by R. Mason
“Gone?” Amethyst snagged on the word as soon as it was said, “What do you mean he’s gone?”
“To university,” Dylan crunched, “What did you think I meant?”
“Nothing.” Amethyst murmured, her neck itching.
“Hang on,” Faye spoke for the first time in a while, squeezing Amethyst’s hand, “Why do you want help? What the hell can you do about anything?”
“The ‘panic attack’ that ended with you two staring into each other’s eyes like you’ve come straight out of a tween movie? I know how you can control all this, I’ve seen it, and I can help.”
“Okay,” Faye scoffed, “First off, can you stop thinking about movies? Second, we have our systems, and they work. Whatever crap you have to tell us needs to be to do with, I don’t know, the mad woman running around hurting people?”
“I have connections, and they can help. I’m pretty handy with hand to hand too, if it comes down to it.”
“You want to fight her?” Amethyst couldn’t help her scoff, “I’ve met the bitch, and trust me, she would take you down in a second. I’m a were- a werewolf, and I couldn’t even put up a fight.” Amethyst didn’t bother to add that it was because she was two seconds away from crapping herself in fear, because Dylan didn’t need to know about that.
Faye squeezed her hand again, but then it was gone. Amethyst watched as Faye interlinked her fingers and rested them on the table. They started tapping restlessly, something Faye only did when she was completely out of her element. Amethyst wanted to help, tell her that they’ve got this, but in reality, they didn’t. They were both clueless.
“Really?” Dylan’s eyes flicked back and forth between the girls, wide with interest, “You’ve met her? How, why?”
“She’s my maker, creator, whatever,” Amethyst stared at the table, “She’s the reason my wolf was nervous, the reason I nearly turned in Maths, and she attacked me the other night.”
“Attacked you?” Dylan scrambled to lean forward, “Are you okay?”
“She nicked me,” Amethyst ignored his concern, her stomach turning from the lack of contact with Faye. She felt her wolf rearing its ugly head, and closed her eyes, “Not important. I’m sure it’s her who’s doing all this. My first impression, and pre-first impression is that she’s pretty damn violent.”
“Damn,” Dylan hissed, hit apple landing with a thud on the table, “If she’s killed two people already and has gone for you within a few weeks, who knows what she could do with more time.”
“What exactly are you planning on doing about it?” Faye looked up, gritting her teeth, “You want to go after some maniac werewolf with years of experience on Amethyst and supernatural powers on us? How do you think that would go? We’d all be dead in minutes.”
“You escaped, didn’t you?” Dylan said to Amethyst as if it were reasonable, “Imagine what we could do as a team.”
“She let me escape, Dyl-dork,” Amethyst leant forward too so their faces were only inches apart, “No wonder you still find these things funny, you have the mentality of a five-year-old.”
“Actually,” Dylan replied smoothly, the laughter leaving his eyes and being replaced with something years beyond his age, “I know plenty, probably more than you.”
“Oh yeah?” Amethyst searched his face, trying not to growl in the middle of a cafeteria, “Then enlighten me: what do you suggest we do?”
“I don’t have that part figured out yet.” Dylan’s eyes fell to the table and Amethyst laughed harshly.
“That’s what I thought.” Without another word, she got up from the table and looked down at the boy with thinly veiled distaste, “Nice talking to you.”
She walked away without looking back, not to Dylan, not to Faye, not at all. This was not happening. She couldn’t see Kamini again, she couldn’t.
This time, for once, Amethyst hoped Faye didn’t follow her.
◆◆◆
Deeming herself unsuitable to be in classes for the day, Amethyst just went home, storming down the streets with inhuman speed, finding she didn’t care who she bumped into or swore at. Her fingernails were piercing her skin, turning into claws by the time she was two streets away from her house. The turning in her stomach evolved into churning. Every second in public was another second that the people around her weren’t safe.
Being so easily triggered was something Amethyst would have to adjust to for the unforeseeable future, until Kamini was gone. Then again, why would she go? How could anything possibly stop a werewolf? Law enforcements didn’t know about the supernatural, they weren’t even sure that these killings were even murders in the first place. The only people who knew what was really going on were Amethyst, Dylan, and Faye.
Guilt ate at her for bringing the girl into this. She would fight tooth and nail if it meant keeping Faye safe, and now she had dragged her right into danger. Surely Amethyst had to do something.
What was she saying? Amethyst was no fighter. If it came to it, there was no way Amethyst could beat anyone in a fight, never mind a seemingly powerful, experienced werewolf.
What does death feel like?
A threat, a promise, a nightmare.
There was no way Amethyst could beat her, so it was better for everyone if they hated her before she went.
Feeling suddenly lightheaded, Amethyst used a lamppost to hold herself up, gasping for breath and praying she didn’t lose control right herd, right now, with people across the road giving her funny looks.
“Are you okay?” A voice came from her right, muffled, and warped, unimportant.
“Fine.” She pushed out of a tight throat in reply, holding back the instinct to snap, fight, maul. Instead, she ran.
