tina! We have to jump the car!"

That sounds like an impossible mission to me.

I try to move my body, but my arms are barely responding to me.

"Tina!" Tayler shouts, "You have to come to the front! I can't hold the car AND go get you!"

"I can't..." I cry, "I'm sorry, I can't...please--"

Tayler unfolds his safety belt, reaching an arm to me. He grabs one of my arms and pulls me, but only halfway to the front I burst into a painful scream, feeling my collarbone breaking into halves at the pull.

"Tina...!" Tayler has to let go and get back to the wheel, then his voice shivered, "Tina, the road..."

Groveling between the chairs I see what scared Tayler -- the road is reaching a sharp turn, a turn we can't survive without slowing down.

"You need to leave me here," I tell Tayler, feeling my life ridiculous with one hit after another. Why can't I even die in peace but go through such pain before facing death again?

"Tina..." Taylar looks at me, horrified tears in his eyes, "I'm sorry, Tina..."

I don't get to answer before he pulls himself out of the driver's window and jumps off the car. Might as well. I don't have the energy to answer anyway.

I lie back on the tiny slot behind the chairs. Please, moon goddess, I forgive you for the fate you gave me, but please let me die in peace this time.

I know my prayer is daring, but to be honest, I no longer care. I close my eyes when the weightlessness hits me, and then the peace of pure darkness hugs me.

...

"Teenie, where are you..."

A voice interrupts my peaceful sleep. I frown.

"Teenie, why did you leave me? ...How could you leave me...?"

I struggle to open my eyes at the horrible, FALSE, accusation, but I can't.

"Teenie, please, I'll put everything behind if you come back to me... Please, I need you..."

Who needs me? I shot open my eyes when a name popped into my head -- Soren! Is that you?

I'm in a really dark place, surrounded by darkness. I call out but no one responds, not even the voice that woke me up; I walk and then run and then dash, but I run into nothing and the darkness just keeps on.

I'm trapped. Trapped in void. Is this death?

"Teenie, are you mad at me because I was mean the other day? I'm sorry, I won't do that again. I really am sorry..."

"No, I'm not mad at you," I answer, knowing he would just talk on, not hearing me. But I answer anyway.

"Teenie, I know things have been hard, but I still want to be with you even so. I'm sorry I failed you. I'm too weak..."

"No, you are not," I giggle at Soren's words, picturing him with his wronged huge-silly-dog face saying that he is weak, "You are the most powerful Alpha I know. That's so silly of you to even say that!"

"Teenie, they are asking me to marry Athena. Ridiculous, right? To think that I, the Alpha heir as they want me to be, have to use marriage to fence the throne! I don't want to marry her but...if I do, would you get jealous and come yell at me? Like how you used to like a fierce kitten?"

"I was never a fierce kitten! I'm a werewolf! A werewolf!" I hmph, decide to ignore him for five seconds for painting me such a weak image.

"Teenie, they told me you are with Scott and they showed me filthy pictures. I didn't believe them for a second! Are you proud of me? ...would you come back and prove them wrong, please?"

"..." His tone was so sorrowful it hurt my soul. I feel a bit guilty because I WAS with Scott, but that's only because he pasted himself on me! "I want to, I really do...but I'm trapped and I don't know how..."

Hours passed and then days, maybe years? I don't know. I stopped running around looking for the voice. It doesn't exist. Well, the voice exists. Its origin doesn't. In the end, I just lay on the ground, or in the sky of darkness, listening to him and talk, to all his begging and sorrow, throwing a tantrum, or just a murmur of his longing.

Until one day even he stopped talking.

The whole dark world settled into total and pure darkness when not even any sound was there. I miss his voice, a lot. The emptiness is driving me crazy, I cry frantically, begging for him to talk again, but he ignores me, like always.

And that is when light comes to me.