Monsters Beyond the Gate

Chapter seven: Anywhere But Here

There was a moment in which the entire world felt like it stopped turning. Time froze. Nothing moved, aside from my heart beating rhythmically in my chest.

*ka-thump* *ka-thump* *ka-thump*

"Is it really you?" I whispered.

The green eyes moved away as my mother stood. Her long auburn hair cascaded down like a beautiful waterfall. Her face was sun-kissed, but hardly looked any different from when I had last saw her. She was adorned in a silky, emerald colored robe that complimented her eyes.

"Yes, Adeline, it's me." Even though her smile was soft it didn't quite reach her eyes.

I sat gaping at her for a few more moments. could it really be her, after almost ten years?

She looked calm, but her fingers nervously played with the hem of her robe. "You've grown," she said suddenly.

I set my jaw and stared at her with an even expression. "That tends to happen to a child during the span of ten years." My voice had a bitter edge to it.

My mother sighed as if she'd been expecting that reaction. I tried to get up, tried to face her straight on, but I still felt too weak to move. I looked down to see bandages adorning my arms.

"Adeline...I can explain. I can explain everything, I swear, but right now you need some rest."

"Whats wrong with me?"

"You were poisoned with Wolfsbane," she grimaced as if even uttering the name of it was painful, "Rogue humans use the plant to create a substance out of it and then they set traps all around the forest. It's their greatest weapon. Usually deadly to us wolves. It's a miracle you've survived this much exposure to it."

I stared at her in disbelief. "When you say 'us wolves' you're implying that you, yourself, are a wolf? And that I-I-" I cut myself short, unable to finish my sentence.

My mother nodded, "And that you are as well, Adeline."

I blanched at this information, "But, I-I've never been bitten, and if I inhaled or ingested anything with the virus I would have changed already!"

She shook her head in dismay. "There are things that they don't tell you inside those walls," she said bitterly and stared off into space.

My head raced. It had to be some sort of trick. There was no way this could be real, I thought. Perhaps it was all a dream or some terrible hallucination.

I started to hyperventilate. The room spun around me.

"Constance, come quickly!" Mother called.

The door to the room flew open and a woman who looked to be in her mid-fifties with short gray hair, came running inside.

"What is it, Merida?" she asked my mother.

"I think Adeline needs a bit more Valerian root."

The Constance woman nodded in an understanding way. She rushed out of the room and returned a few moments later with a tea cup in her hands. Its contents were steaming.

"Here you are, Darling, drink this, it'll calm you down a bit and help with the pain."

I lifted my head as high as I could manage and took a few weary gulps. within moments I was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer.

****

When I opened my eyes again it was to a cold room with sad, gray walls and a small window that let in the meagerest of light.