I felt permanently on edge for the rest of the day. The feeling of being watched only intensified, and I began to jump at the slightest thing. In the canteen, Kathrena touched my shoulder from behind, and I swung around, eyes wide and fearful. She dropped her hand quickly, and held it up along with her other.“It’s only me,” she hissed.“Sorry,” I said. “I – don’t worry,” I cut myself off with a sigh.“Are you alright?” She frowned, as she guided me by the elbow to a free table.“Fine,” I said, dragging a smile onto my face. “Just – all of the scents, you know?”I thought that a half-truth would be easier to pull off than a complete fabrication, in the heightened emotional state that I, unfortunately, found myself in.“Yeah. I know,” she sighed.“Are you okay?” I asked. She seemed as sad as I was jumpy.“Fine,” she repeated, her thin lips pulling into a smirk. I let out a snort, and we spent the rest of our lunch break chatting about simpler topics. As we discussed our teachers and our

Last Updated : 2024-10-29

SIX | SOULLESS

She Runs with Wolves/Hazel Lowell

That afternoon, Kathrena seemed even more determined than I was to avoid a lengthy discussion about our school day. Falmer was reclined in his seat in the kitchen again, though this time his feet were up on the orange table. He squinted at me as Kathrena barged past and slipped up the stairs; I just shook my head at him.“She’s acting weird,” he said, tossing an apple back and forth between his hands.We had no need nor desire to eat, but Aradia liked to keep the kitchen stocked with fresh food. She did this for two reasons: the first was an act of caution, in case any humans stumbled across our thriving household and discovered there to be no food inside; the other was far simpler. We had a number of human guests – donors, as some of the Clan chose to call them – and we wanted them to be well fed.I shrugged. “Is she?”I don’t know why I felt such a sudden loyalty to Kathrena. Falmer and I had always been far closer than Kathrena and I, but there was something about her secret-keeping

Last Updated : 2024-10-29