CHAPTER 2: Confusion

CHARLES

Blood. Blood was everywhere, my hands, my clothes, my mouth. I could feel it, but I don’t know why I was standing there with… blood? The stench of the crimson pools made me dizzy.

When I looked down, my old friend Frank was lying on the floor beneath me, and his Luna Margret was a few steps away. They were dead.

Frank's throat had been torn out, arms splayed wide. Margret looked as if she'd turned to run, hand still reaching for the staircase, her shoulder a bloody mess. 

It was clear they'd been attacked by a wolf.

I stared at them, uncomprehending, a headache pierced my temples. 

Who attacked and killed them? What had happened? 

My mind was still frighteningly blank. I shook my head, trying to gain clarity, but failed to remember. 

Me…? Hell no, It couldn’t be me, and I would never kill them, never ever.  

Something glistened on the floor between them and I stepped toward it in a trance. It was...

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the images, trying to wake up, but all it did was increase the pain until my vision blurred.

Suddenly there was screaming. I looked toward the sound.

Kathleen. She stood, not far from me, her face distorted with fury, pain, and misery. I tried to walk towards her, but her cries of pain froze me in my tracks and I found I couldn’t  move forward. 

I looked around, everywhere was blood-stained. What the hell I have done here? What have I done to her?

My hands trembled as they dropped to my side. I wanted to tell her it wasn't me. I hadn't done this...I couldn't have. I couldn't form the words.

Someone came between us. My wolf snarled within me, anger seething forward as Edward herded her away. I saw that she was trying to reach me, but someone stopped her. She was suffering, my wolf strained against me desperately, his need for her beyond sanity. 

Away from me and out the door. My wolf growled, until, seeing she was pulled out the door, I couldn't hold back any longer. "I needed to go to her." 

My wolf felt the same.

But, it was too late.

I don't remember much about how I got home. It was late. The silence. 

When I opened the door, my mother was there, her surprised expression taking in my appearance quickly became fury.

"What have you done?" she whispered harshly. Then her eyes widened with horror, as if she knew. To my shock, my mother reached out and slapped my. Hard.

"Just...go to your suit." She said as she pulled back, away from me, "I will figure this out."

I didn't know, and I don't want to know what she is going to do. All I know is I screwed up everything.

Still numb, trance-like, I turned and left for my suit, closing the door behind me.

I tried to erase the memory, but Kathleen's face was clearly etched in my mind. The horror on it completely different from when we first met...

Our first meeting was at a party. I found her scent as I entered, while she'd not noticed me, because she was still under 18. My wolf was crazy and almost out of control. I did my best to keep myself in check, flirting, but going no farther.

Fortunately, we shared common interests, and we talked well into the night, never growing tired, never boring each other. Every time she smiled, her blue eyes turned into happy little crescents.

The next time I saw her was at the school and then the inter-council meeting, I was unable to resist her attraction to me anymore. She was wearing a cute dress that day, her silver hair swaying as she walked. Always with a bright smile on her face. My mind was filled with wild, primal desires that consumed me in those moments.

I couldn't help but be eager to get closer and closer to her. Even though I'd had many relationships with women over the years, not one of them was like this. So intense, so perfect. None of them.

 It was like burning from within and I found myself more than willing to get closer, to commit, as long as it was with Kathleen. I knew, with everything in my heart, she felt the same with me.

And then everything became hopeless and impossible.

Whatever she’d felt for me was long gone. When Edward pulled her out of the room, the only thing left on her face was hatred.

I've lost her.