2. Stella
2
Stella
The supernatural district of Tioney smells like fresh-baked bread. I’m not sure why, as I’m not aware of a bakery in the district, but that slightly sweet, crispy golden scent persists.
It smells like home, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been home.
Necessity dictated that I had to stay away lest I be discovered as a supernatural in hiding. Walking down the street with my head held high in the middle of the day with my wings out feels scandalous after so long of wearing them tucked away.
I knock on the door and take a step back, flexing my wings as the sun beats down on them.
“Stella?” My mother’s voice comes from a crack in the door. I can see her pale blue eye darting around, trying to determine if it’s safe to let me in. Eventually, she rips it open and grabs me by my wrist. “Get inside! What in the world are you thinking, being out here in the day with your wings out?”
I follow her into the kitchen, where my father sits at the table, spoon halfway to his mouth from a bowl of cereal.
“Feather?” he says, dropping the utensil. Hearing my childhood nickname again brings a smile to my face. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s what I asked!” my mother huffs while stomping through the kitchen and turning on the kettle.
Dad leans back in his chair, crossing his massive arms over his chest. As a Berserker, my father is a true warrior, all brute strength. Most Berserkers do not have a knack for critical thinking or strategy, but my father has always been different. He swears it’s because his mother was a Valkyrie, and he inherited some of our prowess, but I don’t think that’s how spirits work.
“I have some news that I thought was better delivered in person than over the phone,” I say slowly, lowering myself into a seat at the table. Dad narrows his eyes, deep dark brown like my own, and surveys me with a critical glare.
That stare haunts my childhood. Whenever I would get in trouble, he’d look down his nose at me, with his eyes narrowed to slits, and just stare, waiting for me to hang myself with a confession that I could not hold back.
It’s no different now.
“For work, I was supposed to deliver this big investigative journalism piece to secure a permanent place on staff,” I say as I take the cup of black tea from my mother. She settles next to my father, her small, dark wings, such a contrast to mine, folded up against her back. “And I struggled with an idea. There are only so many positions, you know? I need to make sure my piece stands out above the rest.”
I drag my finger across the tabletop, the ridges and divots that have been there since I was small, bumping my finger with familiarity. “Odin, there’s no easy way to say this,” I mumble before taking a sip of the hot tea and burning my tongue. “Fuck, okay, so. I decided the best thing I can do is an exposé on Robert Sinclair’s Reformation Academy.”
“Excuse me?” my mother shrieks. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
“I signed up as a scholarship student,” I mumble.
“After everything we did for you?” My father’s voice is low and dangerous. “All that we sacrificed? All the fear and hiding and sending you away to keep you safe, and this is how you repay us?”
“Something strange is happening there, and I want the world to know! The only way to figure it out is from the inside.” I cross my arms over my chest like a petulant teenager. I wasn’t expecting them to be ecstatic or anything, but I thought they’d at least look at this logically.
“What about your job? They won’t hire a supernatural for an Authentic paper!” Tears well up in my mother’s eyes, and I bite my lip in guilt.
I didn’t want to hurt them. But this is something I need to do.
“I’m hoping that the piece will be so realm-shattering that I won’t struggle to get a job. Think about it. Robert Sinclair is in bed with the government. If I can expose corruption at the Academy that provides the simplynatural workforce, I could affect real change throughout the realm.”
My hands find my mother’s, and I stroke her thumbs with mine. She shakes her head like it will expel the tears that are falling. “We’ve worked so hard to keep you out of that place. Of course there is something wrong with the Academy. It’s obvious to all of us. That means it’s not safe for you, my daughter.”
“You’re right. It’s probably not safe for me. But someone needs to figure out what is happening to our community.”
“Why does that someone have to be my daughter?” My father’s face is grave. “Why are you the one who is going to put your neck out, who will risk becoming a simplynatural?”
“If not me, then who, dad?” I tuck my wings around my arms and scoot my chair around the table. “I am willing to take this risk because I have the platform to get this story told. I know the industry. My spirit is telling me this is the right decision.”
Mother tears at the napkin on the table in front of her, not lifting her eyes to mine. “When I was pregnant with you, I had the strangest dreams,” she says softly. “A female would visit me, whispering in my ear. She said she’d been watching me since I was formed in the womb. A fylgja, she said.”
My father wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into her side, rubbing soft circles into her shoulder.
All the literature and rumors surrounding Berserkers tell the tale of brutal men who stop at nothing to win. Horror stories of rape and torture at their hands in the time before Authentics set forth laws to “keep us safe.”
My father was raised by a Berserker who fit the stereotype. I’ve seen the scars on his back and heard the story about what happened to his mother. This influenced the way he raised me. I grew up with parents who were openly affectionate towards one another, and when they disagreed, it was settled with words, not fists.
Mom’s next words break my attention on my father’s affection.
