Royal Crescent Moon

The Journey

The next day, I woke up to check my phone and it's around 8am. I don't remember falling asleep, but I kept tossing and turning all night because today would be the day that we leave to go home. It unreal, impossible. I won’t believe it until I see it. So, I fell back onto my bed to catch some more sleep before Aaron bothers me.

"ANNA!" I hear Aaron yell. I jolt out of bed and fall onto the floor. I hear him laughing from downstairs, he must have heard me.

"What the HELL, you BASTARD!" I scream back, earning another laugh. I check my phone and its 9am. It feels like I only fell asleep minutes ago, not an hour. I slowly get up off the floor to grab my speaker and head to the shower. I spent 30 minutes shaving my legs. I spammed Danny with videos of me singing. Yes, in the shower! It's not a big deal. They are all at this meeting thing for their back. So yesterday was the final goodbye.

Danny can't stop calling me Deanna. Or Denny, or even Danny, saying we have the same name. Is it bad I might miss him the most? I stop myself when I feel that familiar icy burn in my chest. I hop out of the shower to see it's cloudy outside. I love it when it rains. I dress in black, ripped jeans and a red long sleeve shirt to match my nose piercing. I can't be bothered changing it. I look in the mirror to tame my wild, ashy brown hair that flowed all the way down my back. You can see my pack tattoo on my collar bone. It's a tangle of vines and thorns. I hope Reese has the same tattoo too. I run downstairs to be greeted but Aaron sipping his coffee. I grab some for myself before I ask,

"When are we leaving?" I'm so excited to the point I feel sick.

"We leave after Noon; we pack everything in the Moving Van for a storage unit." He replied. Sometimes I wonder where he gets the money to pay for all of this. I know he has a job at a Werewolf Law Firm, and we have money from our accounts. But we try not to use them because of the tracking rouges.

"Ughhh fine." I complain. I take my coffee to go to my room. I pull out my laptop while I pack some more of my stuff in the boxes. I don't think its hit me yet, that were really going home. I leave a bag of clothes and stuff for school. School. Oh, my Goddess! I forgot I'm starting a new school tomorrow! For f**k sake. What am I going to wear? What am I going to do? Does Reese go to that school? I can't believe I'm back to saying his name. Usually I wouldn't mention it at all, even in my head.

It was around noon the time the Moving Van came, and just one of them. we didn't have much stuff, and they were going to put it in a storage unit ahead of time. By the time we got the house ready, it was 1pm. Time to leave. I sat in the car, hugging my knees, I felt sick. I turn to see Aaron stepping out of the house. I'm going to miss this house, everything to my bathroom, to the big wooden door. He stepped in the car putting his seat belt on.

"Ready?" He said sadly to me. I just smiled and nodded.

"It's okay Anna, we'll find them." He tried to reassure me.

"What if they don't remember me? What if I walk past them and they have no idea it's me?" I worry. I feel even more sick.

"Denny, they won't ever forget about you. You’re his sister, and Evie's daughter." He tried to explain, using my name against me. I really was kind of Evie's daughter. She loved us like her own, or at least I think she did. I nodded, trying to agree with him, but it was hard. I was 7 the last time I saw them all. Aaron then started the car, ready for the 4-hour drive to the coastline.

----

Our hometown of Greendale. I've lived all over the world. Canada, France and more places around Europe. I have been to public school, but Aaron has home-schooled me a lot. I don't mind. I got to learn different languages of the world and the supernatural. I fell asleep a good hour into the drive. I’ve never been more nervous. I mean, it's been 10 years since we've been here, seen our family, or even remembered them. It was a sketchy subject to talk about our family, so we never really did. Even thinking about them makes the part in the chest burn with pain. I wonder if they're really home, if they’re going to remember me. That's the last thing I thought of before the darkness caught up to me.

Flashback

It was late in the afternoon when Rowan was chasing me and Reese around the house. I was 7. And I was home. I walked up to my mum, cutting apples.

"Mama." I said as I reached for her.

"Evie." She corrected me with a smile as she picked me up and placed me in her lap. That made me annoyed that I couldn't call her my mum. But she just laughed at my sour face. She really did have the most beautiful laugh. That was one of my favourite things about her. Other than her big hazel-golden eyes, and her bright-red hair. She was around 19 the last time I saw her. I think. She raised me and Reese together from babies.

