Enjoy my rather obvious mystery!!!


Kara Fortin stepped into the crowded bar, struggling to keep her head down and not meet the gazes of any of the patrons, even the drunk ones. People glanced at her and lost interest, turning away to scan the crowd for a familiar face or to order another drink.

Kara strode to the bar and swung the hinged section open, sliding behind the bar. She walked to where most of the business was and bent down, opening a hidden cupboard in the strip of wood and putting her purse inside. She rose up again to find a man staring at her with red-brimmed eyes.

Kara shuddered and looked away, hoping that the man was simply hungover and had no place to go. Luckily, he did not speak to her, just turned on his rotating stool and surveyed the crowd. She let a breath out, glancing around secretively to make sure that she hadn't caught anybody else's attention. Nobody's eyes lingered on her.

Her fellow waitress and bartender walked up, looking relieved.

"Kara! Thank God!"

Kara nodded.

"Sorry I'm late, Maddy."

Maddy shrugged.

"S'okay."

She bustled past Kara, looking back over her shoulder to call a snippet of advice to her friend.

"We got a groper in the Wings jersey; watch yer ass."

Kara smiled and nodded again.

"Thanks, Maddy. Have a good night!" She called out as Maddy reached the door and pushed back into the real world with a wave and a smile.

Kara looked back to the bar to find that same guy looking at her. She whipped her head away, breaking the stare and grabbing a bright green apron from under the counter. She tied it around her waist in a tight knot and rushed into the bathroom to put her hair up. She looked at herself in the mirror, unsure of her reflection.

Kara's long and black hair had been cut down to shoulder-length and dyed blonde nearly six months ago, and yet, gazing at herself in the mirror was like looking at another person. It wasn't just the hair, though. She used to be thin and pale, but after stress eating for who knows how long, and taking a two month vacation to Hawaii, Kara was fuller in figure and evenly tanned. She was pretty, too, which made her a target for many of the drunk men that she served, as well as the sober ones.

She had had tons of offers from many sorts of guys, but after trying one date, Kara had decided to stay single for a while. A while had turned into a lot longer than that. Kara hadn't even been interested in a man for a year. She got lonely sometimes, but it was better than having the company of some ignorant guy that just wanted to get her naked, or some arrogant jackass who thought that he knew everything.

Kara made every effort not to be left alone, and yet hated to socialize with men she could never be with. This was why she worked at a restaurant with a bar attached, switched between the two businesses to keep as busy as possible and earn extra cash. And yet, Kara's real reason for walking into that stuffy, rushed room every night was that working as a waitress kept her under the radar.

This way, she went unnoticed.

And that was all that really mattered.

Kara Fortin was not the person that everyone around her thought she was.

Kara shook old thoughts out of her head and hurried out of the bathroom to where her waiting clients wre beginning to get impatient. She refused to dwell on old things. Kara took several orders at the bar and mixed the drinks quickly, focusing her entire mind on something that was so familiar to her that she did not need to think about doing it.

One man reached out for his drink instead of waiting for her to set it on the counter, his hand brushing hers for longer than necessary. She jerked her hand back and moved as far away as possible, scouting for people that looked as if they needed refills.

After several more hours of avoiding anyone that looked at her too long, Kara glanced at the clock and saw that she was due to start her shift at the connected diner. She hung up her apron and greeted Maddy as she returned, then headed towards the restaurant. She reached the counter and found that there were no aprons left. Looking around, she saw that waitress that she was relieving was still waiting on a family who were almost done their meals.

Kara sighed and leaned against a wall in the shadows, trying not to glare at everyone who passed by. She moved from the wall as it seemed that the waitress she was to relieve was finishing, but then she went on to another table.

Kara snorted in annoyance and blew her bangs out of her face. The stylishly cut hair fell back into her face and her emerald green eyes darted around behind it. Suddenly Kara spotted a handsome man looking intently at her from across the room, sitting alone in a secluded booth. His deep blue eyes bored into hers, making her skin itch.

Kara tried to look away but found herself captured, held by his endless attention. She was getting really creeped out by the time she managed to walk over to a waitress.

"Who is that guy?" Kara asked, trying to point at him without letting him know.

He noticed. The man winked at her and inclined his head slightly.

"I dunno," replied the gum-popping waitress.

"He's been there for, like, half an hour. Says he's waiting for someone."

Kara stared at her, trying not to look over-interested.

"Who?"

The girl shrugged and muttered something unintelligible.

"What?" Kara asked her. She repeated her sentence one more time.

"Keeps mentioning somebody named.... Trilly? Tilly? Something like that."

