I have to fix it. I have to.
I push open the door of my cabin and even though I can tell my mom is standing there in the kitchen, I don’t see her. All I can see is the look in Kaleb’s eyes when he told me they were leaving me behind.
“Sabrina, I’m talking to you!”
My mother’s shouts finally register in my head.
“What is wrong with you lately? It’s like you’re not listening to a word I say, or a word anyone says for that matter. I get the whole angsty, hormonal attitude and all, but it’s really not an excuse for acting so—”
Even as her voice raises to an ear-splitting shriek, she suddenly stops and looks at me as if she’s finally realized there’s something not right with me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. Her voice is still more edgy than it is concerned … but she’s no longer yelling.
“They’re gone,” I whisper.
“What? Who’s gone?”
“The boys,” I say, numbly. I should be sobbing, but instead … I’m just empty. “Rory, Marlowe, Kaleb. They’re all gone, and they aren’t coming back.”
My mom doesn’t have much more to say at that point.
She can’t possibly understand what it means, or the feeling of deep despair that makes me want to bury myself alive just to avoid feeling what I’m feeling right now. She stands there for a minute as if she’s trying to think of something to say, but then realizes nothing she says right now is going to matter.
I climb up into my loft and reach for my phone, instantly spamming the boy’s numbers with texts.
I don’t care if I sound desperate. I have to know more. They have to tell me what’s going on—reassure me that this is some terrible dream.
But after a few seconds, each and every one of them comes back as undeliverable. The numbers have already been disconnected.
There’s no way for me to reach them now.
They’re really gone.
And I am suddenly and completely cut off with no lifeline to grab onto.
I lie here, staring at the ceiling until my eyes burn because I don’t know what else to do. Even if I ran around in the woods all night searching for them; I know that they are long gone. I reach for Kaleb’s hoodie that is sitting on the side of my bed and bury my face in it until I eventually am comforted and tormented just enough by the smell of him lingering in the fabric, that I fall asleep.
That night I dream of being in the forest again. I am standing with Remus near the river and I am staring at the rows of yellow eyes peering out from the line of trees.
Kaleb, Marlowe, and Rory are there too. They stand next to us and their glance shifts between the wolves that are crawling out of the forest, and me. I start to be afraid as I see the wolves bare their teeth and hear a low growl grow up from the earth. I look at Remus and see him smiling with teeth that seem much too long for his jaw to contain. Then I look back at the boys and am frightened by the way they look at me, with the same vacant look Romulus gave me when he told me they were leaving.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to see Lydia there. She’s smiling again, but it’s not a real smile this time.
It’s too sad to be a real smile.
“I’m sorry,” Lydia says as I watch a single tear fall over her perfect cheekbone.
“Sorry for what?” I ask.
But she doesn’t answer me, and soon all that I can hear are the snarls of wolves in my ears as the pack of yellow eyes descend upon me.
I let out a cry for help and reach my arms toward where the boys stand. I see the three of them looking at me and wonder why they aren’t coming to help me; to protect me like they always do.
I struggle and pull against the claws and jaws of the wolves that are pulling me down until I can barely manage to see the faces of the three boys between the bodies of the wolves.
“Please,” I cry quietly as I look out at them and stretch my fingers toward them, as I feel my body falling against the hard earth of the forest floor.
Kaleb steps forward, and for a single moment I allow myself to have hope as I look into his dark, familiar eyes that stand out amongst all the glowing yellow reflections.