As soon as everyone was at the house, we made our way into the backyard. Relief and happiness wouldn't leave me. Damon was okay. He was okay! I think I'm gonna cry again. Yeah, that time of the month is coming. I can feel the cramps already. For once, just for once in my life, someone I love got kidnapped by a psycho supernatural out to get me and didn't get hurt! I couldn't have been happier in this moment. Though Ren had a tiny limp, she was fine. There were those cuts and a bruise, now, on her stomach but other than that, she was gonna be just peachy keen.

I collapsed onto the ground, laying on my back. The Pack lay around me. Ren sat near my head and Edward was leaning against the house, watching the sky. Sarah lay beside me. This was it. This was exactly what I wanted. My Pack, my son, my cousin, my best friend and Ren together doing nothing. It was so comforting that I never wanted it to end.

"Hey, Mom!" Damon shouted. He was laying on his side by Sean. "Can I skip school tomorrow?"

I laughed. "No." Everyone around me laughed with me.

"Oh, come on!" Damon whined but there was a twinkle in his eyes. Shaking my head, I stared up into the sky, getting lost in the beautiful darkness of it. The stars were splattered all over the place, the moon hanging, a bright glowing crescent. This night was beautiful. It could've been storming, snowing or a tornado could be roaming but it would still be a beautiful night. This moment, it was in this moment that I knew everything would be okay. I was happy. I was happier than I've been in my whole life, save for when Damon was born. But this was it. Now, I knew the true meaning of peace because I was in it.

There was talking, laughing and the wolves were playing with each other, just wrestling around like puppies. Mine. This was mine, the Pack, my son. In all my life, I never would've thought I'd make it to this very moment in time.

Smiling to myself, I plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between my thumb and index finger. I remember being eleven, sitting in my parents backyard right after the first werewolf I ever saw had chased me and Edward. I had been playing with a blade of grass just like I'm doing now. Weird, isn't it, how the smallest things can trigger your memory? But, surprisingly, I remember what I thought and it really didn't mean anything back then. But now it did.

I sat up, crossed my legs and looked at the blade of grass. One blade of grass, I thought, could change everything. It could make a field look more beautiful than it once was. I looked at Damon. He was that blade of grass that had been missing from my life and he made it more beautiful. Rafe came padding up to me, tongue lolling out. Yes, Rafe made it much more beautiful as well. The smallest things could change everything. Yes, they most definitely could.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ren stand up. She brushed herself off, slowly as if not trying to cause herself any pain. She took a deep breath of the night air and let it out slowly. Without looking at me, she said, "Nice night."

"Yes, it is," I agreed. She looked down at me then and smiled before walking towards the woods. I narrowed my brows. "Where are you going?" Everyone quieted and turned to see what was going on.

Ren looked back and shrugged. "Places to go," she said, tilting her head. She knew I was expecting more than just that small answer. Losing her smile, she got a serious look on her face, looking to the side. Her eyes narrowed as if squinting at something to see it better but I could tell she was in deep thought. "I've been thinking about going to college." She shrugged a shoulder. "Make something more of my life. I mean, what's an assassin to do when they get old and go hunting one night only to break a hip as soon as they lift their gun?" I laughed along with everyone else. She shook her head. "I just have a lot of things to do. Should've done them a long time ago but...," Again, she shrugged. "Shit happens."

"Will we ever see you again?" Damon asked. He looked a little sad. That's why you don't get attached to people or animals. It makes it harder to let them go. Even though Damon hasn't really spoke to Ren, I can tell he already adored her for helping rescuing him.

Ren smiled sadly. "Only time will tell." The look in her eyes said she highly doubted it but wouldn't breathe the words. The trees consumed her until she disappeared completely from the backyard, from our sight, and from, what I think, our lives. To me, Ren seemed like one of those people who you see only once in your life and when they're gone, they stay gone.

A few minutes later, a howl rose from the woods, echoing the sound that was music to my ears. The Pack answered Ren's call, the chorus of howls soothing me. Goodbye, Ren, I whispered through my mind. Thank you. The wind suddenly picked up and blew my hair around my face. What in the world?

"Is Ren a ghost or something?" one of my Pack members asked.

"No," Edward said, chuckling. "She's definitely not a ghost." Strange, how the wind picked up right after the howls had faded. The world itself was a strange place. You have to get used to it if you're gonna live in it.

