Chosen by the Monster, Crowned by the Alpha

“Mary, Mary, Mary!” My mom’s voice slammed through the house like a warning bell. Uggh why does mom always have to disturb me when I try to get some rest , I mean I love her though but seriously it’s only 5:00AM. I am coming mom, I mean it’s not like I can ignore her, I said in my head. On my way to my mom’s room, I looked out the window because I love the mysterious early morning view, in the small town we live called “ mystic falls”. The early morning light was pale, almost white, like the sky couldn’t decide if it wanted to wake up either. Shadows clung to the corners of the passage way,smelling faintly of pine, smoke, and the past exactly how I like it. Oh how silly of me , I didn’t even introduce myself, my name is Mary Ravenbourne and tomorrow is the day I turn 18. Oh damn , I forgot mom had called me earlier, I’m sorry mom I got carried away again. Good morning mom you called for me, there was no sign of mom but I was sure I heard her voice, I barely made it into the hallway before she came stumbling toward me. “Mom—?” What’s wrong , blood. There was blood on her hands. Her face pale, eyes wide like she’d seen a ghost—or worse. Mom , what’s going on, i asked again this time the harsh tone in my voice gone, tears running down my eyes and my lips quivering like i had ice placed on it. Mom, talk to me please , why aren’t you saying anything, you can’t just ignore me I’m not blind mom I can see the blood on the floor, who has been to our house mom, I have always noticed how you go around whispering to yourself or when you tell me to go meet Kaia because you have a guest coming but I never get to meet your guests. Kaia has been my best friend right from the very beginning, when we first moved here everyone thought we were weird, they still think so, Kaia says she eavesdrops on people who still talk about i and mom saying everyone in the neighborhood are accounted for but we just sprung up from nowhere, with no existing family traces. I would talk about Kaia later, i don’t know why mom is being strange right now, i have got to get through to her. Mom! What the hell is going on , I’m not a child mom, well at least by tomorrow I won’t be , so talk to me mom no more secrets. “Mary” I heard mom call out my name with the softest voice ever, “yes mom” I answered, “Go,” she rasped, shoving a bundle into my hands. “Take this. Run. Don’t stop.” She said as she turned back towards the kitchen, back towards the smell— iron -rich, sharp and familiar. “Kaia , Kaia “ I called while knocking on my best friend’s door, Kaia opened the door, I couldn’t wait till we were inside, I gave her a big tight hug with red swollen eyes filled with teardrops. “What’s wrong Mary”, she asked me , it’s happening again Kaia, mom is acting all weird you know , she told me to live and gave me this weird bundle filled with notes I normally see her writing every night since I walked through the earth. Mary , let’s open the bundle so we would know what we are working with alright , don’t be sad it’s your birthday tomorrow, cheer up you know I got you always love. I felt relieved and I felt safe with Kaia , I always do, she has always been standing up for me right from when I came, she treats me equally even though she knows she’s older than me with a year. I opened the bundle and started reading the notes from mom “ Mary, my precious daughter, I want you to know that I have always loved you and I will always love you , there are so many things you don’t know about mystic falls and about your father. Mary you turn 18 Tomorrow and I fear my past would start haunting you.” Kaia , do you know anything about the secrets of mystic falls? I asked Kaia “No Mary , I don’t know anything, what’s wrong , what did the note say? “ I haven’t finished reading the note Kaia , come let’s read it together because I don’t think I can handle all this on my own. We started reading the book together, “ Mary, I read the note in moms voice, mystic falls isn’t what it’s perceived to be, secrets surrounds every forest, every mountain , secrets that we all see as fairy tails or demons , werewolves,vampires and witches.” “ This town has no recollection of us because we come from a little fantasy land “wolf crest” your father an Alpha who disrespected his parents and broke the rules by having a child with me a human, your father disregarded the fact that he already had a mate he was betrothed to but we fell in love and your father lost his royal rights and was banished from our town by his rivals.” “Mary, mummy had to make sure you were fine and that’s why I made the decision to live the town so we could start our new life together in a place where no one knows us, I always screamed at you , made you do horrible chores because I thought you deserved it since it was your birth that made I and your father’s life tremble.” “As you turn 18 tomorrow, watch