Blood Moon Rising

Chapter Two

There was no explanation. None her mother could give anyway. None six pre-teen girls could fathom.

It was just one of those things... The girls must have dreamed it, been drinking, wanted attention etc etc.

Or the most popular option... It had been those Johnson girls in crazy old Aggie Johnsons house looking for trouble.

Corrupting poor old man Willis's sweet Trinity with their nasty ways.

The line never got old.

"You know I can't Trin but I cant let it rot. It's been in our family for decades."

Trinity sighed, well aware of the futility of trying to talk Fayae out of anything pertaining to her grandmother. She swept icy blonde hair irritability off her face and gave Fayae her famous scowl.

"Well you know you can't do it alone."

"Trin-" a hand was promptly slapped over Fayae's mouth as the car desperately attempted to stay in its lane and horns blasted. Shoving Trinity off, Fayae whacked her arm "Can you not kill us!"

An eye roll and feigned ignorance was all the response she was going to get. "Hell you couldn't even get a local crew in there even if you paid top dollar. Gramps has some contacts in the next town over I'll give them a buzz OK?"

"I haven't been there in years. I need to see how bad the damage is first though."

She caught the guilty side eye and chomped lip. "What? What happened?"

"Nothing happened, exactly," her play it cool shrug had never fooled Fayae who waited patiently for the pressure of silence to c***k her best friend.

"I mean maybe Liliths been taking care of the place."

"What!"

Caught smack bang in the middle of Fayae's golden brown hair and Nyx's raven black, Lilith embodied her soft blonde fairy locks. Fayae was the oldest and Nyx the youngest but Lilith had always been the soft, naive one they had all banded together to protect. Fayae had been fully prepared to shrug off, fully ignore and distain the towns obvious shunning once she took over Forest Peak. There was no getting around it. Lilith the only one of them not scorned by every nosy Nancy should never have gone near their grandmother's home.

"Why would you and Nyx let her do that!"

Truthfully there was more guilt than anger in her reaction. She was the oldest. It should have been her responsibility to take care of their family home not one of her sisters.

"You know, I'm not sure if you were in a time warp or something back in New York but Lilith is very firmly an adult now, you know."

Fayae sighed. Of course, Lilith was still a Thompson. No one got very far telling them what to do. "Let's pull over for a bite OK, I'm starved."

And frankly exhausted just thinking about home. This was why she'd left. God, she missed Trinity and her sisters like lost limbs but living in Salem was a constant pressure pot.

Trinity pulled into the gas station which thankfully sported an outdoor Cafe and Fayae apologized. It wasn't her responsibility to keep track of her sisters. Trinity had more than enough responsibility looking after her grandfather and his store.

"Forgive me?"

"Yeah yeah, just gimme the rest of your chips and we'll call it mostly, maybe square... Unless you're getting milkshake cause then I want a double choc."

Their laughter mingled at the old shared joke and everything felt right in the world again. Laughing with Trinity had always been her medicine.

" Hey, hottie at 12 o'clocks been gawking for a full ten minutes."

Fayae looked up and felt a sudden deep punch in the gut. It was impossible to look away. Icy air sucked into her lungs freezing her chest and pressure instantly rushed to her brain making her lightheaded, blood pounded feircly and a strangled gasp struggled to form on dry lips.

Every cell in her being responded to the danger eminating from the stranger who had her so firmly caught in his gaze.

As if from another realm entirely she heard a deep sigh and frustrated expulsion and then he was gone.

Trinitys was speaking. She couldn't make out a word even looking right at her.

Her body felt underwater, her mind frozen.

Was it fear? That was there definitely but there was something else too more indefinable, electric almost, that buzzed beneath her skin.

"Fayae! Did you have a stroke?"

The words started to form, echoing oddly in her ears. "You're freaking me out! You're as white as a ghost! Do I need to call an ambo or something?"

Mutely Fayae shook her head. Now that the stranger was gone, the effect was fading. "What the hell was that!"

"Trin... I think I know him."

Trinity quickly scanned the area, the stranger was no where to be found.

"From New York? He's not from home. You'd have told me if you had some wild hook up and from the looks of him it'd be wild."

Fayae shook her head still feeling dazed.

She'd seen nothing but his eyes.

They'd burned and she'd felt that burn before at sixteen. Felt the lock down of her body and the sudden rush of something before all hell had broken loose. Before Mindy Flint had started screaming, before their lives had been turned upside down and before Minnie Flints life had abruptly ended.

"We need to go. Now."