METAMORPHOSIS • DEREK HALE [COMPLETED]

Chapter Nineteen

10,000 years later: Ashley finally updates

From the moment her feet graced the entrance step to the public library, her heart rate sped to an unimaginable rate. But then again, she would have never imagined that what was to come would actually happen in a thousand years. If you asked her a year ago, she would have never believed her father could be alive. She would have never believed she would be meeting her father again.

Although they've briefly met, his appearance and revelations only left her with more questions. Questions that she wanted answers to. Trust still remained as an issue between her and Matthew. When he "died", she didn't feel abandoned, just the aching depression that followed. Even though, abandonment never played a role in her guarded feelings towards him, he had been alive for all these years. And she never knew. He never told her.

He explained why in the letter, and she could tell he meant it, but small amounts of it began to unintentionally settle in.

She believed the pact between him and her mother held true, but she wondered why he didn't break it and tell her, especially after her mother died. She would have deemed that as 'something serious.' But if the events turned out differently and she found out sooner, she wouldn't have landed in Beacon Hills. Despite living with the Calaveras for a year on her own, it lead her to being turned. It lead her to meeting Derek and her friends. A part of her was grateful for that, yet she also wondered what could have been.

I'd probably end up a hunter. Or worse, Araya.

Meeting her father here, was her accepting the gaps of her missing past and the wild affects after her bite. She wanted to learn more.

She ventured past the check-out and welcome center and into the adult fiction center. They decided to meet on the first floor which consisted of adult literature and a non-fiction section. Spread throughout the two sections, tables and computers lay scattered around the bookshelves. She met her father at one of the smaller, secluded tables by the array of picture windows.

Already waiting for her, Matthew sat at the table with nothing but two coffees and the bestiary in front of him. As she approached the table, he felt his own heart rate rise. Although he had only met her a few hours prior, this was the first in well over a decade that he could actually talk to her, learn more about her. To learn the life she experienced in the past fifteen years.

The thought of him not being here for her pained him with guilt. He knew this meeting could never make up for those missing years, but he hoped it was a start. He wanted to earn back every one of those moments; he didn't care how much it would take.

But for Alex, she wanted nothing more than for him to just be there. She spent a majority of her life without him, and wondered what the following time with him would be like. Only time was of essence, and she didn't know how much of it she would have to find out.

The bio-engineered attack only had her more worried about how much time her and her friends had until another one occurred and claimed one of them.

"Hi," she aired, pulling out the cushioned desk chair with only the letter in her hand. Before settling, she wrapped her black cardigan around her torso and over her blue tank top.

"Hi," he smiled back. "I hope got it right," he handed her one of the steaming cups, "Two creams?"

"Spot on," she accepted, holding the paper cup in one hand with the letter in the other. Ever since she read it, she couldn't seem to put it down.

Once both settled, toying with the coffee in their hands, they found themselves at a loss for words. A silence fell around them as they tried to think of what to say. There were so many questions to ask, but they couldn't catch one running around in their heads.