Chapter Text

Day 0- Prologue  

March 22nd 2018, Thursday

“Oh my god, what was that exam?” 

My bag was heavy as I put it on and walked out of the classroom, Ben close behind me. 

“I agree, what's your answer on number three?” 

“Ben, remember what we said? We don't talk about math exams after we finish them.” 

“Right…”

“But I got 36 m².”

“I have 54.75 m²” 

“Welp.” 

He caught up and we quickly walked away from the classroom towards our usual spot inside. 

“I'm pretty sure I failed.” I said, putting my bag on the ground, slumping down on the stairs. 

“I think half the class did, judging by their faces.” 

“Maybe.” He sat down next to me. 

“Are you okay? Your cheeks are a little red.” Ben extended an arm and touched my forehead. “You feel warm.”

“I feel normal, okay, I think. Are you?” 

“Yeah.” 

He didn't need to know that I hadn't felt normal in a couple of weeks. Ben didn't need to know what was going on, I didn't even know what was going on with myself. 

“Only English left…” He muttered quietly, I almost didn't understand him. 

“Yeah...that's at least something.” I sighed and leaned back slightly. “Can't wait for spring break. Seriously.” 

“Me neither. Austria is gonna be pretty great, I think. Skiing, the Alps, hot chocolate...”

I hit his arm. 

He scooted away from me a bit and rubbed the place I'd hit him. “Ouch.” 

“And what am I gonna do in those two weeks? Stay at home, alone.” I sighed again.“Without my best friend.” And leaned on his shoulder. 

“It's only two weeks, idiot. You'll be fine. We can call or face-time in the evenings, if you miss me that badly.” He stuck out his tongue. 

I wasn't so sure if I was going to be fine like he said. There was a small part inside me that knew I would be fine but not in the way I'd been before. 

“I'll call you for sure.” The bell accompanied my words and we got up again. The last ninety minutes of classes went by quickly, we only watched a movie and got to leave just as the bell rang. 

“You taking the bus or are your parents picking you up?” I asked Ben as we walked down the hallway. 

“My dad's gonna pick me up...I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking you home.”

While we drove back home we talked about the plans we had for the upcoming two weeks. I didn't really have any yet, unlike Ben and his family. But I was fine with that. I'd find a way to spend it. 

If I had only known that this would be my last day being normal. 

Chapter Text

Day 1-Confusion

March 25th 2006, Saturday

March 23rd 2018, Friday

"You can't run from me."

It felt like I was falling for a second until my eyes opened. My heart raced; it seemed to have a competition with my breath that I just couldn’t seem to catch.

I didn't know what had been going on with me the past few days and weeks but it wasn't normal. Or at least the kind of normal I was used to.

My dreams had been more intense lately to the point where I wasn’t able to tell them apart; I wasn’t sure if I was actually dreaming them. They felt too real; she felt too real. I still sensed her unusually cold hands on my wrists.

My guess: a tumour. Or I was finally going insane.

Maybe I should stop watching that much Grey's Anatomy.

My phone lit up. 4:52 a.m. Great. Almost time to get up and get ready for school.

I breathed out, my arm covered my eyes. My heart still wasn’t back to it’s normal pace but I tried to ignore that and focused on my breathing.

My dreams had varied a lot lately. There were the usual ones; the ones that didn’t mean anything to me. The ones I forgot about after I woke up.

But then I saw men, giant men with muscles shaking until they exploded. Instead of two legs, they were on four. A large, furry body had taken their place.

Then, there was a woman. I didn’t know her. But it seemed like she wanted something from me. I kept on refusing. Her red eyes locked on me as she repeated the sentence ‘You can’t run from me.’. These were the only words I heard and remembered.

I didn’t know what this meant; what this meant to me or why I remembered those dreams so vividly. They confused me, yet there was a part of me that knew exactly what this meant and felt so sure about it.

I didn’t know that part; it hadn’t been there before but came to me a couple of weeks ago, prior to that there only had been me. Now there was this burning feeling I had to suppress over and over again.

I must had fallen asleep again at some point, the loud ringing of my alarm broke through the silence and woke me up again. That was when I noticed the pain. My limbs felt heavy as I tried to lift them, my joints hurt with every centimetre I moved. My eyelids felt as if someone held them shut, I couldn’t open them.

It was warm, too warm. I pulled whatever part of my blanket was left on my body off me, the cold air hit me immediately, making me regret my decision. I shivered, goosebumps hit me like small needles all over me as I put the blanket back over me.

Just this simple movement seemed to take up most of my energy. A wave exhaustion hit me and drowned me in a very light sleep.

"You're gonna be late for school, Karina, if you don't get up now." My mother’s words pulled me back to the surface. She let herself in.

"I don't feel so good, mum." My words were barely audible, to me at least. My head was heavy, as if someone had replaced it with a ball of cement instead. My mind was clouded, there wasn’t anything I could think about; the thoughts came but left me again in the same second; I couldn’t recall them, even if I had wanted to.

"It’s better if you stay home..." She said after touching my forehead, leaving me shortly after to rest.

I didn’t know what part of my brain was responsible for my muscle movement but I cursed it.

Something, and I wasn’t sure which part it was, made my body get up. It hurt. Any muscle I moved ached. Any joint I used to move felt like it was on fire.

This wasn’t me. I wasn’t doing this to myself, I wouldn’t have done this to myself. It was the new part that dragged me here to my door until I’d locked it and my head leaned against it.

Or I thought that it had let me go. Pictures started rushing through my mind, unclear. I felt the burning flood over me. The pictures weren’t pictures exactly. They turned into short memories as the stinging spread over my body.

I saw myself with a boy in an unknown living room, while I was sitting on a sofa and he kneeled in front of me, examining my knee. I saw me with a bunch of the wolf men sitting around a bonfire. One of them was talking to me but I couldn’t hear him. Then I saw my head turn until it landed on someone else. He seemed familiar somehow. There was a scratch on my head, something that told me that I should’ve known him. But I didn’t. Everyone got quiet, as he started shaking. That was the last thing I saw.

My neck started to burn, as if someone was ripping off the top layer of my skin. My head started spinning; it felt like someone was pushing it down forcefully. I wanted to push it back up but my arms weren’t listening to me. They stayed on the ground next to my body. The burning sensation quickly spread from my neck into my arms and legs into the tips of my fingers.

I felt heat tickle my skin, small needles were only brushing over it before, until it seemed they found the right place to finally punch through it. While those were on the outside, small sharp knives were nicking at my skin from the inside, pushing all the way down to my nerves. The burning on my neck intensified, waves of stinging pain rushed all over my body. The knives continued to shove themselves through my body until it felt like they were going to cut through my skin.

My face scrunched up in pain; I wasn't sure how much more I was able to take, before I would pass out.

This is a very painful way to leave this earth.

Then for a second, I felt like I was floating, weightless.

Mixed with pain and the heat, it created a cocktail of overwhelming sensory feelings.

Within a second, it snapped and pain let go of me.

A loud whine left my throat as the last wave rushed over my body.

I breathed in, my lungs still tingling slightly. The air had changed. It was more moist, fresh. It smelled like I was outside.

For the first time today, my eyes didn’t feel like they were closed shut and I was able to open them. It took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the darkness. I was outside. But this wasn’t a place I recognised.

The air was humid, filled with the smell of wood and earth. I couldn’t see far, the darkness didn’t allow me to but I was surrounded by trees.

I felt my pants sucking up moisture and looked where I was sitting. The ground was covered with wet leaves and moss.

Where was I?

My arms reached for the tree next to me, still hurting from what had just happened, and I started to pull myself up. Leaning against the tree, I looked around again. There wasn't anywhere I could go without getting lost. I could wait here for someone to find me but how likely was that?

