Chapter Three

News spread fast in small towns and this one was no different.

True, Bighton had had its fair share of gore and juicy stories. It was honestly a weird town, but for a long time, the most exciting news that families had to discuss were either the school soccer team or some dead livestock in the vast farms surrounding the town. Otherwise they had to do with the occasional gossip.

Ever since the break in at Will's shop, there hadn't been any other event for the town folk to rant about.

Driving past the library now, there's small groups hunched together, heads almost touching whispering away. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the news had already spread. And like a wild fire, they were bound to twist and change as they spread further.

It's a relief for Camila when Sophie doesn't question her not-so-subtle unwillingness to head straight to Nina's house. Instead they head to the school.

Like in town, there were small groups with grim surprise written on students' faces.

They knew too.

Pitiful glances are shot at her and Camila as soon as they step out of the car.

The stares, Sophie could handle. It's the distorted versions of truth she could already imagine were being passed around by the students that make her bulldoze through the crowded entrance. The atmosphere made her pity her friend, she feels her heart breaking for Nina as the buzzing conversations reach her ears. The many declarations of pity, the confusion.

It was in moments like these that Sophie wished she could just curl up into a ball and get lost in her little bubble. Today, however, would not be that day if there ever would be. Today was about her friend who'd lost her mom in a dirty and horrifying murder. A murder everyone thought was an accident.

Her attempts to shut off all the conversations are fruitless.

"Sophie, hold up." Cami grabs her shoulder, yanking her back to reality.

But with reality comes pain and with the pain, comes memories. Memories which bring with them an anger she'd learnt to bury deep down. She turns so abruptly with her anger manifesting in a murderous rage. Burning through her, making her almost lose control for a second.

Cami gives her a shocked, fearful look, taking a step back eyes wide open. She feels as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on her. She didn't want her friend to see her like this, out of control. It was not Cami's fault, it wasn't Cami she was angry at.

"Sorry," she says. Hoping to portray a calmer look. Make her friend believe she was alright despite knowing she really wasn't.

"If the school knows already, then she couldn't possibly be here ." Cami says cursing the fact that her nightmare was still playing tricks on her, especially now.

For a moment she'd thought she'd caught Sophie's eyes change color. She'd imagined them turning into a deep red as she'd turned to look at her. But she could tell that was her guilt at work, torturing her.

"Her car was outside though, she could be." Sophie says, the pain in her voice almost tangible.

Sophie, who was normally the strongest in their group was now more than broken. And it was visible, in how fast she was getting angry.

"And these jerks, they're talking as if they understand what she's going through!" Sophie says, angrily gritting her teeth making Camila forget her fear and guilt for the moment to pull her friend in for a hug.

This was all too familiar for Sophie, she was most probably reliving her own pain and loss. And Camila could guess all too well how it affected her, every year she would hurt and there was nothing anyone could do to help her. The thought of the same thing happening to their friend was probably haunting Sophie more than she could admit.

"She's probably somewhere crying her heart out right now Mila," Sophie says into her shoulder.

Camila could remember as clear as if it were yesterday how Sophie had sounded the one time she'd ever opened up to them about her own mom. This was too close to it, and it hurt that she couldn't help.

Only a few hours earlier, Sophie had helped her through a tough time, they couldn't have foreseen what it would bring. If Camila had known for a second that this was the result, she wouldn't have dared go with Sophie. But the milk was spilt already.

She recalls something Sophie had once said, "Seeing someone lose their loved one is what's harder for me now, I've somehow learnt to accept the pain of losing my mom. Now it's not as painful as the knowledge that there's nothing I can do to make sure someone else doesn't go through the same."

She'd wait it with a look of pure pain and resignation and Mila could not even begin to imagine what she was feeling now that one of her closest friends was going through the same. And like she'd feared, there was nothing she could really do to stop it.

Unlike herself, she could have stopped it but she decides to ignore that for a moment and focus on Sophie.

"Sophie, you know they wouldn't let her drive after what happened. They'd have called her dad to get her if he hadn't already driven here, so she's most likely at home right now. And you're right, she's definitely crying and she needs someone, so pull yourself together and let's go. Someone should be there for her." She feels Sophie tighten her arms around her before sighing loudly and pulling back.

"I'm sorry, its just that, when my mom..." Sophie trails off, looking around as if studying the students walking around the hallways, a lost look settles on her face.

"When she died, the pain was unbelievable and everyone saying sorry for your loss every time and speaking about how sorry they were for me. It made things harder listening to them. And now Nina is going through that and I don't even want to imagine what she's feeling."

