"QUILEUTE ~ LA PUSH ~ CHALLENGE" Entry
Title: Call To Arms
Pen name: EternallyJaded
Beta Name: VampireWolf0131
Genre: Family/ Tragedy
Summary: A few questions go unanswered in the Twilight saga. One of which is the true circumstances of Harry Clearwater's death... Written for the Quileute 'La Push' Challenge.
If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this challenge visit
. community/QUILEUTE_la_push_CHALLENGE/74774
~ To use the above URL replace a . ~
DISCLAIMER: Twilight characters and related likeness are owned by Stephenie Meyer,
Little Brown Publishing. No profits have been received in the production of this piece.
March 16th was a typical Thursday morning at the Clearwater's. Sue was frying breakfast, Harry was reading the newspaper and Seth and Leah were doing what most siblings do most of the time: arguing.
"Leah, hurry up, I'm gonna be late for school!" Seth called through the bathroom door.
"Shut up, Seth, I'll be out in a minute!" Leah growled back at her annoying little brother. Right now she just wished he would disappear.
What was wrong with her? Leah was usually mean to just about everybody but she was nice to Seth. Well, civil enough. But for the past couple of days she had been snappier, angrier and just plain bitchier than usual. This morning she had a temperature and a killer headache so even sweet little Seth was managing to get on her nerves.
"Leah, hurry up!" Seth snapped uncharacteristically, thumping the door until it shook. Leah chose to ignore him, instead splashing her face with water in an attempt to cool down. She looked at herself in the mirror taking in her tired eyes and greasy raven hair and decided she looked a mess. Better to be safe than sorry and check her temperature before going into work. She went to the cabinet and took out a thermometer-Jesus Christ! 109 degrees? She quickly decided to call in sick, there was no way she was working with such a high temperature.
Leah opened the door (just about saving it from being thrown off its hinges) and found herself staring up into her brother's face. Hell, when did he get so big? It seemed like just yesterday she could rest her hand on his head and ruffle his hair.
"Finally!" He pushed past her and slammed the door behind him. Come to think of it, he'd been grouchy too lately with only puberty to blame for his foul mood. Leah didn't even have that,
Fifteen minutes later they were sitting around the table eating breakfast. Eating being the word for what he mom and dad were doing. Leah and Seth on the other hand were completely wolfing down their food.
"Kids, please. Slow down or you'll choke!" Sue looked disapprovingly at her children but her perpetual kindness was still obvious in her face.
"Sorry, Mom." Seth looked up sheepishly from his food and Leah threw him a disgusted look for his submissiveness. Admittedly she could have eaten with a little less vigour, but she was so damned hungry. With all the food she had eaten in the past couple of days it was a wonder she wasn't the size of a house by now. Maybe the fever had something to do with it?
"Hey Mom, I'm not feeling so great so I'm going to take the day off work, okay?" It was meant as a statement not a question, but of course Sue answered her anyway.
"Well, you can eat alright." she noted with a raised eyebrow and Harry chuckled in agreement.
"I already phoned in sick." She deadpanned giving her mother no further opportunity to protest. Sue frowned but didn't say anything, respecting her daughter's ability to chose for herself.
"Yeah, I have a fever too." Seth added, jumping on the bandwagon like the impressionable idiot he was.
"Seth please, that didn't work when you were in 4th grade and it isn't going to work now." Sue laughed, starting to clear the table.
"Seriously Mom, I have a really high temperature!" Seth whined throwing his head back in protest. Sue sighed and pressed her hand to his forehead, a frown forming at the unexpected and unnatural warmth.
"Okay Seth, what did you do to get your temperature that high?" She asked suspiciously giving him a chance to back out without punishment. Leah didn't see why she didn't just ground him and make him go to school anyway, he did this kind of thing often enough.
"Nothing. I honestly have a fever!" Sue's brow furrowed and she glanced at Harry but he didn't share the same concerned look, in fact, he barely looked up from his paper.
"Seth give it up and go to school. Nobody believes your childish stories." Leah sighed, irritated, as she got up to leave.
"I am. Not. A child." He said through clenched teeth, the strange ferocity of his glare stopping her.
"Yes Seth, you are a child. If you don't want to be treated like one then grow up!"
"Children please!" Sue looked at them, her shock and confusion from the sudden outburst obvious in her expression. They both mumbled apologies but the tension in the room was still tangible.
"You're so immature." Leah couldn't resist taunting him one last time. She instantly regretted it when Seth stood up and knocked his chair flying in the process.
"I'm not a child!" He roared with a beastliness Leah was surprised he could even create. This time Sue was frozen in place halfway between the table and the counter, a dish still clutched anxiously in her hand.
"Yes you are," Leah found herself growling back, possessed by a raging unfounded anger and finding Seth as an easy target, "You are a naïve, immature child!"