My hand touched the moss that had grown on the tree I was leaning on. It was soaked; parts of it ripped off and got stuck to my fingers.

I didn't know if this was a fever dream or reality. It felt too real to be a dream.

A piece of wood behind me cracked, I flinched.

“Hello.” The voice was high, too high. It almost sounded child-like but didn’t at the same time; it was too melodic. I knew who it belonged to.

Red fiery curls framed her face, her dark crimson eyes focused on me.

It always started like that. She looked at me, I stared back anxiously. Then she took a step forward, arms in front of her body. My heart started racing in my chest again, my feet acted without my permission. I took a step back, as she took another one forward.

The woman turned her head and looked back at me. She was debating with herself until she started running away too quickly for my eyes to follow her.

Another branch snapped; my heart sank and my arms wrapped around my upper body.

A giant furry wolf came and stood in front of me. It growled. Loudly. Another two wolves ran past me, behind the one that was right before me. Their paws hit the ground, throwing dirt and leaves into the air as they passed.

The one in front of me growled again and took one step forward. It towered over me.

My brain finally seemed to reconnect to my muscles and I jumped a few strides back.

It walked closer again.

"No, no, no, no, please don't eat me."

I said as I took a final step back; nothing. I stepped onto nothing and stumbled back. It happened too suddenly for my arms to react. My back hit the ground and I blacked out.

~~~~

The sound of water droplets was the first thing that broke through the dark. My vision was blurry as I opened my eyes, someone's hand putting a wet, cold cloth on my forehead.

My eyes followed the hand, moving over an arm and a shoulder until they landed on someone's face.

A man. No. One of the men.

I abruptly backed up and moved onto the other end of the sofa I was laying on before. The cloth fell from my forehead onto half of my face, until it finally landed on my lap.

What was he doing here?

"Hey, it's okay." His voice was warm. "You're okay."

This was it. I was going insane.

"You're one of the people who turn into wolves."

"And how's that supposed to happen?" He reached out to grab the cloth from my lap. "I think you hurt your head a little too hard when you fell." It was the second the words left his mouth that he hesitated for just a second until he sat back down on the sofa-chair. He had known he screwed up right as the words hit my ears.

"There was no one except for the wolf and the woman."

I saw his face lose all of its composure, lips pressing into a tight line.. He got up and walked to the next room, leaving me alone.

My neck burned, the same feeling from earlier seemed to linger on it still. My fingers hesitantly brushed over it which made it sting. It felt like I had hurt and scratched myself during my fall.

The somewhat stranger walked in on me touching my neck still.

"Let me take a look."

He didn't wait for my reply and lifted up my hair.

I noticed him taking a little too long until he replied to me.

"It's a wound." He sounded too plain, not totally convinced of his own words.

"What's really on my neck?" I turned around and glanced at him.

He rolled his eyes at me and sat down back on the chair.

"And who are you?"

"I’m Paul."

"Okay, Paul. What's really on my neck?" My jaw muscles stiffened as the words left my mouth. Paul knew something I didn’t, something important.

He ignored my question. "Who are you?"

I looked at him for another second and answered. "Karina." I would find out for myself eventually.

There was a tiny change in his expression but he tried not to show me that, his face turned to where the TV was standing. "Where are you from? I haven't seen you around here..."

"Germany."

"Oh." "What 'oh'?" I stared at him again. "Also, where's here?"

"La Push, Washington."

An unpleasant feeling spread in my stomach, I felt like I was going to be sick. "Washington, as in Washington in the States?"

He gave me a short nod as his phone started ringing and he left the room again.

My thoughts started rushing. Again, I couldn’t catch on to one. My heartbeat increased; it thumped uncomfortably in my chest. I didn’t know what to think of Pauls’s words. I wasn’t even sure I was able to think right now. The words ‘Washington’ and ‘La Push’ circled in my head on an endless loop. What was going on here?

Paul came back. He looked at me, then at the chair he’d previously sat on and walked over, his hands rested on the back of it. It was silent for another breath. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. I felt like he was going to say something very uncomfortable, something that I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear.

"Can I tell you something without you freaking out, Karina?"

"Sure." My voice cracked halfway through the word.

I was such a bad liar. I would freak out. He just didn't have to know that.

"The wound on your neck" he stopped for a second, debating on what to tell me "it’s a sign, almost a tattoo-”

I interrupted him. "You're kidding, right?"

He just looked at me, unsure what to reply and shook his head in disagreement. His hands gripped tighter on the chair.

How was I supposed to hide a tattoo from anyone I knew?

Paul interrupted my thoughts. "Only people in this universe can see it."

"What?"

"Only people in this uni-" He accentuated each syllable as if I was a child that didn’t understand him.

"I got that but... What do you mean by this universe? You can't just go from one to another-"

"You can though." Paul cut me off quickly before I started rambling.

"Okay is this some sort of joke? Are there any hidden cameras I should know about?"

"Karina, could you please just listen to me?"

His hands started shaking lightly as he let go of the chair.

"Yeah sure, what else do you wanna tell me? That I can teleport from one place to another?"

The shaking got more visible and started taking over his whole body. His eyes fixated me. The muscles in my jaw and arms tightened as he stood there.

Something in his mind seemed to snap and his feet started moving towards where I assumed the door was. I got up, my legs still wobbly and followed him to the living room's door, still seeing what was going on outside.

A ripping sound occured, pieces of clothing fell to the ground. Instead of Paul, a dark grey, giant wolf took his place. It turned to me, growling before it fled through a bush. It was the same growl I had heard earlier in the woods.

I didn't know how long I stood there, my brain wasn't able to comprehend what had just happened.

Another man appeared from outside the house on the veranda, his arms were in front of his body, as if he was trying to tell me that he was no danger to me. I noticed that he looked much like Paul, russet skin, short black hair and an insane amount of muscles.

"You saw that, right?" His voice was warmer than Paul's, friendlier.

I nodded.

"Still believe it's all made up?"

I shook my head. I wasn’t sure how much of this I should believe; wanted to believe.

Maybe Paul wasn't lying. Maybe I wasn't dreaming and this was true.

"I'm Jared."

"Karina." My voice all of a sudden didn't want to work. My mind wasn't able to process what just had happened.

I touched my neck again, face scrunching up in pain. "Is it really a tattoo?"

"Yep."

He fell down onto the couch, tapping on the free space next to him. Much like Paul he was tall, maybe even taller than Paul. There was around half a head of height difference between me and Jared.

I sat down onto the couch, still keeping my distance. I was on the rest to the left of it, closest to the door, just in case.

"I will try to explain this as simply as I can. You're a Jumper. You can jump through universes...and from place to place. You get assigned to a group of people you're supposed to help and the tattoo on your neck is showing you who you belong with."

"So ehm... This is not a dream?"

"Nope"

"And I'm not crazy?"

"A bit maybe but no, not really."

My heart dropped, I didn’t know if it was in relief or because I got scared. Maybe both.

I wasn't sure what to think, my head felt empty, at the same time there were so many thoughts rushing through it; I couldn't get a grip on even one.

It stayed quiet for a couple of seconds before Jared decided to break the silence.

"Paul told me you saw us before. How?"

"Dreams... Wait, how did he tell you he literally was a giant wolf a couple of minutes ago"

He suppressed a chuckle. "We hear each other's thoughts when we're phased."

"Hmm."

"What?"

"Out of everything I've heard today, that makes the most sense, kind of."

He laughed at my response.

Another question crossed my mind. What was I doing here? Why did they seem so at ease with me? And why were we just sitting here, chatting like friends?

"Is there something we're waiting for?"

