Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

28 - ᴄʟɪꜰꜰʜᴀɴɢᴇr

SHE MISSED HIM.

It wasn't just the type of longing that occurred after misplacing something, no this was different. It was like a piece of her very mind and sanity had been pulled away. It was the type of missing someone that made the months morph into one single numb day and since she couldn't sleep, she had no break from it. Billy had gotten so concerned for her that he just refused to let her leave after a routine visit where she looked particularly out of sorts. Athena did not have the energy to disagree so she curled up on the sofa and watched the television, day after day. She asked Jake to go and feed Benji each morning after he woke - which he always did without complaints. She did not snap out of her funk and nothing could snap her out of it, not even the methods that Billy had used the last time she slipped into this sort of emotion overwhelmed shut off. She just felt numb and her mind was still, she couldn't process anything but what was in front of her. She hadn't hunted for weeks, her eyes becoming black and unfriendly yet she did not even feel hunger anymore.

Bella's wellbeing had improved immensely, given that she was now rebuilding two motorbikes with Jake. She wished she had the energy to find a distraction like that, maybe a strike of inspiration for a book idea that would usually be scrawled in her journal. A journal that now lay dormant at her side, pen resting on top of it ready to write at the right time.

ATHENA :)
Leaving people doesn't usually feel this painful
Undelivered!
God i'm insane, talking to a blank wall
At least I don't see hallucinations of you like Bella does
Undelivered!
Maybe I wish I did see you
Yeah, I wish I did
Undelivered!

"Who are you messaging?" Billy asked, having just entered the room as she pressed send on the last message. To him it looked to be a good day for her, she had actually moved during the night and cleaned their very sparse bookshelf. The arrangement had annoyed her for days but she never had the energy to fix it, last night she had found some and found that that was how she wanted to use it. Arranging Billy's thin collection of books, mostly written by her.

"Nobody, literally," she sighed, running a hand through her hair as she stretched out her arms. Even as a vampire, stiff joints were not a comfortable thing to have to put up with. He raised a brow at her reply, not truly expecting anything but her voice in his head - like usual. Today she had decided to talk, for what reason he did not know. "What day is it?"

"Thursday, it's four in the afternoon," he responded quickly, wanting to keep her talking. "Are you up for leaving the house? The wolves have something planned that might take your mind of things for a while," he continued, smiling at the sudden intrigue that flashed behind her eyes.

"What do they have planned?" she asked softly, untangling her limbs from the multiple blankets that she had layered herself with. The heaviness felt awfully comforting at the early hours of the morning, almost like a hug.

"Cliff jumping," he answered, watching in amusement as her lip curled in the beginnings of a smile. "They're leaving in thirty minutes. You should go with them."

"I'd have to hunt first," she sighed, wondering if she could even find the energy to stand let alone hunt. Of course, she had the physical energy (even if it was dulled a little due to the hunger that now began to scratch at her throat) but the mental energy was far away. However, it wasn't as far away as it had been a few weeks ago.

"We both know that won't take you ten minutes, let alone thirty," he replied with a soft chuckle, referencing an event that had happened when they were younger. The timing of her hunts had become a spectacle that they only used as an incentive for her to drink animal blood. The hunts started off long and as she got better at it, the time shortened drastically. They had a point system that would earn her a book trip eventually. Cleanliness after hunts also got bonus points - she did not receive a lot of those.