"Aghhh!" I heard Reese squeal. Then we saw Rowan running after him. Evie laughed, again, that beautiful sound. This was my last happy memory. Then the sound of growling hit my ears. Evie carefully stood up, me and her arms and walked into the hallway near the door. She let out a gasp. The door big wooden door was wide open and standing in front of 30 beastly rouges was Rowan and Reese. Rowan was standing in a defensive position in front of Reese.

"Darius, Inside. Now." Rowan said carefully, using my brothers full name. He hated it as much as I hated mine. He turned cautiously to walk back to the house. But before he could take a second step, the rouges attacked. Evie set me down and lunged for Reese's arm. One of the big wolves jumped for Rowan, but he hit it back with the slam of his hand to its side, and sent it flying. Even in human form, Rowan was strong. He had ancient Alpha blood in his veins. Reese ran for Rowan and Evie followed trying to catch him. She grabbed him as Rowan was fighting off the rouges. Leah, our older sister, ran for the rouges attacking us. One wolf was ready to pounce on Rowan, but Leah beat him to it. She grabbed the rouge by her jaws and snapped down on it with a crunch. I ran to her on instinct, followed by Evie. She was fine, not hurt, she was okay. I told myself. She turned to help Rowan, who was still in his human form. Evie held my arm, going to join them.

"Anna!" I heard Reese yell. But it was too late. A rouge, neither one of us saw coming, founds its jaws in the left side of my body and ripped me away from Evie. Searing, hot pain entered my body. Evie let out a scream. A horribly beautiful scream. That sound still haunts me. The rouge dug its claws into my left side, ready to finish me off. Rowan was holding back Reese, screaming. Everyone was screaming. But it was shoved away from me by a mighty force. I rolled my head to see a brow-red wold, mauling the rouges side to pieces. Aaron. Leah then came over to me, assessing the damage on my side. I turned my head and i saw Reese. Rowan was trying to hold him back Screaming and kicking. But no one got past Rowans hold. Evie then took Reese into her arms and hushed him. He screamed and screamed. Could he feel this pain too? The pack started to arrive. They bit down on the rouges one, bye one. Rowan came over to us. He looked down on me. My father, that's what he was to me. My dad.

"You have to go. All 3 of you." He announced. I started to panic. What did he mean, go? He looked at Aaron, having a mind-link conversation. He looked down on my once more and kissed my forehead. He lifted my small, mauled body on Aaron's back. Then he bolted for the tree line, followed by Leah. I turned my head to see Reese thrashing in Evie's arms. And the last thing I felt was pain icy, burning in my chest, freezing my heart.

----

I jolted awake in the car. It's fine, it was just a dream, a memory, I told myself. I turned to see Aaron looking at me with a pained expression. I tried to ignore it. He knew me too well. Then I smelt it. The sea. I whipped my head around to see the sea poking out of the dense trees every so often. We came to a clearing when I fully saw it. The sea waves crashing onto the shore. The sun setting the sky in golds, pinks and reds. It was beautiful. It was home. We were nearly there. I leaned against the car door, pressing my hands and head onto the cold glass window. I couldn't help the few stray tears that left my eyes. I watched the sun until it disappeared behind the never-ending sea.

After the sun disappeared, we pulled into the hotel lobby. Aaron let me wait in the car while he got the key to our room. This was supposed to be temporary, until we found them. If we found them. He walked out the glass door and dangled the keys towards me. I grabbed my bag and followed him to the door that had the number 3 on it. It was quite spacious. The living room wooden floor was covered with a light blue patterned rug. There were two doors behind the couch and one closer to the kitchen. One of the two doors was a bathroom. I quickly ran to beat him to the shower. After 15 minutes of standing under the hot water, I got yelled at by Aaron to get out. I hope there was no hot water left for him. I got dressed into my pj's and I walked into my room near the kitchen. I flopped onto my bed to receive a million Snapchats from Danny. Then Aaron walked into my room.

"I'll wake you up around 6:30 tomorrow morning. We need to go get stuff for tomorrow." He explained.

"What! Fine." I argued. That was way too early.

"You need to be at school by 8. Your new." He replied.

"Don't need to remind me."  I murmured to myself. He chuckled as he shut the door. He must of heard me. Then I realised I was starting school. Tomorrow! I would be the new girl again. I haven't moved in 2 and a half years. Oh well. Maybe Reese will be there, but I doubt it. Then I finally fell asleep thinking about school.