it’s been 24 hours since Ava went missing. As in the depths of many seas, Mariah was lost in a sea of thought of where her daughter could be. That was after she had cried out her eyes the night before when every search team came back with a long face and a shaking head. It felt so surreal to the flawless because this would be the first time one of them would go missing During a TC. Normally if any yet to be turned werewolf went missing, it took the search team 3 to 4 days to find any clue, and if they don’t the person would be buried but with his/her belongings as a representative of the body. It becomes more heartbreaking when they see a clue. bloodied clothes, personal belongings, or a part of the body is normally found. And when these are found it is a certainty that the person is dead.

For Mariah, it felt like she had her eyes on her few minutes when the ruckus began but within a twinkle of an eye, Ava was gone. Her eyes had huge deep circles that could sink a baby and her hair resembled that of a girl who was in a hair-pulling contest. The only person that could talk some sense to her was Luke but the look wasn’t there because he was leading the search team. In the house was. Sabrina and Stella with other pack members they tried to console Mariah to the best of their knowledge. At some point, Mariah went missing as she went into the woods to look for her more aught, unknown to other pack members. When they finally found her, they bound her hands and feet a d carried her home. They snapped her neck and she became unconscious.

“Ava!” Luke shouted at the top of his lungs countlessly as other search team members did the same but all they heard was the echoing of their voice back to them. The more they called out to Ava, the more they were aware of the fact that they were the only ones present in the woods that is if you minus the crickets, birds, and other animals there. This would be the 3rd time they would go into the woods to go look for Ava. They had looked for her in 5 pack dwellings except one, but it felt like the more they looked, the farther Ava was. They didn’t want to give up because of Mariah, she was in a worst state every time they got home with little or no news of Ava. While on the other hand, some of them believed that Ava was gone and that her mother bead living in denial, so they had already started mourning the loss of Ava. Most especially Ava’s friends; Celia and. Hallie.

“ Luke, we are here,” Jeff said while pointing. Luke stared ahead and saw that they are at the boundaries between them and the enemy zone. The point towards the side of the humans. Any werewolf found here was looking for nothing but trouble.

“Luke, there is still a place we have not searched for Ava” Jake suggested.

“ No we will not go there,” Luke said with a note of finality. Everybody knew that when never Luke spoke like this, the last thing he wanted is for someone to question this authority or else heads will roll. The search team exchanged looks amongst themselves. They all knew that the probability of seeing Ava in the intruder pack was a 101%. These pack members were known for nothing but crimes against lycanthropy. What surprised the search team was that Luke of all people who shy champion the search into the intruder pack was against it. This act raised lots of questions and doubts but no one dared question, Luke.

The 5 search team members walked Swiftly back to their dwelling to relay the news to Mariah. On getting there, they saw that everyone was thrown into mourning. Wondering what could be the problem they ran to the place where others had gathered like ants to sugar. They saw the body of someone lying on the floor. Luke, just as swift as a snake went round the body and tilted it up. His face fell when he found it that it was Devlin, the werewolf that ran off with Ava and had killed a pureblood. Now people did not cry because a bad werewolf was dead. They cried because if the werewolf who had taken off with Ava was dead, so where could Ava be. When Mariah came into the circle, she ran straight to the dead carcass and started tearing it apart. The others tried to hold her but she injured some in the process. Until Luke pushed her and she hit her head, then she regained her senses.

They finally set Devlin ablaze and the search began for Ava again the next day. This time every pack gathered 5 of their strongest to go into the woods to go find Ava. They did this in solidarity and support for the flawless pack. That raised some sort of hope for Mariah. The 4th pack, the drudes had just arrived and there was still no sign of Ava. The last search which will be on behalf of Ava before they finally stop would be done by the flawless.

As the night drew closer, Luke and the others got ready for the search. They quickly transitioned into werewolves and the search began. And just like the other search, it yielded no result. When the morning came, they all went to Mariah's house. When they got there, they saw that people had gathered at Mariah’s house unlike the usual. They saw Luke and an inconsolable Mariah. That was when they had invincible question marks on their heads, Jake was the first to ask questions.

“ Hey guys why is going on, did someone die?” as he stared at Mariah's action all hysterical.

“ Are you dumb or you are seriously insensitive?” Celia asked in tears stained and a death glare. Celia’s response made Jake, Jeff, Matt, and Tyler more confused. They were scared to speak before, they would piss people off. Then suddenly Luke called out to them, to join him in the sitting room with the elders and Mariah. Alvin the leader of the elders was the first to speak.

“ Mariah no matter what, we want you to know that we will always be here for you”

“ Yes Mariah, losing a daughter and a husband is not a thing of joy, you can grieve as long as you want. The bloodied dress of your daughter is with Luke. “the second elder mark spoke. As he says this Mariah begins to cry again.

“ Ava’s clothes?!, But we did–“ Jeff said

“Yes! Ava’s bloodied clothes were seen by me when I was leaving the woods” he says glaring at that the 5 of them. They all swallowed what they had to say because they knew that look carried a lot of words in them that if they behaved otherwise, they would take Ava’s place where ever she was.

Ava’s burial was slated for the next day because her uncle Luke didn’t want her mother to mourn for too long, something about leaving the dead for too long could open up old scars. At the gate of the burial ground was a picture of a smiling beauty. Ava was not just beautiful on the face but she had beauty in her heart. Her tombstone was just beside that of her father’s. And looking at the two graves, side by side made people’s eyes water often. Looking a Mariah, she looked just like a walking zombie. Her eye had gone inside, into their socket. It felt like she was in Black and White because she had lost every color on her face and body.

Because, she had lost lots of weight, but this was the least of her problems. On the day of TC training, Ava was wearing a black gown. This dress was one of the few her mother had bought for her recently to cheer her up when she got scared of the new boy at school. But now that cloth was all soggy with blood and petrol, in the middle of lined of woods. Just as they set the cloth on fire, cries could be heard from different packs but the one from the flawless was the loudest. Even the deaf could hear Mariah weeping. The pain she had inside of her could be felt by everyone.

After a while, they started to leave one after the other. It remained just Mariah, Celia, Hallie, Luke, and the 5 search team members. Suddenly there was noise coming from outside. People were running into the flawless graveyard and Luke and the others wondered what it could be. Mariah was too hurt to care. Then out of the crowd, Marcus the gamma emerged. He was not the favorite person for most people because he was all about competition. He flourished at the demise of the others and that pissed a lot of people off. Luke looked at him with raised eyebrows and eyes filled with great hatred and distaste. The last time he had an altercation with Marcus was the moment he told him to stand aside with his son but he didn’t listen.

“Marcus, what could it be this time? At least respect the dead, we are mourning and nobody was the Time for your incessant annoying competitions.”

“ Dead? Did you hear you well? As far as I am concerned, No one is dead and particularly not Ava”

Luke gives the other pack members a look and they move towards Marcus.

“Ava, you can come out now”

Everyone turned in the direction of the woods. There was nothing or no one, the moment people started to look away, then they heard rustling g of leaves. They all turned and lo and behold it was Ava.