Burning

Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT

How ironic that now that she could wander the entire lodge by herself she preferred to hide in the room with Mariah. They'd offered her a room to herself, at least while her burns healed but Gabby knew her new positive celebrity status wouldn't cancel out their fear of Mariah' infamous temper. She wasn't expected to go anywhere or do anything, so other than when it would seem weird not to, Gabby hid. The less contact she had the safer she would be. And it worked. She was almost out of the lodge for good. Nana was coming this evening and after the first day of the reunion tonight she would be free- or as free as she could be under the guard of a small den. From what Mariah said it was nothing like the security here. She would be able to go out into town, talk to other humans, hell even have a job as long as she didn't do anything suspicious or try and leave the area. Nana was sympathetic towards her too- she could easily be convinced to let her watch her family from a distance. She just had to get through tonight. The nightmare wasn't over, but it would be less terrifying soon. If only she could get rid of her other ones. It didn't seem to matter how many lights she left on, she woke up over and over at night with the lingering image of a gun pointed at her or the glint of teeth over her neck. Sometimes if she spaced out during the day she would hear the guttural death gurgle of her friend on the bathroom floor. Mariah gave her pills at night to 'shut her up' explaining that she kept mumbling or calling out. She said it with a nasty expression but also shoved a cute stuffed animal to hold, a pig, in her arms just to make sure Gabby remained thoroughly confused by her motives.

The only unfortunate part of being in Mariah's room was that Chris would come by occasionally to collect her for whatever activities they were supposed to be doing as mentor and apprentice. Gabby couldn't imagine it was much given how ill he continued to look although he was improving rapidly. He no longer seemed to need a crutch to rest on periodically and he seemed to be coughing up less blood. She couldn't be sure since he'd given her a wide berth. That only made sense. It wasn't fair that she told him she wished she never knew beterni existed since it made her terrified of him and in the same breathe admitted she was probably in love with him. Except, it could never be the real him.

He hadn't been rude to her in fact just the opposite. He was polite, aloof. He ignored attempts to continue their conversation like it never happened. The only time she'd recognized the boy she was used to was when she offered to give him back his necklace wherein he responded with one of his soul piercing stares and finally asked if she'd like to kick him in the stomach while she was at it. Gabby didn't understand but as much as it hurt, maybe it didn't matter. She was leaving and he seemed determined to pretend she was already gone.

The only other place she liked to be was in Hannah's room. Prim and Hannah didn't care about what happened in the church the same way the others did and for some reason Gabby was less intimidated by them despite the fact she was more likely to be physically injured with a werewolf puppy around. Maybe that was why. She knew what could set her off. The human born ones acted more like, well humans. Behavior was not always straightforward.

Today she had just finished seeing the pup who had enjoyed tying flowers into her hair while Gabby did the same for her. For someone that was nearly killed by a pack Hannah seemed oddly calm about seeing them again. She gave Gabby the same odd speech from the first time when she tried to ask Hannah how she felt about the reunion and then returned to her usual self. She was more interested in preparing for the evening then discussing what would be happening there. Apparently since it would be Spring all the beterni from her Pack would have flowers in their hair and fur as was fashionable. It dawned on Gabby that she'd never considered werewolf fashion before and had simply assumed she would be seeing a bunch of wolves. That's what the rest of them made it sound like at least.

She expected Mariah to mock her when she entered looking like she'd been frolicking in a hippie commune but instead she seemed pleased.

"The other leaders will appreciate you following their customs so you can thank Hannah for that. A human has never been to one of these gatherings, it will be... interesting. Every bit helps."