"Orders from Sam. He's talking to the Eldest."

"Who's Sam?" I had an idea of who he was; I had seen both Paul and Jared before, I just hadn’t known their names. Sam probably was one of the faces I didn’t have a name for yet.

"He's kind of the uh…leader here."

Great. If this was a cult, I’d definitely run sooner than later.

I rested my head on my knee, I felt a headache approaching me.

I stared ahead at the TV; I didn't dare to turn my head to look at Jared. "This might be a dumb question" He looked over at me, scanning me. "But has anyone seen me before? Like in their dreams? Like I've seen you before..."

"I mean we all kind of have through each other's thoughts, but Seth dreamed about you."

"Seth... " I repeated after him. His name seemed familiar but it didn’t at the same time. It itched something in my mind, something that told me I should know what this itching feeling meant but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I wondered who of the nameless faces he was.

"Wanna try something out?" Jared sounded a little too enthusiastic for my liking.

"Ehm… depends on what it is."

He got up again, walking through the door into the dining room. I followed him. He put the table and the chairs to the side and clapped his hands, rubbing them together.

"What do you wanna do? Wrestle? Cuz I'm pretty sure you can turn me into mashed potatoes with just your pinky... "

He grunted. "I want you to try to jump."

My face scrunched up at just the thought of going through that kind of pain again. Light needles started brushing over my skin as I remembered earlier.

"That's the only way for you to get home."

Home. My thoughts stopped rushing. My parents didn't even know I was gone yet. What would I tell them after I’d gotten back?

"Okay." I agreed unwillingly.

"Concentrate on where you wanna land."

I chose a place not too far away from Jared, looking at it before I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to go through.

Again, it started with the heat on my neck, then spread into my limbs and all over my body. The needles started brushing over me again until they found their exact spot to stick into my skin. Both started mixing together, radiating as waves through my body.

My brows furrowed together. This wasn’t as bad as the first time but still nowhere close to being comfortable.

The floating reappeared and in the same second, it snapped; the pain let go of me.

I stumbled a few steps, my legs not supporting me, and ran into Jared. He caught me easily, holding me by my arms until I was sure I could do that again on my own. I couldn't help but notice how warm his skin felt on mine.

"Not gonna lie, that's kinda cool."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, feeling like I'm burning from the inside out and having a million needles and knives press into my skin is really cool."

"Jumping hurts?" He looked at me confused.

"It does, yeah." I stared back just as confused, wondering how much he or they knew about Jum…pers.

His phone rang.

"It's Sam."

Jared left the room, giving me one last vague look, while I sat down on a chair.

I was calm. Too calm. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be?

"Do you know what time it is in your universe?"

He appeared again, out of nowhere. I hadn’t heard him coming back into the kitchen.

I flinched and shook my head.

"Do you have your phone with you or anything?"

I had forgotten I put my phone into my pocket. I checked the time and got interrupted before I could answer.

"Woah, where'd you get that from?" Jared looked at the device in my hand curiously.

"What do you mean? I bought it."

He took his phone from his pocket and showed it to me. It had buttons while mine was more modern and had a touch screen.

"What year is it in your universe? "

"2018?"

His eyes widened. "Oh…It's 2006 here."

I felt all colour leave my face along with the calmness I had the entire time.

"I'm sorry but what?"

"It's 20-"

"Jared, I got that." I started wandering around the dining room, biting my nails without biting them off.

"Then why are you freaking out all of a sudden?"

"Because I was born in 2002. I'm four years old right now." Or I should have been. I should’ve been four years old right now. I shouldn’t be sixteen.

My heart rate picked up slowly, so did the heat.

This wasn't right, it couldn't be. I wasn't supposed to be here.

"Calm down, you're okay. It's not unusual that there's a time difference." "

And you're so sure about that because?"

I felt like I was about to jump, the heat became more with each second until the needles started dragging across my skin. I looked down at my fingers and just for the split of a second it seemed like their outlines started to fade, becoming one with their surroundings.

"Because we've had one of your kind here years ago." He stopped for a second, looking at me, almost frightened. I wasn’t sure if he had seen that. "It was centuries ago, but you're not the first one."

I was unsure of what to reply, waiting for him to continue.

"Look, I can't tell you as much as the Eldest can. We'll have a bonfire tonight and they'll tell you everything you need to know, you can talk to Sue Clearwater, too, if you need to. But first I need you to tell me the time."

"09:23 a.m."

"It's 11:23 right now."

Two hour difference. I could live with that. I didn't know about the twelve years though.

"What's today's date?" Part of me wasn't so sure if I really wanted to know that.

"March 25th."

"Okay" I heavily blew air out of my mouth. "It's March 23rd where I'm from."

My fingers rubbed over the sides of my forehead. The headache I had previously felt building now lingered on my forehead, hammering against it. We stood there in silence, I didn’t know for how long, as Jared typed something on his phone and put it back into his pocket.

"So what do I do?" I looked at him, helpless.

"The bonfire starts at around 8 p.m. So that's totally up to you, whether you wanna go back home or stay here. Sam's fiancé should be back soon so I could ask her for some clothes."

I looked down. Short grey shorts and an oversized black shirt. My pj's. And I wasn't wearing shoes. Great.

"I think I should go home and change but I can come back after that."

"Sure. You can hang out with me and Paul once he's calmed down again."

Something about this conversation made me slightly uncomfortable, I wasn't sure what it was exactly.

"I'm gonna wait here, okay? You can just enter if you jump in front of the house."

"Thank you, Jared."

He nodded. "You know what to do when you wanna go back?"

"Kinda."

"Just concentrate on where you wanna land exactly."

I gave him a short nod. My mind focused on my room, exactly where I wanted to land. Again, the burning sensation started on my neck and continued from there. Heat joined in along with the needles and knives. It felt different compared to the jump I’d just done a couple of minutes; much more like the very first one, almost as painful. The floating feeling joined in and then the string got cut; the pain and everything left me and the air changed.

Everything was still as I’d left it, nothing had changed. Except for me.

Chapter Text

I turned to look into my mirror. 

Dark circles had taken the place under my eyes, my skin was pale and overall, I felt exhausted. My muscles and joints were aching along with my pulse that I felt hammering in my head. My hand went up to touch my cheek. No rosy undertone. I looked like I was ill. I wiped my hair out of my face. It was knotted and all over the place; some waves and curls had pieces of leaves in them, probably from when I passed out in the forest. 

Except… I didn’t look much different. Maybe I hadn’t changed. Maybe I still was as much me as I was before this. 

I picked as many leaves from my hair as I could, leaving whatever was left for the shower. These probably were the only proof I’d get that this might be real. 

If it was, I’d have to apologise to Paul. He had done nothing wrong and I was being a real… dick when he tried to talk to me. 

My neck stung as cold water hit it and I tried to ignore that as much as I could. I’d have a look after I was done for the day. 

I quickly changed into normal clothing, grabbed a sweater and went outside again. It was still icy; my wet hair was met by the cold march wind. Usually, this would’ve made me shiver; usually, I wouldn’t have done this in the first place. But it didn’t make me shiver. I wasn’t even that cold.

I walked opposite where I’d normally leave for school. My head still seemed clouded. But my thoughts weren’t as unclear. 

I had just started walking, eating the banana as I went. I hadn’t realised how far I had gotten. I was about to cross the first actual street when I came to a halt. There was no one here, no car, not a human, just a few rabbits on my right side. I threw the peel into the field, knowing no one would be mad about it. 

Closing my eyes, I tried to recall the feeling of my jumps, imagining where I'd want to land. 

