The weeks that passed were some of the best in Lily's life so far. She finally had a friend, she had opened up, she felt safe, and most importantly she felt wanted. John and Sarah turned out to be really competitive during board games. Monopoly was a monstrosity. Lily was still sure Sarah was cheating as the banker and John somehow started a mob business within the game. There were no winners that game night, but it was a lot of fun!
Leah on the other hand was not having a good time. She was not having a good time at all. Sam and her had ended up breaking up, her cousin Emily had shown up finally, but Sam wouldn't leave Emily alone. Once again this had Lily thinking that dating wasn't worth it. Maybe it was just the guys in this area. Either way, she didn't find the dating thing all that enviable.
Sam had once again been hounding Emily to talk to him when Leah asked Lily to come over. Lily and Emily actually got along really well, and all three girls would band together to avoid Sam whenever he was around.
Leah- "Hey, can you come over? Sam isn't taking the hint. Emily is getting really frustrated. Need estrogen ASAP."
Lily- "Sure thing. John is watching the game so I'll borrow the car. Be there in 20. I'll bring snacks."
After a quick hello and goodbye to john who was busy shouting at the television, she grabbed the keys. She wasn't the most confident of drivers, and the weather had been pretty Icey lately. Texting Leah to let her know she was on her way; she slowly made her way down to La Push.
After narrowly avoiding what Lily was sure was certain death by black ice, she finally pulled up to the Clearwater's. Thankfully, only Emily and Leah were at the house. After letting herself in, Lily called out to the girls.
"Hey honey, I'm home!" Lily shouted out. A muffled reply of "finally" was the only response she got before a very disgruntled Leah and a furious Emily came downstairs to the kitchen.
"Took you long enough! You drive slower than my grandparents. Hey, mom just texted asking me to grab some stuff from the store. Can you stay here with Emily? She's too angry to trust out in public" Leah teased. Emily just huffed in response.
"Promise I'll be back in half an hour at most. I don't know why she couldn't have just picked it up herself but whatever. I'll be back. Don't have too much fun without me." Was her parting comment.
Emily and Lily moved into the living room trying to try and find something to watch on television. Emily's phone kept vibrating letting her know someone kept trying to message her. Lily kept glancing over at Emily as the phone kept going off. Emily eventually broke down, threw the phone at Lily and covered her face with her hands.
"Hey, hey Em' you ok? Just turn the phone off. He has no right to harass you like this! I can talk to my neighbor about it, He's chief of Police. Maybe he could talk to him?" Lily offered.
"No, nothing works. He won't leave me alone. Worst part? Only you and Leah seem to understand I'm not interested in him. He dumped my cousin after acting like a complete jerk to her after being together for years. Everyone else seems to think I'll just give in, that I should give him a chance. How could I do that to Leah? Shes my sister. I just don't understand, and I am so tired of begging him to leave me alone." After that, she took a shuttered breath and they sat together in silence, the television playing in the background.
Not too long after her outburst they turned to the sound of a car coming up the driveway. Lily checked her watch, only to see that Leah hadn't been gone long enough to even make it to the store let alone come back after shopping so soon. Lily got up quickly from the couch to see who was driving up, but her gut dropped to her feet. She didn't need to look to guess who it was.
Sam Uley had the audacity to come bother Emily when he saw Leah had left, meaning she was by herself. Lily had given Leah her keys so she could go to the store, hiding the fact that Lily was still here.
Banging on the door announced to everyone that Sam was here and he was not going to leave before he had said everything he intended to say. Emily had several emotions flash across her face before settling on anger.
Anger for being harassed. Anger for her cousin. Anger for having her feelings ignored. And anger for the balls on this man to come to her home to corner her. How dare he!
Lily tried her best to try to keep Emily calm, but it was to no avail. She had finally had enough of Sam. Emily shushed Lily, quickly asking her to stay in the kitchen and listen in while she confronted Sam.
"Absolutely not! What if he hurts you? Or does something and I cant get to you in time! Lets call your aunt, this is ridiculous.!"
"Lily, I love you but I'm an adult and you are the 17 yea old. I'm supposed to keep you safe, not the other way around. Let me take care of this, then we can just forget this ever happened and ordered pizza or something. I'm done with this drama." And with that, Emily marched outside to confront Sam.
Lily listened from inside the kitchen. Emily listened quietly to what Sam was saying. It was hard to make out, but it was something about true love, a mistake, anything she needed. Things like that. He sounded so different than when Lily first met him. He sounded hurt, frustrated, and tired. But Sam wasn't her concern. Emily was. Emily was the one who needed support, not Sam. This was all Sam's fault to begin with.
It was Emily's turn in this argument finally. She was shouting. Lily wasn't sure exactly what Sam's life story was, but Emily sure did. She very clearly put into perspective just how much of a jerk he had been, how he was ignoring her own desires to stay far away from him, how he didn't respect her or any woman, and that he was just as bad as his father.
