"You Can't Take the Sky From Me"
"I don't care. I'm still free.
You can't take the sky from me."
"The Ballad of Serenity" by Joss Whedon
If the random killings and bear sightings hadn't scared off all the bird-watchers, picnickers, and hikers who usually frequented the woods near Forks, Washington, the single large crow perched in the branches of a tall oak tree would not have been the only creature to see a huge blackish brown shape speed by, hardly a blur in the dark forest. As it was, the crow was the only being in the immediate area, and, not being a curious soul, it went on with its business as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
In fact, lately the event wasn't that strange. With six young werewolves living on the reservation to which the woods belonged to, it was almost an everyday occurrence. The strange part, really, was that the wolf was alone. Pack-brothers always ran together.
8
He had just been able to get out the door before he turned. And he hadn't lost control in months, too. Still, as soon as his body had finished changing, he had set off at a run. He entered the woods at the point where they met his property, and didn't stop running since.
Jake,
I miss you.
Love,
Bella
What was he supposed to do? It was Bella, after all. His best friend. The one he had spent all his time with just that spring. All he wanted to do was turn straight around and go to her house… give her a hug. Tell her he missed her, too. But the thought of who else might be there kept Jake running, deeper and deeper into the trees.
Edward.
The name itself could have caused Jake to phase if he had not already been in wolf-form. A vampire. A blood-sucker. A killer, and a murder. The one who had broken Bella in the first place. Jake could almost believe that Edward wouldn't lose control and suck the life out of her. But he could never believe that he wouldn't hurt her- he already had. Coming back didn't change that. Coming back didn't change anything. Except that it did; it changed everything.
Jake forced his legs to move faster, faster, faster. Further from the reservation: from Sam, and Billy, and the newly-changed Quil. Further from Forks, and the Cullens, and Bella and her little notes passed from father to father. Further from everything that reminded him of anything.
What Jake wanted most of all was to escape. Leave everything behind, not just for an afternoon but forever. Go off to school, maybe, or join the army, or find a job in New York or Texas. But he already had a job, and he knew he couldn't escape it, wherever he went. Even in Miami, he would still be a werewolf. A monster fated to find and kill others until death. Fate sucked.
And because he couldn't leave, couldn't escape destiny or his bad luck or his problems, Jake kept running. Sometimes, if he ran fast enough, it felt like his paws didn't even touch the ground. And then, everything faded away, if only for a moment. And he was really, truly, free.