Nothing. 

No heat, no pain, no floating. 

Why? Why did it work before? And it didn’t seem to do so now. What was different? 

Nothing. 

Maybe this was a fever dream after all? Maybe I should just get back home, take a nap and let this be something I didn’t have to figure out. 

But then again, what if it wasn’t? What if this was my new reality? Being stuck between universes. With people who turned into giant wolves, vampires and myself. Something I didn’t even know about yet.

But why me? And with what was I supposed to help? From what I’d seen by now, there wasn’t much I could’ve done. 

I stopped myself from rambling and took a deep breath. 

Overthinking my situation definitely didn’t help me right now.

I decided to try again. 

If it didn’t work now, perhaps this wasn’t meant to be.

That was what I needed apparently. The stinging heat spread over my body quickly, joined by needles and knives once again. My face scrunched up due to the pain; this time I didn’t feel like I was about to pass out. Something inside me made sure that I was going to witness every second of this, or minute, or hours. That’s what it felt like. Hours. In which the painful and hot mixture rushed over my body. The weightless feeling felt like a bright light at the end of my own personal tunnel. 

And once more the string got cut, one remaining wave of heat hit me as I bumped into someone. It felt more like I had bumped into a wall rather than a human being.

I was about to stumble back and fall as someone’s hands wrapped themselves around my wrist, catching me with ease.

I opened my eyes, looking into a pair of dark brown, almost black ones, I had met earlier on.

"I'm sorry." I squealed.

Paul was looking down on me as my face turned a dark shade of red. I wriggled my hands out of his’ and took a step back, picking up my sweater in the process. 

"I uh… wanted to apologise for earlier. I should have let you talk."

"Apology accepted." He smirked at me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what he meant by that. 

"Welcome back, Jumper" I heard Jared say from the living room door, almost where he’d left me. I had landed where I’d intended to;  the exact same from an hour ago. 

"Hello, you have to be Karina. "

A woman stood behind the counter and watched the scenery in front of her. I noticed deep scars going from one half of her face to her neck. Part of me wondered what had happened to her. The other part forced me to not look at them. She seemed tiny compared to Paul and Jared.

"Hello."

I wasn't sure how to continue; Jared saved me from an awkward moment. 

"That's Sam's fiancé I was talking about earlier. Emily, Karina. Karina, Emily." He gestured.

I gave her a small smile which she returned.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm getting kinda hungry." Paul intervened. 

"I'm about to start cooking, make yourselves comfortable in the living room or here."

We all ended up sitting down at the kitchen table. It was small, a broken pot on it, decorated with some wild flowers and a bowl with chocolate muffins. Everything was kept very bright, with white cupboards and pale wooden floorboards. Paul and Jared seemed at ease here. My body however was stiff. I wasn’t sure what to do right now. There was no way I would start a conversation nor did I know how to do that. Instead, I looked down for a short moment, until my thumbs started pressing together. 

It wasn’t until now that I noticed Jared and Paul looking at me expectantly. 

Questioning, I raised my eyebrow at them and looked at the clock on the right wall.

12:17 p.m.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Emily broke the silence while she cracked another egg.

"I ehm… I think I just need to get used to this whole situation." I stared down at the pot on the table.

Jared grunted. "She wasn't as quiet earlier, even made Paul phase." And leaned forward to grab a muffin. Paul rolled his eyes, scribbling on the table's rips with his fingernails.

"I apologised though." I replied quietly, my fingers pressed together uncomfortably.

"Nah, Paul is easy to bother. He phases a lot by accident." Paul clenched his fists again, shaking. Just as he had done earlier.

“I hope you didn’t break anything.” Emily gave him a glaring look. I felt like there was more behind that but I didn’t dare to ask. 

“I didn’t.” 

Emily’s eyes fell on me for confirmation. 

“He definitely didn’t.” 

Paul, however, didn’t stop shaking. I didn’t want this to escalate again. 

"Paul" I stopped for a second, searching for the right words. “You know that’s okay. No one got hurt and you didn’t break anything. And I kind of lost it too earlier. So you’re not the only one.”  I was sure I’d lose it again. And it would be much worse this time. 

He thought about my words. Then looked at me, nodding a couple of times. Within a minute his hands stopped. 

Jared looked in-between us, analysing what just happened. When he couldn’t find an answer, his head turned to look at me. "How'd you do that? Sam's the only one able to stop him from phasing."

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

"Maybe that's part of being a Jumper." A new voice said. My shoulder  muscles tightened for a short moment until they relaxed again. I had not heard the man walk in. I turned around looking at him. He was taller than Jared and Paul by half a head, hair kept short. He walked up to Emily, placing a short kiss on her cheek, before he moved on to kissing her whole face. That had to be Sam.

I turned my head back again. It felt weird to watch such intimacy.

Jared groaned. "Ohh not that again."

"I feel like I'm gonna puke." Paul buried his face in his hands.

Sam and Emily both ignored their comments; shortly after that, Sam walked over to me and sat down on the chair next to me.

"Hello Karina." He held out his hand "I'm Sam." His eyes pierced into mine, searching for something I wasn’t sure he would find right now. There was something about him that probably would’ve made me shiver if I was back home right now. He seemed older than the rest, calmer. And more observant. There was some sort of authority that just seemed to fill the room as soon as he walked in. 

I took his hand. Much like Jared and Paul’s, his hand felt warmer too.

"Hello."

"I'm sure this has to be a lot for you to take in" I nodded. "Take some time, get used to this. There will be a bonfire this evening and the Eldest and I would like you to come."

"I don't really plan on going home inbetween… eh so I'll be there." 

His stare made me even more nervous.

"Is the bloodsucker still around?"

He finally turned around and looked at Paul, then to Emily and answered his question. "Not for now, I have Embry and Jacob running double shifts. They'll let us know if she comes back."

I gave them a questioning look. I had an idea which redhead they were talking about. The one I’d seen this morning; the same one that kept on following me in my dreams. But I couldn’t draw the connection. What did they have to do with the redhead?

"That redhead you saw this morning, she's what our legends call a cold one, a vampire basically."

My stomach dropped. I didn’t want to believe him. There was no way vampires were real. Not in my universe, not in this one. But from what I had seen this morning, humans who turned into giant wolves, vampires being real didn’t seem all that absurd somehow.

A pile of questions formed in my head. There by now were so many of them that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to remember all of them.

"Yeah, if I hadn't gotten there in time you probably wouldn't be sitting here." Paul said, a proud grin formed on his lips.

"Thank you" I pressed my lips together.

A shiver ran down my spine, as the possibilities of what could have happened rushed through my mind. I knew what possibly could have happened. 

"Are Seth and Leah gonna be at the bonfire?" Jared asked all of a sudden, his eyes on me for a second. 

Sam's mood slightly darkened. "Leah doesn't have much control yet, she'll sit this one out. Seth is doing better, I'm still thinking about it. " Sam looked at me. Again, I wasn’t so sure how to interpret the way he stared at me. As if he was searching for something. 

I looked around, everyone seemed to be a little nervous about their names being mentioned and I wondered why they couldn’t be there like the rest of them.

"Leah can be there next time." Emily answered as she walked over and touched Sam’s shoulder.

Even though it was such a simple gesture, one could practically grasp the amount of love and adoration that was hidden behind it. Paul and Jared both started making gagging sounds and I chuckled silently at them.

Sam gave them a glaring look and turned all of his attention back to his fiancé.

"Wanna go hang at mine?" Paul asked me, leaning on the table, ignoring not only Sam and Emily but also Jared’s protesting look.

"Oh…sure why not." 

Honestly, there wasn't much more that could make this day more bizarre.

