We pulled up to our new house, my brother was out cold and my mother was barely awake. Well what do you expect when we had drove almost 17 hours just to get here. Why we moved so far away from our old home I have no idea. I like to think it was for my sake, back in our old town I was being bullied really bad, so bad I started to developed depression and suicidal tendencies. Which most people don't know about due to certain skills. I have tried to commit suicide at least 5 times, but every time I was either too scared to pull the trigger, or my brother had interrupted and saved my life. Sometimes he can be a jerk but I'm still thankful that he didn't give up on me.
This new house was supposed to be my second chance, a way for me and my family to start with a clean slate. To try life over again, to be free from my old self and flourish in a way I used to be scared of. Speaking of the new house, it was rather large, and it was green. It wasn't exactly my taste, but it was better then our old house, which was a boring white. I don't like white, too much of it could make you go insane.
When my mom parked our bright blue pick up in the drive way, my brother almost jumped out of his seat. He was awake instantly, it was kind of his thing, when ever we go on long rode trips he would fall asleep but the second the engine turned off, that boy that seemed dead to the world became a ball of never ending energy. My mom turned around and smiled at me, before she handed me a set of keys.
"Could you go open the trailer, then be a dear and unlock the house, so me and your brother could start hauling stuff in?" I groaned before I turned to my side and looked at my dog Brave, who was extremely excited. I smiled at him before I clipped his leash onto his collar and opened the truck door. Me and Brave hopped out. We walked to the back of the trailer and unlocked it, sliding the door up I quickly grabbed a small box that had me name on it, I held the box close and then headed to the front door of the house and unlocking it.
Once I was inside, I took the leash off of Brave and ran up the stairs to check out the rooms. The house had four bedroom and 3 bathrooms, we had a full kitchen and a dinning room to boot. Also my mom had mentioned that the basement was fully furnished and the living room had a fireplace. Not only that but the back yard had a swimming pool. As I checked over the 4 bedrooms the only one that had appealed to me was a red one at the back of the house, which had one of those fancy window sill bed thingys, and a walk in closet. I walked in and quickly sat down the box, turning around I came face to face with Brave, he was wagging his hard tail and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth.
"We'll go for a walk later, just let me get my stuff up here first, okay?" I gently patted his head before I raced back downstairs. Downstairs my brother had already brung in a lot of my stuff, and had placed it all at the bottom of the stairs. I smiled at him when he walked back in with another load of my stuff, it was probably the last of it, he moves way to fast.
"Thanks!" Victor looked at me and smiled before he rushed back out the door. I leaned down and grabbed about to boxes before I headed back up stairs and into my bedroom, setting the boxes down on the floor, I looked them reading what they were labelled. The first box said games and the second read systems, by the luck of the draw the first boxes I grab are my game systems, great. I move the boxes into my closet so they were out of the way and headed back down stairs to grab more boxes, this time I grabbed 3, they turned out to be most of my clothing so I also placed them in my closet, so they were out of the way. The next thing that came into my room was my desk, my brother carried it upstairs and into my room for me. We had to move my bed frame and my matrices up together.
Once I had my computer and my bookcase up, I ran down and carried the rest of my stuff up which happened to be all of my many, many, many books. I sat down in front of my book case with all four boxes and started to unpack and open them. Quickly reading over the titles as I put them up; The strange and unexplainable, Know your shapeshifter, Trees speak my name, A guide to witchcraft, Bestiary. So on and so forth. Anything that a hunter may need. As soon as I was halfway through my fist box my mom already had another task for me to do. Give me a break woman!
"Hey Christa! You should go outside and check out the neighbourhood!" My mom yelled up the stars. I groaned and rolled to the doorway, laying on my back I shouted back at her.
"Mom we just got here and I have a lot of school work and unpacking to do!" I could hear her groan, so I did the same, only louder. As if I was mocking her, and I was.
"Don't give me that sass!"
