Dante I lay in my dorm for the first time in three days. My hands were clapped behind my head as I stared morosely at the ceiling. I couldn't sleep at Amir's after what had happened with Nora. I tried. It was just too depressing. Besides, I'd heard Slyder say something about staying over so she could crush Amir in FIFA. Nora still hadn't returned any of my calls or texts. I'd stopped sending any or calling her phone since mid afternoon. She was pissed, sad, and frustrated. I know I would be if I were in her shoes. I needed to give her time to process things. It was hard to do though. I kept fighting the urge to pick up my phone and call her a hundred times. Or till whenever she blocks me in fury. It felt like an alien sleeping in the dorm room. Asher wasn't going to be back, he had cleared his things out of the room, but he still had the key so I guess he could show up anytime he wanted to. I wasn't sure if I cared much about that. I was sick of it. Sick of him. I remembered the
Asher I thought fucking him senseless was going to make him forget about what he'd been going on about in the afternoon, but I was wrong. In fact, it seemed like he'd become more convinced that there was something he wasn't remembering. He kept mumbling to himself all evening and staring off into space at random times. I was beginning to panic. He looked like he was going crazy. “He just might be. Can't really say that's a bad thing though,” Dean sneered. “Ah! He lives!” I mocked. Dean had gone silent on me since my afternoon romp with Liam. The canine could hold a grudge.“What do we do?” I asked him desperately. “We? Don't you really mean me?” He answered tiredly. “Yes I do. Can you fix it?” “You sound desperate. Dude's going to be fine. He's just spent too much time around you, that's all,” Dean reassured. “Too much time around me? What the hell does that even mean. Isn't that the reason we messed with his memories in the first place? So I could stay here?” “Yeah.
Asher Oh my God.I killed him.The minute I thought that, I heard his heartbeat and I breathed a sigh of relief.Knocked out. Not dead. That's better. “What the hell is wrong with you? Is your first response to anything punching in the face?” Dean growled in anger. “I wasn't really thinking straight.” I grumbled defensively. “Yeah, you never do!” “Quit yelling at me alright! I need to think. Come up with a solution somehow.” I ran both my hands through my hair and paced the small corridor. “Maybe take him somewhere more comfortable?” Dean suggested. “Right. Of course." I picked Liam up and carried him into the living room in bridal style. It wasn't hard to do that since he weighed little more than a wet cat. “Dude, we were right in front of his bedroom. Don't you think he'd be more comfortable on a bed?” Dean asked incredulously. “Didn't think of that.” “Sure. What else is new?” “Dean for the love of God, can you quit being such an asshole right now?! We need to figure
Dante I woke up with a renewed sense of purpose the next morning. Nora was back to me and all seemed right with the world. There was a spring in my step as I walked to the bathroom. I decided not to go for morning classes. The dorm needed a little cleanup. I played some music on my portable speaker as I got busy arranging my stuff. The place had been slightly neglected. Asher hadn't done any cleaning before I came and I hadn't spent much time in here so it was a mess. As I took off the sheets to replace them with new ones, I remembered growing up and hating doing chores. But as an only child, I didn't have much of a choice. I had to do them. Nora always told me how lucky I was to have no siblings to mess up the place when I was done cleaning. Coming from a home of five children, she had a lot of stories to tell me about toddler shenanigans, and I was always entertained by them. I did not secretly wish to have siblings though. I was perfectly fine as an only child. My mother wasn'
Asher I woke up in pain. My head felt like it was splitting into two. I groaned as I stirred awake. Opening my eyes hurt, moving my fingers hurt, even breathing hurt. I managed to drag myself to a wall and sit up. Liam was still on the floor passed out. “Dean? Did we do it?” I asked. Even speaking in my own mind hurt. He didn't respond. If I was in pain, he probably was too. Question was why? The last two times we'd messed with memories, there hadn't been any pain. Maybe that was because I hadn't been aware of the process those times. Being conscious of it must have affected the outcome. And I couldn't tell if it had worked or not with Lain still passed out. I remembered what I'd seen. Liam's memories. They'd been so clear in my head. They still were. I'd taken his memories and switched them with what I wanted him to see. But what about his heart like Dean had said? Did I take the memories from there or his head? I groaned loudly as I tried to push myself to stand. I'd been an
Asher “You burnt it?! How did that happen! You were standing right there!” Liam scoffed and pushed me away from the stove. “First you made me throw one to the ground and now this one's a black mess.” He tried to salvage what he could from the eggs, but it was no use. “I... I'm sorry.” I mumbled. Everything seemed hazy. Sounded hazy. Liam didn't seem to hear my apology. He kept muttering to himself, clearly pissed off. He had a scent. He always had a scent. Every single living thing on the planet had it's own unique scent, but I couldn't perceive it. I could only smell the shampoo on his hair, but nothing else. He smelt like nothing. “Seriously bro, are you okay? You seem a little off this morning,” Liam asked, trying to substitute his anger for concern. “I'm …uh... I need to use the bathroom,” I nearly tripped over my own feet trying to get out of the kitchen as fast as I could. I couldn't feel my feet. No that wasn't it. I was too aware of my own feet. I couldn't seem to fi
