Eclipse Child |✔|

|25|

You collect Scars

Because you want proof 

that you are paying

for whatever sins you

have committed 

***

My eyes open before the sun has risen. The habits of my sleep wouldn't leave- even if my body still protested in silent waves of diluted pain.

I had enough experience to know that the aftershocks would linger for the rest of the day. I could deal with them though.

"Hello."

I turn to find Orion staring down at me. He sat in the chair that dad had been occupying. Now within the room, it was just me and him.

"Hey."

His eyes glance over me, inspecting my body before he positions himself to look back down at my face.

A sigh leaves him, one that has his shoulders rising and falling in relief.

I sit up, cautiously moving my feet to the side. No pain was set off- it was all the encouragement I needed to stand.

"Let's go."

Without question, Orion stands. I watch him, waiting for the inevitable outcome of skin changing to fur. He doesn't shift though and instead draws closer to me.

Silence hangs suspended around us as we exit the house. The morning still could be mistaken for night. The air was clean, the stars still out while the world around slept in shadows.

Not everyone though.

I see a single person in the distance upon the edge of the porch that looked out across the lake. Coming closer, I sigh when I realize it's mom.

She sits upon one of the chairs, working by flashlight with a single paper and pencil to occupy her. She does not even register the two bodies that approach.

"Mom." I tried to whisper the word, but she still jumped, her eyes frantically whirling until they settled on me.

"Soraya," like Orion, her eyes look me over before she is able to look at my face, "are you feeling better?"

"Ya."

There is an awkward pause while mom tries to hide what she has been drawing. I ignore the wolf that looks similar to Orion, choosing instead to fake ignorance.

"Orion and I are going back to the pack house."

"Oh," she looks to the house where everyone is still asleep, "do you need the car..."

"We can run."

Mom looks at her hands, her words giving away the difference that would always separate her from the others.

"You don't want to say hello to Jay?"

I shake my head and feel my eyes wander to Orion. Dad's words come back to me on Grandjay's strange reaction to him. I would ask him about it later in private.

"I'll tell dad you went back then...Soraya..."

The tone of her voice makes me stop to turn back around.

"I'm sorry that you felt that pain. I wish I could take it away from you."

I step onto the porch feeling my chest tighten at how far away mom looked. She always seemed to have shadows under her eyes- looking now, it was hard to distinguish if it was from the dim lighting or the fact that she had been on this porch, drawing in her own world for too long.