—

I wasn't sure what had happened. We were walking out of the house, Paul got held back by Sam, as the stinging feeling appeared again. It wasn't intentional. And came out of nowhere. One second I was taking a step; in the next I felt the floating feeling. Then, the second after that, I found myself stumbling and falling down the stairs, hurting my knee and ankle. 

I stayed on the ground until I had processed what had happened to me, while Sam looked at me concerned from the veranda, Jared and Paul both almost turned blue from laughing and Emily took a few quick steps to see what happened.  

"Are you okay?" She walked towards me and helped me up again. 

"Yeah, I think I am." I tried to put weight on my right. A mistake. A bad one. Pain shot through my whole leg, from my ankle mostly into my knee and thigh. How had I managed to do that? 

"What was that?" I looked at Paul, he and Jared were still giggling.

"I don't know, Paul." I quickly inhaled air as I tried to put weight on my foot again. "I don't know what happened."

"I don't think you can walk that far." Emily finally added something useful.

"Agreed." Paul walked up to me, still giggling and kneeled down a bit, arms extended, ready to carry me bridal style.

I put my arms in front of me. "No, nuh-uh. You're not carrying me."

"Karina-"

"Paul, I'm too heavy to be carried."

He scoffed. "You're underestimating me." And put his arms under my legs and my back. 

My arm rested awkwardly on his shoulder, my fingers on the bridge of my nose. My eyes were closed, not wanting to see how close we were, my ears slowly heated up.

I heard Jared laugh silently behind us.

Was this worse than anything I imagined that could have happened today? 

Yes. 

Was this the worst thing that could have happened?

No. But there still was plenty of time for that.

"You blush too easily."

"Shut up."

I wasn’t one hundred percent uncomfortable right now. It actually had risen beyond that. Paul was touching me. This could have been no big deal. But it was. 

I didn’t know him. At all. He was a complete stranger I technically knew nothing about. 

This.

This was weird. 

And that I didn’t do anything to stop this, was even weirder. 

He walked a couple of steps in silence. "You can open your eyes, you know. The view isn't that bad. " I didn’t need to look at Paul; I heard the smirk in his voice. I was sure, anyone within half a kilometre could’ve heard that. 

Despite the fact that we probably were too close for my liking, I opened my eyes very hesitantly, ignoring Paul’s staring for the most part. He rolled his eyes at me.

I debated with myself. There still was the option of just going home and coming back later; that hadn’t changed. But I wasn’t sure how Paul physically touching me would affect him or me. 

Another pile of questions formed in my head. Was it possible for me to take someone from this into my universe? 

"What do you like to do?"

"You don't have to talk to me Paul and pretend you really wanna ask me that." There she was again. The dick-side of me. 

"Karina" He squeezed my legs, perhaps a little too harsh. "I'm asking because I wanna know… and if this is going to be a permanent thing it might be good, if you tell us about yourself."

For the first time, I turned my head enough to look at him. Paul stared right back at me. It made me want to escape. We weren’t that close. But close enough that it made me even more uncomfortable. The warmth that previously only had been in my ears started spreading into my cheeks, covering them in a deep red.

Mentally, I rolled my eyes. If this was going to be my reaction to any inconvenience, I would have to start working on that.

A smile, I wasn't sure what it meant, formed on Paul's lips just enough for me to catch it.

"I ehm like baking and reading. Wha-"

He interrupted me. "When's your birthday?" And continued his questioning. 

"January 8th 2002."

"You know, maybe you shouldn't tell people the year." His brown eyes darted down to look at me for a breath until they went back to look at the road ahead of us. 

I hadn’t thought about that yet. There would be people here that weren’t involved. People who would think I was here for whatever reason, people who had no idea who and what I was. "I won't for sure. They wouldn't believe me anyway… When's yours? "

"February 1st 1990." It did take a moment, but Paul’s skin darkened. I didn’t know for what reason. And I didnt want to know that. However, this was the perfect chance to get back at him for what he had said a couple of minutes ago. 

"Is that" I stopped and leaned closer "blush I see right there?" I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to prevent a smile from taking over my lips. 

"I'll drop you if you don't stop."

"Okay...I'll stop... but just because I don't want you to be the reason I might break my ass."

Once again, he rolled his eyes, readjusting his fingers.

The walk only lasted for another five minutes until we arrived; we stayed quiet for most of it, casually exchanging a few words.

Unlike Emily’s house this one looked by far more modern, like it almost didn't fit in here.

"You live there?" I asked him, one of my brows was raised. 

"Yeah, why's that so surprising?"

"Just doesn't look like you fit in there." I shrugged, or at least tried to.

Paul glared at me. "Careful, I'm still debating if I should drop you."

"If you do, the ambulance ride is on you." I laughed quietly and saw him swallow.

Once we stood in front of the door, he let me down carefully and opened the door.

The inside somewhat resembled the outside. Modern. And very light. 

"You don't live on your own, do you?"

"I live with my dad, but he isn't home most of the time."

I somehow managed to limp to the sofa and sat down, putting my leg on it, hoping it wouldn’t hurt all that much. 

It did. As I straightened it, the back of my foot hit the sofa. My face scrunched up for a moment until the pain became bearable. 

Paul came back from where I assumed the kitchen was, throwing an ice pack at me. I tried to catch it but it missed my fingers by just a bit, brushing over the tips. It landed on my lap, thankfully.

"You don't have any inhuman reflexes?" He swung himself over the back of the sofa. I was preparing myself, already lifting up my leg so that it wouldn’t hurt even more when Paul landed on it. But that never came. He caught himself halfway, putting himself down carefully. 

I furrowed my brows. "None that I know of."

I looked around. There was a wall just dedicated to pictures of Paul and who I guessed was his dad. There wasn’t much decoration besides the pictures, a couple of small wooden figures on the table in front of us.

I felt Paul’s gaze on me and turned my head again. He raised an eyebrow.

“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as well. 

“You’re calm. Sam thought you might freak out.”

“Is that why he held you back earlier?” 

Sam was right. I would freak out. I just didn’t know when that would happen yet. Could have been in an hour or in a day or two weeks. I still was waiting for realisation to kick in and slap me in my face. 

He just gave me a nod. "I mean the first and only Jumper didn't stick around too long so we don't know what you're actually capable of."

What I was capable of? A question I didn’t have an answer to. What was it that I could do that Sam had Paul keep an eye on me? 

"So this is what? Wood girl watch duty?" 

"Kinda..." He laughed quietly at my choice of words. 

"As if I am going to do anything bad to any of you" I scoffed. Besides that, I highly doubted I would be able to do anything that possibly could hurt them. 

"Hey." He threw his hands up in defence. "I'm only following Sam's orders."

"Hmm sure."

His fists balled together, shaking lightly. They had done that before; twice today. 

"Do your hands always shake when you ehm get mad? Is this part of the wolf thingy?"

Paul put them in his lap, took a deep breath and nodded. So there was a pattern behind their phasing. I wondered why I only had seen Paul being so sensitive when it came to phasing.

"I feel like I'll have to learn how to hold back if you get mad that easily. You'd run out of clothing at some point." 

The shreds  from this morning came to my mind again; falling to the ground after Paul had basically exploded into the giant, dark silver wolf.

"No need to. I'm trying to not lose my temper again… for today at least." He mumbled the last part.

"But, you know, please tell me if I should stop, okay?"

There she was. My soft side. The side not many got to see, but Ben was familiar with her. I may have started to like Paul as a person. 

"You can stop that?" He was surprised; very, to say the least. 

"Well yeah, I'd rather stop than see you naked, honestly."

"Hmm because I'm that unattractive."

I rolled my eyes. I thought about making a gag sound to underline my gesture but quickly recycled the thought. I didn’t need Paul to freak on me again. 

