AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

45| METAMORPHOSIS

     Almost an hour had passed since Reed had left Callas alone in the spare bedroom, to think to herself for a little while as the additional information was revealed to her. They were something else. After letting out a small puff of air—a small way of trying to psych herself up—she nodded her head, believing that now was a good a time as any to finally go downstairs and face the others. She got up from the bed and walked over to the bedroom door. Her laptop was left untouched from when Emily had walked in, with the plate of food—that was now more or less finished as Callas mindlessly ate away while stuck in concentration—and Callas didn't plan on going back over to it anytime soon, it would have been too much. Slowly, she stepped out of the room, shoving her hands into her hoodie pocket, that was still covered in muddy paw prints from Zeus's greeting outside. As she edged towards the stairs, her racing heart picked up even more and fear began to crawl its way up her body. They weren't completely human. Will had mentioned a few times about them being 'mutts', but Callas thought that was impossible—the key word being thought. Past tense. Now, Callas wasn't sure what to think. Was anything real? Was she simply dreaming? Maybe she was dead. Whatever it was, Callas was done not knowing, but she also felt like she wasn't ready to know either. She took her left hand out of her pocket and held onto the railing as she began to descend the stairs, one by one, slowly but surely.

When she reached the bottom, her gaze shifted around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone else—who seemed just as nervous and scared as she did in that moment. Emily had moved to sit back on the arm of the chair by Sam, her right hand was resting on his left shoulder while her left was resting on her knee. Seth was holding onto Zeus as they continued to sit in the same place on the sofa from before. Seth turned his head to look at her and Zeus shuffled around on the sofa quite happily, oblivious to everything. Quil had moved from the other sofa to sit next to Seth and Zeus, considering it had more space now that Reed and herself weren't sitting there, leaving Jared, Paul, and Embry to sit on the other one. Jacob was sitting on the wooden chair that Embry had been on when Callas first arrived at the house, and Reed was sitting next to him, picking at one of the muffins, leaving the crumbs to drop onto the small, white, circular plate on the table. She could feel them all staring at her, aside from Reed—and she knew that if they continued to do so, they would probably burn a whole through her head, Scott Summers style. A shudder rippled through her body at the slight consideration of Cyclops's concussion beams disintegrating her. No one said a word, and she wasn't going to be the first to start talking. Callas glanced over to Embry, he didn't smile, he looked more ashamed of himself than anything else.

Sam, after clearing his throat, stood up from the single sofa. "Callas?" He caught her attention away from Embry, who looked like he wanted to say something but didn't, and Sam motioned his head outside.

Callas nodded her head, wrapping both of her arms around her body as she slowly followed Sam outside, with Reed trailing behind her, closing the sliding doors behind them so Zeus couldn't get out as well. "Why are we out here? Are you going to murder me?" Callas stepped back, away from Sam as he stopped walking.

It was still dark out. The trees overlapped one another and covered the majority of the ground where they stood, with only a few open patches that allowed the water to fall down from above. The wind was cold and uncomfortable to stand in as it picked up. Callas wrapped her arms around her body tighter, wishing that she had Reed's body heat or at least a better-insulated hoodie than the one she had on in that moment. Heavy rain had started to hit the metal roof of the shelter loudly, which stopped Callas from hearing her own heart race. The faint, almost completely dull, porch light was turned on. One of the lights underneath the shelter buzzed lowly, a few flies and bugs flew around it, even as it flickered a few times before settling back into a constant glow. From a small area in front of the house, where the trees separated and a dirt road lead in, she could make out a few cliffs and part of the water down at the beach. The black sand and the darkening colour of the water made it look like the ground was being swallowed up by the void, disappearing just at the drop of the cliff. Sam turned around and looked at Callas with the shake of his head, he looked drained, but she probably didn't look any better with tear stained cheeks, a red nose from the cold and from rubbing it so much, and puffy, swollen, red eyes.