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The thought is sobering, and all consuming.
He pushes through the door to his dorm room and kicks off his boots right there. Pulling his shirt off his back with one hand behind his head, he tosses it into the bathroom right next to the front door and makes it into the hamper. In nothing but jeans now, he storms into the little kitchenette of his room and pulls out a Styrofoam cup from a cupboard. He’s so frustrated that as he tries to take the plastic and paper lining off of it, he cracks the cup and freeze-dried shrimp fall out and all over the floor.
“For the love of—” Kade palms his forehead in aggravation and grabs a bowl out of the next cupboard. He pours whatever is left of his cheap meal into the bowl, fills it with water, and slams the microwave door closed on it. Once the plate inside is spinning, Kade turns his attention back to the mess on the floor. Somehow, it’s not dried noodles and tiny desiccated sea creatures he’s looking at, but the mess he made tonight with Elara.
Guilty steps have him walking to a nearby closet, where he pulls out a broom and dustpan, and methodically cleans up the mess he made. Just like he’ll do for Elara.
When the microwave beeps and the smell of cheap ramen floods his room, he’s finished. He places the broom back in the closet, and fishes his meal and a plastic fork out of the kitchenette before plopping himself down in a recliner and flipping on the T.V.
Infomercials blare immediately, advertising a new kitchen gadget or something, but the screen doesn’t have his attention. Across the alleyway, a light flicks on in Elara’s dorm room. Jordyn rushes in, looking flustered, and starts opening up Elara’s dresser drawers and throwing random clothes into a white trash bag.
She looks scared, worried, tears are staining her face. Did something happen?
Kade jerks up in his chair, spilling his ramen, and races towards the window. He plasters his back to the wall and opens the window slightly to see if he can hear anything. Elara always leaves her windows open, a fact that frustrates Kade more than he’d like to admit.
“I know, Mom, I know. I’m just going to take this stuff to Elara and Kira and come straight home…” Jordyn pauses, listening to the phone she’s got pinched between her ear and shoulder as she grabs the stuff for her friends. “I promise, I didn’t get hurt. I’m just frazzled! It never should have gone so sideways so fast!”
No, it shouldn’t have.
“Yes Mom, I’ll be home in an hour. Promise. Come on Mom, really?” A huff of exaggeration. “Fine, cross my heart and hope to die, I’ll be home in an hour. I love you too. Bye…”
The door slams as Jordyn leaves the room, and Kade breathes a sigh of relief. She was talking to her mom, flustered about everything that happened, but she didn’t say anything about Elara needing more than stitches. She’s probably alright.
Kade looks back towards his chair, at the mess of noodles now soaking into the seat, and bangs the back of his head into the wall lightly with a grunt of agitation.
He can’t afford to forget what his role in all of this is. He’s not the hero, nor will he ever be. He will never be anything to Elara.
The first two lines of the prophecy that he already knows exactly what his role in this has always been filter through his mind, a harbinger of the night he’s going to have.
In shadows deep, where moonlight gleams,
A curse unfolds in silent dreams.
.
4
Elara
Elara stares at the stitches in her wrists, tracking from the base of her palms and up her forearms. She hadn’t realized that the scratches were so deep, at least not until the doctor had pulled out the needle and thread. Then again, she shouldn’t have been so surprised. There was so much blood.
And the relief when the anesthetic kicked in had been amazing.
But right now, as her mother leans across the dining table, her eyes crinkled with concern, she needs to pretend the scratches are most definitely minor. She tucks her bandaged arms beneath the table as she tries to pull up a smile. If her mom’s hovering now, it will be infinitely worse if she knows how bad it was.
“Tell us, honey,” her mom says, pushing a cup of tea toward her. “What exactly happened?”
Elara sighs. Her mom and dad have asked the same question multiple times, as if they can’t quite wrap their heads around something like this happening to their daughter. “There was awild animal and it scratched me. I don’t know what it was. It all happened so fast.”
She feels awful lying to them, especially since there really isn't a reason for her to lie, but she just can't bring herself to admit there had been a wolf. Strangely enough, she doesn’t want anything to happen to it. If she told people, they’d want to hunt it, and she’d hate for an innocent animal to be hurt because of what happened to her. She was out in the dark, alone. And it’s not like it tried to kill her.
Elara's parents glance at one another, as if they aren't sure whether to believe her. Exhaustion falls over her. She’s already told this lie more than once, and she’s ready to be done with it, ready to rest and be away from other people. She rises from the kitchen bench, careful to keep her injured hands from touching the scarred wood.
“I think I'm going to go to bed.”
“Of course, honey.”
For a terrible second Elara thinks her mother’s going to insist on tucking her into bed. She quickly presses a kiss to her cheek, then her father’s, and leaves the kitchen. She is, after all, in college. She only agreed to come home because she didn’t want them to worry about her, but as soon as tomorrow comes she’ll be back in her dorm room at the college. Tonight is a one-time thing.