"So, Sarah," Damon said. "You're her best friend. Will we ever see her again?"

Sarah had this faraway look in her blue eyes as she smiled. "Ren makes it a point not to get attached to people," she said. "She's changed from when I last saw her, from what I remember. Like she said, only time will tell."

I'd miss Ren. The world would be a lot more dull without her sarcasm and wit. What was wrong with me? I was acting like she was dead, for crying out loud! Not to mention I only met her less than a week ago. But do you know those people who a part of them just stick with you, someone you'll never forget in your entire life? Ren was one of those people. From time to time, you'll think of something and that thought alone will lead you to that person. It's happened to me when some members of my family passed away. To tell you the truth, I think every time I pick up a gun or go into the kitchen, it'll bring back the night that Ren and I held each other at gunpoint. The memory almost made me laugh.

Here, let's just put it this way; the world is confusing and so are the people in it, there are heartbreaks, regrets, pain, happiness and love, you win some you lose some, people you love will eventually die but life goes on. My eyes widened. Life goes on. Even today, I still regret what happened with Ian and my parents, Janice and Damon. For awhile, I mourned over it. But where did it get me? I'm still here, thinking about things that happened in the past. Sure, I'll always be sad about it but now that I think it over, there was death and life was created. My parents, my brother, my grandparents, some people I've come to love had passed on. There was death. Edward has a daughter and I have a son. Life was created. Pretty much, I guess that's the lesson that people need to learn more than anything else in the world. Life goes on.

There are other lessons and meanings in life, such as the meaning of death. For example, there was the definition and the people who caused it. Edward and I were obviously the people who caused, or two of them anyway. Ren proved that in the short time I've known her she was a meaning of death. The real meaning of death; no one can escape it. You can cheat it but later on, it'll come back to get you. Death is always looking over your shoulder, waiting for that day to come when you fall the wrong way or get into the wrong car or are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Death will be waiting no matter where you go.

Not long after Ren left, Ryder and I spoke. I told him I wanted nothing more than for him and Damon to get close, to talk, to do things that fathers and sons do. He told me he still loved me and always did, always will. I never forget the look in his eyes when I told him that I loved him. But I can't love him anymore. It was too hard to love him back again. Maybe one day I would. If Damon wanted me to, I'd work it out with Ryder. Until then, I'll be kicking back, killing people, hunting down my prey on a run and bay at the full moon with my Pack. My life could be shorter than I think.

But even when I die, life goes on.

End

(End song, In The End by Linkin Park)

Title: Cause of Death

Summary: Death is Arra Griffith's life. Being an assassin, surely that is obvious. To her, God is the only one who should judge people but it's her job to arrange the meeting. Hell, she wasn't good at anything else except killing. Maybe she was but she loved the thrill of the hunt, being an assassin werewolf. A whole new meeting is arranged, one she had no part in. Arra is captured for the millionth time in her life but by people who take her to an insane asylum. What's even more scary for her is that they are trying to convince her that she's not a werewolf, that she's not an assassin, that she doesn't even have a son. They try and persuade her that she's been in this institution since she was sixteen years old when she claimed she first turned into a werewolf and killed her baby brother. So, for a little over twenty years, she's supposedly been in this hospital but she remembers everything so clearly. The scariest part, yet, is that she's starting to believe it.

--Q&A--

Q: How long will the story be?
A: Probably between 30-40 chapters. Like Ren says, only time will tell.

Q: Will Ren be in "Unafraid of Death"?
A: Yes, as a matter of fact, she will. She just got here!

Q: How long will Arra be in the insane asylum?
A: Haven't figured that out yet. For awhile, though, I know that. It won't be throughout the whole story but a good portion of it will be dedicated to that since it's what the story is about.

Q: Is Damon in "Unafraid of Death"?
A: Yes, because just like Ren, he just got here, technically. But since they are trying to convince her that she doesn't have a son, not so much.

Q: How far into the future will this be set in?
A: I was thinking about a year, year and a half. Depends.

Anymore questions, feel free to ask in e-mails or reviews and I'll answer them in A/N just so everyone knows. The prologue of this story will be posted probably tomorrow night so if you have ANY ideas for the title, message me in a review or my e-mail before then and you'll get credit, of course.