Then it happened. A roaring tearing sound and Emily screaming. Lily burst through the door, only to find Emily covered in blood, a huge bear sized black wolf, and torn fabric everywhere. The wolf started howling and growling at Lily, who without even realizing what she was doing growled back and threw her shoe at the wolf. This somehow managed to bring the wolf back to whatever reality it lived in, and it ran off. It looked back only once at Emily who was screaming and crying on the ground, trying to stop the blood coming from her face.
"Go! Get out of here! Go!" She shouted while trying to reach down and grab some of the torn cloth surrounding Emily to use as compression on the wounds. She wasn't sure what happened to Sam, or if the wolf ate him, or what but right now everything was covered with blood.
"Shh, Emily its ok. Its gonna be ok. Let me see. Oh god its ok, its fine!" was Lily's poor attempt at trying to keep calm while starting to go into shock with Emily. Her quickly called 9-1-1 to get help when leah pulled up into the driveway. She threw open the door and screamed "EMILY!" before sprinting to the girls on the ground. Throwing the phone to Leah, Lily began trying to stop the bleeding again. Her shoulders started aching and her hands were burning.
She wasn't really paying attention to any of that because Leah started shouting at the responder on the phone directions and no, she didn't know what happened. Emily passed out at that point, whether from blood loss, stress, or a combination of everything Lily didn't know.
"EMILY! Emily you have to stay awake. Come on, wake up!" Lily shouted. Her heart was pounding in her ears at this point. What the heck was happening? Why was everything burning? She was getting dizzy and her shoulder blades were throbbing now.
There was a blinding light and that was the last thing Lily remembered before blacking out.
The first thing Lily noticed was she was freezing. Why was she freezing? She remembered…something. Burning? That seemed wrong though. Someone was hurt. Did she crash on her way to…? Leah? EMILY!
She tried getting up out of the bed she was in, realizing she was in a hospital bed of some sort. A nurse quickly came into her room to see what the commotion was. After finding her patient awake, she began grabbing vitals and filling her in on what happened. Apparently, a wolf had attacked while Sam and Emily were arguing, Sam managed to scare it away but not before it had taken a swipe at Emily. Sam went to chase it down in the woods while Lily had helped stop the bleeding but had passed out from dehydration.
Well. That didn't seem to add up whatsoever.
"Where is Emily? Is Leah ok? What happened to that wolf? It was huge!" but before the nurse could begin answering any of Lily's questions, Sarah came rushing in wearing scrubs. She took one look at Lily and lunged at her, pulling her into a deep hug.
"I was so scared! I don't know what Johnny and I would have done if anything had happened to you! Do you hear me? Don't go scaring me like that ever again!" and with that she got a second hug and everything was forgiven in Sarah's world.
"Where's Emily?" Lily finally asked again, hoping to get an answer this time.
"Sweetheart, she's getting treated right now… she lost a lot of blood. Face and head wounds bleed a good deal. Mix that with everything else that happened she's going to need some time to heal. Once you're discharged, I'm taking you straight home. No arguments. I know you're fine technically but my heart can't take seeing you admitted another minute."
"Could I talk to Leah or Sue or anyone before I go first? The nurse said something about Sam fighting off the wolf, but he wasn't there. It was just Emily and this giant black wolf. They had been arguing but he's somehow the hero. He has been harassing her for weeks!"
Sarah looked down at lily, looking so small and pale against the bedding. She was beginning to worry that Lily had hurt her head when she passed out. "Sweetie, Emily and Sam have been together for the last few weeks, remember? They love each other… Are you sure you're ok?"
Absolutely not! No way! That is not what happened! Right? No. no Leah would remember. She wasn't making this up. There had been a wolf, and… and blood and she was absolutely sure Sam had not chased after the wolf.
After being cleared by the doctor to head home, she quickly messaged Leah when Sarah wasn't watching.
Lily- "hey, just got discharged. What's happening? They're saying Sam is the hero and all this other stuff! What's going on?"
Leah- "oh you're alive? I wasn't sure when you decided to turn into a fucking lightbulb and explode!"
What was she talking about? Deciding she was too tired for Leah's dramatics, she tried again.
Lily- "Um, Idk what you're talking about but you're hilarious. Is Emily ok? What's going on?"
Leah- "Oh, don't start denying this shit. You started glowing, screamed, Emily's face healed up partially, and passed out. IDK what your deal is, but that's not normal! Em is sleeping. She needed stitches. Everyone is whispering. IDK what's going on."
Lily- "I literally don't remember that. I remember feeling like I was burning up and then passing out. No light show that I can recall. Can we talk once Sarah lets me free?
Leah- "IDK when we can meet up again. Somethings going on. I'll talk to you later. Bye"
Great. What a fucking day. Lily rested her head on the window as Sarah drove them home. After getting a thorough look through by John and a hug, she was sent to her room to rest.
It wasn't until later that night she had her first nightmare. Or rather, her memory of being chased. She knew that wolf. That was what was chasing her weeks earlier in the woods!