All Chapters of The Whispers in the Woods: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

I dreamt about him again last night. There was nothing visual, but I could feel his presence. I could always tell when he was near. I just wished I knew who he was. Even as I woke, it felt like he was still laying there beside me. His body was much hotter than my own and made it feel like I was asleep against a radiator. If he had been any hotter, he would have burned me. I had no idea how I could have such a connection with someone, but not even know anything about him. I wondered if he knew who I was. If he lurked in the shadows while I slept. I knew he was close, and it made no sense. We lived in a beautiful cabin, but it was high up in the hills of the highlands. There were no neighbours for miles around, and there were rarely any visitors to the area. It was just how my father liked it. He believed we were more protected, hidden out there. After his vast years roaming the earth, my mother and I had no real knowledge of if it was really necessary. I knew we needed to stay hidden

I spent the entire weekend working myself up about my first day. I had nothing but time to think about it because I was avoiding my mum. After everything she did to make it happen for me, I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t excited about it. I just kept telling myself that I was overthinking everything. It would be fine. I would make sure it was. After a lifetime of thinking I didn’t fit into the world, it was just hard to imagine being out in it. The unknown voice hadn’t come back, and I was gutted. I had expected him to come. I had nicknamed him Pip after one of my favourite literary characters. It felt easier having a name for him. Although logically, he should have been Magwitch because they were both unseen guardians. That was how I saw him, an unseen hand helping me move forward. Except, when I needed him the most, he wasn’t there. As I climbed into bed on the Sunday before I started at university, I had all but given up hope of hearing from Pip. I wondered if he would no long

I was gutted when we walked into The Corrie, the university’s lunch hall and found the group already there. They were all messing around and sitting around on the tables. I wanted to walk straight back out, but I could feel him there. I grabbed my coffee and sat at a table with Cassie. She was chattering away, but I wasn’t listening to a word of what she said. Instead, I sat there basking in his warmth. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” I thought about the words rather than speaking out loud.“Maybe you will realise why it is so dangerous for people to know anything about us.” I wanted him to be wrong. It seemed like such a hurdle to overcome.“Maybe if they all knew, they would accept me.”“You need to stay away from all of us. They will never accept you, or me, if they knew. They are your enemies. You just don’t see it.” He kept referring to the two of us as a unit, but I had no idea what he even thought that meant. I had no idea who Pip really was. How could we be a unit?“Esme, I

 The noise had not only rocked me but also my parents. I could hear my mum shouting Dad and asking him what he thought was going on. After that, their conversation descended into hushed tones, clearly to keep their suspicions from me. I had heard the anxiety in my mum's tone. She was panicked. Whatever she thought what going on, she thought it was a danger to us. Little did she know how right she was. No matter how I looked at it, I came to the same conclusion. The fight between Pip and the other werewolf had ended in the death of one or both of them, and I had been the reason. The pack would blame me for the issues facing them and that would make me even more of a target than I had been before. "Esme, can you come downstairs, please?" "I'm coming." I tried to fix the fake smile in place again. I would need it. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I tried to act as clueless as possible about the situation.

Mum didn't meet me at the front door that night. I went into the house and found her sitting at the dining table, writing a letter. I already knew who it was for, the only person she ever wrote to, Vanessa. They had been friends for a long time, too long to count the years. I sat down opposite her determined to speak to her. My dad wasn't at home and I wanted the conversation to stay between the two of us. It was the best chance I had to get the truth as well as get to continue at the university. "Mum?" "Yes, sweetheart." "Can we talk?" "Can it wait until I'm finished?" "Not really." She looked up more than a little concerned. I wasn't sure if it was the urgency or my voice that had given me away. "What's wrong?" "Nothing is wrong as such. A girl has gone missing from uni. I think she was a werewolf. I think the place