Chapter 84 CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR | SAFE
Chapter 84 CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR | SAFE
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR | SAFE
ASPEN
I didn’t expect the welcome. Not like this. People lined the paths as I walked, some smiling, some staring, some just watching like they were afraid I might disappear if they blinked. A woman touched my arm and whispered, “You’re safe here.” I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure what safe meant anymore.
By the river, an old priest waited. He wore plain robes and no shoes. The water moved quietly behind him. He looked at me for a long time before speaking.
“You carry change,” he said.
I frowned. “Change how?”
He smiled, slow and unreadable. “You will shift lives. Break patterns. Heal some. Hurt others.”
My chest tightened. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“That is why the choice matters,” he replied. “What you become depends on what you decide to protect.”
I swallowed. “And if I choose wrong?”
He stepped back. “Then the river remembers.” With that, he turned and walked away, leaving me standing there with too many thoughts and no answers.
Brian found me still staring at the water. He dropped down beside me and nudged my shoulder. “You found him, didn’t you?”
“The priest?” I asked. “Yes. He was… strange.”
Brian laughed. “That’s one word for it. Did he scare you?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “He spoke like he knew me.”
Brian pulled out his phone. “He’s here for something else anyway. Look at this.”
He showed me the screen. My name stared back at me in bold letters. Wanted. Dangerous. Armed. My face was blurred but still clear enough to know it was me.
I let out a long breath. “Of course.”
Brian tilted his head. “You alright?”
I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t even know what life is anymore. One day I’m hiding, the next I’m a headline.”
He smiled softly. “You’re alive. That’s the part that matters. Ronan will handle the rest.”
That evening, I went back to the room they gave me. It was quiet, almost too quiet. Sleep came heavy and strange.
I dreamed of Adrian. He stood across from me, face calm, eyes empty. I reached for him. “Wait,” I said.
He shook his head and walked away.
I woke up with my heart racing.
I sat up and pressed my feet to the floor, breathing through the ache in my chest. “You never say goodbye,” I whispered to the empty room. The silence answered back.
Later, a knock came. One of the women from earlier peeked in. “Are you settling in?” she asked.
“I think so,” I replied.
She nodded. “Change always feels heavy before it feels right.”
After she left, I lay back down, staring at the ceiling, wondering which change the river was waiting for.
Outside, the pack hummed softly, voices low, fires crackling. Somewhere, Brian laughed. Somewhere else, steel rang. I closed my eyes again, not for sleep, but for courage, hoping tomorrow would be kinder, or at least honest, about what it wanted from me.
I stayed still, listening, counting breaths, waiting for morning.
I got up quietly, the room still holding the night like a secret. The air felt too thick, pressing on my chest, so I slipped outside barefoot, letting the cold stone bite my skin. I thought about checking on Ronan, about knocking softly and asking if he was awake, but I stopped myself. He carried enough already. I lifted my face to the sky. Stars hung scattered, careless. For a moment, I missed the school yard, the noise, the fake normal. I wondered who my sister was, if she breathed somewhere, if the vision lied to me tonight, alone again.
I stayed there longer than I meant to, arms wrapped tight around myself. Leaves shifted nearby. I told myself it was nothing. Then I felt it, a change in the air, a weight behind me.
I straightened. “Who’s there?” My voice shook. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pen, holding it like a blade. “Don’t come closer,” I warned. Silence answered. No footsteps. No breath. Panic crawled up my spine. I turned to run, heart slamming, feet slipping on stone, as shadows moved without sound behind me now, and fear bloomed hot, sudden, inside my chest, hard.
Hands grabbed me. I screamed, the sound tearing out before I could stop it. Someone slammed a palm over my mouth. Another voice hissed, low and sharp. I kicked and twisted, elbowed ribs, felt cloth tear under my nails.
A blow landed on my side and my breath vanished. “Stay still,” one of them said. I tasted blood. Two men stepped into view, faces covered, eyes empty. I swung again. One caught my wrist and bent it back until pain screamed bright and cruel, stealing strength from my arm and turning my knees weak beneath me, shaking hard with terror.
I tried to call Ronan’s name, but it came out wrong, broken. The world narrowed to their grips and my racing pulse. One of them struck my head. Light burst. I staggered. Another hit followed, heavier, and the ground rushed up. I heard laughter, distant, like it wasn’t meant for me.
My pen skidded away across the dirt. I reached for it and missed. “You shouldn’t wander,” someone said. Darkness poured in, thick and final. I thought of the river, the priest’s words, the choice I never made, and then nothing held me anymore, not even fear, as I fell.
But before everything disappeared, one thought burned sharp. This place wasn’t safe. Not yet. And whatever change waited for me, it was already hunting.
I tried to hold onto Ronan’s voice, Brian’s laugh, the warmth of the pack fires. They slipped through my fingers like smoke. My body went heavy, useless.
The night closed around me, quiet again, as if it had planned this all along, patient and cruel, waiting for the moment I stepped outside alone and paid for it with silence, pain, and a darkness that swallowed every sound, every hope, every breath I tried to take then.