Oracle of Wolves

XVII

"What is it?"

"I need to go back to the orphanage," I stood up so that now I had to look down at him," It's just a routine check. I don't suppose you want to come with me?"

"I would love to," he stands as well and offers me his hand to hold as we walk out together. The small sparks of electricity that shoot through our hands and up my arms feels too good to be put in words.

The car ride is silent as we go down the long and twisting roads to the orphanage in the middle of the woods. When we get there I see Faye kneeling on the porch steps in front of the door with her pentagram clasped in her hands as she prays to her own God and Goddess.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and ran over to her the moment we got out of the car, kneeling next to her I see the tear streaked face that she wears along with the guilt stricken eyes. I take the face of my poor friend into my hands and force her to look at me.

"Faye, what's wrong," I whisper to her. She looks at me with those black eyes that once held so much power now look sad and fearful. She shakes her head for a second before answering me through her tears.

"Milly's gone, Nova."

____

Tyler and I followed Faye as she went up the stairs of the house in a daze, like she had just woken up or something as she slowly walked up the stairs and to the room that holds the deceased child.

"What's going on," he said to me for what feels like the 15th time. I let out a sigh before answering him.

"After you left things got worse here," I looked down," More children got sick and poor Milly's been hanging on by a thread for days now."

"How many kids are sick?"

"There's 3 others, Janice, Georgiana and Holden."

"Georgiana's sick?"

I turned to look at Tyler when I heard the pain in his voice. He looked sad and a bit scared that this little girl was sick of all of them. I wonder why these two were so close out of no where. They don't even know each other.

"Yes."

"And when you said that Milly was hanging on by a thread you mean that she's..."

"She died in her sleep last night," I shook my head and wiped away a tear," That's the only good side to this disease; it only ever takes them in their sleep."

He went silent after that, lips pursed together in concentration. He held my hand a little tighter after I'd said that, like he was using me as his anchor to reality as he lost himself in his mind.

Faye stopped outside of a starch white door with a little daisy painted near the top and a name written in elegant cursive under it. Milly's name. Milly's door. Luna Catherine had come in one day and helped Faye to do designs on each of the kids doors, Milly had chosen a daisy. She loved daisies. Faye turned to face us and wiped her eyes.

"She's still in her bed," she whispered in a quiet, broken voice, like she was trying not to wake up a sleeping child," I was going to wait for you to come before asking the boys to come help me bury her."

"That's alright, Faye," I said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder," You did well. You should go check on the other children, I'm sure their worried and confused."

She nodded before walking off down the hallway to the playroom/ living room. I wiped my own eyes before going in to see her.

There she was. The perfect little girl, so sweet and angelic in her little white nightgown and brown hair neatly fanned out around her head. Her eyes were closed, the beautiful browns forever shut off to the world.

I went over to her side and sat on the edge of her bed, taking her small, cold hand into my own. I bent my head over her and began to whisper some words of an ancient language. The language of wolves themselves.

After saying the prayer, a globe of pale yellow light rose from her chest and into the air, disintegrating as it rose until there was nothing left. Tyler and I watched it go and stared at the air for a long while after it had gone.

"What was that," he whispered. I smiled at him as his stared at the ceiling, awestruck.

"That was her aura," I replied, standing," I released it, now she can go..."

"Go where?"

"I don't know."

I brushed past him, but he followed me either way. I groaned when he didn't relent on asking me. I really don't like to talk about this. I've seen enough death, I really don't know what to make of the after-effects of it. What is it? I can't say for sure, but all I've ever seen was complete and total darkness. That's all the others have ever seen too, I know, I've done more than enough research on it, but I still can't find it in myself to tell everyone else that. So what do I do?

I dodge and ignore and they forget.

But this.

This is my mate.

He won't forget and I can't dodge and ignore.

How can I avoid telling him that I have good reason to believe that there's no peace after this?

"Nova," he says when he catches up to me, pulling me out of my own thoughts to realize that we were no longer in the house," There's nothing after, is there?"

I averted my eyes from his probing ones, that was answer enough for him. He just sighs and pulls me into his chest, kissing my hair. I put my own arms around his waist and bury my face into his chest to keep back tears. Damn it, I think, why does this always make me emotional?

You know why, Nova.

"I didn't think so," he whispers to me," But if there's nothing, why bother releasing her aura?"

"Because," I shrug," It offers peace to the body and those around her. Her spirit can become one with nature now but Milly is gone, her body is all that's left now."

"It's okay, you know. There's nothing you can change about the circle of life."

"I know," I say, adding 'but it's my job' in my mind. My wolf whimpers at that thought, she shares my feelings on this subject so it's a little touchy for both of us.

Hey, guys. So I don't actually know what happened with the cover, it just changed from the picture it was on to the cover photo that was for a different story I was working on. I put up a new cover because I couldn't find the one I used to have for it. Sorry.