Kara blinked as the girl turned on her heel and walked away without another word, apparently bored of her questions. Glancing discreetly towards the man again, Kara paled as she found that his face was one she knew. One that she had hoped never to see again.

This was a man that connected her to the past and every horrible thing that had happened to her since meeting him; she hadn't missed the memories that he suddenly brought forth.

Kara pushed the suffocating images away as they threatened to overwhelm her.

A pair of chocolate eyes staring at her through a film of death.

The dark shape of a 'wolf laying helpless on the ground.

The world exploding around her as bullets showered the air.

Kara gasped as she truly relieved that horrible night for the first time in months. She began to move towards the door, her first instinct being to run from the past. But then her true nature kicked in and Kara knew that she needed to confront him, or have him haunt her for the rest of her life. Kara suddenly corrected her course before she could chicken out, striding in the direction of her former friend.

She avoided his gaze as she slid into the booth, crossing her arms across her chest, which had grown in volume since she'd last set eyes on him.

"Why the hell are you here?" she snapped venomously, unable to sit still. He regarded her coolly smile a but, much to her annoyance.

"It's been a while, Trolly."

Kara winced at the name, then felt embarrassingly weak for doing so and forced her eyes to meet his. She flicked hair out of her eyes and stared him down. She cut to the chase.

"How did you find me?"

The man smirked even more and she let out a frustrated breath. He tutted slowly at her, shaking one finger in front of his face.

"Now, now, that's no way to greet an old friend, is it?"

Kara narrowed her eyes at him. His smile slipped a little and he swapped it for an even more teasing one. Eventually he answered her question.

"Well, as you know, it took quite a while, but I eventually tracked you down through, ah, secretive means."

Kara glared harder.

"You won't tell me?"

He shrugged.

"I couldn't have you know all my secrets, could I?"

Kara rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Blood?"

His name felt strange on her tongue, and Kara wondered if she had ever hoped to say it in the beginning, before it became easier to just wipe the slate clean and forget. Blood suddenly became absolutely serious. He opened his mouth, then glanced around furtively, as if suspicious of the innocent families and seniors that surrounded them.

"Trolly, why don't we take this elsewhere?" Kara reluctantly agreed, shooting up from the booth as soon as she told him where the extra key to her house was hidden. She had had to lean in close to him, smelling his cologne as she whispered into his ear.

He nodded to her as she left, rising from the booth and leaving the diner smoothly, with a wink at a middle aged woman near the door. She gave a little smile and turned away. Kara snorted and frowned at the display. Blood had never had that sort of affect on her, not like.........

She blinked away the fast rising tears and rushed to the counter where an apron waited for her, scratched up notepad in it's pocket. Kara grabbed it and angrily tied the thing, pulling at the strings much too hard. She stubbornly tied the knot and walked around for the better part of an hour with them constricting her waist. Finally she gave in and loosened it, feeling as if she couldn't stand to be smiling and speaking to total strangers a moment longer.

In her first spurt of individuality since joining Blood at the booth, Kara untied her apron completely and left it at the door. She collected her purse and told the manager that she wasn't feeling great and needed to go home. Her boss just nodded and let her go, probably figuring that it was about time that Kara took a day off.

Kara thanked her and left in a rush, breaking into a run as she burst through the doors of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk. Kara jogged to her little car and opened the door with gusto, slamming it into another car as she did so. She gasped as she jerked it away and saw the large dent in the shiny new metal of some person's 2010 Camaro.

Kara inspected the imperfection worriedly, glancing around to see if anyone had witnessed the accident. The parking lot was deserted except for a plastic bag blowing lazily across the concrete. Kara thought of returning to the restaurant and asking whose the car was, but she needed to get back home to see what the hell Blood wanted, and besides, it would attract attention.

That was exactly what she needed to avoid.

Kara frantically jumped into her car, shutting the door firmly behind her in a risky decision. Kara shoved her key into the slot, turning it and waiting for the vehicle to warm up a bit. After a second she shifted into Reverse and back out of her parking space, driving away like a madwoman.

When Kara pulled up in front of her home, her chest was heaving with adrenaline. She had nearly hit a minivan on the open road just before nearing her house, and was still reeling from the abrupt turn that had saved her and her car from being totalled. Kara bent and climbed out of her car, slamming the door behind her and speed-walking up to her front door. She tested the handle and found it unlocked.

Good. Blood had found the key.

She suddenly felt timid and opened the door cautiously, slinking into her own house. She shut the door with a tiny click behind her and advanced down the narrow hallway at a creep. Peeking into the kitchen, she saw him sitting casually at the table, sipping a mug of black coffee. He was surveying the room, leaning back on his chair. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and waltzed into the small room, taking a seat across from him.

