Awakening - Eve Of Eden

3

The mansion, the manor, and all the land in between belong to us, and other packs stay away. Only the vampires venture in to visit whenever my grandfather shows face. Our world is small and safe, and we have never known a single hardship aside from our parents' rules and regulations.

“I think I see her up ahead.” Simon pulls our attention to the lone figure of my sister sitting on the root edge of a fallen tree. Dressed in her trademark dark form-fitting clothing more suited to a spy in one of her human novels, and hangs one leg down to dangle the vast bulk of the ancient tree that serves as a massive bench. She’s watching the mountain, almost hanging over us, and sighs noticeably.

“I already went and came back. You guys are so slow that I could have napped and still waited. This was pointless. The cave entrance into the mountain has been sealed shut. Rocks, boulders, and by the stupid symbols all around the rim…that damn witch has been here and made sure no one can ever get in.”

Eve is annoyed and deflated, and all thoughts of adventure and discovery are dashed to death. The atmosphere around her cloying in the air and sucking it in like a black hole. Dampening the mood and making me antsy at the subtle change in her. I have always been sensitive to her moods.

“The witch?” Maisie stands tall on her tiptoes as though it will somehow help her see further through the dense woods at whatever cave entrance we can’t see. Endearingly cute with her small frame and childlike mannerisms.

“Leyanne Cruden. You know who she is…That Scottish one that shows up from time to time to see my parents and my grandmother. I recognize the shitty scrawl.” Eve spits with accusation, cursing as she sometimes does, and I sigh at her.

“Oh yeah…. the one with the crows. She’s pretty.” Toya finally catches up to us and moves to climb the tree to get up beside Eve, although they sit a little apart, given that they have never really gotten on. At times, I think none of these three would be friends with Eve if I weren't here as the go-between. They’re my friends. I know it, and I feel it in their care for me, but Eve has always been apart from us.

She doesn’t care about them, and they don’t care much about her. She has done something to each and every one of them in the past to leave them with mild PTSD when it comes to her. So now they slightly fear her.

Like an outsider who tolerates their presence, she never really keeps friends of her own, as just about everyone irritates her. No one is good enough for the great and powerful Eve. Claiming she needs friends like she needs another hole in her head.

Sometimes I think she only tolerates me because I am her twin.

“It's been a long time since she was here…I wonder where she goes?... Why do you think they sealed it?” I let Maisie go so I can wander a little further to peek through the undergrowth at the looming rock formations near the base of the incline. There is an air of cold and oppressive about the mountain that makes me shudder right to my core. The air feels flat and dead around it here.

“Same reason they forbid talk of the past, of Juan Santo…. of anything that might pop their little delusional bubble of peace and light.” Eve scorns, kicking at the bark with the one leg she has up and hitched on top. “Anything dark or dreadful gets locked away out of sight and out of mind…how very wolf of them.”

“Don’t say his name…you’ll anger the fates and bring a curse to we four.” Maisie gasps in shock, covering her ears as though to avoid any fallout from uttering his cursed name. Strongly believing in all that befalls anyone who should anger the fates.

“Pfft…what curse? He was an old man who wanted power and went about it the wrong way. He should have been smarter….. I would have been smarter.” Eve gets up, straightening towards the mountain, standing tall and foreboding, and pulls back her hands with dramatic flair to tear the trees aside, offering us an unbroken view of what once was a dark place. As easy as breathing.

The trees crack and bend as she uses her telekinetic power, just as my mother does, to clear and bend them to her will. Straining, groaning hunks of nature are being pulled aside by the gentle hands of a little girl who thinks nothing of being able to do this. Hundred-year-old trees as thick as barrels and more, moving so gracefully and defying logic as they bend without snapping.

It's an unnerving display of power, opening us to the bright sun overhead as the canopy above us suddenly clears. Making us blink as our eyesight adjusts, but it's not awe I feel when watching this display; it’s a gurgling-up sense of unease. Eve worries me.

Seeing her so easily use this gift and thinking nothing of clearing a massive forest out of the way is as unsettling as watching a huge storm gather overhead.

“Mom said you weren’t allowed to use your gifts unless you were with them or Rema.” I scold her, the internal ripple of fear driving up whenever Eve uses her powers. Nothing good ever happens when she flexes them. She has no sense of boundaries.

“Oh shut up…I’m only enjoying the view. I’m not breaking them, just moving them a little.” She scoffs at me, a flick of a glance back my way to show her defiance as her eyes glow a little red with the peeking of her inner wolf. Her mood grows more arrogant and hostile as she is chided.

“If you turn, we don’t have extra clothes to get you back home unseen.” I remind her, knowing fine well Eve wouldn’t care. It’s not even a good reason to deter her.

“If I were going to turn, I would have done it already. I’m not in the mood. Besides. I like this outfit. I would take it off first.” She smirks at me, shrugs with zero care over my concern, and turns back to release the forest of her grip. Clenching her hands as though to break the spell, the entire surroundings about her snap back to their rightful place in a terrifying groan and violent rustle.

It’s not as gentle as moving them was, but more of a snap back in anger. The air and greenery shift as though struck by a turbulent wind, then right themselves in a terrifying collision overhead, causing branches to snap and a torrent of leaves and insects to rain down upon us. Making us all flinch in instinctual fright, and we move back into a little huddle as though we’re safer together.

Birds scatter, animals run, and what was a gentle bending out of our way becomes a sudden release like she popped a balloon. Her temper simmered in that action, and my questioning her about using her gift.

Her ability always unnerved me. Perhaps because when we were too young to understand what she could do, she hurt many small animals and other children while learning to harness it. She broke my arm when I was four because she wanted my glass of milk. She didn’t mean it; she just couldn’t harness it.

I guess it makes me nervous because I know how unintentionally she can cause harm.

“I hate when she gets like this.” Maisie moves closer to me again, her own sense of insecurity for our safety peeking, as she re-latches to my arm and whispers in a hushed tone. Obvious nerves at the change in my sister's mood and the appearance of her gifts. Eve knows how to instill fear by just being herself, and I smooth a hand over Maisie’s to soothe her.

“It’s fine…. we’re going back. There’s no point being here anymore.”

No will to be if my sister is turning sour.