Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

12 - ᴋɴᴏᴡʟᴇᴅɢᴇ

ATHENA STROLLED into her chemistry lab as Eric chatted excitedly about his choices for the prom theme. He wanted an opinion that honestly, she did not care enough to give at that very moment. She hadn't eaten in a few days and the bloodthirst had started to make any little inconvenience much worse than it should have originally been. Mixed with her short fuse, it made a dangerous combination. She was supposed to hunt last night but found herself aimlessly wandering around the forest without so much as a bug in sight. It was the oddest occurrence and she couldn't think of a reason as to why. She had even looked on the reservation and did not find anything there either, well apart from Seth but she would not drink from him. She had returned home with an aching in her throat that disappeared once something that Alice had mentioned about her vision came true. Athena's back door had been left wide open, even though she swore she had locked it. Suddenly her home felt unsafe.

Eric and Athena sank down into their seats at the back of the room and pulled out everything they would need for the test they were about to sit. For him, an entire pencil case of tools sat at his desk whereas she only had a pencil. Luna soon walked into the lesson, her usual elegance exemplified as she turned a few heads whilst taking her seat in the middle row. She whispered, below human level, a joke that had Athena struggling not to laugh. She chuckled to herself, spinning the pencil in her fingers in circles in the hope to distract her mind from the laughter.

"What?" Eric asked, his eyes showing all and every sign of concern as he searched her almost black ones.

"Oh nothing, I just had an odd thought," Athena replied, brushing all concern away as she smiled softly at him. Eric did not seem convinced though.

"Are you okay? You seem off today, quieter," he dropped his voice to a whisper as the teacher walked into the room, arms stacked with the papers that they were going to be taking. She heard him gulp deeply as the teacher began to pass out the papers, demanding silence amongst the chattering students.

"I'm fine Eric, just didn't eat this morning," she joked, attempting to rid some of the concern that he felt towards her. Technically it wasn't a lie, she hadn't eaten that morning and about the fifteen mornings that came before that. Eric laughed quietly, struggling to muffle it with the back of his hand as they both wrote their names on the front of the test.

"I have a breakfast bar in my bag if you want it," he whispered as they listened to the teacher's advice that, in her experience, never actually helped the mortals answer a single question in the booklet. She did not envy their lack of retention.

"Oh no," she blurted a little too quickly. Eric turned his head slightly, peering at her suspiciously. "It's okay, I'll just have something in between lessons," she shrugged, hoping she played it off well enough.

"You sure?," he whispered, watching as she nodded her head. "Okay," Eric smiled then returned his focus to the paper as he tried to read the questions through the page so he could get a headstart.

She and Luna both finished the paper within ten minutes, checked twice for mistakes. So instead of just sitting there in mind-numbing silence and boredom for the rest of the hour, Athena decided that she would let Luna be the first one to know of her gift. She just hoped it would not have negative repercussions that would lead to her having to walk out of the testing room, fleeing Forks without the time to say goodbye to Billy. She zeroed in on the back of Luna's head and closed her eyes, letting her consciousness slip into hers.

"Luna. Its Athena." She whispered in her mind, hoping that it would not startle her to the point of making a scene. Luna jumped ever so slightly then relaxed, her mind turning with thousands of questions that did not come clear.