Blood took another second before turning his electric gaze on her. He didn't speak for a moment, then gestured towards the surrounding house and said, "Love what you've done with the place."

Kara rested her arms on the table and balanced her chin in her palms, then changed positions because she felt vulnerable. She would have like to tell him that she was currently behind on payment for the place, but that wouldn't help her strong front.

Instead she muttered, "I try."

Blood grinned at her and she started to feel like they were wasting time, beating around the bush in her lonely little house.

"How did you find me? And why did you bother to come?"

Blood avoided her eyes, readying himself to shoot straight into a touchy subject. He couldn't predict her reaction when he delivered the news, but had staying away really been an option?

He had promised himself that if there were news, he would inform her. Of course, tracking the sneaky she-devil down all the way out here in the country had taken longer than expected, and the information could well be useless now. He squared his shoulders and plowed on, determined not to back out and leave her oblivious to the sliver of hope that would most likely just let her down.

She looked so beaten up, like she had given in to the weights of the world. Her striking eyes had become tired, she'd put on a few pounds (not that some more meat would ever be a problem on the skinny girl), and now she was living in the dump on the outskirts of some little village in Canada, of all places.

Moving all the way here had been a smart move, though, however frustrating the flat landscape was. Even Takapa hadn't suspected she would have left the country, which proved how desperate she was to escape from the past. If that was the case, it might be best not to tell her....

Blood tossed his indecisiveness away after a moment of thoughtful silence and cleared his throat meaningfully.

"It's.... it's about- well..."

He could barely force himself to spit the words out, now that it came to it.

"It's about Tom."

Kara stiffened and stared unblinkingly at the man across from her. Her green eyes shot wide open as her heart thudded erratically in her chest. The room suddenly seemed to be pushing in on her, suffocating her with his name. Kara choked for a moment on the warm air, her breaths coming in quickly. Tears began to sting her eyes once again and she turned her head away, her chest heaving. How could one name cause her so much grief?

She gripped the table and made herself take a deep, shaky breath then pressed it outwards slowly.

"What?" she whispered almost inaudibly.

Kara hated Blood at that moment, for dragging her old life back and throwing it at her feet like this. He shouldn't have come.

That was exactly what Blood thought as he watched uncomfortably, wanting to leave as soon as possible. He hated crying women. Kara's stare was so intense that it rushed out of his mouth, though, tumbling out in a way that he tried to conceal.

"Well..."

He looked at her with a flash of pity and she hardened.

"This might be hard to believe, but..."

Her mouth straightened into a grim line as she anticipated his next words, thinking that he would ask her to come help with some stupid experiment. They were probably putting some sick project together to form another wereling and needed her knowledge of the wolve's culture and anatomy. She glared at him and prepared a refusal.

"He's alive."


Kara opened her eyes grudgingly, wondering when she had decided to go to sleep. She couldn't remember changing into her old T-shirt, or brushing her teeth, or laying her head down on the pillow and closing her eyes.

As soon as she came fully awake, Kara knew why. She was in her full clothes, on her couch. Blood's face hovered over her with a concerned expression that waved slightly in front of her eyes until she blinked hard and her vision cleared. She wondered shy he was there for about a millisecond before it all came rushing back.

First came that horrible night, with Tom's powerful body lying frailly next to her.

His eyes, still human, begging her to do something, to escape.

She saw splatters of his precious blood behind her eyelids and heard gunshots echoing around the walls. Then trees surrounded her as she blundered through the woods in escape, knowing nothing but that she needed to get away, or die.

She remembered finding this old house on the outskirts of a town in Canada, blessing her luck that it was extremely cheap and came with an old, barely running Mazda that the owners had no use for. She remembered her short interview at the bar/restaurant, the managers surprise when she asked him for a job at both installments.

Kara thought of the endless nights of keeping under the radar, refusing to stand out for fear of being recognized.

Time flew past like she had set her memory at fast-forward and suddenly she could hear Blood's words in her mind shooting her back to a strange reality.

Tom was alive.

Kara had been living a lie. An unnecessary one.

She had changed everything about her, and for what? Kara Fortin was fake.

She was a masquerade, a shield from whatever lay inwait for the girl that had been using her as a mask for over twelve months.

The girl that had shoved her true identity away to keep herself safe from her own mother.

The girl that had abandoned her only friend when things got too tough.

That girl suddenly blazed with emotion.

She would hide no longer as Kara Fortin.

Her name was Kate Folan, and she was ready to come out of the shadows.


Hehe. That was fun.