A raven-haired worshiper of the Titans--Hekate and Nyx--is determined to save her lover from an ancient curse, she must prove to him that life is worth living and that being a werewolf has its perks.
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Lycius strode down the hall of portraits -- or the gallery of his ancestors who stared aimlessly at the opposing walls, yet he felt their gaze burning holes into his spine. Shame. He felt ashamed for what he was about to do. His grandparent's eyes seemed to glimmer in sadness, so he moved a little faster past them feeling a phantom pain in his hand when he avoided contact with his mean grandfather. He lingered in front of the most recent portrait, the one of his family with his mother and father's hands on his shoulders. It was lighter than the others and lacked the red motif that was prevalent in all the other paintings. Instead of heavy red drapes in the background, his mother had selected a pale blue wall for them to sit in front of with brighter casual clothing to bring out the liveliness in us. He remembered her reasoning with his father, convincing him to break tradition and go with a simple blue theme and how betrayed his father had felt though he didn't fully understand why. Maybe they both felt the pressure of our dead predecessors, maybe his parents felt the weight of their presence in the corridors at night like he did.
The artist had made their eyes stand out in a vivid azure and he felt the artist had truly captured the distance between each of them. They were alien eyes looking back at him. He stared at his younger face, at his raven hair that had grown much longer now and didn't jut out like the head of a porcupine. He then studied the silly ruffled shirt his mother made him wear that day. He hated it, fussed and complained that it was itchy even though it was made of the softest fabric. He felt like a dickhead then but now he was considering buying a new one to impress Rhea.
She was starting to come to school in strange clothing, still in black, but now with skirts running down to her ankles, and long-sleeved blouses, with glittery violet make-up fading into the arches of her plucked eyebrows. Teachers were calling her out for her make-up, which was fair enough, but when they were calling her out for the "depressing costumes" he would insert himself at her defence. In the end, he would piss off everybody. Rhea for fighting her battles too aggressively and the teachers for being unreasonably difficult and a "menace with no cause".
They had shared an after school detention where he learnt that Rhea was upset that the country didn't celebrate Halloween like they ought to. That she would kill for a proper Halloween party...
When he got home he endured the scolding of his mother and the verbal thrashing of his father as he transformed into a beast. Lycius was frightened however Rhea's words had rung through his head as his father stomped about as a werewolf in the house.
He waltzed down into the kitchen and started making his father a sandwich and poured a cup of orange juice. He peered at the empty doorway before reaching into his trouser pocket to pull out his mother's antidepressants. The ones that knock her out at night.
He crushed the pills using a mortar and pestle and ground them into a fine powder before pouring the dust into the juice and stirring it in.
Lycius ran up and left the tray at his father's bedroom door in a cold sweat and waited.
