I arrive at the lake house and examine all the cars parked at the front. The pumping music and the freshman sitting outside drunk and wasted.

I walk inside, the scent of freshly painted walls consuming my nostrils.

My hands trail along the island in the kitchen before I grab myself a red plastic cup and fill it with beer from the keg on my left.

I feel a presence behind me.

"Jolie...is it?" I turn around and eye the boy who approached me.

"Yeah. Not sure I'm familiar with your name though"

I take a sip out of my cup, almost wincing at the taste of alcohol on my tongue. Understanding if my mother or my uncle knew what I was doing, they'd kill me.

"It's Garret." He answers, leaning in and filling his cup with grog.

"Nice to meet you, Garret"

He nods and knocks his cup of beer with mine.

"Cheers"

I smile, and leave. Pushing myself among the crowd. I spot Lydia, the junior who I had met at Allison's funeral.

"Hey Lydia!" I say, giving her a grin. Her cranky and annoyed face transitioned into a smile.

"Welcome to my hazardous unplanned party!" She says, doing a sarcastic curtsy. I laugh.

"The drink is good" I say. "That's got to stand for something"

Lydia raises her eyebrow at the cup in my hands and snatches it out, swallowing it all in a few gulps.

" I feel so.so.so much better now" she grins, making her way to the kitchen.

With the speakers blaring and people dancing, I do what god knows I'm actually good at, which is lose control in my dancing.

Under the lights and the sweaty energy filled bodies, I feel relaxed.

No, I do not feel reminded of my favourite past time of my old life, instead I feel happier, like all that matters is myself in this moment. I didn't worry about Kate, or about Peter. I just danced. Dancing all my problems away.

By fifteen minutes my ribs are aching with a stitch and I lay against the wall to catch my breath. I feel another body stand beside me.

"Hey" I heard him say, grinning at me.

"Hi" I reply, looking the other way.

"Wanna make out?" He asks, giving me a goofy grin.

I twist my face in disgust. "Ew. No" and that's enough to make me turn away and walk outside the house. (Of course, grabbing another drink on the way). The cool air against my body is a sudden change from the sweaty hot atmosphere I just escaped.

I slide down against the walls and sip my drink. From where I sit I can see the lake, a lovely horizon.

Numerous people are dotted around.

I see Violet from my Econ class pop down beside me.

"Gosh. That's some serious partying in there" she smiles. I nod.

"It's fun. Good to enjoy myself for once"

"Yeah" she nods. "I'd party all night if I could"

"You can say that again"

We both end up laughing.

"That lake is a hazard. What's the bet some drunk goon is going to fall in"

"A bet that I'll lose. You know what, it's probably going to be me" She laughs.

"Well I'm going to head home" I say, standing up.

She gives me a hug and I walk down to my car.

I sit in the car with a sigh, my heart still pumping with adrenalin. I start driving home. My mom would have killed me if I wasn't home by midnight.

•••••••

I was about ten minutes into driving when my car came to a halt at the side of the road.

"What!" I say to myself, sighing at the dashboard and recognizing the little symbol that told me I was out of gas.

I swear to myself. What now?

It takes me two minutes before I pull out my phone and track the nearest gas station. Ten minutes away. I fling the car door open and begin walking through the woods. Was I afraid? Not really. What was the worst that could happen? I met a serial killer. That would be just my luck then wouldn't it.

I clutch my phone tightly, forwarding further into into the woods.

"Turn left to your destination" I hear my phone read. I turn left, partly blinded by the full moon directly in front of me.

Now that I'm here, all alone in the quiet woods, I get a bit of time to think things through.

My aunt was there in some sort of supernatural form. All I could really remember were her eyes- I mean, how could I forget about those glowing green eyes.

Green eyes. What had green eyes?

When I was thirteen I found myself tied to a wooden chair, thinking that I had been kidnapped. The matter to me at the time was: either find a way to escape and fast or leave myself in this chair to whither and have god knows what done to me. When I had finally stopped panicking and started logically thinking, I was able to use the objects around me to free myself. It took a matter of minutes but I did it, I escaped.