Dante Three days passed, and I didn't see Asher, run into him or hear about him from anyone. It was the most peaceful three days since I started schooling here. I found it really fun to stay in the dorm. Even more than I liked Amir's place which was definately something because Amir's place was super comfortable. Almost luxurious. Mateo had said nothing more about werewolves since then. I'd barely even seen him around. Which was odd, but it'd only been three days anyway. And I'd been rotating between class and my dorm room, barely speaking much to anyone. I was staring to enjoy classes now that there were no longer distractions. I'd always enjoyed going to school. My life had been relatively quiet before I got here. I hadn't really gotten bullied in high school. I'd lived on the fringe, looking too cool, and normal for the nerds and too nerdy for the cool kids. I didn't have a lot of friends as a result, but it saved me from getting bullied so I didn't mind it. College was a
Dante “Um. What am I supposed to be looking at exactly?” The video seemed to have been taken from afar, and zoomed in, so it appeared grainy. “Watch closely,” Mateo whispered from behind, startling me a little. I hadn't seen or heard him get up and move to stand behind me. I kept quiet and watched the video. It was five minutes long and it was just Asher going about his day. Except, he wasn't. He wasn't going about anything, he was just walking. Well, mostly walking. He stumbled a lot, like a kid who only learned to walk a few days ago, and his lips moved constantly. He was talking to himself. Hallway into the video, he held a wall and paused, as if out of breath. He mumbled again, this time, urgently. His eyes were wild, confused and panicked, but he tried to look normal. Was he mentally ill? The video ended and Mateo went back to his seat. “Did you see?” he asked, finally paying attention to his food and eating ravenously. ”Uh… Yeah? I mean I watched the video, but I don'
MATEOI knew the library wasn't an ordinary incident. Everyone tried batting an eye, calling it some kind of prank, but with the way I saw it, I could tell it was a creature. A monstrous creature and my mind was on Asher.“Don't you think you're taking this thing a little too far?” Slyder inquired as we approached the surveillance room.I planned on sneaking in while Slyder just watched out for anyone that was coming in. She didn't want to, but I had my ways and by that, I threatened her until she had no choice but to agree.“You want to find out about the library incident? Okay, but do you really think this is the way? What if we don't find anything,” she blabbered on and on.I was already fed up with her constant whining. “Zip it for five minutes. I have to go to work,” I shut her up.She rolled his eyes. “The guards are in the room and we're not allowed there. What's your plan, huh?” she crossed her arms, a smirk on her face.But I had a plan already. I wasn't planning on coming h
DANTE “What the fuck man?” I backed away, making a safe distance between the both of us. “Why were you staring at me like some kind of creep? Were you trying to give me a heart attack or something?”It was dark but I could see his movements through the ray of moonlight that peeked through the window. “You didn't let me sleep, so I figured I had to do something at least,” he replied.I was confused. What does he mean by I didn't let him sleep when I was perfectly sound asleep and he was the one about to give me a heart attack? “You were having nightmares and talking in your sleep. I stayed by your side to watch over you and make sure you were okay,” he explained.My heart felt a warm and tingly feeling. I didn't want to care, but why did he suddenly care about me? It was so insane and touching at the same time.“Um…T...Thank you. But you didn't have to go through all those troubles. I'm fine now,” I assured him, trying to disregard the strange feelings inside me.He scoffed. “Like I
DANTEI sat on the chair, trying to avoid his lingering gaze on me. My breath quickened, getting heavier and heavier by the second. It's been almost two minutes– I was counting. It felt so awkward being in the same room with him. I wanted the ground to open up so bad and swallow me up, but for some odd reasons I liked his gaze on me.I had to caution myself, refrain myself from the thoughts that were starting to envelop me. “So, how are we going to do this?” I broke the silence between us.He looked up at me, I noticed his beautiful gray orbs and then it felt hard to breathe again. My body was becoming hot and my heart raced fast, why was he affecting me in this way?He cleared his throat. “You can take the bed. I'm fine sleeping on the couch?” He gestured to the gray cushion not too far from us.I felt a bit bad. I didn't want him to lay down on the floor, especially since I was going to be here for God knows how long. He was tall and for his body size, the couch would be so uncomfor
