Something Is Wrong
Slowly, I make my way into the girls' locker room. My body feels numb as I walk to my locker and start taking my shirt off to get dressed for practice. There's only a few other girls in here, a couple of the other lacrosse players and some cheerleaders. Kate sees the look on my face as I come in and makes her way over to me, tapping on the lockers to gain my attention. I don't look at her, I just turn and put my back to the locker as I stare out at the rest of the room in nothing but my jeans and grey sports bra.
"Are you okay?" Kate asks, worriedly looking over me. "I saw... Yelena."
"Okay... Did it go okay?"
"Yeah... She wants me to come over, see her new dog." I breathe out. I've been staring at the wall across from me without truly seeing it. I can't believe her sister is trying to kill me...
"That's good! Right?" My best friend asks, confusion lacing her words and facial features. "No!" I squeak out, suddenly coming to life and looking at her. "Her sister was picking her up!"
Kate blinks at me dumbly, even more confused now. I growl in frustration, raking a hand through my long hair harshly. "Remember what I said about the hunters? Her sister was one of them!" I whisper shout at her, my breathing picking up as I start to panic. "Her sister shot me. With a crossbow."
Face paling, Kate puts her hands on my shoulders to turn me to face her. "It's okay, we're gonna figure something out... Breathe!" She speaks quickly, trying to break through my panic. "Did she see you? Did she recognize you?"
"Yes, I don't know if she recognized me, though!" Kate exaggerates her breathing for me, trying to get me to copy her as we work through things. She thinks for a second before saying, "Does Yelena know about any of it?"
My eyes widen, and I push Kate off of me to go to the nearby bathrooms inside the locker room. Immediately upon reaching them, I heave up everything I've eaten today into the nearby toilet in the closest stall. What if Yelena didn't know, but would soon? What if she was about to be trying to kill me, too? Did her sister recognize me? My thoughts continue to spiral as I finish vomiting my guts up, and I look up at Kate as she had come to stand behind me to gently rub my back and hold my hair out of the way.
"What if she knows..." I whisper, blinking up at Katie with wide and watery eyes. "I'm so dead."
"Hey, breathe. Let it go for now, okay? Just focus on lacrosse. Can you do that? We have practice, and we don't know all of the details yet, so let's just act normal until we do!" My friend rushes out. I can tell that she's also spiraling, worried about me and how she can help, but she's right. There's nothing else we can do right now except for try to act normal and stay as safe as I can.
Nodding, I start to pull myself up with Kate's help and I flush the toilet before we walk out to the sinks. "You're right. Just focus on lacrosse..." I breathe out shakily, moving to splash water on my face and cup my hands under the faucet so I can get a drink to wash my mouth out and such. "Just focus on lacrosse." Kate reiterates, and we finish gearing up with our pads and jerseys before heading out to the field to where the rest of the team is at.
Vision seems to be on defense, with most of the team lined up opposite of him to take turns trying to get past him for a goal. Kate and I line up beside each other and wait our turn. One after the other, people take their chance up against Vision. Few people make it past him, mostly his closest friends. Eventually, it's my turn.
I widen my stance and take a deep breath, making sure my helmet is on straight while I look across the field at my opponent. Vision seems to be staring me down, with an almost imperceptible smirk on his face. Just focus on lacrosse... I think, as I scoop up the ball and charge down the field.
Within seconds, he charges back at me and slams into me like a brick wall. It sends me flying backwards, and I groan in pain as I lay there on my back in the grass. I can hear a chorus of 'oooh's' from where the rest of the team is still lined up, and slowly I roll over onto my hands and knees.
"McCall, what was that?!" Coach says as he strides towards me. "My dead grandma can move faster than that!" He yells, bending down with his hands on his knees once he reaches me. "Do you think that you can move faster than my dead granny?" He says right in my ear, and I can feel myself flush with heat at the anger and embarrassment.
"Yes, Coach." I say, gritting my teeth.
"I can't hear you!" He yells, and I can feel my vision shift as every detail around me becomes just a bit sharper and more vibrant. "Yes, Coach!" I shout out, jaw clenching as I get up.
"Then do it again!" Coach yells, pointing at the line. "McCall's going to do it again, everyone! McCall is going to do it again!"
My head stays tilted downwards as I stride furiously back to the beginning of the line, fuming the whole way. Kate tries to check in with me quietly, but I ignore her as Vision retakes his position across from me, smirk more prominent now. Letting out a quiet growl, I charge. The turf tears up under my cleats as I take off, one goal in mind - and it's not to score. I throw all of my weight and strength behind my shoulder as I crash into Vision and he goes flying backwards this time, groaning in pain and clutching at his shoulder, with me stumbling past and falling to my knees.
I clutch at my helmet, laying my head to the ground as I try to breathe. It feels like the other night with the full moon, every noise and sensation overwhelming as my body is basically at war with itself. The anger I have towards Vision rises and seems to be consuming me as I growl lowly.
"Whoa, Dianna, it's me. Come on, let's go, let's get you up!" Kate whispers harshly by my shoulder as she hauls me to my feet and we take off back towards the locker room. "I want him dead!" My voice rasps out, not sounding entirely human as I smash my way through the doors and throw my helmet off. I stomp to where the sinks are and grip onto one on either side as I bend down, trying to get control of myself.
"Listen to me, Dee! You need to breathe! It's the anger, the bloodlust I was talking about! You need to control it!"
"I said I want him dead, Kate!" I shout, spinning around to glare at her.
Kate flinches backwards towards the lockers, almost tripping over the bench lining down the middle. She looks terrified, and I know my eyes must be glowing that blazing wolf yellow as I look at her and growl threateningly. Bravely, she takes a few deep breaths before stepping towards me again with her hands out in a placating gesture. Her eyes seem to blaze too, but instead of the glow of a werewolf they're bright with determination and love. I growl again, but she doesn't react to it like she did before - continuing to walk towards me in a calm manner.
