Deja Vu: The Healer

Chapter 47: Getting Paint

KARA/CAROLINE

Is it still considered snooping if you do it in your own house?

After William left, I was going from cabinet to closet and searching through everything. The kitchen was stocked well enough, but the bathroom needed some help, just the basic boring soaps were seen, not a flowery scent anywhere. It made me giggle to imagine Will using some rose scented lotion or something though. That picture definitely did not fit the image of my tough muscled William.

Anyway, there'd be a row of chamomile and orange shampoo and conditioner sharing the space in the upright shower soon enough, but I was the most excited to try out the jacuzzi tub off to the side. It was wolf sized; big enough for me to get a good deep soak in and I longed for it. The tub at my apartment had been microscopic. A bath didn't even cover half of me.

I looked through the medicine cabinet above the single white sink which surprised me to see no actual medicines, nor even bandaids. But I guess werewolves didn't have much use for bandaids, unless they had small children.

A minute later took me for another look through the makeshift library. It had me grinning, spinning around like a ballerina to see the wall to wall bookshelves. And still plenty of room for my box of books.

I knelt down next to my boxes and poked through until I found the one labeled 'books'. With a rip of tape, I opened the box and started placing books on an empty shelf. I put them in order of height, then I gazed around at all the colorful book bindings surrounding me and wondered if William had a particular way to organize. Would he be a put away by author or topic kind of guy?

When my eyes roved over a whole shelf of fantasy fairytale books next to a DIY chicken keeping book, I grinned. Looked like he was a place the book wherever there was a space person.

After all my books were shelved, I reached for another box to put away labeled 'clothes' and took it to the walk-in closet beyond the master bath.

William's clothing color palate almost said army to me. Darker colors of every shade, a few pairs of the same black boots and basic tennis shoes on their rack. A shelf completely covered in gray sweats brought back memories of my parent's closet filled with sweats in the exact same shade for my father's accidental shifts. It brought a soft smile to my face having a new memory resurface.

A rip sounded in the small closet as I tore tape from the top of the box and lifted one shirt to hang on my cleared side, but suddenly my whole excitement of the new house changed. I felt nervous and empty. William was gone. It was like I finally realized I was in his house alone, even though he had left a while ago.

It made me feel isolated and abandoned.

The feeling grew cold until I could hardly bare it, like I was the only person in the entire pack, not just this apartment. It hurt my chest with actual grief.

Maybe I just needed to get away for a while.

I stood and walked through the empty house and stopped in the spotless front room. As I gazed around at the place, I realized that I did have somewhere I could go. William said I could get paint. I looked at the current wall color, analyzing the tan that flowed through the whole house. Apparently, the same shade that came with the house when he moved in six years ago.

I kind of wanted to wait for him but was also ready to sneak away from the lonely house for a while. Plus, I was actually super interested in seeing this commissary. Will said it was just a basic grocery or mart type store that any of the pack residents could get pretty much anything they needed.

So with one final look at the isolated room, I grabbed my new key and took off for the stairs.

When I made the ground level, I still had to wander a few minutes until I found the right hallway. But the row of crystal clear windows showing into a grocery store screamed I had found it. I was like some silly tourist who had never seen a grocery store before. I was smiling ear to ear and grabbed a cart gazing at the walls and isles.