DANTE“What are you doing here?” He smirked, handing me his helmet and I scoffed trying to avoid his gaze that was lingering on me. “Are you stalking me? I could've sworn I saw you following me this morning,” I accused him.He smirked. “Don't get ahead of yourself, Dante. Aren't you a darling? Thinking I'm following you around, like I'm what? Your bodyguard?” He chuckled.I ignored him, still looking around for a cab, but it felt like the road was scanty and it was as if there were no cabs around. I held my breath, in hopes that a cab or something would pass.“You know there's going to be a storm and no cabs are going to be available for the night right?” He told me.I cursed my luck. This was not what I wanted to happen and this was leaving me in a situation, I could already picture him with a smirk on his face thinking he has already won.But I was adamant. “I know about that but I'm still willing to try my luck and if not, then I can take the subway instead,” I said.He chuckled l
DANTEYesterday, I retired to bed with lots of thoughts going on in my mind. I woke up this morning, my breath becoming heavier. I checked the time, it was almost seven a.m, which means I have to wake up early otherwise I'm late for class already.I managed to get my sore body off the bed and started staggering towards the fridge, taking a glass of water to help myself. I gulped down everything in one go,trying to even my breath.“You are already involve. Just act normal.”Asher's word kept going through and fro in my head, making it hard for me to stop thinking about it. I knew that there was something up with him and suspected he was involved in this werewolf stuff, but hearing the confession from him just hits different.That confirms Mateo's suspicions, but what I don't understand is what Matteo is trying to benefit from all this. A part of me felt like I had to do my best, like I had to do whatever it takes to make sure that Asher is safe. Definitely bizarre.It's better to stay
DANTE I didn’t believe him.Or maybe I did, and that was the problem.Asher was sitting there, calm as ever, like we weren’t talking about something that should’ve been impossible. Like I wasn’t sitting across from him, trying to pretend that my whole world wasn’t flipping upside down.I looked down at my tray, at the food I wasn’t eating. I picked up my fork and stabbed at the scrambled eggs, pushing them around like they were the most interesting thing in the world.I could feel Asher watching me. He wasn’t saying anything, but he didn’t have to. He was waiting.I sighed and set the fork down. “You know,” I muttered, “this would be a whole lot easier if you just said something.”Asher tilted his head slightly. “Like what?”I shot him a look. “I don’t know. Something that makes sense.”He smirked, and I hated that it still had that stupid, cocky effect on me. “Everything I’ve said makes sense.”I scoffed. “Right. Sure. Claw marks show up at the library, you claim it wasn’t you, and
DANTE I woke up feeling like my head had been smashed against a brick wall. For a few seconds, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember where I was. My dorm. Right. Safe.Sort of.The last thing I remembered was walking out of Asher’s place. My mind had been racing, my body sore, my stomach twisted into knots. Even now, my muscles ached, like I’d run a marathon in my sleep.I turned onto my side, groaning as my shoulder throbbed. My blankets were tangled around me, half on the floor, half wrapped around my legs.I had slept like crap.I reached for my phone on the nightstand and squinted at the screen. 10:12 AM.Great. Missed my morning class.I sighed, rubbing my eyes. Normally, I’d be freaking out about that, but today? I couldn’t bring myself to care. Everything still felt weird. Not just because of last night. Not just because of Asher. It was me. I felt off.Like something wasn’t sitting right in my own skin.I pushed the thought away and forced myself to get
DANTE I blinked my eyes open and the first thing I noticed was the quiet. The room was dim, only a ray of light coming from the window. Everything felt still like the air was holding its breath. My body ached, my head was heavy, and the faint smell of pine and earth filled my nose.I wasn’t in my dorm.That realization hit me all at once, making my pulse pick up. The bed was too big, the sheets softer than the cheap ones in my room, and the smell? It was familiar, but not mine. Panic crept up my spine as I pushed myself up, groaning at the stiffness in my muscles. I barely made it halfway before a voice stopped me.“You shouldn’t be moving.”I froze.That voice. My heart slammed against my ribs as I turned my head. And there he was.Asher.Sitting in a chair near the window, arms crossed, watching me. His expression was unreadable, his blue eyes unreadable. Memories of last night crashed into me all at once.The chase. The shadow in the trees. The monster with black eyes.And Asher,
DANTEThe library was dead silent. It always was at this time of the night. Most students didn’t stick around after dark, but I liked the quiet. No one bumping into me. No distractions. Just me, my books, and the hum of the flickering overhead lights.I stacked my notes into my backpack, stretching as I stood up. My back was stiff from hunching over my laptop for hours, and my eyes burned from staring at the screen for too long. I glanced at my phone, it was 11:47 P.M.Damn. I wasn’t meant to stay this late.I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way toward the exit. The library felt different at night. The long, empty rows of bookshelves cast weird shadows, and the dim emergency lights near the doors gave everything a bluish glow.I shook off the eerie feeling creeping up my spine. It was just my imagination.Pushing the heavy doors open, I stepped out into the cold night air. The campus was practically deserted. A few distant streetlights flickered, casting long, twisting shado