Moon Tears

Chapter ♡ 14

I feel guilty taking all of Seth's attention so I leave him alone the rest of the picnic to talk with all the others. He's our leader, our Alpha, and everyone has concerns to raise with him or just wishes to speak about what's on their mind.

Seth is a natural listener. I pick up on it when I sit back with Jack and we eat our sandwiches together. Watching Seth listen to others from a distance makes me realise just how selfless he is. Some people were compassionate, but Seth takes it to another level. He completely engages someone when they talk, with eye contact and relaxed posture. He hears every word. He takes on their energy and shares the burden.

Then I start to realise that no one listens to Seth. As in, no one has listened to his story.

I said one sentence to him during that picnic, engaging him quickly, "Hey, Seth! Why don't you tell us your story about why you became a therapist? The passion behind it, the origin, I mean," I want to know.

"I'm planning to when we go camping," Seth responds with both a cool and easy answer, looking at me for a moment before Clyde engages him in a topic about how best to work out with weights at the gym. Seth is clearly happy for that change in subject.

From that point on, the picnic continues without fault while I think about Seth's natural power to hear and heal.

It makes me feel uneasy deep down with the comparisons I can easily make with the nicest people interviewed in documentaries, who had been through the most horrific losses or tragedies.

Without knowing his background, all I want to do is hold him.

His silence on his life is the only red flag I can gather from Seth.

I knew drugs were bad, I knew Awstone was a werewolf drug that stopped feeling for the wolves who took it.

I can't think beyond that.

In two more nights we have the next talking group therapy session and during that night, Seth and I have minimal interaction. Simply because there's no time with the shocking story Jim tells us from his childhood. He was sexually abused by his mother selling him off for Awstone. Jim was much older now, he hadn't thought about the memories for decades. They had all been blocked out after his mother was brutally murdered by a controlling boyfriend. It was from that point that he blocked out every memory from his childhood after she was gone. It was heavy. Someone who should have been protecting him was the one who sent him into hell, "I did witchcraft the night before she died, I was twelve," Jim had ended the story with this, "I wanted justice. I didn't believe in God. But I preyed for vengeance. I think my wish... might have..." he trails off, unable to finish it. It's the first time one of their stories has had a connection to the supernatural, "I only remembered everything after I turned to God recently. It was like a curse on my memories lifted and I could remember every detail. Now I work to foster aggressive dogs, I love animals, I help foster kittens too. I do everything I can to help animals, but I don't... I don't like people that much," Jim admits this with a bit of a grim smile, "Except for you guys, obviously. Seth... I want your opinion. Can I redeem myself?"

"Redeem?" Seth is confused, "Jim, you were a child."

"The witchcraft," Jim gets choked up, "I – I think I'm responsible for her – for her..."

"Jim, that's not how it works. I know only a little about this but... tomorrow, after art therapy, a witch called Sail is going to speak to all of you, she can explain it better. But to put it short, in supernatural terms, the energy of your mother as a wolf, putting you in harm's way, those choices attracted her end, she set that up, not you," Seth tries to explain, "You, your words and your thoughts, that's you trying to survive. To feel okay. We imagine whatever we have to, to get to somewhere safer. You lived another day. You survived."