Betrothed to Lycan

Episode 2: Dashed into trouble, a quick one.

"We are in trouble, It's them," she whispered. "The Lycans. They've found us."

Clara became afraid of the sudden happenings, she tried to process what was happening.

The papers, the pact, the covenant - it all made sense now. She's just beginning to decipher what could have led to her father's arrest, her mother's fear... it was all connected to the Lycans.

And now, they were at their doorstep.

Clara's mother pulled her toward the back door, but Clara resisted.

She wanted to face whatever was coming their way. She wanted answers.

************************************

Conversely, earlier before the sudden incidence, Clara had always been comfortable with the familiar, loyal ground beneath her feet.

She'd always known where she stood with Jackson. He was the confidant, her college friend who always put in an appearance in her hour of need.

They met in their freshman year at university, two strangers connected through an unspoken understanding, a quiet connection neither could put into words.

Since they became friends, their friendship had grown over the years into something that hung delicately between more

than friendship and less than abnormal relationship.

But neither one ever made an overt move to cross that property line. Theirs had always been a friendship built upon respect and shared experiences.

Until lately, Clara had never questioned it.

Jackson had on one occasion, gifted her a pendant. Moreover Jackson had continually been thoughtful, and Clara could not remember a birthday or any significant occasion in her life that he had missed.

But this present was given without any precise imminent event.

It was a gift, a gesture that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

Clara sat at home opening the present that Jackson had dropped off earlier in the day, with care. The paper fell away easily from the small box.

It was simple and unpretentious, but there was an elegy to it that caused Clara to hold up a moment.

She lifted the lid to find a pendant hung inside, a small silver key. It was nothing exotic, but it had a fair old craftsmanship, illuminated fine engravings in the metal that gave it an ancient air, almost magical.

Clara's fingers traced the design, intrigued by the key's quality.

Jackson hadn't said much when he gifted it to her, aside from a simple explanation: "I thought you might like it. It symbolizes possibility, all those doors waiting to be opened."

Clara had taken it upon herself to smile in acceptance, thanked him, and placed it in the bag with everything else.

The gift had been so much different for her; it was not like a gift from a friend, but had something intimate to it. Nevertheless, Clara was too taken by the hustle of her life to contemplate the meaning of it.

Because she did not want to analyze it too much and maybe risk attempts to misconstrue something obvious.

As days passed, the key nagged at her. The pendant was small, but around her neck, and the sensation she received from touching it was nothing short of that phenomenon described as more than what it read into.

"Was it supposed to mean something for our friendship?" Clara often thought.

Did he offer it to her with something more to it that she ought to have picked up on?

The doubt continued to increase, becoming more intense as time went on.

It was just when she caught herself overthinking every little interaction she had with Jackson that the truth hit; she had started to wonder if Jackson actually felt something for her.

Part of her had always known that their bond was deeper than most friendships, but that way of thinking had never crossed her mind. Had that line between friendship and something more started to blur, and if it had, was she ready to explore it?

It sounded like a question that put Clara on the spot. How was she supposed to react to that?

The escalating turmoil within her pushed her back from Jackson enough, so she no longer called him as often, didn't respond to his texts as quickly, and during their meetings, she was always just a little more guarded and distant than before.

To Jackson, it seemed, this shift was lost.

He didn't ask her what was wrong and didn't push her for answers. Yet, Clara felt the tension growing between them, a silent current meant for neither of them to take into consideration.

It was not only the gift that burdened any clearer resolution Clara could have taken but was bound to be just as much the complexities encompassing her life.

***************************************

Her father's secrets, the threats she had started to intuit, the incorrigible feeling that something dark lingered just beyond her vision.

All of this had made her cautious, unsure of where she belonged in the world, all of which only worsened the confusion that now spread aside her new interests in Jackson.

Was she supposed to let herself fall in love with him? Was it allowing herself to be vulnerable with him when her whole life began to crumble around her?

Clara had spent so long trying to hide from the world, protecting herself from the destructive force her father's actions were, that the thought of letting herself care for him in the way she had always kept herself back from seemed impossible.

Yet she kept thinking about Riley, and it increasingly dawned upon the idea that she couldn't be avoiding it for long.

Jackson was the only one always present, the only one to understand her the way no one else did. But did that mean she must take that leap?

Was she actually prepared to risk everything for a mere chance for anything more with him?

The questions twisted inside her, pulling her into a dozen directions, until she could no longer sit on them. She would give him a call. He must know of this feeling-whatever daunting sense it was-before it drove them apart.

One night, she finally held the phone to her ear. She felt helpless, hovering over her phone screen, at a loss over what to say. Words sounded awkward, undetermined, and as she scrolled through her contacts, she found herself at a crossroads when she'd have to make the decision-choose between texting him and calling.

And she ended up making the call.

He picked up at one ring; his voice soothing somehow, so familiar, yet there was that same edge of uncertainty in Jackson that she had never known before.

"Hey, Clara," Jackson said, "Is everything okay?"

She hesitated to collect her thoughts. "I--yeah, I guess. I've just been... thinking about the pendant you gave me. So there's something I want to ask you."

A long pause. "Of course, go ahead."

Clara inhaled deeply. "So, when you gave me the key... I guess I... I don't really know what it was supposed to mean. Was it a... some kind of a sign of something more? Or am I just meaning into it too much?"