Coal to Diamond

The rain fell cold and unnerving as we watched the Luna and my father’s sister being lowered into the ground. The pack members sniffed and cried silently as they watched the last sight of the casket as the dirt was being tossed onto the casket sorrowfully. I stood there silently seething and loathing the person who killed them in front of my eyes. ‘How could a pack member do that to their leader, their Luna, just because they were in a fit of rage with their mate?’ Racking my brain around what I had seen. We were in the pack house. My mom cooking for dinner and me playing with my toys pretending to play house. All of a sudden I hear yelling and I’m not sure who it was. My aunt(Dad’s sister and Beta) got up and walked up the stairs to find out what the commotion was. We heard a gunshot and a thump. My mother jumped and ran up the stairs only making it halfway when I watched them pulled the trigger. The bullet hitting her in her chest and she tumbled down the stairs. I was in shock as I watched her bleed out onto the floor. The look of disbelief that was etched across her face as she looked at me and then passed. My mother’s warriors came crashing in and grabbed the killer while he was beating his mate. She is alive but now blind. I am pulled back to the present as the bodies of pack members slowly walk away. My father rests his hands on my shoulders. I look up at him. I still say nothing. He looks down and gives me a small sad smile and looks back at the freshly dug grave. I hear him softly say, “This is the day that the goddess cries for the loss of an amazing Luna and a loving sister...” All I do is nod. I am numb. I feel nothing. I understand that I have lost my mother but I don’t remember much at all except the unmeasurable love she had for everyone. I look to my father again to a look of distaste from what I assume is a message from a warrior about the prisoner. I tap his hand. He looks down disgust replaced with sorrow as he nods and takes his leave. I stand there still staring at the grave hoping that this was a nightmare I would wake up from. It never happened. I walk from her grave towards the pack dungeons. I was always told never to go there because of the terrible sights I would see but nothing detected me now. I would look at the eyes of my mother’s killer. I wondered if he would look at me as if he had seen a ghost. I was always told I was spitting image of her. I snuck through the door and down the stairs. I could hear the man’s cries as he was being tortured. I didn’t flinch at the sound. ‘I guess I am still in shock’ I shrug and keep going down the stairs. I peer around the corner into the room the stairs led to. I see a man strung up by silver chains. His wrist were bleeding but not healing due to the silver. He cried as he was whipped with silver chains, marks all over his body. As he lifted his head to howl after another hit he saw me and froze. Everyone stopped and looked at the direction he was looking. My father saw me and frowned. “Go home Abby.” “No” I looked at him straight in his eyes and he faltered. “You don’t need to see this.” He said still frowning. “Yes, I do and you will continue.” I strode in the room and stood by his side. He was visually shaken by this display. “Why?” I turned to him. “So he will be tortured mentally by the ghost of the lives he took.” I turned to stare at the man as he sobbed while trying to look anywhere but at me. “LOOK AT ME!” I roared my bloodline shining through. He did as he was told tears streaming down his face. “Continue” I commanded my father and he did as bid. That was the day my heart turned as black as coal.