Camila can't help but feel a bit useless in the current situation, as much as she'd want to be there for her friends, both of them, for one she didn't know what it was she'd say.

Sorry for your loss Nina. Oh, and by the way, I saw your mom get murdered and could have stopped it?

She wasn't sure there was anything she could say, that would make herself feel better let alone make her two friends feel better. She couldn't possibly face Nina right now. Not with the turmoil of emotions that was like a tornado inside her head.

If she was to ever face her friend and feel like a real friend she had to be able to look at herself and believe it wasn't because she didn't do what she could have that her mom was dead. She would have to be absolutely sure that there was truly nothing she could have done to stop this. She can already feel her resolve as she pulls Sophie towards the doors, school would have to wait for the day, she had to go back.

"Then you have to go see her, she'll need a friend and someone who can understand her right now." she says to Sophie who looks at her incredulously.

"What do you mean," Sophie asks. "Are you not coming?"

"And do what," she asks barely audible even to herself. "What could I possibly say to her right now?"

"Cami, you..." Sophie starts but Camila cuts her off, she knows deep down she could have stopped that guy and she didn't. It was her fault and facing Nina would be lying through her teeth.

"No Soph, I can't face Nina right now. Not after last night." She simply answers, walking toward the lot with Sophie closely behind her.

"Camila, you can't possibly think this was your fault!" Sophie says with an her voice coming as a shocked shriek. Mila doesn't look at her face, wanting to ignore the sentence that she knew would follow. It was her fault and she knew it.

"You couldn't have done anything about this," Sophie adds, the conviction in her voice is almost tangible almost as if begging Camila to believe her.

But she could have done something, she should have tried harder, she shouldn't have woken up. She could and should have stopped all this.

"I know Sophie, I know." She says instead of voicing her thoughts, knowing very well Sophie could tell she was lying. Reaching her car, her fear of driving and her car itself only reminds o her of Helena. She can feel the shiver that travels down her spine as the shrill scream responds in her head as they get in.

"Then you have to come with me, she needs you. She needs her best friend right now!" The frustration in her voice isn't lost to Mila's ears as she opens the passenger door and hops in.

"I can't be there for her right now Sophie, she needs someone who's normal. Someone who doesn't frigging see her mom's accident in her dreams." The pain in her chest intensifies tenfold as she recalls the scream that had racked the night in her nightmare.

"She doesn't need me right now. I wouldn't know what to tell her. Seeing her will only remind me that I could have done something and I didn't!" Saying it loud however makes it almost too real making her eyes burn with images tears. She dabs at them angrily as she pulls out of the parking spot.

"Damn it! Why can't I stay a minute without crying!" she screamed to herself gripping the wheel harder wishing the tears would just dry off, she didn't deserve being able to cry.

"Mila..."

"No, Sophie you have no idea what I saw. So don't say that there was nothing I could have done. I could have, and I didn't. And now Nina's mom is gone." She cuts Sophie off before wiping a tear, zooming past the schools gates.

In their silent drive, she glances at Sophie who seems lost in her mind before letting herself wander into her thoughts.

Last nights events replay in her mind, those flashing orange eyes that she had seen last night. The headlights burning her eyelids as she'd willed herself to jump off the road. Helena's scream and look of pain and fear all replaying in her mind. She almost runs the car into the Aver's gate before Sophie pulls her out of the torturous loop of memories, concern etched on her face.

"Camila...are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She sighs, running a hand through her hair as Sophie watches her. "Tell her I'm sorry I couldn't be there." Tears fall freely as she imagines her friend's pain and grief.

"Mila, just come with me. You know she needs you right now. You're like a sister to her. You've been friends since way back, years before we even met. You should be there for her." The pleading in her voice only makes her resolve harder, she couldn't face Nina right now even if she wanted to, which she didn't.

"She needs her friend Camila. Not this Camila who's dream came true..." A bitter chuckle leaves her as she trails off. "...dream came true, huh! Funny how the worst possible nightmare is the one that actually becomes reality. Why couldn't it be something like santa that became real?"

"Right now, I don't know what to feel Sophie. How can I hope to help her feel better if I can't help myself, when I don't even know what to feel. When I don't even know who I am...if it's not a what." She watches the gates for a moment, picturing Nina in her room crying her eyes out. That sight would only work to stroke the fiery guilt that currently gnaws at her.

