claudia | embry call

two : unfriended

Fifteen times. That's how many times Claudia had called Embry's house over the weekend. Each time, she got no answer. She only bothered to leave a message on the machine once, but nothing came of it. The others hadn't heard from Embry either, and he was never home when she went to check. She wasn't hurt, she was worried. Embry had seemingly disappeared after Friday night, and none of them had any idea what to do about it. So, come Monday at lunch, Claudia was anxiously scanning the lunch room for any sign of him.

"What the hell?" Jake spoke through his teeth. Claudia's eyes shot up to his face before following his gaze, snapping over to the table where Paul Lahote and Jared Cameron always sat. They didn't used to, they used to have their own friends, but ever since they started hanging around Sam Uley, they'd isolated themselves entirely. Today, however, there were three people at the table. Jared, Paul, and Embry. However, he didn't look much like Embry anymore. His hair had been cut short, mirroring Paul and Jared's, he looked tired, and his right shoulder bore a large, fresh tattoo-the same that Jared and Paul had.

"What's he doing over there?" Quil frowned. "And what's with the tattoo?"

"I be he joined Sam's gang." The words were like venom as they rolled off Jake's tongue. "Fucking traitor." He mumbled under his breath as he turned back around. Quil's sad gaze remained for a few moments before he turned back to his lunch. Claudia's eyes remained, however, a deep frown set on her face.

"I'm gonna go talk to him." She stood up, but Jake's hand wrapping around her wrist stopped her. "I'll be fine, Jake." She shook him off and began walking again. "It's just Embry." She mumbled. As she approached, Paul glanced at her, and a scowl set in on his face.

"What do you want?" He asked roughly, and she glared down at him before looking at Embry with softer eyes.

"We missed you at movie night this weekend." She said. "I was right, you would've loved The Abyss."

"What do you want, Claudia?" Embry didn't look up from his hands, making her frown.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay." She said. "I called and-"

"Yeah, I know." He nodded. "I'm fine." The stiffness in his voice was unfamiliar to her, unfriendly. Embry had never been unfriendly before.

"Oh, okay." She felt defeated. "I'll...see you later, I guess."

"No, you won't." His voice was now tight, and his hands were in fists on the table. "I'm not hanging out with you guys anymore." This took the wind out of her.

"Oh." Her voice was small, and she was holding back tears. "I guess this is goodbye, then." When he didn't look up, she turned around, starting back for her table. By the time she'd reached it, her arms were hugged tightly around herself and tears were welling in her eyes.

"What happened? What did he say?" Quil asked as he leaned against the table.

"I guess he doesn't want to be friends with us anymore." Her voice broke at the end of her sentence and she buried her face in her hands. Jake immediately switched seats, moving to where Embry used to sit and putting an arm around her. Despite what he said, Jake really did love his cousin. She was more like a third sister to him than anything. Quil looked back with a frown, seeing Embry watching them. He quickly turned around, though, after he and Quil met eyes. Quil sighed, turning back to Claudia and Jake.

———————

They didn't see Embry again for the rest of the week. Paul and Jared sat alone at their lunch table as they had before, acting like nothing at all was different. Claudia, Jake and Quil's table, however, was a different story. Jake now sat where Embry once did, and Quil sat across from him. Claudia sat next to Jake, though she buried her head in her arms on the table instead of eating. During classes, she seemed entirely out of it, but not in the way she usually was. Normally, you'd catch her staring at out the window, or at a picture in a textbook, but now she'd either stare at her desk, the wall, or her hands. She wasn't getting much sleep, she wasn't talking much, and she definitely wasn't smiling.

She'd also stopped watching the sunsets, her curtains staying shut 24/7 now. Her parents, now back from their trip, assumed she was going through a phase and barely paid it any mind. Meanwhile, Jake's nightly appeals to his father about Sam's gang did nothing. Billy, a tribal Elder, insisted that Sam and his 'friends' were doing good things for the tribe and weren't, in fact, a gang. Jake complained about it often, though not as often as he would've liked. Anytime Jake mentioned anything about Embry, or even just Sam's gang, it made Claudia cry.

So, Jake and Quil would walk her home, and then go walk on the beach or go to one of their houses to talk about it. This didn't help Claudia much, now isolated to her bedroom. For the first two days, it was silent at sunset, like always. But then, on Thursday, she heard a wolf howling nearby when the sun set. When it happened the following two days, Claudia couldn't ignore it anymore. She'd tried asking her dad, but he waved it off as thirsty wolves drinking the ocean water and nothing more. She wanted to believe him, but it was hard to shake the feeling. So, one evening, she decided to go out and see. It was, admittedly, a very dumb idea.

However, she couldn't just not investigate. She felt like it couldn't have been a coincidence, or just normal wolf behavior. So, when the howling started on the fourth night, she got out of bed, pulled on some warmer clothes and set out. The howling continued, so she followed it into the woods a ways, the light beginning to dim. By the time it was dark, she felt like she was close. Even though she'd failed to bring a flashlight, she decided to press on. She finally saw a break in the trees, a moonlight clearing, and in the center sat the wolf that had been howling.

It's back and nose were a dark grey, while the rest of it was a lighter, sandier shade of grey. It wasn't a typical wolf, however, it was huge. Claudia almost couldn't believe her eyes, looking at the thing. She moved closer, leaning against a tree and peering around the side, watching it. It howled again before looking down at the ground. If Claudia didn't know any better, she'd say it looked sad. It then looked forward again, standing up. Much to her own horror, it didn't walk away in the opposite direction. It, instead, turned towards her. Claudia froze, unsure of what to do. It stared her down, also frozen in place. And then, slowly, it began moving towards her.

She should've run, or climbed up a tree, at least. Something in her survival instincts should have worked, but they didn't. It stopped walking about 10 feet off the tree line and sat down, it's eyes still on her. She couldn't help feel like it was waiting for her. So, instead of doing what she'd always been taught to do, Claudia sucked in a breath and stepped out from behind the tree.