Hyde stepped out of the train onto the platform, into the southern warmth, wearing the hoodie he had previously given to Rune. He took a deep breath and let it engulf him with a content smile. He hummed. “Feels like home.”

Rune stepped out next to him with a scowl, sweating in his own way-too-thick hoodie. “Yeah, great.”

Hyde looked beside him. “Wanna switch?”

“Yes.”

Hyde searched for a spot of shade around the station. The station was small, only having two tracks and barely any buildings, other than the small break house for the workers. He saw a roof for people to hide from the rain, presumably. He tucked at Rune’s sleeve. “There.”

They stood in the shade. Rune took his thick, sweaty hoodie off and pulled Hyde’s much thinner one on. He held his own hoodie. “Where should I leave this?”

“At home, when we get there.”

“You want me to carry it all the way?”

“What else?”

Rune shrugged.

“I mean, I’d offer to carry it, but it smells terrible.”

Rune huffed. “You wuss. But speaking of home.”

“What?”

Rune grinned at him. “How about, instead of going back to the village, we go to Corburn?”

Hyde flinched. “Why?”

“We’re on a family reunion streak anyway. Like you said, just get it over with.”

Hyde stared at him, his eyes wide. He tensed his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’m not ready.”

“Will you ever be? You’ve already been away for six years.”

Hyde stared at the ground as his breathing started to become shallow. He wasn’t ready, he’d never be ready. They would be mad at him, push him away, yell at him to leave—

“Hey,” Rune interrupted his panicked thoughts. “It’ll be okay.” He put his hands on Hyde’s arms and gently smiled. “You’re not going alone, I’ll be with you. I’ll support you like you did for me. And if they do get mad at you, I’ll defend you. I’ve got your back, okay?”

Hyde’s heart was racing in his chest. He considered it. He guessed it would be less difficult with Rune there, he wouldn’t have to face them alone. He wanted to go home someday, maybe this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. He had seen how happy it had made Rune to go home, perhaps he should stop depriving himself of that happiness.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

Rune beamed.

Hyde tried to focus on the crunching leaves below his feet; on the pleasant, natural smells of the forest; on the branches bumping into each other in the wind. But he couldn’t ignore the anxiety.

How will they react to him? Did they want anything to do with him anymore? Was his dad okay? If not, what were his mom and sister going to think of him?

He glanced to the side and recognised a rock with a peculiar shape. He remembered noticing that rock before, on that night. He had noticed it right before his dad caught up to him, he had paused his run to catch his breath and leaned against it.

Flashes of the following events filled his mind. His dad had tried to take him home, Hyde pushed him away and yelled at him to leave him alone. His dad wanted to understand, but Hyde didn’t tell him anything. They began arguing. He had felt himself losing control, and everything went black.

Hyde yelped when he felt a touch on his arm, he jerked around to Rune’s concerned face.

“Hey, you okay?” Rune asked. “You don’t seem like it.”

Hyde noticed how shallow his breathing was. He stared at the forest floor. He tried to make a word leave his mouth, but he couldn’t. He shook his head. He flinched again when Rune took a hold of Hyde’s forearms.

“It’ll be okay. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay by your side the whole way.”

Hyde nodded.

“Now, take a deep breath and keep going. You can do this.”

Hyde closed his eyes and breathed in all the way down to his belly, then slowly breathed out. He glanced up at Rune’s face. He smiled a little and put his arms around his waist in a hug. Rune tensed up, but then relaxed and hugged him back.

Hyde took another deep breath before letting go. He looked in the direction of Corburn. He held Rune’s hand as he began to walk again, then let it slide out of his grip when Rune followed him.

----------------------------------------

Hyde stepped onto the messy pavement made of small bricks. He observed the town in front of him, everything was the same as he remembered. He felt another jolt of anxiety. He breathed in and pushed it down. It was too late to turn back now.

“Is this Corburn?” he heard beside him. He turned to Rune and nodded.

“Do you want to take your time, or go home right now?”

Hyde shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Rune took a few steps ahead of him. “We could vaguely go into that direction, we don’t have to do it quick.”

Hyde smiled a little. “Okay.”

They sauntered along the uneven, narrow streets, staring at the buildings.

They entered a neighbourhood. Panic went through Hyde’s body again, paired with a sharp inhale.

“Is this your neighbourhood?” Rune asked.

“Yeah,” Hyde sighed.

Rune tugged at his hand. “Come on.”

Hyde followed.

“Hyde!”

Hyde shrieked and yanked himself in the direction the shout came from. He was tackled to the ground and yelped. He sat up and leaned on his hands. He stared into the distance as he processed what was happening. He was being hugged. He saw long, wavy, rich brown hair next to his face.

“You really came home,” she called out. “Sooner than we expected, too.”

Hyde placed a hand on her back. “Yeah,” he answered absentmindedly.

Rune stared at the two on the ground. The woman looked up at him and he was met with the same golden eyes as Hyde’s. Her skin was slightly darker, though.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

She let Hyde go and stood up, then held a hand out to Hyde. Hyde stared at it. She let out a nervous chuckle. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you.”

