CHAPTER TEN:
THE INTRUDER
(trigger warning: violence and vomiting)

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MAE WAS REALLY BEGINNING to regret letting Maggie and Kim into her house, and not for the typical reasons that one would expect. Granted, she was annoyed by their persistent pestering for girl time — which she knew was really just code for 'let's try and distract Mae from Embry's stupid decisions' — but almost being killed by a supernatural creature definitely took the top spot on the list of problems she had with the girls.

When she woke up on Emily Young's couch with a room full of shirtless men surrounding her, it was safe to say she was incredibly confused. She just sat there for a moment as they whispered to each other, squinting up at the living room lights with a pounding headache. It hit her then, the last pieces of numbness fading away. Her neck was killing her, like someone had wrapped their hands around her throat and attempted to squeeze the life from her body. She felt like she was going to be sick from the pain — no, she was going to be sick.

"Emily," she slurred, her face pale and tinted with sweat. She met the woman's concerned gaze, mumbling, "Em, I'm going to be—"

Fortunately for her, Emily must've sensed what Mae was trying to say. She quickly reached for the red plastic bucket at her feet and held it out just in time for Mae to lean forward and spew up the contents of her stomach. Her throat burned relentlessly with each heave, prompting one of her hands to reach up and feel the purple tender bruises that littered her skin like hand prints. She sat back for a brief second of relief.

"You okay now?" Emily asked, then discarded the bucket once Mae nodded. Paul — who happened to be the closest one to it — wrinkled up his nose at the strong stench before moving to sit at Mae's feet instead. She would've laughed had the room not been spinning so much that she saw double of him.

"What happened?" Her voice was raspy, more so than usual, like she hadn't had a drink of water in days.

Maggie stood up as she coughed, taking a second to disappear into the kitchen before returning with a glass of cold water.

"Here," she said, and pressed the glass into Mae's shaking hands.

"Thank you," Mae accepted it gratefully, sipping it down slowly as the rest of the room exchanged a wary look at her question. Finally, Sam bit the bullet and sat down on the coffee table beside Emily. There was a hard glint in his eyes that he used to observe Mae for a second.

"What do you remember?" he eventually sighed, making her raise an eyebrow at him.

She was confused. The events of that evening were nothing but a blur; flashes of shocking red hair falling over a pale shoulder, blood-stained teeth just inches from her face, her friends' screams — no, pleas for her life. But it didn't make any sense. Who had done this to her, left marks from an attempted play on her life? Embry shifted in the corner of the room, the tiny movement catching Mae's attention suddenly. His pained face spared a memory in her head.

No longer was she sitting in Emily's living room, but her own instead. Nobody else was home from what she could make out. Her parents had gone out for 'date night' as her father had called it, and Lina was with two of her friends from Forks. Normally, Mae would've annoyed the girl into inviting her along, but instead she sat in silence as her parents left in a nice suit and dress, and Lina hurried out to get into the back of a jeep that Mae failed to recognise. Once they were gone, she curled up under a knitted blanket and turned on the television for background noise, dozing in and out of sleep for a good hour or two before a sharp knock on the door jolted her awake.

With a quick glance through the peephole, she confirmed that it was just Maggie and Kim. She opened the door with a sigh.

"Guys, this isn't the best time..."

"We figured as much," Kim cut in with a sheepish smile. Mae furrowed her brows, prompting her to hold up one of her pastel pink canvas bags that had a bunch of sweets and a litre of mint choc-chip ice cream inside. "So, are you going to let us in?"

Mae sighed again and held the door out for them. "Fine, but I'm only saying yes for the ice cream."

"We did get mint choc-chip for a reason," Maggie smirked.

Neither of them mentioned Embry for a while. Mae wasn't stupid, she knew he was the reason they were there, but so long as they were offering her free food, she didn't mind. Besides, part of her hoped that as Paul and Jared's girlfriends, they'd understand where she came from. So she let them in, making small talk about her day as she showed them around. Fortunately, they were more focused on the paint-covered records they found on her bedroom walls than the dark circles marked beneath her eyes or the absence of her usual smile.

"These are so pretty," Kim gasped, her fingertips ghosting over the record that Mae had painted a yellow and white flower on. "Do you make them yourself? Could you make me one?"

Mae nodded eagerly, the first signs of life returning to her face. "Lina finds it a waste of time but I love it. If you give me a pattern, I'm so down."

