Pink Skies and Telling Lies

Pink Skies and Telling Lies
Tessa watched as Ash walked away after the fight. Wyatt stood near her for a moment, then spat blood onto the floor. He wiped the corner of his mouth and chuckled. She turned to look at him, a mixture of disdain and something else.

“What?” she said through gritted teeth. Her fists clenched, ready to strike if he so much as said something negative again about Ash. It was bad enough watching Jax leave, but staring at Wyatt in his battered glory was irritating. His knuckles were raw, his right eye swelling. His bottom lip was puffed out, a deep shade of purple bruising his chin. She rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow her.

Once inside her apartment, Tessa took care of his wounds—an ice pack for his face, bandages for everything else. She handed him a beer before sinking onto the couch. This was not how she had expected today to go. It was supposed to be a quiet evening, a day off spent in mindless TV and maybe a visit from Ash. She closed her eyes, but the image of Jax rushing away stayed with her. She had tried calling him, but he wouldn’t answer.

“Thank you for all this,” Wyatt said, gesturing to the bandages and beer. “You didn’t have to.”

She didn’t reply. Slowly, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. Her relationship with Ash had always been complicated, but today, the weight of it pressed down on her in a way it never had before. The reality of their world—his world—had bared its teeth. She knew Ash and others in the supernatural realm lived with this fear every day. She just never thought she’d have to witness it so closely.

Exhaling a long breath, she let go of some of the tension gripping her shoulders. Wyatt sat across from her, just as exhausted—not just from the fight, but from the conversation. She could tell he was processing everything that had been said tonight.

“How long have you and that vampire been together?” His voice was quieter than before, but his gaze flickered with something unreadable. He looked away, toward the pink sky of dawn, the sun just cresting the horizon.

Tessa hesitated. She wasn’t sure where this conversation was going.

“Almost six months.”

She watched a slow droplet of condensation slide down the side of the beer bottle, unwilling to meet his eyes. She didn’t want to see his reaction—whether it was disbelief or disgust. He had said plenty about Ash and vampires in general. She didn’t need to defend her relationship to him, nor did she believe she could change his mind about the supernatural world. To him, they were evil beings masquerading as humans, an ideology that had been ingrained in him since the day he became a hunter. How do you persuade someone to think differently when their entire existence has taught them otherwise?

Wyatt chugged the rest of his beer, placed it on the coffee table, and stood. His gaze swept the room—taking in its simplicity, its quiet, its warmth. He looked at her then, lingering, studying the woman before him. A part of him wanted to protect her. His fingers twitched at his side, wanting to reach for her, but he let his hand drop.

He moved toward the door, and Tessa didn’t stop him. She sat in a daze, replaying everything that had just happened.

He rested his palm on the doorknob, then exhaled.

“I can’t promise you something like this won’t happen again. Just… take care of yourself, Tessa.”

The words were tinged with resignation. And then he was gone.

The soft click of the latch sealed the silence around her.

For a moment, she just sat there. The room felt impossibly still. The hum of the refrigerator became deafening, the weight of the past few hours pressing into her chest. Wyatt’s words echoed—this would happen again. Could she live with that? Was any part of the world truly safe?

She ran a hand over her face, fingers pressing into her temples, as if she could force the thoughts away. But they kept coming, relentless.

If something happened to Ash, how would she know? No calls, no warnings. Just absence. A hollow space where he should be.

She dragged herself to her room, her phone burning a hole in her pocket. Sooner or later, Jax, Lucas, or Ash would call her—the three men in her life, each loved differently, for different reasons.

She had come to Falls Hollow for a fresh start, a new beginning. Never had she imagined this. The life she knew, the life she thought she knew, no longer existed.

Her new reality was filled with uncertainty and secrets. Lies told to protect those she loved.

Tessa laid down and closed her eyes to the world. For now, the adventure she was about to embark on could wait.

The next few days were a blur. Tessa drowned herself in work, avoiding the three men in her life. She knew she was being a coward, knew she needed to face reality—especially the difficult conversation with Ash about their future.

As she left the bar that night, lost in thought, she didn’t notice the danger ahead.

“Hello, dear.”

By the time she realized the threat, it was too late.

Glowing red eyes. A sinister smile.

Then—darkness.