"You being there for her is enough. I should know." The resignation in Phoebe's voice let's her know she's given up trying to ask her to go in which is refreshing. She couldn't face Nina.

"Tell her I'll see her when I'm ready. And please don't tell her about my dream."

"Don't you think she deserves to know?"

"She just lost her mom, she has enough to worry about without adding my freaky drama into her pain," Camila says despite knowing she's being selfish but there was no will in her to stop herself. She was avoiding her friend because she couldn't handle the guilt that would come with it. She couldn't let herself be comfortable, she shouldn't.

"She'll be hurt that you aren't there."

Sophie's words are all true but Camila can't help the feeling that Nina would be better off without her. The thought leaves a bitter taste at the back of her mouth, she would never have thought that there ever be a time that the three of them who'd always been inseparable could break apart. But somehow this feels like it, she wasn't any good for her two friends she wasn't the Camila they knew, she could feel it. The thought of losing her friends is scary but if it means that they wouldn't get involved in whatever it was that her life had just pulled her into. It would be worth it.

"I think it would be better if she was angry at me. If whatever happened last night was not a one off event, it'll definitely bring something bad, worse, with it and I'd prefer you and Nina won't get caught up in it." The painful truth chokes her as she faces her friend who just stares ahead deep in thought.

"You don't know that Mila. It could just be a coincidence"

"We both know there is nothing such as a coincidence or some cosmic intuition in what happened. I don't believe it's that easy, the world wouldn't be that easy."

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to let you push me and Nina away though." She says, this time looking straight in her eyes and for a moment Camila feels as if she would cry. The force and conviction in Sophie's look was choking, she meant what she'd said and Camila didn't know how to take it.

"Tell her I'm sorry. I know it doesn't change a thing but just let her know that I care."

"The best way to show her that would be by you being there for her now."

"Not this time Sophie."

The finality and resolve in her voice only leaves Sophie one option and a deep sigh escapes her as she leaves the car watching as her friend pulls away.

Different emotions flood into her, pity, pain, grief, love. Listening to Camila say how she wouldn't want them caught up in her new mystery brings many emotions to surface. Making her feel selfish for even being friends with them despite hiding her true self from them.

***

Richard ducks silently behind a tree as soon as the car stops. He'd watched today's events unfold since morning, the coroner's who'd carelessly dumped the woman's body into the car, the police taking photos and now her.

There hadn't been any reason to hide more than his physical form earlier but now he had to. He listens to the wind beating silently against his skin, standing so still everything else seems to just faze through him, everything but that breeze. And with that he buries it, his wolf, it's scent. Deep down where no one would ever tell, he was one with the forest for a moment.

As she steps out of the car, he's surprised honestly. She seemed younger than he'd imagined her to be, she looked to be in her teens despite being in her mid twenties.

Brown wavy curls of hair flow gracefully to her hip bone, hair longer than he'd ever seen any wolf grow.Even from where he was he could see her watchful gaze and high cheekbones with a pair of deep blue eyes whose intensity he could almost feel.

This was her, the lone wolf, Phoebe Aver.

What was someone to feel when they were this close to someone whose existence was almost considered myth or legend. A killer more dangerous than any he'd ever heard of. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, awe, fear or excitement. Either way his heartbeat becomes erratic and restless.

Even with his scent buried so deep down, the small pesky little thing in his chest was capable of betraying him if the woman listened too closely.

Phoebe had a rather charming look despite the darkness that seemed to linger around her eyes. And she was dressed for it too, one look at her was sure to intimidate anyone.

Her expression was one of confidence and an underlying tone of deadliness. She was a beautiful woman, and she knew it but behind the beauty was something else. Sadness and wounds both healing and fresh were visible on her. And a certain feral look.

Watching her now he could understand why she was the feared Lone Wolf.

Born from a family of hunters, she still lived by their rules, she still believed in good and bad and still hated werewolves. That much was evident by the number of wolves who had fallen by her hand. The rumours that surrounded her myth were that she was worth five alphas in strength by now and had the will of an enraged bull when poked.

Richard almost considers what he'd done a stupid mistake, he knew he'd started a bad war but if he got what he wanted fast enough, even Aver wouldn't be a match for him.

The scowl that looks to be a permanent feature on her face deepens as she steps closer to where her mother's body had lain.

Richard was sure his and Erol's wolf scents still lingered there and his excitement peaks as she seemingly growls softly under her breath. She'd most likely figured it out.