Seth was breathing hard and his hands shook violently, eyes glinted black and then dulled suddenly into a cold, dark ire.
"I may be naïve, but you're bitter, irritating and unlovable! Nobody even likes you Leah!" He hissed and the words pierced her like knives. She knew those things were true but she never thought that Seth would be the one to say them out loud. She thought she saw a slight hint of regret on his face but it was hard to be sure through the haze of anger, both his and her own.
The brief moment of hurt passed quickly and her emotions turned swiftly to blazing fury. Her hands started to shake with rage, a tremble which echoed through her entire body. Sue snapped suddenly out of her frozen state and demanded that they both calm down. But neither heard her insistant words or her panicked glare.
A fierce snarl erupted from Leah's throat taking her somewhat by surprise. Her face burned with anger and she felt more tremors run through her. Seth mirrored her exactly: the same aggressive stance, the same shaking movement.
"Sue, I think you should get Billy on the phone." Harry suggested calmly from his seat where he had been watching the situation escalate rapidly. Sue nodded but didn't show any sign that she was going to, afraid of moving too quickly and shattering the atmosphere into catastrophe.
"Seth, you need to calm down." Harry said quietly, his voice still level but with a nervous edge. At his words Leah tore her glare away from her brother and looked to her father instead. Wasn't she just as angry? Didn't she deserve his attention as much? She felt her rage surge at the blatant, expected favouritism. Harry didn't miss her reaction but his own response was worse than if he had ignored her completely.
"Now Leah, you'll want to calm down too. We don't want to make him any more angry, you have no idea what could happen." It was always Seth! He had always been her parents' favourite child, The good one, the kind one. Not bitter and cold, like her. Hell, even Sam had liked him better!
"Okay Seth look at me," Harry continued to talk softly, "Why don't you come with me out-" he was cut off mid sentence by the deafening growl tearing through the kitchen. Leah realised too late it had come from her. She saw red, her vision stained crimson with anger and she felt heat wash over her, almost suffocating. Compulsions ran through her, faster and faster until she couldn't take it any more. She exploded.
She wasn't quite sure what happened it was as if her body couldn't contain her any more and she had been ripped from her own being. The force of the explosion sent her falling roughly to the floor, disoriented and writhing an intense pain which she could barely feel through her numbness. Her limbs were heavy and impossible to control and her head felt as though it might burst all over again. As she struggled desperately to climb to her feet she realised that she was on all fours and powerful, hairy limbs sprawled out in front of her.
She cried out desperately as her mind finally connected to the panic she knew she should have already been feeling but she only heard a distant growl in response. Confusion and terror hit next as she scrambled aimlessly, blinded by emotion until voices began to mingle with her own scarce consciousness.
Seth, is that you? Oh man, so young. A voice in Leah's head asked. It sounded almost familiar but it was too difficult to keep a hold on anything to recognise properly.
Don't pretend you're not just annoyed because you now owe me five dollars. I told you he was going to phase next, have you seen him lately? Another voice added, again it should have been familiar but instead it slipped aimlessly from her head. She shook her head trying to clear it, to understand something, but it was different too. Another tide of fear and frustration rushed through her veins and she cried out again because it was all she could do.
It's okay, man, don't worry. We've all been there, you're not going crazy. Just try to relax. Where are you? Who are you with? With great effort she forced her eyes open and found her vision much more normal than she had imagined. Images of her kitchen flashed through her head at the first voice's question and a slight relief took over. Her sight was remarkably good and she clung to that one shred of normality trying to convince herself that perhaps she wasn't dead or about to die. Her eyes finally settled on her brother, his face the mirror of Leah's own feelings, but he was no longer shaking stunned into stillness.
Wait, you're not Seth? Then who-? The voice stopped mid-sentence as if it had been cut off and Leah felt as if there was a little less space in her already overcrowded head.
Jared, Embry, what's going on? A deeper, more authoritative voice demanded but this time she had no problem recognising it.
Sam! How could it be? She had long since gotten his voice out of her head and in this moment of madness she had no wish for it to come back.
Leah?! All three voices exclaimed at once, their surprise reverberating through her head. She growled again, confusion filling every space of her being and pressing tortuously against her skull.
The sound of a plate smashing brought her suddenly back from her mind. She reopened her eyes to see her mother staring at Leah in fright, her hands frozen as if they were still holding the plate. It lay shattered on the floor, along with two chairs and the kitchen table, broken beneath her her feet. Seth had paled considerably and her father too was staring at her, his eyes wide in terror.
"Seth, help me! Somebody please!" She tried to plead with them but all that came out was a pitiful, feral whine.
Leah, get outside, now, Sam's voice said kindly, your family is scared, you wouldn't want them to get hurt would you?
I would never hurt them.