Hyde carefully took her hand, she pulled him to his feet. She glanced at Rune. “Mind introducing me?”

That shook Hyde awake. “Right,” he stuttered. “Uhh.” He gestured to Rune. “This is my friend, Rune.” He now gestured to the woman beside him, looking at Rune. “This is my sister, Tayen.”

Rune smiled at her. “Pleasure.”

She smiled back. “You too.”

Tayen grabbed Hyde’s hand. “Come on, I bet Mom will cry when she sees you,” she grinned.

Hyde hesitated. “You’re not mad at me?”

“What? No.” She turned to him and grabbed his other hand, too. “Whatever happened, happened. What’s the point of still holding a grudge six years later? We want you back, why would we make that harder for you?”

Hyde didn’t know how to react.

“And for the record, according to Dad, it was all his fault.”

“What?” Hyde blurted out, confused.

Tayen shrugged, then began to drag him home.

Hyde processed all that for a moment. They’re not mad? It seemed as if she wanted to act like nothing happened. And their dad was alive, at the very least. He thought it was his fault? How? Hyde was the one that caused the fight.

He looked behind him and saw Rune walking with them. Rune smiled at him, Hyde felt a wave of comfort wash over him. He smiled back with a sigh.

Tayen burst through the front door, dragging Hyde behind her. “Mom!” she yelled. “Guess who I found!”

Rune followed them in and closed the door as Tayen dragged Hyde into the house.

Hyde searched around the living room and kitchen. He spotted his mother’s greying, blond hair in the kitchen, she seemed to be preparing lunch. She gasped. She rushed to them and threw her arms around Hyde’s neck, he had to lean down slightly.

“Oh my god,” he heard her sob next to his ear. “You’re home!”

Hyde hugged her. He teared up as he said, “I’m home.”

She let his neck go to place her hands on his cheeks. Hyde looked at her smiling, teary-eyed face, her eyes as gold as his and his sister’s. “Look at you, a fully grown man, now.”

Hyde smiled back, sad. “Yeah.”

She frowned a little when she caressed the scar on his lip with her thumb, but then smiled again and breathed out a chuckle. “Seems like you won’t be as tall as your dad, after all.”

Hyde huffed. “Rub it in, why don’t you?”

She snickered.

“But speaking of Dad.” Hyde was hesitant.

“Hm?”

“Is he okay?”

She smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry. You left a nasty scar on his arm, but that’s it.” She leaned closer to his face and whispered again, “Don’t worry.” She pressed a kiss on his cheek. He sighed in relief.

“And he blames himself as much as you do.” She got her hands off his face and left them on his arms.

Hyde nodded. “Where is he?”

“Running some errands.”

Hyde averted his eyes. “I want to talk to him alone when he comes back.”

“Okay. I’ll take him to our bedroom when he comes through the door.” She looked behind Hyde. “Who’s this?”

Hyde flinched and turned to Rune. “Oh, right.”

Rune gave his mom a little wave. He had tied his hoodie around his waist and dumped the thick, sweaty one somewhere else.

Hyde stepped away from his mom and closer to Rune. “This is Rune, my friend.”

“Is he the one you mentioned in your letter?”

“Yeah.”

Hyde saw Rune raising his brow at him from the corner of his eye. Hyde hummed at him.

“I didn’t know you mentioned me.”

“Does it matter?”

His mom chuckled. “Well, I’m Dione.”

“Pleasure.”

Hyde heard the front door open and turned to it with wide eyes. Dione ran past him and slammed the door to the hallway shut. He heard his dad yelp and stumble up the stairs as he was dragged away by his wife.

He flinched and looked beside him at Rune when Rune touched his arm.

“You wanted to do this one alone, right?” Rune asked, hushed.

Hyde nodded with a frown.

Rune smiled a little. “Okay, I’ll wait here.”

Hyde smiled back.

Footsteps came down the stairs. Dione came out of the hallway. “You ready?” she asked Hyde.

Hyde sighed and shook his head. “Not really, but I never will be.”

Dione put her hand on his cheek again with a reassuring smile. “It’ll be alright. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.” Hyde took a deep breath and nodded. He went through the door to the stairs.

Hyde stood in front of the bedroom door. He could smell his dad’s scent through it. His dad could probably smell him, too. With one final deep breath, he pushed the door handle down and pulled it open.

Hyde stared at his father sitting on the bed. His dad’s hazel brown eyes stared back at him; some messy, greying, rich brown hair hung in front of them; his body frozen.

Tears stung in Hyde’s eyes. His dad stood up, seemingly afraid to touch him. Hyde scrunched his face up as he flung his arms around his chest, he hugged him tight with his cheek rested against his shoulder.

His dad flinched, a startled breath escaped his throat. He hugged him back, tighter than he’d ever hugged him before. He trembled.

“I’m sorry,” his dad sobbed. “So sorry.”

