Moon Child

11. Arianrhod

My grandparents must have known I wasn't leaving my bed because I wasn't bothered at all the next morning. I wasn't completely devastated about Liam, but I sure as hell didn't want to face him, or them together. I woke on my own accord at 10 a.m. I felt sluggish and sick. I didn't have the motivation to move, so I didn't. I only got up to use the bathroom occasionally. I was too embarrassed to face even my grandparents. I was left alone, but I could sense when one of my grandparents would stand outside the door, tempted to check on me, only to change their mind at the last moment. They were trying to respect that I wanted to be left alone, but they were still worried about me.

I, being too embarrassed to leave my room, decided to use the time to try and Google about my newfound abilities on my laptop. The empath stuff came up no problem, but the rest of it was a bit hard to make sense of. Of course, searching about the visions just pulled up a bunch of ads for psychics. I tried searching for things related to the moon, moon goddess and werewolves. I just ended up with a lot of stories and folklore.

I was so engrossed in my research that I didn't leave the house for the next week as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me. If I were honest with myself, I was scared to be around people when I didn't know what the consequences would be. Plus, it was a good way to get my mind off of Liam, and it only worked half of the time. He wasn't consuming my every thought, but he did come to mind every now and then.

The most interesting thing I found during my research was about the Moon Goddess. There were stories of the Moon Goddess having the power to grant love and punish the evil. Another story said the Moon Goddess was directly connected with the Fates and could see the future to protect her creatures, the wolves. The depiction from werewolf knowledge is a glowing figure with flowing white hair, glowing skin, and blue orbs for eyes with irises that mirrored the moon like mine did. It had her in flowing gray Grecian-style clothing that seemed to flow around her without the need for wind.

My research for moon-like eyes got a completely different result. There was a lot of speculation about what it meant, and plenty of forums to prove it. I sighed heavily as I leaned back and took a break. It seemed like it was just something I would have to discover on my own. After the first week of research, I moved on to trying to control whatever was happening to me. I started by focusing on my grandparents thoughts whenever I saw them or felt them outside my door. The more I practiced, the clearer their thoughts were. It wasn't just a feeling anymore; it was as if the words of their thoughts were scrolling across the bottom of a TV screen. It wasn't so loud that it was all I could think about. I worked on turning it on and off, although that was proving to be a lot harder.

"I was wondering when you would stop running from your gift," a voice said from inside my room. I knew that voice.

I despised that voice.

I turned slowly, praying it was just a trick of the mind, but lo and behold, there she was, perched on my vanity with her legs crossed. I couldn't help the way my heart sped up in fear as adrenaline ran through my veins.

"You're not real. You died, and I'm just going crazy. This is another weird tick, that's all," I said, trying to convince myself and make her disappear. I backed myself into a corner and slid my back down the wall until I was curled up with my knees in my chest. She rolled her eyes and hopped down from her perch.

"I am real. You're not imagining me. I know you can feel that much," she said as she came closer. She was right. I felt a pull of connection to her, even though my brain was telling me to fear her from history and habit. She smiled as she motioned to herself.

"Surprise! I'm not really dead," she said sarcastically. I wanted to cry and scream for help, but habit told me to keep my mouth shut out of self-preservation. I didn't want to make it worse.