Pack wars could be a messy deal but this time he needed it. If Phoebe was busy with the Worleys, he could get enough time to finish what he came here to do.

'Game on,' he thinks just as another car pulls over next to Phoebe's.

A deep alien scent wafts towards him as soon as the driver gets out making him wonder who the new comer is.

A teenage girl, slim and of medium height with an innocent look on her face. But Richard had learnt a long time ago not to trust anything supernatural. They could hold the most innocent looks but have hearts darker than the devil's himself. Something about this girl, however, was different, he could tell.

There was a rawness in the emotions she was letting on her face, she wasn't hiding anything. The hurt, the guilt, the confusion, they were all there, all etched on her face and as he listened closely neither was she hiding her erratic heartbeat.

The scent does throw him off though, she was definitely not human, but at the same time it was nothing he'd ever come across.

Allowing his ears to sweep his surroundings, he focuses on the conversation the new girl has with Phoebe.

"...you'd be with Nina right now?"

"I couldn't, there's too much on my mind. I wouldn't know how to help her." The new girl says running a hand through her hair.

"So why are you here," Phoebe asks before her head shoots up, looking around as if looking for something. Making Richard to duck into a bush, cursing at his carelessness when a twig breaks. Luckily though, the two don't seem to have heard anything as their conversation continues.

"I wanted to see something."

"Camila, this is a good hour's drive from town, it's a crime scene, and you're supposed to be in school. Why are you really here, and don't tell me it's for a school project or I'll punch you in the face." The flinch is visible as Phoebe says 'crime scene', the first true sign she was truly hurt by her mother's death that Richard had seen since she'd come here.

Richard sneaks a look back at the road to find Phoebe watching Camila as she moves to the center of the road.

Noting the name, he makes a mental note to ask around about it, she was something and he had to know what.

He wouldn't have seen anything off if the girl hadn't followed his exact steps. Standing momentarily at the exact place he'd stood the other night, looking at the road as if she could see what had happened.

And making her way to where he'd jumped, when he couldn't explain how he'd jumped there. It was almost as if she was retracing his steps.

He feels uneasy at the thought of what the girl was.

Whatever she was, was something new. It wasn't something he was prepared for, she seemed to know something. As her eyes look at where Erol had stood, where Richard had been, he can feel the fear, something about this girl wasn't right.

As soon as Camila had stepped out of the car, her scent had hit Phoebe, a queer one that wasn't wolf and definitely not human. Despite the initial surprise that Camila isn't with Nina at the time, something seemed off with her. As if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Standing in the middle of the road, its almost as if she's envisioning something. She looks at where the car wreck had been with a flinch almost as if she was seeing the car crashing. She walks to the opposite direction to where some grass is trumped on, almost as if someone jumped there and slipped hence uprooting it. A lost look settles on her eyes. She turns around to look where the body was found. Following her eyes, she sees footsteps leading into the forest that she'd not seen earlier.

Little things that Camila seemed to pick up on while even as Phoebe had been here for more than ten minutes, she hadn't seen anything that could give her a clue. It was almost as if the younger girl was seeing the accident, almost as if she was there when it had happened.

"How'd she get from the car to the other side of the road..." Camila asks before trailing off thoughtfully. As soon as she turn back to find Phoebe looking curiously at her, she jumps, almost as if she had forgotten all about her being there.

"Did you see what you wanted to see?" Phoebe asks, looking at her carefully.

"Yeah." The short answer leaves Phoebe slightly annoyed at her sister's best friend.

"What was it you were looking for?"

"I'm not sure." Came the answer before she stared at the patch where the grass had been torn. "But I can tell you that your mom wasn't the only one here last night."

Phoebe almost states that she'd already figured that out but her response is broken when she hears a heartbeat somewhere, close. Making her turn around, looking for a scent and finding none.

"Hey Cami.." She's cut off by the engine sound of Camila's car as she pulls away.

The question of what she is being at the top of her head. Though having her ideas, she could say she honestly hoped she was wrong. For her own sake and for the sake of the girl. But mostly she hopes her mother hadn't been right, if the girl was what she suspected, then not only was she pulled into this but so was Nina and she couldn't even want to believe that. It meant that her mother's suspicions were true, that would be the reason she was killed.

Looking at the places that had seemed to capture the girl's attention, simple things that had seemed unimportant at first but now told a story she couldn't have thought of. She ends up convinced of two things, one, her mother was killed by a werewolf and two, Camila was supernatural. And if she was what she was suspecting, Bighton Valley was in trouble.