How she died

Ariel’s POV

Ace didn't get to school today. I asked Chloe to accompany me to his house to check on him, acting like I was the concerned one now even if I wasn't. 

Ace was the alpha's stepson, and the one his mother wanted on the throne even though he was in no way related to the past Alpha by blood.

A thought struck me about how they probably took the news when they were told that the past Luna had ordained me to take up her position. 

A deep twisted part of me wanted me to blurt it out to them but I held my tongue. They would always find out at the appropriate time.

As soon as we got to Ace’s house, we walked in on his mother who was in the throne room drinking a Scarlet-colored liquid that bore a seemingly close resemblance with blood. 

Now that I knew what she was up to, her facial features began to actualize in front of me. Everyone was really blind here. And it's up to me to change that. The only question was how? 

“Hey baby, how do you do?” She called out to me in a singsong voice. “Did you come to see Ace?” Of course who else was I here to see?

I desperately wanted to grab her by the hair and dip her face in water till she gave up her last breath because of everything she had done to me. Instead, I giggled like a teenager and explained that we didn't see him at school so we wanted to check on him. 

Chloe was texting as we walked upstairs to Ace's room, but I wasn’t quite invested in knowing who she was talking to. 

"Do you mind staying downstairs?" I asked her; and surprisingly, she looked quite surprised that I had asked.

Chloe always talked badly about Ace. She'd never want me to be alone with him. She was too concerned he'd hurt me or do something bad to me and thus would always want to join in whenever I was with him. 

Thankfully I saw through both of their lies, And the game is mine now. 

"Why?" She asked. I threw away the pretty naive girl cover-up. Ace was my boyfriend at least for now and she was bothered because I wanted to be alone with him. 

Isn't that insane? 

Past me wouldn't have thought this way of course. But this isn't past me.

Chloe finally agreed to sit and wait for me. I entered the room. Typical teenage boy drama; Pathetic too. He had pictures of half-naked ladies and even magazines of them on his desk and a few other stuff around.

I thought about how they’d always pretended to hate each other when they were potential mates. That was pathetic too. 

Ace lay down on his bed staring directly at me. Shirtless. He smirked and suddenly I felt nauseous. I didn’t even want to be here in the first place.

I sat beside him and fed him what was in the bowl on the table. I listened to his lies. He went for a run this morning and he ran too fast and sprained his ankle. I didn't even think about it until now. 

Ace had wolfed out and so had Chloe. Of course, they'd be mates! And I was really blind and so was everyone else. I talked to Ace about school and everything like I normally would.

We laughed and when I felt like I couldn't hold in the pain anymore I was ready to leave. He pulled me back in for a kiss so I gave him one and I left the room. I felt eyes watching me but I didn't feel scared at all. 

You couldn’t possibly get spooked when you know you know what spooky is. 

Chloe sat down there like a puppy, enduring all this suffering because she wanted what was not hers. 

"He's just a little sick. Let's go home." I said to her, and In turn, she looked upstairs at his room and looked back down, while I practically had to drag her out of the house before she could move.

Chloe talked about parties on the journey home and all I could think of was my revenge all through. I remembered today and how I had followed her to the party, but then when I got home, I had met my grandma feeling sick. 

I guess I'm not going then.

Being dead and then awake in your bed makes you feel different. Somewhat powerful. Somewhat confused. Most of all, curiosity about what happened. 

The first thing I did was add swimming to my to-do list. I'd always been afraid of the water but not anymore. I was different. I came home to my nana. She asked me why I was back so early but I gave no reply and hugged her instead.

She smelled of roses and morning flowers and had this aura that always drew me in. 

I wasn't sure if my coming back would change things; and I didn’t want to alter the universe as well so I stayed back at home, cooked, and tried to have fun with Nana.

She had died on this day, but in the middle of the night; and even though I didn’t want to really see what had happened to her, I also couldn’t leave her behind as I had done in my past life.

"You've been acting weird since this morning. Is anything the matter?" She asked me with her eyes full of concern. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to explain how she died and how everything turned out and how hurt I felt, but I didn’t. 

Maybe this was all a dream; maybe this was my afterlife and I was reliving my moments with my Nana. The darkness still haunted me. 

I simply told her I was just tired from school but I refused to leave when she asked me to go to bed. I wanted to know… no need to know what had killed her and how it happened.

I decided to make the most of our time together. It was already evening and so her death was near.

I quickly had my bath, got into my PJs, and snuggled beside my nana on the couch. My nana was old-fashioned. She'd rather read me a book than watch a movie with me. So I let her read me a book while I played with her hair. 

She began reading about the history of werewolves, but after a while, I noticed her trailing off on the words. She was sleepy already. 

I gently removed the book from her hands, dropped it beside her, and kissed her forehead before I went to help myself to a glass of water. 

I looked around the now quiet house whose atmosphere felt just as thick as the water that strangled me to death. Whatever had attacked my nana would come for her tonight, so I decided to hide and watch. 

I ran to the back of the sofa, stayed still, and waited; and almost a few minutes later, I heard a whooshing sound. 

A lot of wind at the same time; and I couldn’t help but watch as the wind sped into my grandma's nostrils. She jerked awake immediately afterward but began choking for air and gasping.

The scene played out painfully before me, but almost as soon as it had happened, she fell limp on the bed and didn’t move anymore even as a loud cry tore out from the back of my throat.