Sometimes you don't have a choice. Images of a hiking trip flashed through Leah's head. Sam was with Emily, Emily who he loved beyond all -she flinched at the feeling of how strong his love for her was- she said something which angered him. He wasn't used to phasing and he couldn't control it. He wasn't angry with her, but the wolf didn't care. He growled and lunged at her, dragging his claws down her face. Blood poured from her face as she screamed in agony and terror- Sometimes it just happens... Leah felt shame that wasn't hers engulfing her and she already understood it.
Sam... A voice warned gently. Still the guilt, still the confusion and the fear. It was too much, much too much.
You're right Sam's voice apologised and the feeling was lifted but the confusion remained. Now Leah get out of there.
Leah focused again on her kitchen which now seemed much smaller than it had moments ago but she found that this didn't surprise her as much as it should. The scene was almost the same only now her father hid slipped off his chair and lay on the floor, pale and in pain.
"Harry!" Sue called and ran over to him, taking her eyes off Leah for the first time. Leah's dad was now clutching his chest, his eyes still wide but no longer in fear. The colour had drained completely from his face and he was shaking slightly.
"Harry, are you okay?" Sue asked in a panic but he couldn't answer. "Seth call an ambulance!" Seth did as she said and ran to the phone but the wire had been completely ripped off.
"Mom, it's broken!" He called, the fear in his voice crackled as he spoke. Sue let out a single sob as she carefully stroked her husband's cold face before she regained composure.
"Go down the road, use Mrs Gibson's," she told him, her voice steady but rippling with barely suppressed emotion.
"What about Leah?" Seth asked, half glancing at her before flinching and turning back to his mother. More irrational anger accompanied her terror and it took everything not to snap at him.
"Just go, Seth!" Sue shouted and Seth ran out of the house without another glance at his sister. Sue told Harry again that he would be alright and then stood up to face Leah. She took a deep, shaky breath and stood at her full height, only just able to look Leah in the eye.
"Go away." Her voice trembled with emotion and perhaps...contempt. Leah felt tears spring, hot and desperate to her unfamiliar eyes.
Listen to her, Leah Sam urged gently
Dad!
There is nothing you can do. Leave-
"Now!"
Leah stood her ground, glancing helplessly to her once unbreakable father who had become a rag doll on the floor. She couldn't leave him, not now, not when-
Leah, get out of the house! Sam commanded with a tone that Leah was compelled to do as he said. She felt her legs start to carry her out of the house although she wasn't sure how she was moving them. A strange familiarity accompanied the new feeling and she discovered that she could control her legs although she didn't understand it. She didn't even know where she was running, only that it was away from the people she loved. The people she could so easily hurt.
"...Honestly, Mrs Gibson, you don't need to come over." Seth's panicked voice drifted after her as she disappeared into the trees at the edge of the forest.
"Nonsense, nonsense. My great grandmother was healing woman in our tribe, the power of healing stays with me today." Mrs Gibson boomed loudly, her voice echoing in the clearing. Seth was taking her to their house, to her poor broken father. And Leah didn't know if she would ever see them again.
That's it Leah, come to us. You should be able to follow our scent. A voice, perhaps Jared, tried to reassure her. But Leah had no intention of finding them and when she thought she might have come across a trail, she ignored it.
Leah! Leah come back! They called after her. She kept running, through the sea of green, deep into the very heart of the forest.
After they had called her for what seemed like hours the wolves went quiet. Waiting with her, but each lost in their own thoughts. Leah wasn't happy, she wanted to be alone with her pain or to be back with her family. She needed to find out what had happened to her dad. She needed to find out what had happened to herself. She had seen in their thoughts, in her thoughts, giant creatures snarling and exploding just as she had done. They were all fangs and fur, the stuff of the legends she supposed she must have become a part of. But that was too hard, too unreal, so she focussed on what she knew as she ran. Her family, her father, her loneliness.
Eventually she stopped running, her body eventually catching up with the exhaustion of her mind. She lay down immediately with her head on her paws and closed her eyes. The look of pure terror on her father's face ran through her mind. Then the look of death which clung to him as he lay on the kitchen floor because of what she had become. Then the terror, then the paleness of his face, over and over and over again. She had gotten angry at the stupidest thing and that had caused this. That had turned her into this beast and that had-
Leah. It's not your fault. Sam's gentle and unwanted voice broke into her thoughts before she could finish. There was nothing you could do. We just have to accept what has happened and what we are. We must move on.
Move on. Impossible. Not when her dad was dying and it was because of her. Tears began to form again but she bit them back considering their only purpose would be to embarrass her further. As she did so she realised that despite everything a strange numbness hung over her every thought and feeling. There was something quite tranquil about having the emotions of an animal, even if the thought itself was horrifying. The calm quickly turned to sleep and when Leah awoke she had returned to her normal state. Lost in the forest miles from home, she curled up cold, naked and desperately alone.