When I was out of the chair, I remember using one of the legs as a weapon against whoever showed their faces. I left the room only to be met with my fathers eyes and my uncles lean figure. I remember throwing my arms around my dad and being all, "dad! I was kidnapped. Hurry, we need to go" and then he explained to me that he was a hunter and that I had just been put to a test. A test that I had successfully completed.

At first I was scared at the whole idea of werewolves and banshees but then I was amazed.

It took me till I was fourteen to decide I didn't want to be a hunter. My father and my uncle took me on a camping trip and explained to me how to keep myself safe (simple self defence advice, surviving alone) and then at night we found a werewolf. A young boy named Felix, barely seventeen.

They told me to kill it, that it was a monster. Except I never saw him as a monster...I saw him as Felix. Felix with a life ahead of him and a power controllable... A power that was in fact a gift.

No, of course I would not kill Felix. I threw my hands up in a fit and dropped the revolver I held.

"I'm done! This isn't what I want in my life!"

They took me home with gloomy faces and my dad didn't talk to me for a while. When we finally started getting close again he told me he had to go help out Christopher and then...I never saw him again.

Things like this taught me to never be afraid. I don't know why, It just did. I never wanted to hold my breath and hope for the best, I wanted to stand tall and wear pride in who I was.

I trudged along the woods, following the directions of my phone when I stopped walking.

The sound of small feet lurching for me made me stop. I watched the family of rabbits soar in front of me and run by me. I smiled at them, wondering at what had gotten them so jigged up.

Then I saw it, growling at me. No...not it, him.

His golden brown hair and an even prettier golden eye colour.

My eyes glued to his face and my feet stuck to the floor like concrete.

Liam stood before me on all fours, hair grown on his face and claws extended.

I took a deep breath, studying his figure. I had never even thought Liam was a werewolf but now as he stood in front of me; it became very very clear that he obviously was.

His name rolls of my tongue and I frown at him, seeing the pain in his eyes.

"Liam" I whisper, my fingers reaching out to brush against his cheek.

"Jo" he whispers back, his hair sinking in and his original face reappearing.

I don't do anything, I just watch him. It takes a millisecond before the werewolf Liam takes over his body again, anger spreading through his eyes and without a word he dashes into the woods and I myself am quick to sprint to the direction of the gas station.

And yes... I know last time I went to the gas station the response wasn't exactly any better.

•••••••••••

I fling my door open and sigh, tossing the keys on to the counter. I notice my mother sitting on the sofa, fast asleep.

I pull a long blanket over her and make sure she is warm before I leave an then, I turn to walk upstairs.

"Enjoy yourself?" I hear my mothers sleepy voice croak at me. A smile creeps across my face.

"It was fun. Yeah."

She sits up and I can see her bed hair and her tired face.

"Are you drunk?" She asks. I furrow my eyebrows.

"Is that all you care about?" I snap,pressing my lips into a thin line.

"Are you?"

"No!" I shoot her a glare and turn on my heel. "I'm done with that. I'm just...tired." I walk to my bedroom but she grabs my wrist.

"Honey, I'm sorry" she whispers.

"No. I am. Don't worry about it mum"

" I do Jo, I really do though. Your father was good at this...the reasoning bit. It should have been him there, driving you to parties and-"

"Can we please not talk about dad?" I say, my eyes welling with tears. "Because that topic still hurts like a b-"

"But I think that if maybe...maybe you had learned to be a hunter...you could have been there with him. In his last hours. You would have deserve that"

Tears flood out of my eyes and the hand I so tightly hold the banister with falls beside me. I sit down on the step.

"Mum. Don't put that on me"

"But honey, haven't you ever thought of it."

I wipe away my tears.

"The truth is, no, I haven't. My whole family wanted something for me that I didn't. I want to be normal. I don't want that for myself"

"But hone-"

"Mum stop." I say sternly. Standing up and walking up the stairs.

I look back at her one last time. "Goodnight. Get some sleep"

And I shut the door to my bedroom and leave myself to the darkness.