The wolf within her

Born beneath a veiled star, the masked one will wake the dormant storm.

Three carved from truth and terror;

One forgotten, one forsaken, one foreshadowed.

When the bloodline awakes, kings will fall,

And the lost shall rise,

To deliver or doom.

IVY

"Don't you ever say that again."Something shattered downstairs.

I jolted awake, heart slamming against my ribs. For a split second, I thought I’d dreamed it. 

My parents didn’t argue.

Ever.

I lay still, listening. 

Then my mother spoke again, her voice lower this time. “She’s not ready.”

“She has to be,” my father snapped.

I didn't understand the words, but they sank into me anyway, heavy and cold. I swung my legs out of bed before I could talk myself out of it.

The hallway was dim, the early morning light barely slipping through the windows. I had just reached the top of the stairs when a sound ripped through the house.

“Ivy.”

My mother was there instantly, faster than I’d ever seen her move. Her hands settled around my shoulders, warm and comforting, turning me back toward my room before I could even look down the stairs.

"What's the matter?" I asked. They looked tense.

“Everything's fine,” she said, smiling too broadly.  “Go back upstairs.”

Behind her, my father stood at the foot of the stairs, his broad shoulders blocking my entire view of the living room.  He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing, my dear,” he said. His voice was calm, but his jaw was set the way it only ever was when something drastic was happening.

My mother smoothed a hand over my hair. “We’re leaving earlier than planned,” she said gently. 

They didn’t say where they were going. They never did. They didn’t have to.

Today was the first red moon in the last six months, and wolves never took superstitions lightly. Mum and Dad would be out leading the others through the Ceremony of Lights, and as their tradition demanded they were to be away the entire weekend. Everyone was. 

Well, except me.

I tried not to let the emptiness seep in again. I should be used to it by now, but it never gets better.

I nodded my head stiffly, and my mum gave me a sad smile. 

"Stay safe, Ivy. Have fun on your trip, we'll call you," Dad said.

I watched them leave through the front door and go out into the street.  

Turning my back to the door, I knew that once I checked again, they would have vanished.

The room stood still as if it could tell I was observing it slowly and it was all I could do not to run downstairs, though I knew it was in vain. 

They were already gone.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Talia.

“Ivy, you up?” I heard her ask.

“Unfortunately.”

She chuckled slightly; she was used to me now. Several years of friendship and I never understood why she stuck with me. Even in person, Talia had an air of dignity. She was never bothered about anything-everything was under her feet.

"The bus leaves at 6.  You’d better be there, I’m not sitting next to Townsend. He’s been drinking since earlier today,” she complained.

It’s not like anyone else was going to sit next to me. I was quiet, and besides Talia and a few of my mother’s friends, no one really spoke to me. My father loved me, and my mother pampered me, but I was always overlooked by everyone else in my father’s pack. They respected me because of his position and would never dare to even breathe the wrong way next to me. But no one ever really knew me, some days I wasn’t sure if even I did.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll get ready now. I wouldn’t want you to inhale vodka the entire ride to Los Angeles,” I told her. “I would actually kill you if that happened. I’ll send you a text when I’m at your house to pick you up.” she said.

Such an angel. 

“Thanks, Talia. Love you” I said. 

I stood up from my bed and walked to the bathroom.   Reaching for the light switch — I froze.

I could see. Perfectly.

I was probably just overthinking it. Talia would be here in a few hours and I didn’t want to die for letting her sit next to Townsend.

My bathroom looked like any random one. Flowery tiles decorated the walls and pink towels and toiletries lined the edge of the bathtub. A large sink held my brush and skincare products, and a floor to ceiling mirror was stationed on the far right.  Cracks ran down the corners of the wall, and pots of aloe vera hung on my windowsill to ward off ‘evil spirits.

Did I mention that wolves were superstitious?

She placed this one on my bathroom door when I was about three years old. I remember my mother crashing out when I had climbed a stool to check it out, removing it in the process. To this day, I’ve never understood what that was all about, it wasn’t that anything particularly bad had happened.  In fact, right at that moment, I remember feeling significantly stronger, it felt like my world had turned right side up after being at an angle all this while. But my mum looked so frightened that I never asked about it. 

I showered quickly, already dreading agreeing to go on this tour to Los Angeles with Talia, but I knew the main reason I did was so that I wouldn’t be alone again while my parents were out. I wanted to feel like I had a life too, that I didn’t feel left out from the culture of my family.

Like I wasn’t an oddity.

I emerged from the bathroom and started tossing random clothes into my backpack. I packed for two days although I had a strange premonition I wouldn’t stay that long. 

Ignoring the strange tingling sensation that ran down my spine, I put on the pair of jeans my mom got me last summer and paired them with one of my father’s flannel shirts; I wasn’t getting glammed for a trip where half the students would be asleep or doing the immoral.. It was a student-organized trip, so no adult would be there to supervise.

Humans have too much faith in their offspring. 

Well, technically I am human. Just one living amongst monsters. 

Placing my fully packed luggage on the ground, I looked around my room to see if there was anything I’d forgotten.

I patted down my shirt and was about to blow off checking the mirror when I felt compelled to look at my reflection. But there was nothing out of the ordinary, just my oversized shirt and terrible bed hair. 

“This mirror is so dirty,” I said moving to wipe the smudges off with my shirt. I was doing so when I realized something was amiss.

My reflection didn’t move.

“What the f*ck?”

IVY

It was still standing where I had  been moments before.  My heartbeat lurched as if it had missed a step.  I waved at the mirror, and it didn’t follow my movement. The first thought that came to my mind was that it resembled one of those mirrors in hotels with people watching behind them, but my mirror wasn’t even attached to the wall. So unless there was a spirit lurking beneath the cracks of the glass, I was losing my mind.

I was afraid to look away so I could catch it changing, but apparently it couldn’t care less whether I saw it or not because in a split second, it changed back to normal.

It was so subtle that it was as if there was never anything wrong with it.  I backed away slowly, scared my reflection might jump at me.  Maybe the universe was glitching, or it could be because I woke up early for the first time in years. I always tried to tell Mum that waking up before six was breaking an ancient law, and now she wasn’t here for me