I changed the topic, ignoring his previous words. 

"That vampire from this morning...is she the only one around here?"

Paul's face visibly scrunched up in disgust. His fingernails pressed into his palm.

I regretted asking him. Maybe Paul wasn’t the right person to ask these kinds of questions. But there were too many piles in my head.

“There are… the Cullens.”

The Cullens. So there were more than one. 

Paul muttered something under his breath that I didn’t understand.

Very vaguely I remembered how the redhead had looked at me until she turned away and started running away. The two other wolves rushed behind her, almost at the same speed as she ran, going the exact same direction. Something in my brain seemed to draw two lines together until they finally crossed each other. They weren’t just running, they hunted her. 

If the Cullens were vampires too, why did they just let them live here?

“Why don’t you go after them like with the redhead?” 

“Our ancestors made a treaty with them. As long as they don’t bite a human, we stay peaceful.”  His voice was cold. There was no playful undertone, nothing. 

I wasn’t sure if I should have asked the next question. There still were old and new unanswered questions. My curiosity won, shoving whatever decency was left in my head to the very last corner. 

“If they don't bite, drink, whatever, humans, what do they live off?”

Paul’s face scrunched together even more after I said the last two words, the distaste he had now was now hard to miss. “Animal blood.”

“Oh.” 

So not all vampires decided to kill humans to live? Was that the right word? Vampires weren’t alive. Neither were they dead - they just were a bit more alive than they should’ve been. 

What made the Cullens decide not to be like the one from this morning? To not kill humans to live?

“That's not too bad then, is it?”

He scoffed loudly. I probably hit a nerve with my assumption. Perhaps, I was wrong to assume there was good in someone like a vampire.

But then again, the only vampire I’d seen was the one in the woods, so it wasn't a decision I could make now. 

“They're the reason why we are what we are.”

I looked at him, questioning. “What do you mean?”

“No one’s told you the legends yet?”

I shook my head. Jared had mentioned something with legends earlier. Cold ones, vampires, legends were the only things that came to my mind.

“We phase to protect our tribe. Whenever a vampire is around and the transformation kicks in we change physically, like we grow a lot, get these” He flexed his arm which made me roll my eyes. “We get really sensitive in terms of anger; you could say something nice and we still could get pissed about that and phase. And shortly before we phase for the first we get a fever that stays.” He held out one of his hands for me to touch it. I put my fingers on his wrist instead, not wanting to put myself in an awkward situation. 

”How high is it?” Paul felt by far too warm. Just like Sam and Jared had.  

“Around 108.9 degrees.”

“And how does this whole phasing thing work? Do you have to get angry or is there something else that might trigger it?” 

“Being angry triggers it a lot, we phase by accident whenever we are. But we don't necessarily have to be. Sometimes it kind of just happens by accident, when there’s too many emotions running through your system, your wolf inside kind of wants to take over and handle them for you.” 

“So the wolf is just as much part of you as you are of the wolf?”

“Pretty much but we are in control most of the time…you really haven’t heard any of the legends yet?” Paul was confused, two lines formed in between his brows as they drew together.

“No. Why?”

“Because I don’t think you should be able to connect everything all that easily.”  We sat in silence for a couple of seconds. “Maybe that’s the Jumper part of you.”

“Maybe.” I still didn’t know who or what that Jumper part of me was. I didn’t want to think about what was going on with me, shoving that to the darkest corner of my brain, where it wouldn’t bother me. It still would come to my mind from time to time and I knew that but not as long as I tried to actively avoid it. 

“Do you all look the same while phased?”

I hadn't seen any of them clearly while being phased yet but Paul. I hadn’t paid all that much attention, most of it was focused on the shreds of clothing that were falling to the ground around him but I did remember his fur being a dark silver. 

“Nope, we’re all different. I'm dark grey while Jacob is a russet brown colour. Sam’s fur is completely black.”

“Well, that kinda fits” I mumbled, unsure if he had understood me.

“Why do you think that?” He started chuckling. 

“Because he scared the shit out of me. And I don’t know what he did think I would do but definitely not something that was meant to hurt any of you…did you see the way he stared at me? As if I was going to explode any second…”

“Oh…he does that from time to time but only when he needs to.”

“Yeah, scaring away a 16 year old who still has no idea what the fuck happened to her is a very good idea. Especially when she’s a whole head length smaller than he is.”

“I hope I don’t scare you then.” It was back. The smirk I had heard earlier and now was able to see live. 

Instead of giving Paul the satisfaction, I grunted. “You’re too small to scare me.”

“Excuse you.” He flicked one of his fingers against my underarm. 

I cleared my throat. “Excuse you.” And flicked my finger too, somehow hurting my nail in the process, cursing under my breath. “You’re like what? 6 feet? 6’1 tops? That’s not that much taller than I am.” 

“Wait, how tall are you? I didn’t notice earlier…”

“5’9 or 10-ish  maybe…maybe a little taller than that. I’m not all that familiar with American feet…”

“You can't be serious.”

“I am though.” I laughed as Paul’s facial muscle control completely slipped away. It felt nice, laughing. As if we were friends, who just were bickering with each other. It made me forget the situation I was in. 

He got up holding out one of his hands for me to take it. I placed the ice bag one the table in front of me and took his hand. It contrasted with the coolness that still lingered on it. 

Paul still could look down on me but there wasn’t that much of a height difference between us. 

“I think you're even taller than that…what are they feeding you in your universe for God's sake?”

I shrugged.

“You’re probably even taller than Leah and she’s one of us.” I couldn't help but notice a slight undertone in his voice which I wasn't able to interpret. 

“Sam mentioned her earlier too…what's the deal with her?”

There was a moment of brief silence; Paul looked at me then at something behind me until his eyes were on me again. Why was he hesitating?

“She’s the only female shapeshifter we know about. Also ehm…” He hesitated once more.“Her father passed right around the time when she first phased.” His brows drew together again at the memory. Since all the shapeshifters were connected through their thoughts, they probably all knew about that. “Which led to Seth phasing earlier than we all expected. Their mum, Sue, still is devastated…didn’t happen long ago.”

“I’m sorry for that.” Light goosebumps formed on my arms. 

"All of us felt what Leah and Seth felt through the connection of our minds but Sam was the first to know. He felt even worse about Leah afterwards."

"I ehm… I know it’s none of my business but can I ask why?"

"Sam and Leah used to be together until Sam imprinted on her second cousin, Emily."

With each reply I got another question. I felt like this was never going to find an end. “What’s imprinting?”

I wasn’t sure, generally. This feeling kept on nagging in some corner of my brain. Was me asking these questions even good for something?

"From the day we first phase, we can imprint on someone. It's like the gravity moves and they're the only ones holding you on earth. We become whatever that person might need. Whether it's a friend, a brother or a loved one and all you want them to be, is happy. That’s how Sam described it to us." Paul’s face darkened by just a bit, the tone of his voice had slightly changed. 

"That sounds..."

"Disgusting." He finished my sentence. His reply explained his reaction.

I threw my ice pack at him which he caught with ease, putting it back on my ankle. 

He warned me, glaring at me. "Next time, I'll throw it back. And I don’t miss."

"Excuse you, are you threatening me?"

"A bit maybe." He smirked. Again. 

"Careful, we still don't know what I'm capable of. I might break your arm if you keep up that attitude." There was a feeling in my stomach, something was off. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

"Wouldn't do much honestly, we heal quicker than normal humans. 'Sides, if you can't catch an ice pack, I highly doubt you'd be able to break any bone in my body."

I grunted, "We'll know sooner or later." 

My stomach decided to link into our conversation, growling loudly. I regretted not taking the time to eat a proper meal at home. 

