Heavenly Moonlight

~29~

After watching a couple movies, Tori, Christian, Shelby, Samantha and Stella headed back to their rooms. It was almost one o' clock in the morning and Tori felt her eyes drooping from exhaustion.

Christian grumbled about how his roommates snored all night as he sulked back to his room. She'd met his roommates during dinner earlier that evening. They seemed like really nice guys, but they stunk to high heaven and she'd been struggling not to make a face or gag when they came over to shake her hand. Christian said they stayed out of his way and everything but they made the whole room smell like a combination of dirty socks, sweat, and shit all mixed in one. Tori couldn't help but scrunch up her nose at the description.

She, Stella, Samantha and Shelby arrived at their room. After bidding good night to each other, they climbed in their beds.

Despite being so tired, Tori had a hard time falling asleep. She kept staring up at the ceiling, her mother's words from the nightmare replaying over and over in her head. She knew Christian was right, that their mother would never say anything like that to her and would have wanted her to get out of there, it didn't ease the guilt that was continuously eating at her for not doing anything to save her Mom, Dad, and Mr. Wayne from the unforgiving flames that had destroyed her childhood home.

Her, her siblings and Trevor had been so busy being on the run after the fishing cabin had burned down that she'd pushed all her feelings to the side, ignoring them, focusing on getting to safety.

Now that she was in a relatively safe place where she could start to let her guard down, all the emotions she'd kept bottled up inside were starting to come up full force, causing her stomach to twist in knots from guilt.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get the image of her house out of her head.

She tossed and turned, trying to think about something else, anything else.

She had an aunt and uncle. She focused on that. She focused on the fairytale reality that her aunt and uncle would reach out to her and Christian, that they would form a connection, that they would have more family, that Derek and Alison might even have kids so they had cousins they could grow close to.

She knew her mom didn't get along with her siblings or parents, but Tori still hoped that she and Christian would form some kind of connection with them.

She imagined a reunion where they'd be accepted in the family, where they'd have more family and have people to depend on.

She focused on that, a smile forming on her lips. She closed her eyes, and was finally able to fall asleep.

"So you spoke with them?" Katherine Greene asked her supervisor, Agent Michelle Rakers.

Agent Rakers nodded. "Derek had no idea Laura even had children or what happened to her and Peter. He's been living in Washington for all of these years and has a family of his own. He's in a safe spot up there right now, so he can't come down at this time, but he wants to talk to Christian and Victoria. With Alison, her daughter's gone missing and she's understandably focused on that right now."

Katherine frowned. "What's her daughter's name?"

"Belle Harper."

"I remember hearing about another shapeshifter going missing just before the safe spot was attacked. She and Alison were driving to Alison's mother's house when Belle disappeared. Their car was wrecked pretty badly when it was found to the point it's irreparable, and Alison was found and brought to a medical facility. Luckily, she's fully recovered and was released. She's been out there looking for Belle ever since she's recuperated. She recently got into a fight outside the hospital with someone we suspect had been aiding Caius. We have no evidence to prove that she has conspired with Caius, but as soon as Alison heard the woman could have helped Caius, Alison went after her, screaming at her it's fault Belle could be dead."