House of Moonlight (Halren)

two- "Normal is relative."

It's disheartening...the idea that as an introvert there will come a time where you will be forced to confront the fact that you will have to interact with people you don't know. You feel alien, out of place...you know you don't belong but society forces you to change your mind.

You do belong. Halsey kept the words repeating in her head. They replayed over and over again as her eyes scanning the room.

It was hall, not an overly big one, but decently sized to accommodate the twenty other bodies in the room with more than enough space to breathe. Chairs were arranged in a circle, the overhead lights were shining a fluorescent white, they cast sharp shadows of ever individual and Halsey felt like those shadows were slowly growing closer to her with each passing second.

Dinah was off chatting to a shorter brunette, the communicated loosely through hand gestures, loud laughing and seemingly aimless chatter that Halsey didn't really care for.

The blue-haired girl kept close to the pillar favouring the left side of the room and simply observed. Her eyes scanned every crevice of the place as if looking for an escape but so far she came up with naught. She was stuck there.

Stuck with a tall, overzealous blonde, her equally overzealous smaller friend, a councilor trying to get everyone's attention and a bunch of delinquents who didn't seem to care much about listening.

She didn't want to be there. It wasn't that she didn't feel like she wasn't supposed to be there...she simply didn't want to be there. Nothing about the place welcomed her...but then again, not much really did anymore.

Please, try to make a friend. Her mother's plea seconds before her departure and despite herself, Halsey wanted to at least try to appease the woman.

"Hey Dinah," She approached the pair carefully, figuring her roommate was a safer option than anyone else in the room.

"Blue!" The blonde's smile widened drastically and Halsey fought against the idea of flinching at the girl's slight squeal. "Yo, Walz, you gotta meet Blue, she's pretty cool."

Halsey didn't really understand why Dinah would assume that. They hadn't really spoken more than a few sentences to each other and the conversations had both times been bleak at best.

"I'm Camila," The brunette extended her hand tentatively and Halsey accepted the gesture timidly.

"For now." Dinah scoffed, causing the blue-haired girl to cast her a frown but a stern glare from Camila seemed the blonde's lips.

"So what brings you to the nut house?" Camila had a raspy voice, Halsey noted, but it was smooth. She found it kind of soothing to hear. Though her words were a little jarring. Were they allowed to refer to the place as a nut house? "Shit, was that insensitive? Sorry, my mind gets a little...out of sorts sometimes."

"It's fine," Halsey shook off her discomfort and hugged her arms to her chest.

"Well Dinah here has dependency issues," Camila nudged her taller friend with a smirk. "Dependent on booze, dependent on pills and as of late, dependent on lil 'ole me."

"I don't need you." The blonde scoffed.

"What about you?" Halsey dared to direct the question at Camila.

"What about me?" The brunette lost all traces of earlier humour as her brown eyes darkened upon meeting Halsey's.

The oldest of the three girls took a hesitant step back as she noticed the predatory nature Camila's eyes had taken. It was like a switch had flipped through Halsey's question and Camila had lost control of herself. She looked blood-thirsty.