out for anything that’s gonna seem out of the ordinary, always stick with Kaia because she’s your true friend, you would start noticing certain changes in your life but don’t give up , keep pushing because I always kept pushing for us , do not come back home, I had t go away so I could find some answers for myself, when the time comes, I will find you my sweet girl.” Oh my God , Kaia my mom ran away, she ran away , she left me, tears rolling out my eyes my heart aching as if it had just been stabbed by a knife, my head swirling around , the earth shaking , I felt my whole world crumble down , why couldn’t she just wait behind and tell me all this to my face, she didn’t have to leave me , now I’m all alone , I’m all alone in this tainted town. “Stop feeling that way Mary , you know you’re not alone you got me , you can come stay with me.” The night came , I struggled to sleep as I kept reminiscing moms last words and the fact that my mother had just abandoned me , I didn’t know how to escape the pain I felt , I found a match under the bed , I lit it and I started to burn in between my laps to drive the pain I was feeling into physical pain, I went to bed that night and slept while running away from my own life . “Mary! Happy birthday” I heard Kaia scream in jubilation , I didn’t want to get up from the bed but she came into the room and made sure I got up , I strained my eyeballs to get a glimpse of her then i noticed she had some balloons on her along with a very funny painting on her face. I can’t lie, the painting got me , Kaia is that supposed to be me on your face , ha ha ha I laughed, hard—like I hadn’t just cried myself to sleep twelve hours ago. Like my mother didn’t vanish. Like the note she left wasn’t setting my entire life on fire. But that’s what grief does, right? It doesn’t ask for permission. It just slips in, quietly, wearing joy like a mask. “Okay okay,” Kaia said with a proud smirk, “So I may not be the next Picasso, but c’mon, that’s a pretty cute version of you.” I smiled, “You gave me a unibrow.” “You’re welcome. It’s abstract art.” We both laughed again, and for a moment it felt like the world had paused—like maybe, just maybe, I could pretend the past twenty-four hours were some messed-up dream. Maybe today could just be about cake, and turning 18, and watching bad rom-coms until we fell asleep. I noticed something lighting up from the bundle of notes mom had given me but I ignored it because today was all about me and not my trembling life. I looked into the little closet Kaia had earlier set up for me , I searched for something fancy something that says “bring it on” something cute , something that would light up the entire room if I walked by , I found it , the perfect pink dress with petals and a little corset underneath to tighten my tummy and make me look snatched. I quickly put on the dress along with a crystal white wedged heel , I’m not that good at walking with heels but who cares , today I turn 18 it’s not like you turn 18 every year , I reached out for Kaia’s makeup supply applied some concealer then foundation and lastly the white powder . I got to the living room and Kaia had set up a little surprise party for me, we had some popcorn, made especially by her , while I was snacking on the popcorn, Kaia came out with the best cake ever , I remember when we passed through the store that sold that cake and how I told her I really wanted it , this was indeed the perfect surprise, we switched on the tv to watch the movie we initially planned to watch. But then the lights flickered. Just once. Then again. And then everything shut off. The air grew still. Too still. The laughter in my throat died. “Was that… the power?” I asked, slowly looking around. Kaia stood up, her back straightening like a cat sensing a predator. She moved to the window. “Oh no.” Her voice was suddenly flat. “What?” I stood beside her and looked out. A thick, unnatural fog was rolling in—too fast, too heavy, like it was crawling. It swallowed the street in seconds. I couldn’t see anything past the mailbox. A chill danced up my spine. “This isn’t normal,” Kaia whispered, backing away from the window. She grabbed my hand and dragged me away from the glass. We barely made it back to the middle of the room before the fog pressed against the windows—almost like it was looking for a way in. And that’s when it started. The whispers. Soft. Wet. Otherworldly. Not words I could make out—just fragments of sound that weren’t meant for human ears. My knees buckled, and I grabbed my head. “What is that?! Why is it inside my head?!” Kaia rushed to me, held me up. “Mary! Mary, stay with me! Fight it! Whatever this is—it’s targeting you!” And that’s when I heard it. Clearer now. Not the whisper from outside… But a voice inside. Not mine. Not Kaia’s. Something ancient. Something angry. “You are not ready, little heir… but ready or not, I am awake now.”