Her satchel flapped by her side as she went, her feet thumped on the pavement, probably hard enough to crack it beneath their force. The wind whipped her hair and blazer, leaving her cold and aching, wishing her house was closer, sooner, closer.
Finally, she wrenched the door open, closing it behind her and letting out a breath. The door should not have opened that easily if no one was home, so either her mum finished work early, or she broke the door.
Gently, Amethyst opened it slightly again and checked the lock. Not broken.
A bead of sweat travelled down the side of her face, and a crippling pain started at the bottom of Amethyst’s spine, piercing and sudden.
“Ace?” Someone shouted from the kitchen, distinctly male and American, almost familiar, if only there weren’t a mist of pain and sensation shrouding her mind, “That you?”
“Yeah.” She closed the door again, wincing and almost yelling out. Footsteps approached from behind her, and Amethyst prepared to run.
“You okay?” A voice in the back of her head was shouting, shouting ‘Ash’.
“Ash,” Amethyst gripped her back, turning so she could see the man in the archway from the porch to the living room. She was thankful that her claws had retracted, for now, “What are you doing here?”
“Making dinner.” Ash bit his lip, looking at Amethyst worriedly, clearly able to read the pain in her features. His bushy eyebrows drew together, and he ran a hand through his curly black hair, cut into an almost military style. Amethyst knew both her mother’s and Ash’s work schedules, and he had had the night shift, so wasn’t in his uniform anymore, instead wearing a loose fitting green T Shirt and blue, ripped jeans. The colours complimented his tawny skin, which had an almost constant pink tinge around his cheeks, which was even more pronounced because of whatever heat he was working with in the kitchen.
“Cool,” Amethyst said, blinking away stars, “Good. Dinner’s good.”
“You sound like a cave man,” Ash laughed, his accent slipping into English at the end. Honestly, Amethyst had no idea when he moved here, all she knew was that she’d known him long enough for him to now smell like home. And cinnamon, “Dinner good. You okay, kid?”
“Who are you calling kid?” Amethyst tried to joke, “You’re like five years older than me.”
>
“And over 18,” Ash grinned, seeming to have moved on from his concern, “Which you’re not. Come sit with me while I cook, I wanna hear about that test.”
“Test?” Amethyst said, “Oh, yeah. Uh, I kind of came home early and missed it.” The pain grew, and started to crawl up her spine, “I need- uh- pee, toilet. I need to pee.”
“Okay.” Ash said slowly, and Amethyst took that as permission to drop her bag and run upstairs, stripping off her blazer on the way and throwing it onto her bed as soon as she got to her room. Quickly, she slammed the door closed and loosened her tie, undoing the top button, moving to lock the window. If only her mum had let her get that lock on her door.
This would usually be the point where she would call Faye, tell her to come over, get her help. But she couldn’t. Never in their years of friendship had Amethyst felt so far away from the other girl, never had her so out of reach.
The pain no longer manageable, Amethyst’s knees buckled and she hit the floor, hard. On her hands and knees, her fingernails grew into claws, digging into the carpet where she squirmed. She bit her lip and tasted blood.
What does death feel like?
Probably this.
Resolving herself to turning without her consent, Amethyst rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling before closing her eyes.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After waking up from her blackout, Amethyst checked over her body for ripped clothing or injuries, but there were none. She managed to get herself together and not looking as if she had been pulled through a hedge backwards, then went downstairs to talk to Ash like a normal human being.
Her mum had gotten home, they were chatting, and Amethyst slipped into the conversation easily, ribbing Ash every other sentence and rolling her eyes when her mum chastised her for it. They had a normal dinner. Nothing went wrong. It was as if Amethyst was in a trance, smiling and laughing along to her family’s jokes but not really registering any of it, her mind somewhere else.
“Don’t forget to do that essay you told me about,” Rida interrupted Amethyst’s train of thought, her hip rested on the counter next to where she was doing the washing up, “And Ash tells me you came home from school early and missed your mock test.”
“Didn’t feel well.” Amethyst didn’t make eye contact, rubbing at the suds on the plate in her hands with new concentration. With a sigh, Rida picked up a tea towel from the side and started to dry the dishes Amethyst had just washed in silence.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” Rida said after a few minutes of silence only filled with the steady movement of water beneath Amethyst’s hands.
“What?” Amethyst frowned, looking up from a particularly difficult pot.
“Whatever is going on with you-” Rida put the last glass in the cupboard above their heads then continued- “It’s going to be okay.”
“Nothing is-” Amethyst reconsidered the lie- “You can’t possibly know that.”
“I know everything.” Rida smirked, throwing the tea towel down on the counter with a wet slap, “I’ll finish this in the morning. You okay if I go for a shower and bed?”
“Yeah,” Amethyst said, pulling the plug on the full sink and feeling herself relax slightly, “Me and Ash can carry on with Pretty Little Liars.”
“Teenagers.” Rida rolled her eyes. Amethyst scoffed, shaking her hands off and relishing in the hilarity of her mum’s flinch.
“He’s twenty-four.”
“All the same to someone my age,” Rida said with a smile, then walked out of the kitchen with the scuff of her slippers trailing with her. Looking down at the wrinkles on her fingertips, Amethyst decided she much preferred them to claws.
