Chapter Thirty-eight

♦Selena's POV♦

I'm worried.

We all are, where the hell is September?

"Where the hell is September?" Dane asks out loud, proof that maybe, just maybe, Dane could be my soulmate.

"I have no idea." Arianna says in frustration, furiously, tapping on her phone. "Her phone keeps ringing but she's not picking."

"She left it in the car." Cyril offers, sitting close to Neruda on the bench.

We are all seated at our usual lunch table, Ciaran and Nadia were absent again, it seemed it would become a usual occurrence.

I don't think anyone minds though.

Lucinda is practically sitting on Travon, watching Cameron have another particularly bad episode for the fifth time in the past quarter-hour, her eyes filling with tears again.

Reflexively I pull him into a hug again, it helps that I look somewhat like September and I try to take all of the loud emotions storming through him. It helps to calm down his furious itching and incessant tapping and fidgeting, but this doesn't last for long because pretty soon another episode is rearing up to go.

"Does this happen often?" Neruda asks with a grave look on his face, Arianna is using glamour on our table so the other noisy students around have no idea what is going on, on the table.

"No." Cyril answers him, still sitting unnecessarily close to Neruda but before I can probe too deeply, Cameron starts up his scratching, his nails are getting longer each time, now they're leaving red lines with each vicious scratch. If this kept on, he was going to scratch himself to ribbons.

Cameron's face is blank like he's trapped in a memory.

It has to be Savannah.

Where the hell was September when you needed her?

"Hey guys!" September says breathlessly, running up to the table. She is outside so the glamour is still working and she's still unaware of what exactly was going on…and is she glowing?

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" She sits beside Arianna, riffling through her backpack for the apples she liked to bring. "I… what the fuck?!!" She exclaims when she looks up and gets the true state of everything.

"Where were you??" Arianna demands, tearing at her red hair. "You weren't answering my phone calls, I've been calling you nonstop!!" She half yells on a sob.

September doesn't even reply, she gets up so fast that her bag falls to the ground with a thud, green apples rolling out of the black bag.

She rushes around the table to where I'm seated beside Cameron, Dane is sitting on his other side. "Scoot over." She says seriously to me, terror in her voice and guilt in her eyes.

"Hey, shh." She consoles him, after sitting beside him. Like a flower to light, he quickly turns to her and curls into her, the itching dies down and he calms down.

She lets him, rubbing a hand over his back soothingly, Cameron is shaking from exhaustion.

The table falls quiet as we watch September work her magic, Cameron buries his face in her neck and takes deep breaths like he's been underwater for so long.

No one says anything for a long time, long enough for Cameron's breathing to visibly slow down and for him to fall asleep.

September gently places his upper body on her laps and takes a deep breath, everyone does the same.

"Okay, is someone going to tell me just what the fuck is going on?" September speaks up when she makes sure that Cameron is fast asleep.

"That's the first time he's slept peacefully  for two days now." Arianna whispers, tear tracks visible on her face.

"What?" September blinks.

"He slept yesterday and seemed so much better this morning but then it just turned ten times worse all of a sudden." She yanks on her tousled hair.

"B-But why??" September splutters.

"I don't know!" She smacks her face on the table.

"Calm down Ari." Dane, murmurs to her, taking her hand and pulling her in for a hug.

She sobs into his shoulder and I frown, feeling so helpless.

"I need to know something, he can't just have woken up one morning and started acting this way." September says, frustrated too.

"It's Savannah." Dane says soberly.

September frowns and my heart twists, at moments like this, it physically hurts that she's lost her memories, again. "Who's that?"

"His younger sister." Travon replies.

September gapes. "He has a younger sister??"

"Used to." I shrug, bearing the bad news. "She died." I say bluntly, there wasn't any way to sugarcoat it.

"W-What?" She splutters. "Oh my God!"

"His parents are dead too." Dane adds in a blank voice. "He and his sister were attacked by a rogue wolf, the wolf killed Savannah." Dane starts to narrate the entire story. "He has always had nightmares ever since they reduced somewhat but when he met you, they stopped."

September's eyes grow big. "They stopped because of me??"

"We can safely assume that but now they're back again for no reason at all." Dane concludes and another uneasy silence falls on the table again.

"We can't just assume the worst." Lucy speaks up in a soft voice. "I might not have the right to say this but I mean he can turn into a wolf, maybe it's just him being a little ill and it'll soon pass." She continues. "I mean look at him." She waves in Cameron's general direction. "He's fast asleep.

"Lucy has a point." I agree, because truly she does. "I'm proposing a sleepover this night at my house so we can keep an eye on him." I announce.

Supportive hums float around the table.

"That's the best plan right now, until he has sufficiently calmed down enough to speak lucidly or the episodes disappear as a whole, it's best to keep him in our sights and close to September." Dane says. 

"I don't even like the fact that he lives alone." Arianna sniffs, wiping her eyes. "As soon as he gets better, I'll get him to move to the packhouse."

"Well, there's another issue at the moment." Neruda points out. "We can't sit at this table forever, the break room is starting to get cleared out."

"I'll take Cameron to…"

"My house." I interrupt him, calculating quickly. "He's fast asleep and if you're right about his lack of sleep, he should be out like a light for at least the next couple hours." I explain.

Dane nods.

It is the best option, then he would just stay there till the sleepover.

"I'll come with." I tag on, turning to Cyril. "Cy, give me your keys." I ask, erm… more like a request.

"Sure." He says quietly.

So many things changed just too fast, it was so hard to keep track of it all.

Inside the glamour spell, Dane makes a portal and gently carries a still sleeping Cameron through it, their destination is the parking lot.

I just dematerialize straight there, it would have been better and a whole lot safer to take September but September couldn't drive so that was a nada.

I unlock the car and watch Dane gently manhandle Cameron inside the back seat, where he curls up and instantly continues his sleep.

I slip in the driver's seat and wait patiently for Dane to hop in as well, there's so much I want to tell him but I'm scared.

He settles down beside me but I don't start the car, I just leave the car in the ignition and stare right ahead at the dashboard.

"Selena?" Dane starts to say and I hum, glancing at him to show that I'm listening.

"There's something you want to tell me, isn't there?"

I hum again and open up the door, stepping outside. I had been caught at crossroads, wondering if I should take the risk and explain what's happening to Dane or if I should still let it stew for a while, seeing as we had the issue of Cameron too.

But then he'd said those words and it made up my mind for me.

"Selena?"

"Let's go to the park." I blurt out of the blue, in a shaky voice.

If Dane is surprised, he hides it well or maybe he's just used to my occasional eccentricity.

"Okay." He agrees, stepping closer to me. "Come here." He urges, pulling me down into a hug.

I let myself relax into the hug for a couple seconds before we separate and get back into the car.

"Sure you can drive?" He teases me with a side smirk on his dark and handsome face.

"Better than you that's for sure." I fire back.

He bursts out laughing at this. "I can believe that, after all, Bella drives way better than I do." He shrugs noncommittally.

"Your baby sister?" I ask in surprise.

"Yup!" He giddily affirms then jumps into a detailed scenario of his baby sister driving them to the mall.

I just smile at his obvious love for his baby sister, it makes sense that Cameron would go crazy about Savannah.

 It was time to save everyone.