2 - Light In The Dark

~Aurora’s Point of View~

“Stairs,” I question, trying to make sense of the visual. Jeez this just gets more and more awful. Dangerous.

Someone had to have built this, but why and really… how? I couldn’t even remotely wrap my head around such an undertaking. The stench of wet earth, old stale air and swamp filled the space, making me gag. 

My head darts back toward the cave entrance, knowing fully well I should leave. A dark cave with stairs on a remote island? Yeah, perfect place for an eleven year old pup to go. Alone. No one even knows I’m here. I’ve heard enough scary stories to know this has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But I don’t run.

I fight with myself, but only for a moment. My feet move, my hand holds the cool metal railing. Before I know it, I’m at the bottom. My little lantern doesn’t do much to illuminate the much larger space, easily the size of several cabins. I feel as if there’s a cliff beyond the darkness that I can’t see. The sound of water in the distance, makes me feel like I’ve wandered into some secret of the ocean. 

When I turn toward a far wall and see what I know to be tombs, I gasp and cover my mouth with my free hand. I knew that humans buried their dead in different ways, though shifters don’t do it. We burn our dead, returning their ashes to the earth. Freeing some in the wind. 

There were at least four that I could see, large stone looking statutes standing more than two or three times my height. They had intricate designs chiseled into the rock and I wanted to study every part of it. As I got closer I lifted the light and one of the tombs nearly shimmered with different kinds of gems built right into the stone. How in the world did they do that?

The chill I’d felt at dinner hit me again, and my hand moved without my will. As my fingertips caressed over one of the designs then what looked like an emerald, something sharp caught me off guard and a prick pressed into my skin.

“Ouch! What the-”

I gasp as I realize how badly my finger is bleeding, literally dripping all over the dirt floor. The lantern falls from my grasp as I grip the wound, trying to stop the flow. I cringe as tears involuntarily begin to fall down my cheeks. I whimper and as I inhale, the smells that led me here fill me again. My eyes move to the head of the statue that cut me. I can’t look away, even though I’m telling myself to leave. Telling myself this has gone too far. 

A distant voice calls my name, and this time I know it’s real. It isn’t just in my head. It’s Matthew. 

The light from the broken lantern flickers to nearly nothing as small shadows seem to dance on the wall, the light somehow holding on even though it should really have gone out by now. 

“Who are you,” I ask, squeezing my hand, now feeling numb. Knowing that I’m still bleeding but no longer caring.

A wind seems to curl around me out of nowhere, there can’t be a wind in here, but then again I don’t know anything about this place. I back away from the statues as Matthew’s voice only gets louder. I hear something that sounds like … scratching.

“No,” I whisper, imagining that whatever that stone is keeping inside is trying to get out. It’s trying to claw through it. It wants to get at me, I just know it.

My feet keep moving backwards though my entire body is violently shaking. What have I done? Did I awaken… something?

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” I say, when the earth shakes. The statue in front of me, cracks right in half. The sound is deafening, and it's as if my body responds to it. My spine shivers me to my bones but my feet still move me away. Pieces of the rock crumble and the sound of them pebbling the floor seems to echo.

When the lamp finally goes out, I scream at the top of my lungs.

“It’s not real,” I mumble, blinking my eyes though I can’t see a thing.

It’s pitch black and my voice seems to bounce off the walls, making the large space smaller. Then there’s no earth below me, just the sound of Matthew’s terrified voice in the dark. 

“AURORA NO,” I hear, just as the water engulfs me. 

~Two Days Later~

My dreams are always so vivid and so real though when I wake, I can never remember a thing about them. What I do remember, is the fall. The feeling of free falling. Nothing but the sky around me, air in my hair and coating my skin. It’s liberating, it’s freedom.

Until it isn’t. Until I wake, coated in sweat, convinced I didn’t survive the fall. The dream has plagued me for my entire life. Brenna used to care, try to comfort me. But she hasn’t done that since we left our pack. She thinks I should be “over it” by now. You can’t escape something you can’t control.

I wake with my heart pounding in my ears as I gasp as I shoot upright. Matthew’s face is right there, his hand already stroking my cheek.

“Shh, it’s okay honey, it’s okay,” he whispers.

Without much thought I wail, sobbing and crying out. He pulls me into his chest and rubs my back. I burrow my arms under his and feel that warmth of his bare chest. We stay like that for some time and while I’m not surprised that my sister isn’t here, her absence only serves to piss me off. She’s gotten unbelievably selfish this past month.

Then I remember I ruined her big night. Oh, crap. Matthew’s big night too.

“Where… Where’s Brenna,” I question, already with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“You’ve been out for two days honey. She went with a few people to get supplies. Said she would know best what you needed to feel better,” he says, still rubbing my back.

