The Unnaturals

Chapter 20

Books were piled up around me, with barely enough room to sit in the midst of them. I put my hands to my forehead and closed my eyes. At this rate it'd take ten years.

I had already scoured the internet for "magic spells" and "supernatural creatures" and "magic that can make someone disappear" but all I got were websites for magic shows and magicians, historical facts that differed from every website, and things that had absolutely nothing to do with what I was looking for. So, I searched for libraries that had books on supernatural beings and magic that were local, and checked out some of their books online. And now here I was, in the library, sitting amongst my piles of books.

My four hours were almost up. I had thirty minutes left. I knew, now, that there was no way I'd get everything I needed in time. So I'd have to work around the police. Maybe they'd even be helpful.

I'd just about given up and called it a night when I saw something on the bottom shelf, as I was looking down. It was a book, but... it looked... strange, to me for some reason. I grabbed it and tried to slide it out, but it was stuck. Giving it a tug, it came out with a jolt that made my elbow crash into the shelf behind me. I winced, rubbing the sore spot.

Turning the book over and over, I couldn't see what was wrong with it. There wasn't any sticky residue and certainly nothing screaming "not normal" to me besides a feeling...

As I stared at the book in my hands, it dawned on me what it was.

The title made no sense; the letters were out of order.

Teh Giude Of Tials Adn Nihgtmaers

Slowly, I opened the book, a plum of dust stirring in the air the moment I did so. Skipping the title page and dedication page, I went right to the first line of the story, and did a double take. The letters were out of order again. I blinked, and on the page, the letters started lining up, switching places. What came out of that was this:

Only a half-blood could see the true order of the letters. Only a half-blood knows what they mean.

I took a shaky breath. The Guide of Tails and Nightmares sounded pretty clear to me. It should have been titled: The Guide to Real Nightmares. I read the next few lines... and then kept reading.

There is a word for these beings. Vecille, or The Unnatural. All other supernatural and normal beings are natural. The Vecille are not. They are two different types of supernatural beings, while all others are either half human or pureblooded.

The Vecille were once hated, despised, and persecuted. A werewolf and the human form of a phoenix, or a warlock and a kitsune would lie together; perhaps fall in love. What was born, to the others, was an abomination. Their child possessed powers unlike any of the other supernatural. However, most of the time the child would die shortly after birth.

But a few would live, to be either abandoned by their parents for the hope of a better life for their child than running from other paranormal peoples. Sometimes, though, one mate left the other, and the remaining would be forced to give the child to a human family, who knew nothing of its past, or composition. Or other times, when the child did not die after birth, it would be hunted down and killed- after its parents were taken and tortured until death.

I fingered the page. I wondered which one described my real family.

Whatever the case, sometimes the baby ended up on some unsuspecting couples' doorstep, and with no one to claim it, they would often take it in as their own.

But this book is not about all Vecille. Just one. Half Kitsune, half Banshee. The only unnatural supernatural to have bright, glowing, orange eyes.