❝later that night, i held an atlas in my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered 'where does it hurt?' it answered 'everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.'❞
the twilight saga / embry call
eclipse ― breaking dawn pt 1
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CHAPTER TWELVE: WHAT SHE KNOWS
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FOR A WHILE, THINGS seemed almost normal again. Well, as normal as they could possibly be with what Maeve now knew. She'd found some of her closest friends in the pack. With no more secrets left between them, they were as thick as thieves, the girls especially. On days when Maeve wasn't with Embry and the other girls were free, they'd meet at Emily's house, the older woman teaching them different recipes or simply laughing along to their teenage gossip. Usually, this gossip would revolve around Mae and Embry, who were closer than ever before. He drove her to school each day. Then of an afternoon, they'd go hiking together, stopping for food on the way back or to watch the sunset. Sometimes, Embry would shift into his wolf form, the two walking side-by-side as they found a new view for Mae to paint or a new spot for her to bring her father on their own weekend adventures. Mae was the happiest she'd been since her family moved to Washington, and they could see it, too.
But where Maeve Cooper had been brought back to life by the supernatural world, she'd lost sight of Lina Song in the dark. Something strange was happening with her sister. The same day that Embry revealed the truth about the pack to Mae, she came home to find her locked away in her room. She refused to say a word to anyone, simply claiming she had a migraine and wanted to be left alone to rest. Kira and James took her word for it, but not Maeve. At first, she didn't give it a second thought. Lina was Lina, after all, and this wasn't the first time she'd done something like this. But in the few occasions that Mae actually got to see the girl, she looked ashen, like she'd seen a ghost.
She'd asked her about it, but instead of Lina opening up like she'd expected, the exact opposite happened. Lina Song was angry, and for some reason, Mae Cooper was the reason for this rage.
"Just leave me alone, Maeve," she had snapped after one too many of her sister's worried questions. "God, can't you see I don't want to talk to anyone, especially you?"
Mae wouldn't admit it, but that hurt. She felt like she was losing Allison all over again. Only this time, her sister was willingly shutting her out.
Finally, after a week of this strange behaviour, their parents had started to notice. It was in the little things at first. The way Maeve refused to meet Lina's eyes whenever Kira forced them to eat dinner together, how Mae spent even less time than usual at home, making up excuses to allow James and Kira to let her crash at Kim's or Maggie's. Maeve Cooper was happy, yes, but not around her sister -- not anymore. It wasn't something anyone saw coming, and Kira and James tried their best to fix it, but there were certain things that parents couldn't fix, and with every strange encounter she shared with Lina, Mae felt more and more certain that this was more than some petty sibling anger.
"Do you think she knows something?" she asked Embry on the way to school one morning. He himself had been on the receiving end of Lina's frustration, when he came to pick up Mae and was unfortunate enough to have Lina answer the door. "What if Sam and Jared missed something when cleaning up Victoria's mess? Or what if she saw something, maybe she came home..."
