Obscuria

Chapter Seven - Ever-Growing

When I first discovered who I really was, I thought that hiding would make me feel mysterious, protected, even safe. Even after a few days, I found out that that isn't the case. All it really does is make me even more afraid of being seen as I really am.

It's been four days since I first set foot in the Settlement with Piper, the moment I entered being the moment that changed my life. I may have forgotten the true significance of that moment. However, as I sit once again within the walls of the Supernatural Settlement, I get the vague and uneasy feeling that something is going to happen tonight. Something big.

I finish my dinner - potato salad - with Everly and Crow on a Friday evening, Alex sitting closely next to me. Crow is reading a Hallowswift book and drawing on his hand, Everly using her phone.

"Oh, shit, I didn't notice the time," Mona suddenly says in a panic, standing up abruptly. "Guys, I'm going to have to go to the garden, okay?"

"Huh?" says Ambrosius. "It's that time already? Please be careful, Mo." His voice holds an aura of worry and nervousness woven in with an undertone I can't quite place my finger on.

Mona opens the back door and runs into the Settlement's garden with the speed of a wolf - which is when realisation suddenly dawns on me as I remember the appearance of the moon a couple of days ago. Through the door I get a glimpse of her running deeper into the garden and towards its core, where no one in town can see or hear her. No one but us.

That's when I hear it: even though the door has abruptly been closed, I can't mistake the vague, muffled sound of guttural wailing and screeching. My entire body begins to tremble at once. The sound goes on for about two minutes, then fades into a howl. A part of my mind still needs to realise it's Mona, having once been a human, once been a person, but cursed to turn into an animal every time the moon is in full power.

"I-" I mumble shakily, not knowing exactly what to say. "I wanna go home. Back to the Manor."

No one stops me; no one even questions why. Alex follows me out of the door and doesn't say a single word. The others just leave us to run back home, not taking a single step back, not even stopping for breaths. Getting to Obscuria Manor - and away from that wolf - is the only thing that occupies every surface and crevice of my mind.

Alex catches up. I knock hard on the front door, the sound echoing in my head, my body still quivering from the anxiety from having been so close to a live werewolf on a full moon. As usual, it's Grandma who answers the door. She sees my shaking wreck of a body on the other side.

"Alex, Misty..." she says, and I get the feeling she's thinking, not again.

But she doesn't tell us off. Doesn't give us any warning to stay away from those people, as I'd expected.

"Sorry, we just-" breathes Alex. "We just came back to watch a film with you guys."

Grandma's eyes twinkle with what I can only assume is flattery. "Watch a film with us?" she says, her mood changing almost instantly. "Of course. Come on in. And Misty, that jumper looks immaculate, where did you get it from?"

"What?"

The question catches me off-guard. I look down at my jumper, and I could swear I had been wearing the indigo one from Primark - but now, instead of indigo, it has turned green, the exact same money-coloured green that Grandma is wearing.

Did I do that?

*

I wake up to a Saturday morning in my bed: the first Saturday here at the Manor. Alex and I had felt obligated to choose a film to watch last night just to keep up his excuse, and we'd decided on Mulan because it used to be my favourite when I was eight, even though my taste has changed drastically since then. Although, I must say, it was certainly a distraction from the anxiety induced by Mona's screeching and howling.