Stop Looking

[Amorentia]

Peni POV

The scream stopped me cold in my tracks wreching the morning apart. It was a male voice in pure agony calling out from outside my front door. There was something familar about the voice.

Running for the door, Jalil was behind me. Marcus and I had come to get some things from the Great Hallow house to bring back to La Push. When I opened the front door, my world crumbled.

Justin of the La Push Pack lay trembling on the front porch. His seventeen year old body was broken. Large bruises covered areas where his bones had been crushed. Gaping hole shown where his eyes should have been. The smell was still on him - Bloodusuckers. Carved on his chest were the words: Stop Looking.

Pure instinct took over as Justin lay mumbling in shock.

"I'm here, Justin. It's Peni. I'm here." I craddled his head to my chest seeing the empty gaping holes where his eyes had been dug out. Tears started streaming down my face mingling with his blood. My third cousin. I'd held him as a baby, even baby sat him. He was Pack, one of your youngest ones. I heard him whisper my name, his mind still somewhat lucid. All I could do was assure him despite the pain wracking his body, "I'm here, sweetie." I told him. "I've got you." Being so close I could see the massive number of bites on him. He'd been invenmonated again and again by Vampire bites. The poison meant death for any of our kind.

Craddling him to my like I did when he was a newborn, I just cried. "Oh, ... I'm here, baby." I told him, craddling him more in my arms. "I love you, honey. I'm here." Even as Ewan - our Pack physician - apparated in front of me eyes wide with shock, I kept talking to Justin softly, in English and prayers in Quileute. Before Ewan even said, "There's nothing we can do," I could feel the jolt in Justin's body as the venom reach his heart. A second jolt I knew his spirit was seperating from his body. One more jolt - Justin was gone from this world.

I don't even know what god's I called out to or how, I couldn't control the sorrow that enveloped me. One of our Cub's, our kids. One of our sons like Deni, Nevi, Jaki... all of my babies grown up. A young man of our Tribe. My family. Pack. Part of me wanted to cross into spirit form to bring him back. To somehow make him get back in his body and live. This body couldn't hold his spirit anymore. I couldn't, wouldn't let go. From behind me I could feel Marcus's arms around me as more voices joined us. Still I held Justin's body to me not wanting to let go. 

Someone phased to wolf form sending up a blood curdling howl. As it echoed through the neighborhood, anger rushed through me. I couldn't understand. How did this happen? How did he get here? Who did this and where were they?

"Get her inside..." someone said. It sounded a million miles away.

"I am not going anywhere," I said taking a defensive posture over Justin's body, holding him tight in my arms sobbing still wanting him back. Then I heard my Mother's voice trying to calm me. Without lifeblood flowing, Justin's body began to stiffen in my arms.

My Mother's voice reached through pulling me from my grief saying, "We have to take him to La Push to his Mother." More large tear drops rolled down my face. His Mother... the words were like a slap in the face as the empathy of a Mother's grief hit me. Justin's Mother's world was about to be destoryed in a way that would never mend.  

Tears streamed down my Mother's face as well while we both shared the loss that we could understand, and that we knew would rip our relations life apart. Kneeling beside me, she took a sheet to help me swaddle him in it. Putting arms around him, my Mother said, "I will bring him to his Mother."

My chest started heaving. Without control my hands started shaking ready to phase to track down whoever did this to my Pack Brother, my cousin, our Quileute son, and make them pay. My vision was clouded by rage, eyes thick with tears, as I heard Sam and Jacob both send up howls. I rose to standing to join the Pack to hunt for whoever was responsible promising death when they were found. Grabbing a hold of my hand my Mother's voice raised to draw my focus, "Penelope! Tori needs you."

With her words the world spun into focus past the haze of fury to see what was transpiring around me. My Pack necklace was burning calling everyone to Portkey into the yard where Aberforth sat injured on the lawn. From beside him, my heart dropped again seeing Reg lift the limp body of Tori in his arms. Again, Ewan said, " We need to get her inside."

Written by Amorentia.

Want to read more? What to join in the Creative Writing fun? Our full stories are in Through The Looking Glass. Link HERE to join. Be sure to tell them Peni sent you!