"You gave it to me first, so bleh!" My wolf hound Brave barked at me and jumped on my bed. "Hey I said after I was finished now didn't I?" Brave whined and rolled all over my new bed sheets, messing up my newly made bed. Jerk. Growling I sat up quickly and ran over to my bed, jumping on top of Brave. Don't worry he's fine. He stopped rolling around and looked at me giving my face a quick lick, he rolled over and started to fall asleep. "I wish I could just fall asleep like that, you have it easy Brave." I gave him a quick pat on the head before getting off of my bed. I walked back over to my bookshelf and finished unpacking the first box, but before I could go to my second, my computer got my attention. It looked so sad just sitting on the floor, not plugged in or hooked up to anything, it was just sitting there, and it was bothering me. My poor baby. I quickly got up and picked up my monitor off the floor placed it on my desk, I did have a laptop but my computer was really heavy duty, and was also left to me by my father. It was his computer from when he was a detective. He kept it for some weird reason that I never figured out. He always was a weirdo. I picked up and moved my computer so it was near the monitor and hooked them up to each other, then plugged them in and watched as the machine started up.
Satisfied with my work of the computer I looked back over at my close. Moving quickly I opened all of the boxes filled with clothes and grabbed a tonne of hangers that my mom had bought for me just before we left Canada. Said they were cheaper up there then down here. I quickly sorted and hung up all my clothes. Once I was done with that I moved over and finished unpacking all my books. I had to have about 50 of them, for real. When that was done I stood up straight and placed my hands on my hips to observed my room, and my handy work. It was truly a work of art.
The only thing that still had to be done was the walls, they looked so sad and barren, nothing covered them...yet. I looked over at the box that I had brung up with me when I first entered the house. Walking over I took the lid off and spilled out the content. Pages and pages of info that had gathered over the years, from news clippings, to pages that I had torn of of books at the public library and took home with me. Hey it's not like I'm stealing the entire book, and it's not stealing. It's altering property without consent. And it was all about the supernatural; like werewolves, vampires, kitsunes, that kind of stuff. I've had an interest in this sort of thing sense I was like 6, maybe even younger. Mom said it was unhealthy, Dad thought it was good for me.
I spread out the papers until I found the most recent one, a news clipping from Beacon Hills, the town we had just moved into. I picked up the news clip and opened a box of wall tacks, turning on my heels I looked over my wall and found a place suitable before I tacked it up. I looked at the page and read it, "Hale goes missing from hospital." Frowning I ran my hand over the ink words, reading bits and pieces before my phone vibrated.
I quickly pulled it out of my pocket to find my alarm going off, it was the one I had set when we first got Brave, to remind myself that at 6 pm me and Brave would go out for a walk. I had never once missed his walks and just because we had moved to a new town didn't mean I would start now. Turning to Brave I clicked my tongue and got his attention. He sat up quickly and hopped off the bed, he already knew what was going on. I quickly grabbed my book bag that I had already packed for school tomorrow, and threw it on.
"Ready for your walk?" Brave began to jump up and down. I laughed and picked up his leash and clipped it onto his collar. On my way downstairs Victor stopped me and then punched me in the shoulder. The hell jerk face! "Ow! What was that for!" Victor smirked. Dickbag.
"No reason, just felt like it." I scoffed and punched Victor back. That was always his answer for anything he did. He just chuckled and ran upstairs to what was now his room. Sighing I continued down the stairs and out the door. The second I was outside Brave started to go crazy, running and jumping everywhere.
"Hey calm down, or you're staying on your leash!" Brave instantly stopped and sat down calmly. "Good boy." I walked over to him and patted his head, and removed his leash. Mom and Victor would kill me if they found out that I let Brave off his leash. I patted his head once more before walking across the street, with Brave close behind me. We walked and walked, it was probably for about an hour or two, before we reached the edge of a forest. I looked down at Brave and he looked up at me, I patted his head before walking forward into the forest. I loved the forest, seeing as back in Canada that's where we lived, right in the middle of nowhere but still somehow close to a school.
The second I was in the forest the aura seemed to change completely, it made me feel very uncomfortable, vulnerable even, but Brave didn't seem to be effected at all. It was strange, the way that the forest almost was giving off a feeling of death, it was unsettling. We walked further into the forest. The sun had already went down but I didn't want to go home, so I sat down pulled open my book bag and took out my sketchbook and a pencil. Leaning against a tree I opened the book to the first clean page and started to sketch the scenery. The way that the trees tried to hide the night sky with their stretched out arms. To no avail with the moon and it's bright light making the forest seem less scary. Like a mother cradling a child in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Once I had finished the drawing I turned the page over and started to write on the back.
