The Wolves of Cain

The Casters

Date: 2-16-17

Chapter 11: The Casters

Lena knocks on Ivie's bedroom door because she hasn't come out of her room today. "Ivie! It's Lena. Can I come in?"

Ivie doesn't answer so Lena tries the doorknob. The door swings open silently, revealing a perfectly clean room. Lena sees her sitting on the bed, staring at the wall.

"Ivie, what's wrong?" She asks with sincere concern, having never seen her older sister acting this way before.

Ivie blinks and blurts out, "Something's wrong with me."

Lena takes a tentative step forward. "What is it?"

"I woke up this morning covered in dirt and there were leaves in my bed." Ivie says, like she doesn't believe herself. Lena looks over to the trashcan and sees the leaves thrown away.

Even though Lena isn't the best sister sometimes, she tries to be now for Ivie. Lena sits down beside Ivie and stares at her. "Whatever it is, we'll figure it out together." But she lied, they can't figure it out together because she's already figured it out.

Jerica told her what happened in the woods last night. So when Ivie didn't come out of her room this morning, the pieces had clicked together. "Do you remember going outside? Sleepwalking maybe?"

Ivie just shakes her head no. Lena tries to imagine her older sister with green hair and eyes. It's an unsettling image, one that she won't be sharing with Ivie. Until Jerica helps Lena figure something out, she won't be telling Ivie about her creepy alter ego.

~*~

"Lucas!" Jerica screams across the house. Lucas got home an hour ago and had locked himself in his room, but now he's sprinting up the stairs to save his younger sister.

He freezes when he sees Jerica sitting calmly on her bed, not hurt or being attacked. "What's wrong?" He demands to know, breathing erratic and eyes wide with his fists curled at his side, ready for a fight.

"How did you get here that fast?" Jerica counters.

"I heard you scream so I ran to see if you were okay." Lucas replies without really answering her question.

"I need to talk to you." She responds without pursuing her previous question.

"So you yelled across the house like you were under attack?" Lucas asks incredulously. Jerica smirks and nods at him, loving to irritate him this way.

"Evie wants us to go to the teen club again. She barely got to see us at Ivie's party because her, Alisa, and John had to leave early." Jerica says like it explains everything.

"So? Go on. Have fun." He waves a hand impassively to usher her on.

Jerica lets out a sigh of impatience. "So, Evie wants John to go out too. He sits around and does nothing. Evie promised John that you and Mason would be there in half an hour."

Lucas opens his mouth to say, "Well it looks they're going to be disappointed." But he reconsiders, due to the fact that John is his best friend and they haven't hung out in awhile.

But can Lucas really go out and have fun with everything that's going on? "Fine. I'll tell Mason and we'll go." He agrees quickly before he can decide against it. He should be able to have fun, right?

"Awesome! Actually, I'll just text Mason. You go get ready." He rolls his eyes but goes back to his room to get ready. He puts on a nice, but not dressy, button up shirt to go with his jeans. Then he plays on his phone until Jerica yells that it's time to go.

When Lucas arrives in the living room Jerica announces that she invited Lena too. No big surprise there. But Lucas isn't upset, he's excited to go out dancing with the girl he's starting to crush on.

Who, according to Jerica, thinks supernatural stuff is cool. And whatever's happening to Lucas, whether it's turning into a beast or not, is definitely something supernatural.

~*~

Ivie refuses to go to the club and Lena's secretly glad. She only invited Ivie to be nice, but Lena wants to talk to Jerica about the vine girl thing. And she wants to talk to Lucas about what's going on with him.

Lena isn't blind. She can see it's not just vine girl messing with his head. Lucas confided in her at the party days ago, so she hopes he'll do the same now.

She arrives at the teen club and texts Jerica, only having to stand by the door for a minute before she sees her best friend coming through the crowd.

"Lena! You look awesome!" Jerica compliments Lena, causing her to glance down at herself, slightly self consciously, for a moment. She's wearing a short black skirt and a blue tank top.

Lena's not showing off much because she's not that kind of girl. But there is a slight scoop in her top and her shoulders are showing, obviously, since it's a tank top. Lena's proud of thetan that she's been acquiring since the moment summer began.

Lena's skirt covers everything and is about an inch above her knees. Her dark blue high heels match her top. She's wearing the golden bracelet that she wears every day. It's an exact match, besides the material, to Jerica's silver one that she always wears.

"Anyone you trying to impress?" Jerica asks her best friend suggestively. Lena laughs and only shakes her head. "It's okay, I won't tell Lucas." Jerica says with a fake smile, pulling her away from the door to find Evie and Alisa.

"I'm so glad to see you two!" Lena exclaims when she sees Evie and Alisa.

"You too." Alisa replies with a polite nod. She's a quiet one, kind of like Ivie. The thought of Ivie upsets Lena, but she pushes it away to have fun tonight.

"It's always fun to hang out with you, Lena!" Evie, whose full name is Genevieve Caster, says sincerely.

Alisa frowns at them. "You guys always do fun stuff without me, then talk and laugh about it later."

Evie and Lena laugh, knowing that although Alisa seems jealous, she probably wouldn't have fun with them. "True, but you don't like taking walks at night or swinging on vines from ledges into water." Evie says, her thought process the same as Lena's on the matter.

Lena tries hard not to react to the word vines, and she thinks she mostly succeeds. "And I only do that stuff with you, Evie. You're the brave one." She grins at Evie and they laugh together again.

"Who knew you had a wild side?" Lucas comments from behind them. They jump at his sudden appearance but smile in forgiveness. They're all too happy to be mad.

Jerica comes up at that moment and decides to try embarrassing Lucas. "I'm surprised you came over to talk. You've been such a lone wolf lately." Jerica's only teasing, but he stiffens at the word wolf anyway. Lucas forces himself to relax and rolls his eyes at Jerica.

He abandons the group as soon as they turn their attention from him, shoving through a crowd of people. He feels unsettled suddenly, so he spins around to find that John is following him, being the source of unease.

"Hey, Lucas. Why's Jerica calling you lone wolf now?" Lucas immediately looks away and shrugs, wondering why it's interesting his friend so much.

"Oh, you know her. She's always got new material to torture me with." He tells John with a short laugh. But John doesn't miss the weird way Lucas is acting.

And John Caster's had plenty of practice with weird. He's grown up in a family full of spellcasters, which are basically witches and warlocks, but with a more modern name.

So John knows when something is off, and he's now determined more than ever to figure out what.