When I was finished with my kill, I realised Brodie was close by and watching me. I wiped my mouth. There was a wave of shame washing over me, and I felt like I was going to drown in it. I couldn’t believe I had done something so vicious and evil. “I knew I would end up killing Bambi.”
“Don’t be daft. Bambi, the movie was a white-tail deer, that’s a roe.” He was actually laughing at me. Meanwhile, I felt like sobbing. I knew he didn’t understand, but it was a big thing for me. A fear that had consumed me, first with my parents and then myself.
“Great, I killed Bambi’s mother instead.” I moved back away from the deer and propped myself up against a tree. Looking back at the carcass and the regret only building further. Such a beautiful creature taken out by a monster lurking in the woods.
“Roe, not
The next morning, I lay there watching him sleep. It was odd he seemed to need way more sleep than I did. As with everything else, I had no idea if it was me that was strange or him. I usually only slept for five or six hours. At home, I would have been up and about, heading into the woods or reading. Instead, I lay there in a bed that wasn’t my own, knowing the day was going to be a bad one. I made the decision hours ago. I needed to go home. I needed to speak to my mum and Vanessa. I needed information, and it was something he couldn’t give me.It wasn’t like I believed he would stop me from going back. I knew in my heart that he wouldn’t. Regardless, it would cause problems for him. He would be taking a huge risk. Even sneaking me out of the camp again could be a problem, and then he was taking the risk that I wouldn’t come back. I was taking that risk, too. For all I knew, my parents could lock me up in the basement to try to prevent me from returning to him.Even
As soon as I was back in the basement and uncuffed, he left to deal with business. I sat and brooded about the deer I had killed and continued to hate myself for killing Bambi, but at least it wasn’t Brodie. I pulled my laptop out and started it up. Feeling particularly impatient as it took its time turning on and booting up. Heading straight for my emails. I wanted to send something to my mum without my dad being able to interrupt me. Hoping to try to explain at least a little. I spotted the email from Flint but decided to wait until afterwards to open it.Mum,I know you and Dad don’t understand. I didn’t expect you to. I am safe, I promise. I need you to stay away from Cassie’s dad. He’s not the good guy you think he is. I lied before, I am with Pip. I know you don’t trust him, but he has had so many opportunities to harm me and has done nothing but protect me over and over again. I’m still training. I can heal, I healed Pip. I’m pretty
When I was finished with my kill, I realised Brodie was close by and watching me. I wiped my mouth. There was a wave of shame washing over me, and I felt like I was going to drown in it. I couldn’t believe I had done something so vicious and evil. “I knew I would end up killing Bambi.” “Don’t be daft. Bambi, the movie was a white-tail deer, that’s a roe.” He was actually laughing at me. Meanwhile, I felt like sobbing. I knew he didn’t understand, but it was a big thing for me. A fear that had consumed me, first with my parents and then myself. “Great, I killed Bambi’s mother instead.” I moved back away from the deer and propped myself up against a tree. Looking back at the carcass and the regret only building further. Such a beautiful creature taken out by a monster lurking in the woods. “Roe, not
As we walked into the woods, I kept my head down. I was convinced someone would see us. It seemed silly to risk everything for hunting. I couldn’t see how I would be able to relax enough to do anything other than stand there staring at the ground while we were so close to the camp. I didn’t like being there, but I did like being anywhere with Brodie. Things seemed to be looking up, and I wasn’t ready to declare battle on them all. Once we did, we would both be on edge until it was all over and I wasn’t ready to live like that. Not to mention, I needed to get plenty more training done before any declarations of war.“Have you worked out how fast you are yet?” He asked me out of the blue as we were walking. I couldn’t help but think he was trying to change the direction of my thoughts.“Nope, you kidnapped me before I got the chance.” I joked back, looking up at him for a moment, before returning my eyes to the ground.“I like to think of it more like liberating,
I had wanted to lie there and sleep for the rest of the day, but I was completely out of luck because he had other ideas. Despite my constant objections, he did nothing less than force me from the bed and into the shower. By the time I had got dressed against my will, I was becoming impatient with him. He refused to tell me what he was planning. He just kept telling me to trust him. I was surprised he hadn’t realised that I was too pigheaded to trust completely blindly.He just walked around, getting ready with a constant smile on his face. It was almost too much for me to bear. I knew he was up to something and had figured it was to do with us going out hunting. I didn’t even know if his kind hunted, but he was adamant I needed to. He seemed to be actually looking forward to the prospect, which was more than I could say about myself. I just had no idea what to expect. It was actually more nerve-wracking than losing my virginity to a werewolf. He laughed out of nowhere and I
I pulled the phone from my ear and just stared at it, the little clock ticking on. I could hear her faintly repeating her words with increasing desperation. I looked at Brodie and he squeezed my shoulder and nodded at me. I took a deep breath and brought the phone back to my ear. “Mum, it’s me.” The sigh of relief was so loud and only made me feel worse because I knew I was about to shatter any hopes she had that I was coming home.“Esme, where are you? Are you okay? We’ve been worried sick…”“What the hell are you playing at?” It was my dad and the anger he emulated made me want to throw the phone away and hide under the covers. “Are you listening to me? Your mother had been sick with worry.” It wasn’t as though I needed him to tell me. I already knew, and I already felt beyond guilty, even if it wasn’t strictly speaking my fault.“I’m sorry. That’s not what I wanted.” I whispered the words into the phone. My dad was regularly angry with me, but I thought relie