October 27, 2013 First day in Beacon Hill's
Dear Father,
Me, Victor, and mother have just moved into our new house in Beacon Hills. It's very big and it's green, your favourite colour! We live close to the outskirts of town and next to a forest, I really like it, makes me feel more wild. Like I'm reconnecting with my ancestors. Brave seems to feel the same way, he loves it! Wont stay still. Oh yeah before we got here mom did what you asked, she hid us, just to like you said in your letter. To be honest I don't like it, neither does Victor. He says it's harder for him to sense me coming, makes it easier for me to scare him. We start at are new school tomorrow, I'm really excited. And don't worry! I wont stop, I wont stop until I find your killer and bring him to justice.
Your Daughter
Christa Reigis Rosemary
Once I was finished, I closed my book and put it back in my bag. I looked up and the sun was completely gone, I should head back home but I want to explore more so I'm not gonna. No one ever said I was sensible! Standing up I brushed off my butt and whistled to get Brave's attention as we started to walk deeper into the woods. We ended up going so deep that I ended up stumbling upon an old burnt down house. I knew exactly who's house it was. The image was already burned to deep into my mind to forget what happened to the great pack.
"The Hale house." Brave whimpered when we got closer, but a quick scratch on his head and he was the old Brave once more. Now filled with a new sense of power and adventure, I opened my bag once more and pulled out my digital camera, turning it on and letting it focus. As I got closer I started to take pictures of the house,well the outside at least. When I took my first step on the stairs Brave whimpered loudly and sat down. "Really, don't back out on me now. Does your name mean nothing?" Brave whimpered again. "Fine!" I stepped off the porch and back onto the lawn, walking around the house and into the back yard were saw a purple plant on the ground. "Wolfsbane?" I kneeled down next to the plant and pulled out a plastic bag from my bag, ha bagception, and a pair of tweezers.
Using the tweezers I plucked some pieces of the plant and put them into the bag. Sealing the Ziploc I placed the bag back into my book bag. Standing back up I knew something was wrong right away, the air had changed. I needed to get out of this forest now! Or at least far from this house. Quickly I stood up and whistled getting Brave's attention right away. With a quick pace I started to back track, hoping I had a good enough memory to get me back home and out of this forest before I got into some unwanted trouble.
The dark trees that surrounded me seem to grow larger and thicker, like they were trying to trap me in this forest. The leaves seemed to string together and make a quilt to hide the moon and stars from me, to rid me of any light, to blind me in my escape. Twigs seemed to be everywhere, lying in the most inconvenient way possible, grabbing onto my legs and feet, trying to trip me and claw at me. This forest was against me, I just knew it. Piece of shit.
Then I knew for a fact, this forest was against me. The smell that had reached my nose was proof enough, garbage, blood and dirt. The smell of a Omega, a wolf with no pack. Grabbing Brave by the collar I yanked him behind a large tree stump, trying to hide with my best efforts. I looked at Brave and placed a single finger over my lips before I turned to strain my ears, trying to hear the Omega.
"They're everywhere, we have to be careful!"
"Yeah, yeah. I heard that a million times, from my mom!" They were very loud. Too loud. As they got closer and closer Brave became more restless. I turned back to him and shushed him once more. He looked at me and whimpered, loud. Too loud, the omega's were too close and had heard him. They sprinted our way loud and quickly. I cursed under my breath and stood up and sprinted in the opposite direction of the omega's. I had never ran so fast in my life, it felt like my feet were on fire. My shoes were thin and not made for hiking in the woods or doing anything athletic at all. I could feel the rocks and twigs on my feet, the sharp edges making me wince but I never faltered.
"Brave hurry up!" I looked back at Brave who was a foot behind me, and a foot behind him, where the omegas. The colour dissipated from my face, leaving me white as a ghost, I looked ahead of me once more, to see a group of people. And they were armed. "Help me!" I threw my hands in the air and started to wave them around vigorously. I got their attention easily. Once I got close enough to them I locked my knees and tumbled on the ground, rolling till I was behind a man with blonde hair, I dug my heels into the ground and stopped myself, resting on one knee.