Hyde pinched his eyes closed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, too.”

“Why?”

“I’m the one that ran away, I started the argument.” Hyde looked up at his face. “Why would it be your fault?”

His dad was confused. “Because I kept pushing you when you were upset, and didn’t want to talk and wanted to be left alone. I escalated it.”

“Well, it’s fair to not want to leave your child alone in a forest in the dark.”

“Then why did you keep refusing to come with me?”

Hyde let him go. “That’s what I think now, but back then, I—” He sat down on the bed with a sigh, his dad sat beside him. “I should tell you why I ran away in the first place.”

“That’d be nice.”

“I didn’t want to be alpha, I’ve never wanted to be. I thought I had some more time to prepare myself to tell you, but then you wanted me to take over out of nowhere, and I freaked out.”

His dad frowned at him. “Wha-I… Hyde, I didn’t want you to take over yet.”

Hyde’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I wanted to start taking you to meetings and everything to start preparing you. So when the time came, you wouldn’t be completely unprepared, like I was. In case anything ever happened to me.”

“You—you wanted to prepare me, in case you died soon before you had the chance, like Grandpa?”

His dad nodded. “I didn’t want to risk putting you through that, too. To have all that responsibility, that you have no idea what to do with, when you’re trying to grieve—” He let out a frustrated sigh.

He looked down at his fidgeting hands. “Both my parents were forty-six when they died, three years apart from each other. I don’t believe in curses or anything, but then I turned forty-six myself and I couldn’t help but think, What if I did die this year like they did? Would I have any regrets? Then I concluded I would. I would regret not teaching you how it all worked. So I wanted to start doing that.”

Hyde stared at him in disbelief. He had interpreted it all wrong. All this happened only because he had misinterpreted his intentions. “Well”—he wanted to lighten the mood a little—“at least we know we’re not cursed, right? You made it to fifty-two, now.”

His dad chuckled a bit. “We’ll see if anything terrible happens when you’re forty-six.”

“Comforting.”

Hyde noticed the scar on his dad’s left arm, half hidden by his t-shirt sleeve. He frowned. “Did it hurt?”

His dad gave him a confused hum.

“The bite.”

“Oh.” He looked down at his scar. “I didn’t feel it at first. Adrenaline and all. I went home after I regained control of myself, not feeling pain anywhere. But then your mom saw me and yelled at me about it. ‘Fallon, what the hell are you doing here?! Go to the doctor!’ ”

Hyde laughed, Fallon laughed along with him.

“I didn’t know what she was talking about, but then she pointed at my arm and I looked at it and it was covered in blood.” He gestured at his arm. “My whole arm, red. And that was when I started to feel it. She had to drag me to the doctor, cause it was making me lightheaded.”

“It does sound like it hurt.”

“Eventually, sure.” Fallon pulled his sleeve up to show the whole scar. “But it all healed fine.”

Hyde examined the scar. The places his fangs had punctured were now deep pits in his flesh, he could see the individual teeth. He touched it, then dug his finger into one of the pits. “Does that hurt?”

Fallon shook his head. “Barely feel a thing.”

“Did it make your arm weaker at all?”

Fallon pulled his sleeve back down. “A bit, but I’m right handed anyway. What about you?” Fallon brushed the scar on Hyde’s lip with his thumb. “Do you have a lot of scars?”

Hyde sighed. “Yeah.” He pulled his shirt up and showed him the scars on his torso. Fallon painfully stared at them. Hyde saw the tears welling in his eyes, he pulled his shirt back down. “No, Dad—it’s okay.” He smiled a little. “Really, it’s fine.”

“It’s not! How could I do that to my own son?”

“We lost control! It’s not your fault.” Hyde gestured at Fallon’s scar. “How could I do that to my father? I don’t know, I couldn’t control myself!”

He looked down and took a deep breath. “You don’t blame me, and I don’t blame you, so let’s do what Tay said.”

Fallon raised a brow. “What?”

“Whatever happened, happened. We can’t change it now and we both want each other in our lives, so let’s just… forgive and forget.”

“Do you think it’ll be that easy?”

Hyde shrugged with tears in his eyes. “I don’t know. I hope so. But again, we don’t blame each other. Forgiving ourselves will be the hard part, rather than forgiving each other.”

Fallon smiled. He put his hand on Hyde’s cheek and wiped his tears away with his thumb. “You’ve grown so much.”

Hyde stared at him for a second, then smiled sadly.

“You have a full beard and everything, now.”

Hyde chuckled. “No more baby face,” he joked through the lump in his throat.

Fallon hummed. “Maybe if you shaved.”

Hyde laughed a little. He let his head fall on Fallon’s shoulder. Fallon wrapped his arm around Hyde’s shoulders, he rested his face against his head.

Hyde pinched his eyes and let himself cry a little. “I missed you so much,” his voice cracked.

Fallon rubbed his cheek against the top of Hyde’s head with tears in his eyes. “I missed you, too.” He took a deep breath. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”