I Belong To Them

Reality

   My eyes flew open as I took in my surroundings. I was tucked in bed, my white sheets and duvet lying still around me. Allowing a relieved smile to appear on my face, I realized that it was all just a dream. A really messed up dream, but a dream nonetheless. I moved to sit up, but the eye-watering pain coming from the back of my head halted my actions.

               "Don't move," my mother's voice rafted toward me.

               Yeah, a little too late for the warning. I have already suffered through the consequences, but thanks anyway. Sarcasm coated the remark floating around my head.

               If the pain is real... then it must have happened. There is a beast roaming around freely throughout this apartment, and here I am being sarcastic. Blankets and sheets flew into the air, as I did my best to get out of bed, ignoring the protest coming from my body, or attempted to anyways. My feet were bare and the first thing to come into my sight were my fuzzy slippers. I held onto the bed frame with one hand, as I slid the slippers on with the other.

               "Where do you think you're going?" Mom raised her neatly trimmed eyebrows at me, waiting for an answer with an amused smile on her face, apparently at my expense. Sure, laugh at me, but when the wolf thingy comes back and tears you to shreds, don't come crying to me.

               "Far, far away from here," I replied once my feet were covered.

                "And why's that?"

                "I know I'm not the only one that saw that-that thing. Even if I was, I know I'm not crazy. I know what I saw. And when that beast wolf thingy comes back, I'm not going to become it's chew toy."

               I don't know what I said that was so amusing, but my mom let the laugh that she was obviously trying to keep in. I frown clearly not getting the joke.

               Finally, she piped down her chuckles.

               "Roxanne is the wolf. The wolf is Roxanne. They are one." Mom's face remained impassive and emotionless, and her eyes searched my own, as if they were waiting for something. My reaction. She's waiting to see my reaction.

               I found myself slowly starting to laugh, like my mom was previously doing. I clapped my hands together, saying, "Bravo! Bravo! You fooled me. That was a good one mom."

               They were playing a prank on me. It must be that. Roxanne can't turn into a wolf. Even I, a lover of fairy tales since age three, am not that incredulous. I peered at my mom, expecting to see a smile on her face, but instead it remained stoic.

                "You clearly do not understand, Crystal. Come my daughter. The time has come for my own little Pandora's box to be opened." My mother beckoned me forward with her hand and led us both to sit on the bed.

               Mom moved my curly, unruly hair from where it blocked my right eye, tucking it behind my ear.

               "Crystal, I am a werewolf. Roxanne is a werewolf. Your father-"

               "Is a werewolf?" I giggled, thinking my mom was still trying to keep the prank up.

               She blinked, evidently surprised.

               "No," she continued in a calm, almost regretful voice. "Your father is a vampire. He-" she paused, looking for the right word, as if it would appear in mid air, "disappeared a few months after you were born." She paused once more, scrutinizing me from head to toe. " I- I don't quite know what you are. Your father and I clashed often, the dominance level in our relationship was high. You show no signs of a vampire, yet a pup has their first by age eight. I know not what you are, but I know you are something my daughter, You do not portray the scent of humans."

               Mom cupped my cheeks with her hands and made my eyes meet her own. Her eyes swirled from hazel to blue to green and ultimately rested in a blur of all the colors combined. I felt a shiver down my spine, remembering the last time this occurred I fell over with a chair. Mom vanished and a grey wolf took her place on the bed beside me. I moved back, kicking the sheets up as my feet scrambled to get me as far away as possible from the unexpectedly beautiful creature. I heard a whimper of disapproval coming from the wolf and I stopped the process of backing up.

               The wolf made a moved to get closer and realization dawned on me. This is my mom. She is a wolf. She's a friggin' wolf! Seventeen going on eighteen, I thought that I've seen it all. Apparently, I haven't.