The man looked at me and then back in the direction I came from, he cocked his gun and aimed at one of the two wolves. A man who was standing next to him did the same, mirroring him. And at the same time they silenced them. A single bullet, a single shot. I sighed and leaned forward, trying to catch my breath. A girl kneeled down next to me and placed her hand on my shoulder, rubbing it slightly.
"Hey, are you okay?" I nodded my head quickly and looked back up at her. She looked like she was the same age as me, her hair was long and brown, it was also pulled back into a ponytail. Her dark chocolate eyes looked glazed in the moonlight. She was really pretty.
"What are you doing out here, alone?" I looked up at the man I had hid behind, and smirked.
"I wasn't alone, I had Brave." I pointed over at Brave, the man looked at him and sneered. Brave was in the middle of licking his balls, like a real gentleman. He looked back at me and placed a hand on his hip. What is he a soccer mom?
"Still, what are you doing out here?" I took a deep breath and look around, these people were clearly hunters, making them my competition, I couldn't tell them the truth about me though. They would probably string me up and cut me in half.
"I was doing research." I answered calmly. A small smile rested on my lips.
"For what?" He questioned me again. The girl with brown hair glared at him, must be her dad.
"Dad, give her a break, she was just chased by a pair of rabid omegas!" The man sneered and put his gun away. God Damn I'm a detective!
"Allison." Allison's dad gave her a strange look then sighed before looking down at his feet, he had surrendered. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey what's your name anyway?" I looked up at him and then down at me feet.
"Isn't it respectful to give one's name first, before asking for another's." I correct Allison's dad, I really wanted to know his name. He was my 'hero' after all. Her dad looked at me and then sighed.
"I'm sorry. My name is Chris, now what is your name?" I smiled at Chris and then stood up, dusting myself off. Thank god it didn't rain, otherwise my clothes would be stained with mud.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Chris my name is Christa." Once I believed I was clean enough I looked back up at Chris, then over to Brave. "Well, it's been very nice but I think that me and Brave should be heading home." Chris nodded his head and then stepped to the side, to let me pass. I clicked my tongue and started to walk away from the party of hunters, I stopped when I realized something. I turned around and scratched the back of my head. "Could you, um, tell me how to get out of these woods?"
Allison giggled and then pointed west. "Just walk in that direction and you'll will arrive at the highway, you should be able to find your way from there." I smiled and thanked Allison before I clicked my tongue again and started to walk west like I was told. It took about 15 minutes before we reached the high way, just like Allison said. I looked up and down the black top, the first thing I noticed is that there was nothing but trees on either direction. I took a quick sniff before I decided to take a left. Wow so human instinct is right for once. [A/n; it's been proven that when humans are faced with the choice of taking left or right, they more often than not go left. The more you know *insert rainbow here*]
It took about another 20 minutes before me and Brave got back to the house. Why was the walk there longer then the walk back? The fuck?! Sighing with relief I turned the door handle and pushed the door open, and the second I did my mom had tackled me right to the ground. Dick bag!
"CHRISTA!" She yelled in my ear making me almost go deaf. "Where have you been?!" I looked at her and pushed her off of me. I quickly took note of the tear stains on her cheeks.
"I've been checking out the town like you told me to!" My mother was almost in tears, again. I finally pushed her off and got free, quickly making my way to the stairs and running up them.
"Get back down here!" I looked back down at her and stuck my tongue out. I watched in amusement as her eyes flashed gold. My own flashed their true color before I turned on my heels.
"Never!" I ran into my bedroom and shut the door quickly, locking it. Slowly I ran my fingers through my hair, making my way over to my desktop I set down my bag and pulled out my digital camera, setting in down next to my computer. I went back to my bag and pulled out my USB cord and connected the camera to the computer, turning on the monitor and the computer I logged on and started to download the photo's that I had taken today onto my computer.
Moving back over to my bed where I had left all of my collected papers and tacks, picking up one I looked it over and then set it back down. I moved over to my closet and looked for a small box that contained all my yarn and tape. Picking it up I walked back over to my bed and set it down, opening it I pulled out the red yarn and started to unravel it. Red is for unsolved. I picked up a pair of scissors and cut it. I spent the rest of my night tacking up yarn and photos. I even ended up falling asleep in the middle of the floor. Surrounded by my own insanity.