She doesn't stop to breathe even though her lungs cry out in pain. She ignores the throbbing in her legs and her mind lets her go numb as she runs through the words. She jumps over stumps and under low branches like she had done so many times before. She knows not to look back, she learned the hard way how dangerous glancing backward can be. You never look back when you run, only forward. Her ears barely register the shouting and shots fired behind her.
She pants uncontrollably as her lungs finally give in and she forced to stop and hide behind a tree. She holds a hand to her mouth and forces herself to stop breathing when she hears feet catch up to her. She shuts her eyes and silently prays to the god she doesn't believe in.
The foot steps drown away and she lets her body succumb to pain as she drops her hand from her mouth.
Jade West escapes death again.
Alone doesn't mean lonely.
Raven locks fly in the cool night breeze as the she sits atop the hill over looking the small lit up city she calls home. A home that constantly chases her out. Jade sits on a rock and pretends she doesn't feel the cold brush against her skin.
Her phone vibrates in her dark blue jean pockets, she decides to ignore it and focus on staring at the city instead.
Her ears ring with the sounds of echoing footsteps approaching her, she doesn't budge. She knows those footsteps, she memorized the uneven pace and the thumping a long time ago, and she can't help but to smirk.
"Beck," She mumbles, addressing the man now behind her.
"You didn't answer your phone." He says, crossing his arms.
"That was like five seconds ago," She chuckles, a puff of white escaping her lips, "Hope you didn't trip over your tail running here."
"It's a full moon tonight," The brunette teenager runs a hand though his shaggy hair, "You should go home."
Jade looks up towards the aubergine sky, smiling at the sight of the large illuminating circle in the sky surrounded by tiny dots.
"I can control myself."
"I know," Beck sighs, "It's the others I'm worried about."
"The hunters or the wolves?"
"Both."
"Well I never say no to a bit of fun."
Beck smiles, "You're coming back?"
"No," Jade spits, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm gonna have some fun."
Beck rolls his eyes and approaches his best-friend, placing a gentle hand on her bare shoulder. "Your night of fun usually ends in you getting shot."
"I can handle myself."
Beck raises his brow at her, "You can't heal like the rest of us."
"Well I'm tired of sitting in that damn house!" Jade pushes Beck's hand off her shoulder and stands up to turn and face the boy. "Let me go."
Beck offers her a weary smile, "Just don't do anything reckless."
"I'll be home before diner, mom, " Jade jeers, "I'll be fine, Beck."
"That's what you said last time.." He traces his finger along a scar running over Jade's eye brow. "You can't heal like the rest of us." He repeats.
"Mom," Jade grins, "You're embarrassing me."
Beck lets out a dry laugh and sticks his cold, pink hands into his pockets. "I'll tell Cat you're gonna be out."
Jade's eyes soften as she smiles back at Beck, "We gotta stick out for each other." she outstretches her clenched hand to Beck.
"We only got each other," He takes his hand out of his pocket and bumps his fist against Jade's.
"But that's all we need." They say in unison, later laughing at their own cheesiness.
It was a chant they would often say together, the first line said by Jade, the next by Beck and the last by Cat, their other friend. It was a chant first said to a crying Cat by Jade and Beck to comfort her after she had lost her mother, Jade and Beck were orphans and were often jealous that Cat had a family but they knew the pain of loosing a loved one and they didn't want to see Cat go through that alone like they had. Then they started saying it whenever they felt scared, to remind themselves that they weren't alone, and finally it became a normal goodbye for them. It was perhaps the most comforting three sentences that they three of them have ever heard or had the pleasure of saying.
Jade spins on her heel and dashes as fast as she can through the woods, her lungs and legs can handle much more than they could when she was younger and she's grateful for that. Not as grateful as she would be if she was on the same level as Beck or Cat, but she also knew she was special in her own way.
She drops to her arms and starts running like an animal, gaining speed. The wind rushes past her, scents filling her nose as her senses whirl around her. She bolts past tree after tree until she reaches a fence blocking rough concert that stretches into a road. There's a sign that says "danger: wolves" and Jade can't help but to smirk at it. She jumps over the fence with ease and is running down the road before the shock can even wear off her feet.
She looks as if she was running away from a monster, they way she runs so quickly and so determined as if she had a place in mind. She doesn't, she just likes to run, and god, does she love the night.
They fence beside her leaves her peripheral vision, the road in front of her blurs. She feels like she's running on clouds and the world has just forgotten about her. She doesn't notice the branch she somehow manages to subconsciously jump over. She doesn't even care about the squirrel that has to veer out of her way. Right now it's just her and the wind blowing her raven hair back.
So she's surprised when she finds her self in front of a small cabin hidden by an abundance of trees.
"Guess a dog always come home, huh?" She mumbles to herself as she steps on to the creaky deck and knocks on the door. "It's me."
The door flings open to reveal a nervous looking blonde-haired man.
"Mr. Valentine," Jade smiles, "You gonna let me in or.."
"H-h-have you seen Cat...?" The man gulps, "She went out with Jon and hasn't come ba-"
"Woah," Jade extends her hand out, gesturing for the blond to stop talking. "How long has it been?" She asks, although she already knows the answer.
"About a minut-"
"They're fine, now let me in." Jade rolls her eyes, sick of having to go through the same routine. She promised herself though that no matter how many times the man says it, she'll always take it seriously because one day Cat and her younger brother, Jon, might actually be missing.
"Uh, yeah," He moves away from the door allowing Jade to walk in.
Then they hear a scream and a growl that is unmistakably Jon and it's like all other thought is irrelevant.
/
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
― Mark Twain
I hate writting into-chapters! Arg. Anyways, I hope you all like it so far :D let me know what you think! Review, Review. I don't really wanna make this too long so I hope you don't mind me jumping into it head on, kinda like the colour purple, where they just blatantly state she gets raped by her husband on the first page..but uh... no where near as good as the colour purple. But asides that, chapter one is short 'cause it's chapter one and arggg I HATE WRITTING INTRO CHAPTERSSSSSSS.
Some notes:
Cat has a younger brother here instead of an older one and you'll see why
I've settled on Jade's eyes being a bright, light, blue.
This is SLIGHTLY based of Taylor Swift's song as you must have guessed
And it is inspired by Teen Wolf because I've always love Were-wolves and they can be just as sexy as Vampires when written right, in fact, they're even sexier...because they aren't all undead, old and immortal..ugh.
Also, Mark Twain is my childhood... and I made that story picture thing.. I had way too much fun with it.
Thanks for readin'