"What do you wanna eat?" Paul asked me casually as he turned to his right, taking a pile of brochures and placing them on his lap. He started flipping through them. 

"I'm good, thanks." I wasn’t. Nor was I going to be. But I didn’t want Paul to spend money on me. 

"Karina" He squinted; his thumb rubbed over his chin until he moved them up and through his short hair once. "We could order pizza"

"Seriously I'm good. Besides I don't have any money on me...I mean I do, just not dollars."

"I wouldn’t mind paying for you this time."

"Well, I do mind." 

He completely ignored my reply. "Is there anything you don't eat on pizza?" And reached for his phone, dialling a number. 

"You're annoying." I wiped some hair out of my face "Bell peppers." I mumbled.

He ended up ordering four pizzas from some place that must’d been somewhere around here. I knew I would only be able to finish about one. Who would eat the other three?

"Is anyone else coming over?"

"Nope, just us."

"I-... How do you fit three pizzas in your stomach? I can only finish about one."

He shrugged. "Don’t know. We eat much more than the regular sized human, also part of being a shapeshifter."

"What else is part of that?" I wasn’t sure if this was going to help me understand this more or if this was going to form new questions in my head I might be sure I’d get an answer for.

"Well, like I said, we heal quicker and just in general our senses are better like hearing, seeing and smelling. Jared's got the best vision out of everyone. And we don't age when we continue phasing regularly. The body temperature… also we're quicker than any human, some are even quicker than those bloodsuckers." He spat out the last couple of words. 

Talking to Paul about vampires really wasn’t a good idea. Noted. 

I had tried to ignore it. But as much as I tried, the question came back circling in my head over and over again. What was it that I could really do? 

"Do you know what I can do?" I knew some things from earlier; the obvious ones. Visions, jumping through universes and teleportation. But was that everything? 

"You can jump from place to place, have visions, jump through universes. Like I've said we don't know too much." He still seemed to think. "Oh I don't know if that's true but I think I remember the legends saying you don't age either as long as you keep on jumping."

"So if I wanted to I could live for I don't know… two hundred years?"

"Yeah just like any of us if we wanted to."

“That's un...usual" My heart rate slightly increased. I felt an itch on my neck, as if someone was slowly dragging their fingernail over it. Warmth flushed my face. 

Paul seemed to notice my reaction. "You're not gonna freak out, are you?" It was barely visible but he leaned back ever so slightly, as his muscles tensed. 

"I'm trying not to, really." It wouldn’t help either; Paul or me if I did right now. There was a chance that if I did freak out right now, again, Paul would too. I didn’t want that to happen. Again. 

The itch felt like it was spreading over my neck, slowly crawling to my arms and down my spine as the bell rang.

It interrupted my thoughts and whatever was about to happen to me. Anything that possibly distracted me, whatever it may have been, seemed to help. 

"I'll go get it." Paul got up  quicker than I could've replied but his eyes never really left me. I heard distant mumbling before the door closed again. 

"I still don't know why you wanted pineapple on your pizza." He handed me my box. 

"Because it tastes good? You can have a piece if you don't believe me." I opened it and handed him a slice.   

He looked at it, then leaned closer to smell it. Paul looked almost as disgusted when he talked about the Cullens and took a bite. His expression changed, eyebrows furrowing together "It's not that bad."

"Told you." I said, digging in as well. 

I had finished around half of mine when I saw that Paul opened his second box.

"Honestly, just by the way you eat you seem like that guy from cast away."

"Like who?" He put two pieces of pizza together and bit into them.

"Okay... I take that back. This is pure gluttony." I laughed, as Paul ignored my comment, staring right behind me at something. 

I continued eating, occasionally looking at Paul. He soon had finished all three pizzas, his stomach somehow still flat.

"Is there an endless black hole instead of your stomach?"

He grunted. "Like I've said, we eat more."

"Dude but three pizzas? At once?"

"Dude? Seriously?"

I rolled my eyes. "You're annoying."

"So are you." He flicked my arm again harder than earlier and I was sure it would leave a small bruise. 

"Ouch...do you mind stopping that?"

"Meh no."

I felt the heat rushing through my body again. My fingers pressed into my palms, trying to suppress anything that was going to come. I took a deep breath, still feeling the heat in my fingertips but it slowly seemed to vanish.

"What are you doing?" Paul looked at me curiously, his eyes scanning what my fingers were doing. Once more, he was cautious. His muscles stiffened ever so slightly as he leaned back. 

"It’s difficult to describe but I uh… I am trying not to let the heat take over me. I get that feeling whenever Ì’m about to jump." 

"I didn't know that. I mean we didn't know that."

"I guess there’s some stuff neither of us know yet." I wondered how much it was that I didn’t know yet; about me and about the shapeshifters. I could always ask about them, but they didn’t have all the answers I needed about myself. 

“Most likely.” 

"What time is it?" I didn't have my phone with me since I didn't want them to ask me any further questions about it. I also didn’t need my phone’s location to change, if it was going to change. 

"Should be about five right now."

I groaned. "The bonfire starts at eight, right?" 

"Sam moved it to six… Seth really wanted to be there and he doesn’t want him around people for too long yet."

"At least something." I leaned my head on the sofa backrest and closed my eyes. There it was again, the itch in my head that told me I should’ve known something; it was the same itch that had occurred earlier on when Jared mentioned Seth’s name. Who was he? Why did my head react the way it did? 

"Aren't you at least a little excited to meet everyone? Or Seth at least?"

What? 

My eyes shot open. Was I being that obvious that there was something about Seth that I just couldn’t wrap my head around? 

“I don’t even know who of the nameless faces he is, Paul. But yes, I guess I am as excited as one could possibly be in my situation.”   

The same smug smile spread on his lips once more. 

"So Seth, huh?"

I sighed, my jaw muscles contracted. "Lose the smile. And like I’ve said, I have no idea who he is yet.” But I should’ve known. At least the feeling told me so. 

"Well he's thrilled to meet you. You're the sole reason why it was so easy for him to somewhat control himself so soon after he phased." Paul switched positions, his legs now right next to mine. He was careful not to touch my right leg as it still hurt. 

"What?"

"He was the first to know you were coming here, like we’ve said, he dreamed about you. That happened way before he first phased. And as his dreams became more frequent, he knew that this wasn’t just something his head made him see, it was something it wanted him to see like a little preparation. He knew that even if you were going to stay with us, even when he still wasn’t a shapeshifter, he’d find a way to talk to you."

My eyebrows scrunched together. “Why?” 

Why me? 

What was it that made a complete stranger want to do that? 

"There's a bet going on between Jared, Embry and me." 

Paul probably should’ve stopped right after this sentence. I really didn’t want to know. My head turned to look at him. There may have been something like uncertainty by the way he looked at me but that vanished within a second and got replaced by sole confidence. 

"Whether he'll imprint on you or not. You don't happen to know anything-"

"I don’t." I stopped him. And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I still didn’t fully understand what imprinting meant or the way you became tied to the other person. I had only seen Emily and Sam so far. My eyes pressed together. “Truly, that’s the dumbest bet I’ve ever heard of.” There weren’t any dreams I could recall that could’ve given away anything. Even if I had known his face. 

"Hey, that one wasn't my idea. Embry came up with it." 

I rolled my eyes. "That's not making it any better."

We stayed quiet for just a bit. My eyes still were closed and I slowly felt a flood of exhaustion hit over my body. My heart slowed down ever so slightly as I started to drift off. I wasn't really sleeping; I still could make out Paul next to me. And the way I calmly breathed in. The new part of me was somewhat quiet. Maybe a bit too quiet which did make me suspicious. 

"Don't fall asleep, we gotta leave soon."

