Finding Aeryn

Chapter One

Everything hurts and I can’t open my eyes. I can barely move. I hear people all around me worried and yelling. Why do they have to yell? My head is pounding. There’s an annoyingly loud beeping noise in my ear. Why wont it go away. Something is wrong… I… I can’t breathe.

“Hhhh!” I yell trying to get help.

I can’t speak. Something is blocking me. Did Elara do this to me? Im in so much pain. Why would she do this. My eyes unwillingly open and once again I’m blinded by the light directly over my body. People are suddenly touching me holding me down. Why are people holding me down? I try my best to break away. Throwing my arms and legs, I try grabbing the tube coming out of my mouth. I can’t breathe with this thing. My attempt was unsuccessful.

“Aeryn, please stop fighting.” The man over me says.

He’s dressed in a black turtleneck that seems to be tight on him, over the turtleneck is a white jacket that’s about a size too big for him. I listen to him, he knows my name so he must know me right? I watch closely him as he removes his hands from my shoulder and begins to pull out the tube. He is an older man, maybe late 50’s? He has greying black hair with dark brown, almost black, eyes. Wrinkles scatter his forehead, as he removes the tube, more gather around his eyes and cheeks as he smiles at me.

After the tube is removed all I can do is cough, which in return brings a terrible pain. As my hands flinch and clutch my chest I feel a tight scratchy material tied across it. My eyes dart down and see a huge bandage that’s colored dark brownish maroon from what I assume is a wound. I begin to breathe heavily.

“W-who are you? W-what happened?” My breaths become shorter and more frequent. “Did you do this? W-where am I?”

Another man approaches me he is very tall and intimidating. He doesn’t have a white coat, instead he is wearing a black long sleeved shirt. He is all dirty. Did something happen to him too? He gets closer and tries to grab at me. I bolt off of the bed and into the opposite corner. Tearing a tube from my arm which causes me to flinch, I look down and see blood begin to drip. Holding my new wound, my eyes begin to dart around the room. 2 people in white coats, the man who tried to grab me, a woman wearing a light purple dress, and a tall teen boy wearing a blue long sleeve shirt. I’ve got to get out of here.

“Aeryn?” The man in black says cautiously, not moving from his spot on the bed. “Are you alright hunny?”

“Who are you?” I spit back, making sure they’re all in my eye sight.

The woman bursts into tears and the tall boy holds her. I become less tense while looking at the two, my eyebrows knit together in confusion. What is going on? My eyes shoot back to the man as he slowly gets up from the bed.

“Ryn, come sit back down sweetheart. It’s okay. You’ve probably opened your wound again, the doctors need to check it.”

“Who are you?” I demand. “If you tell me… I’ll do as you ask.”

The man sighs, “You’re always so stubborn.”

I cross my arms, waiting for a response.

“I am Alaric Caddell, your father. This,” he gestures to the woman and boy, “is Juniper, your mother, and Salem, your younger brother.”

I glance at the boy and he nods his head in confirmation. The woman’s head now resting on his shoulder, watching me as silent tears fall from her face. I uncross my arms and slowly move to the bed as the man stays planted in his spot about two feet away.

I stretch out my arms and carefully help myself onto the bed. The wound from the tube is gone and I don’t feel as weak but the pain lingers as a tingling sensation. The ma- my father apparently, cautiously takes a seat on the other end of the bed.

“May I look at your wound?” The doctor from earlier asks, breaking my stare at the family, well… my family.

“Yes…” I nervously smile at him. “Why is the wound on my arm gone?”

He glances at the arm I raised to show him. Before he could respond, my father answers.

“You’re a werewolf. You’ve know that since you were little, Ryn…”

I feel as though my eyes are gonna bulge out of my head, “what.”

The doctor begins to work on getting the bandage removed but I’m no longer paying him any attention.

“How much do you remember?” The second doctor says from the side of the first one.

She has blond hair and brown eyes. A lot shorter than most of the people in the room. I’m sure I could tower over her if I was standing and I don’t seem that tall.

“I remember Elana and waking up here. That’s it.” I reply simply, shrugging my shoulders.

Instead of acknowledging my answer everyone is looking towards me with wide eyes. I look down to where they’re staring. I’m wearing a very bloodied tank top, however, there isn’t a wound anywhere in sight.

“She shouldn’t have been able to heal from that for at least a month, if she were to even make it in the first place.” The male doctor’s voice wavered with disbelief.

“How in the hell? It was a silver blade laced in wolfsbane, right?” The female doctor asked.

“That’s what Beta Ralf said. I’ll have him bring it for the lab to test.” My father replied.

“Maybe that’s what Elana did…” I say out loud.

“Elana? Who is Elana, Ryn?” The teen questions as all eyes dart back to me.

“She said she was some Moon Goddess or something? But there was this glowing blue light and she said it was some gift or something?”

There was silence for a few minutes as the all stared at me and in between themselves.

“Nothing that Aeryn just said leaves this room.” My father boomed and he was met with silence. “Understand?” He practically yells.

Audible yes’s came from everyone in the room. Was I the only one confused? What is going on here?

My father then turns to me with a desperate look, “Aeryn, I know you don’t remember much but you cannot tell anyone else about the Moon Goddess. Okay?”

“I understand, but why?”

He disregards my question and asks the doctors to leave the room to grab discharge papers.

“When we get home, I need you to tell me everything.”

I nod and give a short okay, praying in my head that the confusion will come to an end at some point.