— WIP MUSIC MONDAY
I was tagged by quite a few people for wip wednesday last week, so I’ll just put out my tag list today (ask to be added or removed!): @adelaidedrubman @florbelles @marivenah @simonxriley @shegetsburned @voidika @kyber-infinitygems @v0idbuggy @inafieldofdaisies @statichvm @socially-awkward-skeleton @aceghosts @carlosoliveiraa @risingsh0t @unholymilf @thedeadthree @cassietrn @jackiesarch @gwynbleidd @shellibisshe @loriane-elmuerto @katsigian
once again I have been reworking out of date writing for my original works and I always had a soft spot for this moment between my little wolf sisters. This song really hit with it too.
“This way,” Jayde said over her shoulder as she led her sister through the cemetery.
Graveyards. Cemeteries. Jayde never really learned the distinction, if there was any. Nor had she really contemplated their purpose before she visited this one.
Blades of sheer morning sunlight carved through the clouds to illuminate moss covered stone with engravings nearly too weathered to be legible and with likely no one even alive to recall who they belonged to anyway. She didn't see the point. Whether a mundane grave or a supernatural being, all things fade. The lifespan of a memory is as impermanent as they are. Still, their bloodline should have lasted a lot longer than it had. In a less violent world, maybe they would have been given the chance.
“So…” Skye dragged the word out slowly as she weaved through the headstones. “Whose grave are we visiting?”
Jayde rolled the stem of a rose between her fingers and barely reacted to the small puncture that the thorn made into her thumb. The one in her palm had already started to knit itself back together in the short time it took to purchase the flowers and take them here. Jayde needed the small sting to ground her. She knew Skye had started to work it out as soon as they pulled into the driveway. Why else would they return home?
She handed one of the two roses she carried to her sister with a melancholy smile. “Ours.”
“Oh,” was all Skye replied with for several paces. The older sibling sensed the steady rise of her fear until Skye couldn’t handle the silence anymore. “Are we shopping for a nice plot for when we get our tickets punched? ‘Cause I always thought I’d be cremated and have my ashes spread somewhere dreamy like Hawaii. Or Dollywood.”
For once, Jayde felt grateful for the younger wolf’s unabashed wit. It alleviated some of the anxiety twisting up her insides. The first time Jayde visited this spot with Nadya, she had become so overwhelmed that she couldn’t decide if it tore her apart even more or actually started to put her back together. She feared for how her sister would react.
“Actually, I was gonna kill you,” she replied dryly.
“I knew it,” Skye said with a snap of her fingers. “Is this about the time I scratched up your favorite CD when we were kids? You never really forgave me for that.”
Jayde fought the urge to point out that it had been the very first one she burned with the help of their father, but she only scoffed and said “Everything comes back to bite you eventually.”
Just then, a familiar headstone came into view. One big enough to fit a family of names on its cold, glossy black face. Jayde’s palms grew numb and sweaty. She shook her free hand and wiped it off on her jeans, leaving a small streak of blood on the fabric. A few steps closer and every muscle in her body tensed as if it anticipated a heavy strike to her face. She wished it was that kind of pain. It would make her feel better.
The sisters came to a stop before the stone. Four names had only endured the test of time for a decade, making them as easy to read as a common street sign.
Tristan and Andrea Thatcher engraved in bold letters with Jayde and Skye in a slightly smaller font below them. Along with the exact date Jayde witnessed a bullet pierce through her father’s temple.
It hadn’t seemed real at first. Jayde experienced plenty of nightmares with an image just like this. To know it really existed reminded her that everything else had been very real, too, and it all just felt like the inescapable horror of her loss – a suffering that would never truly end. Not until she actually gets buried beneath the well kept soil she now stood upon.
Once the shock of seeing it again passed, Jayde felt a different emotion. Not quite comfort, but an understanding. She could see the appeal of a gravesite. Strangely, she felt grateful to have a specific place to mourn her family in what little peace she had been granted.
Skye stared at the gravestone in silence for a long time. Then she sank to her knees before it and reached out to trace her fingertips along the engraving of their mother’s name. “How did you know this was here?” she asked in a small voice, not unlike a child’s.
“Nadya found it,” Jayde explained. “The official story is that we all died in a car crash.”
“They aren’t even here, are they?” There was no question in Skye’s tone. She knew the answer.
“I don’t think so. Maybe dad is.” The thought gave Jayde pause. What use would the hunters have for a dead werewolf? He hadn’t even died in the more desirable form, so they must have left him for authorities to find and back up the story of an accident. If that were the case, then he could very well be buried here. Their mother, on the other hand, died long after that night. Jayde’s mouth went dry as her mind went through sickening scenarios for the disposal of her body once their barbaric research proved fatal. She shook her head to banish the thoughts. “I’m pretty sure mom isn’t.”
“I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Skye placed the rose at the base of the stone. “I’m still glad that this is here.”
Jayde set her rose beside the other and sat next to her sister. “Me too.”
Sunlight shifted as the clouds traveled onward and the scent of coming rain and damp earth brought Jayde back home to the ranch only a handful of miles away. On a morning like this, she would have been rushing to get outdoor chores done before the storm made it too miserable. At least that’s how her mother put it. But Jayde had been known to work through torrents of rain just to step inside and have her father clap her on the back as he expressed his pride. His music sounded the best on nights like that.
Before Jayde knew it, deep shame replaced the tendrils of grief inside her gut.
She broke the silence with a deep breath. “I never told you why it took me so long to come for you after I got out.”
Skye finally tore her tear streaked gaze away from the gravestone, but she kept her eyes down. “Yeah, you didn’t.”
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want us to be together. It’s just that… After everything, I wasn’t the same. I’m not the same. I was scared that you wouldn’t recognize me anymore. And if you didn’t, then they wouldn’t have,” Jayde nodded at the engraved names of their parents, “I couldn’t – I can’t handle disappointing any of you. I thought it might be better if you believed I died with them.”
“Jayde,” Skye started with a sigh. “I might not have gone through what you went through, but I still lost everything just like you did. Both of us are different. No matter how many times we change, I will always know who you are because you’re my big sister. That means they will always know you, too.”
The tears that welled in Jayde’s eyes fell as she tried to blink them away. They brought agony with them that felt just as earth-shattering as ever, but Jayde let herself feel it. She let it overtake her and choked out a devastating sob into the fabric of her sister’s jacket as she leaned into her. But it was okay, because just like the clouds above them, the shadow within her gave way to a warmth that made her feel safe. The embrace of her little sister reminded her that neither of them truly lost everything. They might be the last of their blood, but Jayde still had a family in her own little pack. It was more than enough to not only fight for, but to live for. She knew, not so deep down, that that is what would make their parents proud above all else.
They stayed until the rain arrived. Jayde felt her grief weigh heavy in her chest once more as she turned her back on the headstone. It would be some time before they returned. A part of her whispered that she may never see it again. Yet, even if she didn’t, it would remain here. When moss creeps through the worn cracks decades from now, it would still be here.
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