"I won’t. Just resting." I yawned, completely making myself unbelievable. Paul besides me chuckled and I felt the cushion move as the ice pack got removed from my ankle. "I'll be right back."

"Hmmhh." Paul's footsteps were barely audible. I heard them as he took the first three; the ones after those I couldn’t hear. The cushion didn’t lower this time.  

"We should go." 

I flinched, my whole body twitched as he said the first word, making my ankle hurt even more than before. I’d almost forgotten about it. 

"Ouch.” I sat back up and looked at my ankle. Even with my sock on, I could see it swell. “I still can't walk." I knew what that meant. 

"I'll carry you." He sounded almost enthusiastic about that. 

"Argh." A deep breath left my lungs. This was close to being the worst thing that could have happened today. I didn’t need a whole bunch of people seeing me being carried by Paul. 

"I could carry you on my back if you didn't like earlier." 

He walked around the sofa until he stood in front of me, arms extended; his hand waiting for mine to take it. There was a brief moment of silence until I felt the warmth of his skin on mine. It gave me goosebumps. My hands were too cold. Paul’s arm muscles contracted as he noticed my cold skin on his’. 

"Don't you have a licence? Can't you get that at your age here?" I asked him as I climbed on his back, loosely tying my sweater around my neck. Paul readjusted his hands on my legs and started walking outside. 

"I don't have one yet. Also, I don't give piggyback rides to just anyone." He scoffed and closed the door behind somehow without dropping me.  

I silently laughed at his response. "Thank you for carrying me." 

"So you can be nice, huh?" His head turned slightly and he looked at me from the corner of his eye until he looked back at the road in front of us. 

“Oh yeah. Unless someone seriously annoys me, I usually am.” There were houses here, in comparison to the one Paul lived in, they looked tiny. The street was in an oval or round kind of shape; it seemed like a big roundabout. But instead of several exits, there was only one. 

Paul's head gestured to the left. “Embry lives over there.” It was a small house made out of pale wood. The canopy had the front door in it that once probably had been a creamy white, however, by now the paint had started chipping, revealing the same coloured wood the walls were made of. I didn’t know what the roof was made of but it was darker, almost a black colour. I thought I saw one of the curtains move.

I nodded a couple of times until I realised Paul couldn’t see that. “Who’s Embry?” I remembered that Paul had mentioned him earlier on. The guy that came up with the bet. There was this weird calmness inside me. I didn’t know what it meant. Or why it made me feel that way. Even when my thoughts were completely drifting away. About things I had only got to know about today. And that usually would’ve freaked me out. But it didn’t. 

“Embry is Jake’s and Quil’s best friend. He also was the fourth of us to phase; right after me. And unlike my dad, his mother still doesn’t know he’s a shapeshifter. She’s been giving him a hard time recently. Kept on checking if he was home during the night, which he wasn’t obviously because he had to run patrol. She keeps on asking him about why he isn’t home during the night but he refuses to tell her. It’s been like that for a couple of weeks now. She believes he’s going through some sort of a rebellious stage. Embry takes it in silence whenever she yells at him in the mornings.”

We left the street and Paul turned right, walking on the side. 

“Oh…why doesn’t he just tell her? Wouldn’t that make things easier for him and his mum?” 

“Tiffany, that’s his mum…she isn’t from here. She’s from the Makah tribe. When she got pregnant with Embry, she moved down here. He told us that she would just freak out even more; more than if 

he’s out every night without an explanation. The whole pack asked Sam to cut him some slack, let his mother in on the secret but Embry refused, saying it’s too important. He wants to protect her from this whole thing.” 

“Oh.” 

That did make sense to me. He didn’t want to involve his mother in this supernatural stuff. 

I would be in the same situation. The exact same. Well, almost. There was no explanation I could tell my parents. And just like Tiffany probably would, my parents, especially my mother, would freak out. 

I couldn’t tell them. 

And I couldn’t tell Ben. 

There was no way, no option where I did that and nothing changed. They wouldn’t look at me the same. Or would treat me the same. I wasn’t even sure if they would have believed me. Or how I should’ve come up with the right words to explain myself. 

“What ‘oh’?” 

“I… ehm… I think I won’t be able to tell my parents. Or my best friend.” My heart ached slightly at the thought of that. 

If there was one thing Ben hated more than math exams, it was secrets. Especially secrets that were between him and I. And I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to hold up this new facade and make myself believable. 

“You can always come and talk to me… or someone else, you know. It’s not the same but it might help.” 

“So you can be nice, huh?” I copied the words Paul had told me a couple of minutes ago. 

“You’re aware that I still could drop you if I wanted to?” He replied as he turned his head again towards me. The smug smile on his lips again. 

He let go of my legs for just the split of a second. I slid down on his back by a couple of centimetres, my heart raced in my chest. I heard my pulse in my ears as I still slid down. My arms tightened around his neck and just as I was about to yank us both down, he caught my legs again. 

Giggling. 

“Not funny.” I flicked my finger against his neck, harder than I’d done before. Little rushes of pain shot through my finger, mostly concentrating on my fingernail. 

"Ouch." 

"You can't tell me that seriously hurt you." So far being part of a shapeshifter seemed to be being indestructible. With their enhanced healing, I was pretty sure it would take a lot of strength for them to get hurt by something. 

"It did."

I frowned, feeling the familiar two lines form between my eyebrows. "Aren't you supposed to not get hurt by that?"

"Hmm…yes, actually.” He thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Maybe you're stronger than a human, that'd explain it."

I didn’t feel much different. There was nothing, except for that new part, that had changed about me. And the fact that I probably still was as white as my ceiling, no other colour flushing my cheeks. "Oh...uh I don’t know? I don’t feel much different, honestly."

"We should try arm wrestling some time to find out." 

There was no way I was going to try and arm wrestle with one of them. I’d probably break a bone in my hand before I was winning. Or losing. Which was the more likely case.  

"Hmmhh sure, so that I can break my wrist, too?" 

"I'd stop before I break your wrist, don't worry." Paul chuckled once as his hands readjusted on my legs.

I looked ahead of us. There wasn’t much I could’ve seen here. We were surrounded by trees on both of our sides, the sunlight barely even lit up the street. 

"How long is the walk?"

"Should be about twenty minutes. We're going to…” Paul hesitated briefly and continued his sentence “Jake's instead of the cliff we'd usually go to."

Why did he hesitate? 

There was a slight change in his voice right after he’d continued the sentence. It sounded almost like distaste. "Why don't you like Jake?"

I felt Paul’s steps become unrhythmic for a few metres, surprised by my sudden question, until he caught himself again. "Never said I don't like him."

"But there's something that bothers you about him, right?"

"How do you even know that?"  

I shrugged. "Don’t know. Just a feeling."

"Well, he's in love with Bella Swan" There was a very dark undertone in his voice, almost the same when he first talked about the Cullens. 

"Who’s that?"

"She's from Forks, dating the bloodsucker. You could’ve seen the drama she's caused, if you’d gotten here earlier." Paul’s fingers slightly dug themselves into my legs. I wanted to ask him more questions but decided against it. Anything that involved a vampire wasn’t really a good topic to talk to with him.

"That bonfire...what's it like?" I didn’t know if Paul noticed that I had tried to change the topic purposely.

"Ohhh I think you'll like it. Pretty much everyone's gonna be there, even all the Eldest. We eat and talk and the Eldest tell the legends, though I think they'll only tell yours today…so it’ll be much shorter than usual."

But it seemed to work. 

There was a tiny brick in my stomach as the thought of meeting new people, who probably knew more about me than I did about myself at the moment, crossed my mind. It moved around, not wanting to settle. 

I was going to be okay. 

Or at least that was what I tried to tell myself. There wasn’t a good reason for me to freak out now, right?