Bloodbath

I heard footsteps behind me, soft and gliding. I quickly turned around, my heart racing. Nobody had reason to go through this same route right now. They were all at the party, and I had to be careful. 

“Who is that?”

No response. 

“Who is there? I'm warning you, I have a knife!” To prove my point, I placed my hands at my waist, my heart beating like a drum. I stepped away from the light and hid in a corner. I stayed ready to fight for my life, till I saw my mum come out from the shadows, walking really slow. 

“Mira! Honey? Where are you?”

Oh. 

“Mum, it's you. Sorry about that.”

“About what?” she asked, and I shrugged it off. 

“Anyway, “she continued, “I'm sorry about all that drama at the party. And Alpha Khal. How are you holding up?”

I felt the tears rushing to my eyes, so before they came out, I turned away from my mother.

“It's fine. I'm fine. Could you go back to the party? We'll talk after.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, a frown staining her features. 

“Yes, I am. Go back to the party. ”

“I love you, Mira.”

“I know.”

After some time standing there and saying nothing to each other, she turned away and went back from the way she came, dry leaves crunching after every step. I waited till I was sure she had gone before breaking into tears. 

I didn't ask for any of this. I just wanted to be a wolf. To fit it. Instead I became a stupid witch. 

And I didn't even do anything bad! I just existed, and the whole world seemed to hate me. I continued walking home; I didn't want anyone to see me crying. The night air was chilly, and the full moon seemed to be shining even brighter than usual. I said a quiet prayer to the moon goddess and sprinted the rest of the way to my house. 

When I got home, I got a glass of water and headed straight to my room. I no longer wanted to be a witch or a healer or even a wolf. None of it! I was sick and tired of all the pressure, and the drama from everyone. I went into the hallway and grabbed a backpack from my dad's supply pile and dumped out all the weapons he had in them so I could make space in it.

I was done with all of it. I grabbed my sage bundles and stuffed them into the bag, incense and crystals going after it. I tossed in all the candles I had made and opened my drawers to bring out the jars of herbs I had stored in there. 

When I finished, I zipped the bag shut and looked all around my room, taking in how bare it looked now. I didn't care much that it was now bare. The reincarnate had been waiting for hundreds of years, so it could definitely wait some more. It should bother someone else. 

As I had these thoughts, I heard a loud howl from the celebration area. I knew it was probably because of the full moon. So many wolves and a huge full moon, what did I expect? Soon enough, many different howls joined in, loud and discordant. 

A chill washed down over me again, and I brushed it off, thinking it was probably just paranoia. I tugged on the backpack and went on the way to the dumping site, where I would leave all these things to rot. 

It was a 20 minute walk and I didn't take a flashlight because the moon was out and shining, and because the bag was heavy and I really didn't feel like carrying anything that was too heavy. 

About 3 minutes into my walk, I heard a loud scream from a child and saw Elise and a few others running back into town with them. 

“Oh, Mira. Run!” she said, ushering the little kids into a house. I saw that the other people were scared too, so I helped her get them in and asked, “what's going on?”

“There's a bloodbath. The two packs are fighting! Oh - and I think your dad has been hurt. I didn't see your mum.”

I felt a pang of pain hit me hard in my chest and decided to ignore whatever it was. I pinched my skin to be sure it wasn't a dream, and when I did, I told Elise I was going off and ran towards all the noises. 

On the way, many of the pack members had reverted from the wolf form and were running back home, but I was doing the opposite, going into the danger headfirst. 

Immediately I arrived at the celebration grounds, I let out a scream I didn't know I was holding. The fight seemed to be over, but there was blood everywhere. Sticky and on the grass, over bodies stuck in their wolf form and just one human. As it turned out, the human was my mother. 

“Mum, please. Don't go!” I yelled, applying pressure to a wound I knew was too big. 

She smiled weakly at me and the tears fell even faster. 

“Mum. No.  Not yet. I can heal this. I'm a witch, I can fix it. Please. ”

She shook her head slowly, and pointed at one corner.

“F-father,” she croaked, and that was the last word she ever said to me. 

“Please,” I whispered, looking up at the moon. I wanted to appeal to the goddess, to take all of this back. This couldn't be happening. Could it?

When I looked back down, my mum was no more alive than she was before, so I went over to where she pointed. Maybe my dad was there. She was trying to tell me something, and I didn't listen enough to her when she was alive. The least I could do now was obey her last words. 

What I saw took my breath away. 

My dad lay on his side, one hand stretched under his tall frame. He was bleeding from everywhere, and I didn't know what to do. I ripped the hem of my dress and tried to wrap him up, to stop the bleeding. 

They couldn't both go, could they? The moon goddess couldn't possibly be that cruel to me?

It was pointless. Within a few minutes, he had bled out, and I sat down in the field of blood. What else was there for me? What had happened? Why did any of this happen all of a sudden ?

I sat there, tears streaming down my face, waiting for answers to fall out of the sky.