The Hidden Maiden

Chapter 26 - Black of hair

Victoria's POV

*Flashback 7 months ago*

When dad came back, he was already dressed and was holding onto two sets of clothes. The strange thing was he appears to be dumbfounded when he saw me. Mom came back after shifting too, she scurried and held my face tightly.

"Mom what's wrong..?" I asked. "Oh, sweetheart.." she turned my head and examined in different angles while the two other stood aside. Then her weird expression faded into a beaming smile.

What? Why are they looking at me so strangely? The wiseman looked confused as well of my parent's behaviour.

"Of course.." Mom grinned like I was her prized possession. "At first we thought it was odd that you'd have red hair when I have brown hair and your father has black hair. But now, your hair is black again." She caressed my head tenderly. I don't understand.. my hair became black??

She passed me a small mirror for me to look. I nearly dropped the mirror when I thought it was someone else staring back at me. I looked.. so different in black hair. It was like a shade of midnight blue under the sunlight.

Although my features were all the same, but there was still some subtle discrepancy if one looked carefully. Maybe at the point where the spell was lifted, I got back my health and don't look as sickly before. It's true.. my face seemed less tired and sunken. And my eyes...

"My god.. your eyes. They're grey like your mother's! When you were a baby, we thought the grey in your eyes just sort of disappeared when you grew up." My dad leaped onto me to take a closer look. He tipped my chin up and his mouth went agape when he confirmed my eyes were grey. "How did she changed??" Dad asked mom in a frenzy. He seemed to be panicking that something undesirable might come out of this.

"It's the reversal of spell obviously. But exactly why, I'm not too sure myself. But are you feeling alright, Victoria?" She held onto my shoulders and asked. I nodded with pausing. In fact I have never been better.

"Dia, do you know anything?" I asked in my head.
"It's probably due to the fact that you regained your wolf. My hypothesis is that your current appearance is from the mixture of genes from your wolf form and human form. Hence the color change of your hair and eyes. This is what you were supposed to look from the start." Dia explained.

"I guess that's the closest to the truth." From what dad told me previously, they went to the witch for help when I was just a tender age of 1. I wouldn't have any hair on head yet, so they wouldn't be able to tell anyway. I guess this was all side effects of the spell..

Now I'm back to my original state again, it's like my life had a reset button and now it'd been triggered..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Flashback 2 days before the ball*

I looked up at my father with a straight face.
"Must I go?" I asked simply.
"Victoria.. I know you'd hate to do it, but I'm afraid you must. It's an unspoken rule for all unmates shewolves to attend his birthday event. If they realized you were missing, the rising crescent pack will have to answer for us." I frowned and thought of my friends and everyone at our old pack...

Dad exhaled tiredly. "From what I know of Trenton and Renee.. They'd never turn us rouges in official statement. They didn't even knew the exact cause of us leaving, how could they?" Dad chuckled humorlessly, his eyes swirling with sorrow, like he was blaming himself for letting them down.

"If the Royal pack ever questions them about your whereabouts.." I drew in a quick breath, images began flooding into my head. The possible scenarios, the possible outcomes.. Although they don't know our current location, Megan and her family would never sell us out. Who knows what they would say to keep us away from trouble. And when the royal trackers finds out they were giving false information...

That's the thing about lying. You can never stop at one. Megan and the rest will end up playing right into the lion's den.

"And if they do tell the Royal pack about us leaving for no apparent reason, the worst case scenario would be the alpha king dispatching his men to track you down, which all in all, do us no good."

I put away the harp I was playing with and stood up from the sofa. Despite hating the fact that I will see Lewis again, I wouldn't risk anything for their safety. If anything happened to them, to the people I cared about, I'd never ever forgive myself. Besides, I was kind of expecting this. No one can hide in the dark forever. Where there is darkness, light follows.

"I understand." I finally said after a long pause. He nodded sadly.
"And we should pack up. We'll move to a new place when we come back."
"What?! Why are we leaving?" I screamed.
"We can't stay in London for long, there seemed to be a rising number of werewolves in the human areas. I'll come up with a better plan."

"B-but you can't ju-"
"Victoria, please. We have to leave." Dad sprung this on me and then carried on with what he was busy with previously.

He don't understand... He didn't knew I have an attachment here in London. I didn't expect to be leaving this place so soon..

That night, I creaked the door open while my parents were deep in slumber. It was 3 in the morning and the streets were pitch black. I shifted into my wolf in the alley, back of our apartment building. I bit onto my clothes and belongings and sped off into the forest.

I shifted and changed back, then approached him silently, not wanting to alarm the white wolf. He opened his eyes and stalked my movement through the slit of his eyes and growled lowly, almost a death warning.

"It's just me.. Ice." He sniffed the air and realized it was me, then his entire demeanor changed. It was that beautiful green eyes once again, soft and gentle. It's probably an irony to call him Ice.

I kneeled down in front of his big wolf head. His eyes set on me intently, waiting for me to explain myself I guess. I pulled onto my necklace nervously. I had never been in the forest this late to look for him, it's normally daytime. He just simply waited, like he always did for me. Though he wouldn't show it, but sometimes I noticed him looking in the direction where I always came from. Like he was looking forward to seeing me.

Looking at him, my nose turned sour and there was a lump in my throat. And that familiar tightness in my chest, I felt like I couldn't breathe. It didn't occur to me that my lips quivered that badly when I cried. Placing my hands on face, I wept for me and him.

The thought of leaving him saddened me greatly. He would be all alone again, with no one. No family, no friends. It was such a terrifying feeling to be alone in this world, and I don't want him to experience that. But I have no choice. I guess there is no escaping fate after all. My life was like a piece of leaf floating on a river. I'll go wherever the tide brings me. It has always been this way. I left Megan, I left Albus, and now him.

"I'm s-sorry Ice.... I'm sorry.. We're leaving tomorrow.." I hiccuped while explaining the situation, my voice muffled by my hands. "I'm sorry.." I wrapped my arms securely around his furry neck and sobbed loudly, hoping to drain away this misery.

He was silent while I cried my eyes out. I sniffed and wiped away the tears before looking at his reaction. The urge to cry came back when I saw his eyes watered and the same sadness overwrote his expression as they did mine. He whimpered softly and I held him tighter.

I don't know when I fell asleep, but when I woke up again, the first ray of sunlight hit my face. I rubbed away the dried tears on my face and sat up, only to find the den empty. I sniffed the air, and there was no smell of him. So he decided to leave me instead.. I get it. If I were him, I wouldn't want to face myself too. Maybe it's for the better. A quick and precise death is often painless right.

I stood up and walked out of the forest, my heart was numb. Touching my face, I thought I felt someone's hands on my cheeks before I woke up.