novelraw Chapter 467 - [Z] Left On Unread, pt1
Chapter 467 - [Z] Left On Unread, pt1
***[POV: Angsty Teenwolf]***
The ’undercroft’ smelled like too many people.
The humans probably are bothered by it, too. Even if they make shower times available.
Because there are a lot of people just ignoring doing that this week... and recycled air that has been heated up is just sort of stuffy in the first place?
I think I’ve been walking the same circuit I have all week in this giant basement, for an hour now. Maybe longer. Looking at the clusters of scaffolding... with their taped-off floor squares and thin sheets between sections of family.
Weird little human beehives, even more than apartments always were... with limited lighting, but still a lot of it. Considering what is happening.
Lurking past distribution tables where volunteers handed out rations. Portioned to sizes that never seemed like enough. Not to normal people used to the luxuries of decent lives.
Patrols have actually had to look out for people stealing meals. In this situation. Even with doctors and math telling them they’ll be fine.
It’s like... why were the adults even pushing STEM programs on us kids if they weren’t going to believe or act on the data people in those fields provide? So frustrating.
And the medical station. I’ve watched it constantly. Where doctors and nurses worked in rotations that never seemed to end. Because tens of thousands of people have thousands of problems daily.
But it’s not like I could really help. I just needed to be anywhere that wasn’t where my parents were sitting.
Where Mom kept looking at me like I might sprout fur suddenly. Where Dad kept *not* looking at me. Which was somehow worse, even if he didn’t really look at me that much before.
Because they *knew* now. The Morin’s adopted daughter didn’t just have special medical circumstances that made her ’run hot’. I was a werewolf and always had been.
Inhuman monster. The panic when the Rimecoat pack took charge and revealed themselves was real. I heard that quite a few incidents with gunfire happened.
Not that it did more than annoy the werewolves doing welfare checks. But it worsened the sense of trust between both sides.
"Being too ungrateful for one’s side. Being too hard to kill for the other."
Sometimes I feel some of the humans who I know *know* about me looking. And of course I can hear their whispers.
Too many times I’ve heard words that weren’t jokes. Asking each other if they think silver actually works on us.
And worse, I’ve heard about more than one confiscation of shivs that someone wrapped their jewelry over... things really are just insane. And lonely.
Simone has been with her husband most of the time. Even if she hugged me once and told me it doesn’t change anything... it doesn’t mean much when people aren’t actually around, does it?
Paul. I hadn’t seen him in three days. And he hasn’t sent a message in two. I bet they took his phone...
The Whitecrest family members obviously get priority up in the tower. But I can’t stand going up there, even if they’d let me through to his apartment.
All of the Rimecoat look at me like I’m an intruder if I’m not down here patrolling like the other ’permitted’ rogues with lives in Vossden. They trust us to be around humans, but not to be around them?
Even though I’m one of *her* pack. Unlike them! Everything sucks now. Everything!
My phone buzzed against my thigh. I stopped walking and checked it without much hope.
[ Mom: Where are you? Lunch distribution is in 20mins. ]
I shoved it back in my pocket without responding. Feeling like a typical teenager for a moment. Letting her worry for a bit more, let her sent another message.
The thought felt sour in my own head. Because it made me think of Citra.
Forty-seven texts. I’d counted recently. None of them marked read.
Sent over two weeks, starting from [how is the cabin, are you okay out there?]. Ending with [please just tell me you’re alive] before service stopped working.
She’d told me I could talk to her about anything. She’d looked at me and actually seen me.
Touched my forehead and somehow known I was stressed before I’d admitted it to anyone. Responded to my texts, invited me out to hang with adults. She was so cool and nice.
For a while I felt like... not the weird kid at school, just because I wasn’t even human. And not like the obligation that the Stonewater pack acted like I was, just for being part of a different indigenous pack.
And then she’d vanished and a screen popped up in my face telling me part of the reason why. My parents rushed us to the Lunarizon shelters when I told them we *really* needed to go.
While the world ended, she was off doing things I didn’t understand. Mrs. Voss had disappeared after that too. Which meant Claire wasn’t answering lots of questions even after gathering all of her... Apocalypse System pack together.
I had to learn from the Pineheart people that she had a baby. When one cornered me and just started telling the story like it was a bible story.
She didn’t even tell us she was pregnant! Didn’t even tell... me. But I guess that... makes sense. How could I have helped? And she always talked about adult’s responsibilities towards kids.
Now that I think about it, maybe she was thinking about it a lot. I just didn’t see it because... how could I? She was secretly dating the richest person in our city, a woman!
"Wait, what’s going on?"
The crowd had thickened near one of the junctions between ’blocks’ down here. Where people normally loitered around the bulletin boards.
A place where work assignments and news updates got posted. But I hadn’t seen it this busy for a while now. Last time I came through during that was when I got cornered by the people spreading the word about the Lunar Goddess’s little miracle.
"I guess I should... check it out."
The moment I angled to cut through, I had to stop. Because *she* was there.