Amethyst felt the bottom of her spine twinge, and bit her lip, hoping she wasn’t going to have another episode. If she was planning to lead a normal life whether Kamini was here or not, she would have to learn better control.
“Ace of Spades!” Ash shouted from the living room, “Get your butt in here, I think we’re close to finding out who A is!”
“Coming!” Amethyst shouted back, stretching her back for a moment before flicking the light switch off for the kitchen.
Around two episodes into their marathon, Amethyst’s phone pinged with a text message. Thinking it could be Faye, she leapt for it where it was on the arm of the sofa, a few feet away from where she was sprawled with her legs in Ash’s lap.
“Someone’s expecting a text.” Ash winked, “You got yourself a boy toy?”
“Something like that.” Amethyst replied, unlocking her phone, her tongue poking through her teeth.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
We kind of got off on the wrong foot today, maybe we should speak alone -Dylan
“Aria, what are you doing?” Ash gestured at the screen, tipping his head back and groaning at the ceiling.
“What happened?” Amethyst asked, tucking her phone in the pocket of her sweatpants. There was no way she was meeting up with Dylan. What would be the point? He didn’t know anything that was of any help. This guy he was friends with, though, Amethyst would be interested to know more about him.
“She screwed up is what happened,” Ash said, looking at the screen again in disappointment, “Just when I get my damn hopes up, the woman lets me down.”
“Your life motto.” Amethyst’s phone pinged again, and she gritted her teeth, refusing to check it. He would live.
“Too true, Ace, too true,”
There were two pings then, in quick succession, and Ash gave her a funny look. Determined to ignore it still, Amethyst stared at the screen, not really taking in what was happening.
“You gonna check that?” Ace said after the next two pings, and Amethyst moaned.
“Yes,” She said, pulling her phone out of the pocket with a few muttered curses.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
I know you read the message, dude. I got iMessage
Fine, ignore me.
Women…
Sexist comment not got you? Damn
I’m serious about the talk, I could introduce you to my friend. He can help.
“Boys are annoying,” Amethyst said aloud, vaguely registering Ash’s comment of agreement while typing out a reply.
How did you get my number?
The reply was almost immediate.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
Got it from Faye, and had her number from doing a project together in PE. Are you guys in a fight or something? She seems off
“Don’t grind your teeth like that, kiddo,” Ash raised an eyebrow, “You’ll break ‘em.”
Butting your nose in my business is really the way to get me to do what you want, pal.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
It’s friendly concern, sourpuss
How about that talk?
Amethyst stared at the phone, his words almost taunting her with how much she needed them. As much as she wanted to ignore this problem, Faye was right, it wasn’t going away. It was getting worse. Her back seized up again and she closed her eyes.
Fine. Meet me at the park by the main roundabout tomorrow at 10
Biting her lip, Amethyst started typing again.
Bring your friend or no dice
UNKNOWN NUMBER
Done and done
You won’t regret this
“I better not.” Amethyst took in a breath, then opened her contacts, saving the number under ‘Dyl-dork’. ‘Pain in My Ass’ was also a contender, but that was already assigned to Ash so ‘Dyl-dork’ was the next best thing.
Her thumb hovered of Faye’s contact picture, one Amethyst took a few months ago, when they were out for the day in Ripley. There was ice cream on the girl’s nose, and her eyes were almost closed where she was squinting at the sun, her fringe parted in the middle by the wind. After a moment’s consideration, Amethyst opened a text messaged.
Sorry for storming off today. I’m meeting Dylan and his friend tomorrow. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.
Her phone vibrated with a reply
almost immediately.
FAYE
Thank god I thought you were mad at me for something
I’ll go to the library to find out more about this kamini person
Amethyst let out a breath of relief. If Faye was somewhere else, then she was safe, and that was all Amethyst wanted.
*
It was cold and misty that morning, when Amethyst sat waiting for Dylan and his friend. Her hair was already damp from the dew and she had put it up a few minutes earlier, so it wasn’t a knotted mess later.
Amethyst checked her phone again. No texts, no calls, like she wouldn’t have noticed the notification sound anyway. Faye was meant to be keeping her up to date, but apart from a text about an hour ago saying she was heading to the library, early bird she was, Amethyst hadn’t heard anything.
10:15.
She was going to give him ten more minutes, then leave. It was him that wanted to do this, to get her to trust him. Being late wasn’t a good start.
Shivering, Amethyst hunched her shoulders higher and pulled her denim jacket closer around her body. Note to self, get a new damn jacket.
It was a few minutes later when the creaky gate to the park swung open loudly. Amethyst stood up from the swing she had perched herself on and watched as Dylan walked into the park alone, his hands buried deep in his pockets and his head held high.
“Where’s your friend?” Amethyst asked sharply. Dylan shrugged.
“He said he would be here.”
“So, did you-” Amethyst checked her phone for the umpteenth time- “Twenty minutes ago.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Dylan ran his fingers through his unruly hair and sighed, “He’s getting the train in from Leeds and it must be delayed or something. I was waiting for ages at the train station but-” He shrugged again- “No show.”