The syringe comes closer to my body. I close my eyes, waiting for the prick that will end my life.
“Caleb, stop!”1
At the voice, I open my eyes. Caleb turns around to see his father striding towards him.
“What are you doing, son?” Uncle asks. “Are you going to kill your own cousin, your own blood? You need to realize that what you’re doing is wrong.”2
“Dad, this is for the best.”
“No, it’s not. When did you become a killer?”
“I’m not a killer yet but I will become one soon.” Caleb turns back to me.1
“You can’t go any further,” I hear Jake say to uncle. My eyes are on the syringe. Before Caleb can stab my heart, I hear a thud sound. Both Caleb and I turn our gazes towards the source of the sound. We see Jake lying unconscious a few feet away from us. Uncle must’ve threw him away when he tried to stop him. Uncle strides towards us.
“Dad, don’t try to stop me,” Caleb says. Before he can turn around to attack me, I kick at his hand. He looses his grip on the syringe and it falls a few feet away from him. Both uncle and Caleb make a lunge for the syringe. Uncle gets hold of the syringe first. But Caleb tries to snatch the syringe.
While I try to break the ties on my hands and legs, I hear uncle and Caleb tussling. As soon as I’m able to free myself, I hear Caleb’s agonizing scream.
My sight goes to him and I see him and uncle stand as statues. Uncle has a grip on the syringe but the syringe is stabbed at Caleb’s heart. Uncle is left shocked.6
Caleb starts falling. Before Caleb can come in contact with the ground, uncle comes to his senses and catches Caleb. He carefully lays him on the ground. He takes out the empty syringe.
“What did I do?” Uncle cries out.
“You did the right thing,” Caleb croaks before closing his eyes.
“No! Son, open your eyes!” Uncle pleads with his son as he shakes him.2
I put a hand on Uncle’s shoulder, “He’s gone.”6
“Is there nothing we can do to save him?” Uncle asks with tear-filled eyes.
I shake my head.
He breaks down and cries on his son’s chest.
I inject Jake with the tranquilizer so that he can’t escape when I carry him to my pack. Uncle and I turn into our werewolf form. Uncle carries Caleb on his back while I carry Jake. Both of us head towards our pack.
When we enter our pack’s boundary, I head straight to the pack house while Uncle heads home.
When I reach the pack house, I mind-link Steve to open the front door. He does the same and I enter with Jake. I lay Jake on the floor. When I turn into my human form, I go to my room, wear my clothes and return to the living room. Lance and Steve are confused.
I put Jake on the couch and secure his hands and legs with the ties he used on me.
I dial Albert’s phone number.
“Hey, is everything alright?” He asks.
“I need you to come to the pack house, take Jake with you and put him in prison,” I say.1
“Wait, what is Jake doing with you? Why do you want me to put him in prison? What is going on?”
“We’ll have this talk later, okay?”
“Okay.”
“What is going on?” Lance asks once I hang up.
“I’ll tell you everything but right now, I need to be somewhere else. Keep a watch on Jake. Don’t let him escape,” I reply as I leave the pack house and walk towards my home.1
It’s the middle of the night so when I knock at the front door, mom is surprised to see me. “What are you doing here at this hour?”
I take her inside the house and tell her in brief all that had happened in the past few hours. She gasps when I inform her that Caleb is dead.
“When dad died, uncle and aunt were our support system. And now, it’s our turn to be theirs. Let’s take care of them the same way they took care of us,” I tell mom.1
Mom goes to Victoria’s room to get her. After mom leaves my sister with the neighbors, mom and I head to uncle’s house.
When we get inside uncle’s house, we find him and aunt beside Caleb, crying their hearts out. The scene in front of me is so overwhelming that I have to cover my mouth to stop myself from breaking down. It’s almost as if I can feel their pain.
Mom quickly goes to uncle and aunt and embraces them. She, too, is trying not to cry just so that she can comfort them.
This is what I was worried about. This is what I was dreading. I didn’t want uncle and aunt to suffer. If Caleb would’ve listened to me then his fate would’ve been different. He would’ve been alive. His parents would not be crying for him. I wish I could lessen their pain.