"You're not going to hurt me, Dee." She whispers. "It's me, Katie. We've been best friends for as long as I can remember. We're practically sisters."
My eyes scan over her, my breathing heavy as I dig my nails into the palms of my hands so hard I can feel blood dribbling down between my knuckles and onto the floor beneath me. She's right, and I really don't want to hurt her. "Stay away from me!" I shout, my voice rasping out in a growling manner with fear evident in its tone. Kate's eyes lock with mine as she gets even closer, and I'm starting to panic. If I hurt her...
"I trust you." She says, and those words could be proven with one look at her face. With one look at the situation she's in, and refusing to get herself out of.
I crumple to the floor with a whine at her words, and she catches me. Holding me to her chest in a tight hug, she whispers reassurances into my ear as she strokes my hair and I sob into her shoulder. "You're okay. I've got you. We're going to figure something out."
"I could've hurt you..." I whimper, gripping her jersey tightly as I calm down. My eyes have returned to normal, the colors and details gone back to their usual, more muted tones. One look at my hands before returning them to her jersey tells me that they've already healed where my nails - or more likely, claws - dug into them. "How am I supposed to do this..."
"One day at a time... We'll figure it out." Kate whispers, pulling back to look at me. "And I'm not going anywhere."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later, I'm home and laying on my bed face down. What did I do to royally piss off the universe to deserve this... I think, groaning into the deep purple comforter covering my mattress. There's a knocking at my door before I hear it open, my mom walking in as I turn my head to look.
"Hey. I have another late shift tonight, so don't stay up too late... But I am taking Saturday off to see your first game!" She exclaims, shimmying over to me on the bed.
"No, Mom, you can't..." I grumble, grimacing. It's not that I didn't want her to come to the game, it's just that I know we're struggling with money and her losing a shift just to come watch me play - and possibly tear Vision's face off - wasn't going to help with that. "Oh, I can, and I will. One shift won't break us... Completely."
"Hey, what's wrong with your eyes?" She says with concern, reaching to grab my chin and force me to look at her better. I tense up, panic rising at her words. Shit, are they glowing?! "You look like you haven't slept in days." Letting go of my face, she crosses her arms and juts her hip out, giving me her signature 'mom' look. "Oh, umm... It's nothing, I'm just stressed."
"Just stress? Nothing else? I mean, it's not like you're on drugs or anything, right?" She says worriedly, eyes roaming my face to check for any lies. "Currently?" I breathe out, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean, 'currently'?! Have you ever taken drugs?" I chuckle, rolling my eyes. "No. Have you?"
Her face freezes, eyes avoiding my own. She slowly backs out of my room, looking like she's trying to decide what to say. Finally, she decides on, "Get some sleep." Before she leaves the room, closing the door behind her as she gets her things to go to work.
Giggling, I roll off my bed as I hear the sound of a discord call coming through from my laptop. Looking over the caller ID on it, it's Kate. She's holding a plastic bow and arrow she had from one Halloween where she went as Katniss Everdeen, pointing it straight at the camera as I answer.
My eyes roll and I chuckle at her antics. She really can be childish sometimes... "So, what did you find out?" I ask. She was supposed to update me on how Vision was since neither of us thought it would be a good idea for me to check in on his injury. People were still wondering how a teenage girl of my stature could take him down like that.
"Well, Vision has a separated shoulder. They don't know if he's going to be able to play in the game on Saturday." The dark haired girl says, placing the toys down on her desk. "Right now, they think they're going to have to rely on you for the game, actually. I'm not so sure that's a good idea, though..."
My brow furrows in confusion. "Why not?"
"Because anything that gets your pulse racing can trigger you to change. What happens if you're out on the field, and someone tackles you, and you end up ripping someone's throat out with your teeth?!" She exclaims, rolling her eyes as if it was obvious. And it kind of was, she had a good point. Sometimes it's scary how she echoes previous thoughts I have had, though... An image of me tackling Vision, claws out as I slash at his face, pops into my head. I shrug. "Okay, fair point."
Kate frowns, focusing on something behind me. She leans closer to the camera, I'm assuming to get a better look at the screen. "Dianna, is that -" The call buffering cuts her off, and I'm forced to stare at the screen in confusion as I wait for the connection to return to normal. I drum my fingers against my desk. "Is that what?" The connection returns.
"Behind you!" Kate shouts, the screen flashing as it jumps to her new position on her end of the call.
I begin to spin around but before I can, I'm lifted by the shoulders of my lilac night shirt. Whoever it is, drags me backwards off my chair and shoves me against the nearby wall face first. "What the fuck?!" I shout, gasping as an arm is pressed against the back of my neck to force my face further against the wall, effectively pinning me when they add the weight of their body against my back. "Language..." I hear them mutter under their breath, and I recognize the voice as Steve Rogers, the other werewolf from out in the woods.
"I saw you on the field! You shifted in front of them!" He growls into my ear. "If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us! And it's not just the hunters I don't trust, it's everyone."
"They didn't... See anything." I gasp out, struggling to get out of my position. "And they won't!" He shouts.
"Because if you even think about playing in that game Saturday night... I'll kill you myself. I won't let you expose us." He says almost calmly, releasing me as he steps back towards my bed. I stumble backwards, tripping a bit and collapsing back into my chair. I watch as he climbs over my bed and out my window, which is how he must have gotten in here, although I have no clue how he did so without my noticing.
Taking deep breaths, I turn to look at Kate, who is still on the call, once he's gone. We make eye contact, and I can tell by the worried look on her now pale face that we're both thinking the same thing...
I'm screwed.