My heart falls, especially with the prideful look on his face. He believes her. Believes IN her. The poor guy. I more than knew he was too good for her, but I put all my hope on his feelings for her. That they would finally be enough for Brenna.

“Did… Did you mark her,” I ask, though I already know the answer.

“Oh, uhm… Well everything was so crazy and we were just so concerned about you,” he explains. I pull back and look away, unable to meet his eyes. I ruined his night, and now…

“She’s gone,” I state, it’s no longer a question. 

Every fiber of my being knows it and it kills me that he doesn’t. I have a brief flicker of wondering if she somehow orchestrated what happened, but even Brenna couldn’t have gotten all that together. She just simply jumped at the first chance she got. Before she got marked. Before it was permanent.

She found a safe place for me, and she left. There were a few times once our pack was raided and everyone fled that she did leave me. She’d come back after a day or two, sometimes with a new male on her arm. 

I had such high hopes she’d settle down with Matthew, that this was the new beginning we both desperately needed. The Goddess answering my prayers. 

“She’ll be back sweetie. Here have some juice okay,” he says, and it just further breaks my heart. He’s such a good person, literally any female’s dream. I have no idea how he’s not already mated.

Later on that afternoon, when I’m finally able to get up and move around, I make my way to the room Brenna had been sharing with Matthew. I open a few drawers where I’d put her clothes when we arrived.

Empty.

I move to the bathroom and find all her things gone. I open the medicine cabinet and sure enough, there’s a small note on the shelf. 

“I’m sorry, stay with Matthew and do as he says. He can give you everything I can’t.”

The room spins and my knees shake, then my butt hits the floor and a thud so loud, surely everyone in the packhouse heard it. I stare into space. 

“Sweetie? What happened,” I hear, knowing it’s Elena. 

She left me and I know it’s for good. My parents fled in the chaos of our pack being raided and didn’t take us with them. Half of the people were killed and half displaced. We had to leave with the clothes on our backs, nothing else. Everytime we tried to start over somewhere else, find another pack to take us in, Brenna screwed it up somehow. Or claimed it wasn’t safe and rushed us out in the night.

SNAP

My head turns to see Matthew’s concerned face. Elena holds up the piece of paper that must have landed on the floor. He quickly reads it and rubs his hand over his face. He leaves without saying a word, though… What is there to say? 

He’s 25 and probably thought Brenna was the one, that it was some miracle she fell into his lap. Literally. But she always does that with a handsome male who gives her attention.

Over the next few days, people give me reassuring pep talks and tell me that I’m still welcome to join the pack. Though I’ll have their protection, I can’t officially swear to their Alpha until I have my wolf. The crew that went to the mainland had returned and said Brenna fled in the night. They produced a note that simply read, “Thanks.” She likely only left the note so they wouldn’t go after her, they wouldn’t think she was taken. It only made Matthew disappear for a while.

No matter what, I still feel like an outsider, I still feel like I ruined something so important. Matthew has crossed my path only once, and tried to be reassuring. I can tell his heart is broken. He really believed she would mate him and maybe I knew in my heart it wouldn’t actually happen no matter what.

There was a brief moment where I considered pledging myself to him in an attempt to make up for my actions that night, but no sooner did I have the thought, did I get a raging headache. By the time I’m of age, he’ll be over 30. There’s no way he won’t find a mate by then. But the more important thing is that I have zero feelings for him beyond maybe what a brother should be. Though I’m only eleven I shouldn’t have feelings for any male. Just the hope of…

Fated mates are so rare anymore, but it’s every pup’s foolish dream. All the females I grew up with believed in the fairy tale. The handsome and dashing male that sweeps you off your feet, tells you all the right things. But keeps his word and follows through. He’s kind and generous, an incredible mate and father to your pups.

While Brenna fleeing should be the worst part of this week, it isn’t. Not to me. The worst is not knowing about what’s down in that cave. No one, absolutely no one has talked about what happened and I haven’t wanted to ask out of shame. I don’t even know how far I fell or how I was rescued.

As I leave dinner and move to walk back inside the packhouse, the cold chill from nights ago hits me. The very thing that set that fateful night in motion. The sun has just set and the air is thick with humidity. I’ve gotten used to this climate which is all the more reason the cold strikes me as bizarre. My eyes move to a post that sits just in front of the door, the crest of the pack is burned into it. 

“The Midnight Protectors; Light in the Dark.”

I’d seen it many times now, but I had never questioned its meaning. When the cold air hits my skin again, it makes me shake uncontrollably. I force my back to stiffen.

“Not again,” I whisper, as I quickly move inside and go to my room. Locking the door.