Moonless

Chapter 33

AN; 2476 reads and 420 votes! Okay just wow! Anyways, while reading through the last couple of chapters I realized that I called the Blood Moon pack two different names like Red Crescent, and the Red Moon pack. It was supposed to be Blood Moon, but I may change it to Red Crescent because I kind of like it better, Idk, let me know what you all think! Anyways, thanks for reading!-Sam

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The stairway was dark and I could barely see anything. I closed my eyes and rubbed my eyelids with my finger. It was a trick that Bert had taught us to see better in the dark quicker. It often came in handy because the Barn was not very well lit and it was also useful at night in the woods surrounding us, although we tried to avoid going into them after the sun had set. When I opened my eyes, I could more clearly make out the stairwell descending upwards into darkness.

I began to lift my feet one step at a time up the stairs with the rag still pressed against my forehead. I had made it to the first landing when I had to sit down when a wave of dizziness hit me.

"Caesar? Benedick?" I called out. There was no way I was making it up these steps by myself.

I waited and from the top of the steps I heard the sound of movement, and a light appeared above me.

"Aurelia?"'Caesar called, and the sound of my best friend's voice filled me with massive amounts of relief.

"It's me, I need help!" I called out.

Caesar appeared with a lantern in his hand from around a corner. His foam green eyes glinted in the light emanating from its four glass walls. And while I gazed at him, I wondered what made him so much more important to the Alpha than I was. And then I realized, it really didn't matter right now.

He held the light closer to my head. "What happen?" he asked.

"The Alpha did. He was angry that a human from my work came onto pack land."

"Can you stand?" he asked.

I shook my head.

Caesar turned over his shoulder and called "Benedick! I need your help!"

There were more footsteps and Benedick appeared.

"Is she okay!?" he asked.

"No, the Alpha did a number on her," Caesar replied.

Benedick gave me a fearful look. Seeing his usual joy-filled dark eyes look at me like that, made me sad.

"I'm fine, my head got knocked so I feel a little dizzy," I reassured him and even forced a weak smile onto my face.

"Hold the lantern," Caesar said and Benedick took it from him. He bent down to and tugged at something on my back. I realized, with a start, that my backpack was still slung across my shoulder. I had completely forgotten I had even had it on. He took it off and handed it to Benedict too.

I then remembered my parka that I had also been carrying. I must have dropped it in the Alpha's office."

"Can you try to stand just for a moment?" Caesar asked? "I'm going to carry you the rest of the way up."

I nodded. And stood up from the landing, and Caesar swept me up into his muscular arms.

He carried me up the rest of the zigzagging stairs, with Benedick leading the way with the light.

When we got to the top, I found myself in the large, unfinished room that was the attic. Exposed wooden beams mimicked the ceiling downstairs, but they weren't polished like their counterparts and the air was filled with the smell of sawdust. The walls were lined with decorations, broken furniture, and boxes filled with miscellaneous objects. Six cots had been placed in the center of the room. At the end of each cot sat a wooden trunk with the exception of one trunk.

I guessed that its lantern was currently in Benedick's hands.

Across the room, gray sunlight filtered in from the large half-circle glass.

Beatrice was perched on the edge of one of the cots, while twins sat on the wooden floor beside her rolling an old baseball back and forth between them.

Her blue eyes went wide when she saw me. She stood and hurried over towards the boys. I was glad to see that her leg seemed much better.

"She's going to need stitches," she said the moment she reached us.

"No..." I groaned but I knew she was right. I lifted the bloody cloth from my head so Beatrice could examine my wound more closely, before replacing it.

"Get her to one of the cots!" Beatrice commanded. And I'm going to need help from the boys to hold her down.

"They carried me to one of the cots and laid me down."

"Benney grabbed the sewing kit, I'll grab the first aid kit," she called.

I heard footsteps and Caesar's face appeared beside me on the bed. He held a plastic bottle in his hand.

"Here, drink this. It's the rest of the vodka from the night before. I had the good sense to transfer it into a less obvious container. Drink some, you're going to need it for what comes next."

I proper myself up and took a huge swig from it. I nearly ended up spitting it back out when another face appeared above me.

Liam stared down at me with the same golden light as before surrounding him.

Caesar looked over at Liam and back at me. He gave me a puzzled look, and tilted his head up to the ceiling right above my head, before returning his gaze to me

"What are you looking at?" Caesar asked

Could he not see Liam? I remembered that Liam had said that no one could hear him besides me when he had started howling because I had refused to listen to his story. Did that mean he was only visible to me?"

"Do you see anything weird?" I asked

And Liam held a finger to his lips.

"No? Are you seeing anything weird?"

"Just thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye."

Caesar shrugged his shoulder, while Liam leaned closer to my face. I took another swig from the bottle in my hand.

In a couple of moments, I was going to be in so much pain I wasn't going to care if Liam was standing right there. I still needed to dull my senses as much as possible.

"I came here to tell you something," he began. "But now that I see you are injured, that might be a problem. So, I need you to listen to what I am about to tell you. Follow my instructions carefully, little sister."