"Lina finds a lot of things a waste of time," Kim chuckled fondly before moving on to observe Mae's collection of posters.

It was then that they heard it.

Mae had just sat down next to Maggie on her bed, legs crossed beneath her as the last bit of tension lifted from her shoulders. Kim was playing with the switches on her radio when the unmistakable crash of disrupted furniture echoed down the hallway.

"What was that?" Maggie frowned as all three girls spun their heads towards the door.

No one said anything, just listening. Mae was beginning to think they'd imagined it when wood creaked on that same side of the house, open and closed, and then open again.

"That's odd," she said, and slowly stood up despite Maggie's wide eyes peering over at her in disbelief. "Nobody's supposed to be home for a while."

"Not even Lina?" Kim questioned, her face going pale as she crept over to Maggie for comfort.

Mae shook her head. "She's staying the night at a friend's house. And she would've texted me first so I'd have the door open for her."

"Then what was that?" Maggie hissed. She looked panicked, hands trembling as one reached for her phone and the other held onto Kim's wrist.

"We should just check," Mae said much to their dismay. "Guys, come on. I'm sure it's nothing."

Then, before they could stop her, she reached for the handle and stepped outside, immediately pausing to wince as the floorboard closest to the doorway creaked like a gunshot. Maggie and Kim shared a reluctant glance before following her. The former still had her phone out, muttering under her breath to Kim as she sent somebody a text. Mae paid them no attention as she creeped out into the seemingly empty living room. Apart from her uneven breathing and the television playing the end credits of a movie she didn't recognise, there were no other sounds. The front door was untouched from where she'd locked it behind Maggie and Kim. Sighing to herself, she gestured for the girls to follow her into the kitchen instead.

"Mae, we should go back to your room and wait," Maggie insisted as she shoved her phone back into her hoodie pocket. "I'm sure it's fine."

But Mae waved her off. "We can look."

"Mae, please—"

She paused suddenly. Maggie almost ran right into her as their attention went to the back door. Mae was sure her dad had shut it on his way out with Kira, and yet it swayed back and forth in the late-night breeze, wide open with the lock broken and scattered across the tiles. Her heart plummeted. She couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched, like something was about to jump out on them at any given moment. Maggie had lost her last bit of courage to speak as her shaking hands clutched the back of Mae's t-shirt. Slowly, they inched out into the night, only to find that the backyard was void of life.

"We're just being paranoid," she breathed out in relief, turning back around to usher the girls inside. "You're right, let's go back to my—"

She was cut off by an ice-cold hand wrapping around her throat. The sudden loss of air had her gasping frantically, her eyes blown wide. She only just made out the terrified faces of Maggie and Kim as she desperately clawed at marble fingers. They felt unnatural, like stone pressing down on her trachea. Her hands soon dropped back to her sides in defeat, her last bits of strength fading, but she still managed to catch a flesh of red hair behind her as the abnormal force spun her around.

Mae was sure she was going crazy, or maybe the lack of oxygen had messed with her brain. Her captor was a lady not much older than her sister, Allison, with bright auburn curls hanging loose around her ghostly face. And her eyes... her eyes were red, like fresh blood dripping from a wound.

"Hello, Maggie," the woman said to the screaming girl behind her. She lifted Mae right off the floor before she could dwell on her recognition, smirking as her feet kicked the air desperately and spots dotted her vision. The woman was too strong to fight off, simply throwing her around like she weighed nothing more than a feather. "Who's your little friend? She smells like a dog."

"Just let her go," Maggie begged, arms thrown out to keep a teary-eyed Kim in the kitchen. It was no good putting them all in harm's way. "Victoria, come on. You know she isn't the one you want."

The woman — who must be Victoria — laughed a sound like nails on a chalkboard, but it wasn't directed at Maggie. She turned around dismissively, carrying a half-conscious Mae along with her despite the others' protests. Through the shadows of the forest, three towering figures, wolves, had stepped into the yard. Mae could barely see them as blackness seeped in from the corner of her eyes to replace the spots. Both her head and her heart felt ready to explode under Victoria's tightening grasp. She wanted it to end already.

And then, as the three figures leapt right at them, Mae appeared back in Emily's living room with no unnatural woman in sight. Embry had inched closer to Mae during the time she'd been out. She let out a panicked cry as he tried to touch her shoulder, lurching forward to grab hold of Sam's arm and shouting one last word before the darkness was able to swallow her whole again.

"Vampire."

Then her eyes rolled back into her head.