“She told me that my child, my daughter , which was a surprise to me, was a blessing from the Gods and would change the world.“ Her eyes go misty as she smiles softly at me. “Conception amongst supernaturals is rare, and we knew that we had been granted a great gift in receiving you. The fylgja only confirmed what I already knew – that you would make a difference in this world.”
Tears track down her cheeks, and I lean across the table. My warm brown hair, so like hers, falls into my eyes and hides the wetness gathering there. I gather the hand my father hasn’t commandeered and clutch it tightly.
“Stop, let me get through this,” she chokes out. “I never saw the fylgja again. I don’t know if it was just a dream or actually a message from the Gods, but I’ve thought about that visit nonstop since I first held you in my arms. If this, ástin min , is the calling you feel, then we will support you.”
She pushes out of my father’s hold and walks around the table, pulling me to my feet so we stare into one another’s eyes. Her small wings spread wide, and mine mimic them. “My heart aches. I wish this was not your path.”
I don’t know what to say. Emotion chokes me, thoughts of the heartache and worry I’m going to be putting my parents through for however long this takes plaguing me.
“I’ll call whenever I can. Phones aren’t allowed, but I will try to sneak one in,” I say softly. “I will get out as soon as I have the proof I need.”
My father stands between us, one arm around each of our hips. By this point, he’s an expert at dodging our wings. “I do not like this. But I am still proud of you, daughter. This is bravery. You are walking into an unknown battle with your chin high.”
“I know the Academy is shady, but do you truly believe it to be that dangerous?”
“Yes,” he answers in a clipped tone. “I do. We wouldn’t have let you leave us as just a child if I hadn’t. Whatever happens to the supernaturals there is changing their spirits, and we have no idea if it is reversible. I do not want that for you.”
“I’ll run before that can happen. I swear it.”
And I mean it.
If, for any moment, it looks like my spirit is at risk, I will do whatever it takes to get out of there, story or not.
“I believe you.” His voice is gruff as he pulls me for a tight hug. He whispers into my ear, “Make it quick and don’t break your mother’s heart,” before pushing me into Mom’s embrace.
“I love you,” she says into my neck. “Make us proud.”
The ghoul behind the counter at the corner store looks at me with wide, grey eyes. We went to school together, though I can’t remember her name at this moment. As she hands me my change and pours the cup of coffee I ordered, she chews her bottom lip as her gaze darts back and forth from my wings to my face.
“Stella, right?” she says in an other-worldly voice. Ghouls are a type of demon known to consume flesh, but they’re typically not picky on what kind. Honestly, I’m surprised to see one so far into the city. I thought most of them lived in the more rural areas.
“Yeah, we went to school together, right?”
“Yeah, I thought… well, we all thought you died or went to prison. When you went missing, I mean.”
I blow on the hot beverage and smirk. “Nope, neither. Just went into hiding.”
“You do not appear to be hiding now.” The store is empty, and she leans against the counter. Her skin is pale purple, and she wears a long, clingy white dress. Her dark black hair is pulled back in a slicked ponytail that highlights her chiseled cheekbones.
The coffee is sweet and dark, just how I like it. “No, I decided it was time to come out of hiding. To be who I was always meant to be.”
I try not to let my mother’s story of me being a blessing from the Gods weigh on me. I’m sure all parents say this to tell their children just how loved they are. It’s sweet.
“Well, be careful. I’ve heard the police are out today.”
I bristle at her words. “I’m not breaking any laws.”
“That you know of.” She waves me off, and I leave the shop, nursing my coffee and letting my brain wander.
I’ve got a tentative plan for when I get to the Academy. Make a few friends, attend some classes, and find out when the biggest change from supernatural to simplynatural happens. I hope to pinpoint if there is a catalyst event that marks the point of no return and find out what that is. Maybe if I do that, I can figure out if it’s reversible and blow the lid on what is actually happening.
My phone vibrates in my back pocket, and I shuffle my coffee into my other hand to check it.
Yuri
Hey gorgeous, can I come over today?
If I said I was missing your body, would you hold it against me?
I groan loudly at the shittiest fucking pickup line ever to exist and shove my phone back in my pocket.
If I wasn’t done with Yuri before, I certainly am now. How little does he think of me to assume a line like that would work on me?
I’m not saying I have high standards, but they’re higher than that. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be able to continue seeing each other while I’m at the Academy, even if I wanted to.
I’ve never been with a supernatural male. Would it be any different? I’ve heard rumors that some of them have dicks that are different than what an Authentic has. I know I’m going to the Academy to work, but I mean … maybe I can play a little?
Lost in my thoughts, I don’t notice I am on a collision course until it is too late, and I slam into the uniformed chest, my hot coffee spilling onto the police officer. I stumble back, but my wings flair out, helping me keep my footing.
“How dare you?” the officer seethes. I take a step back and get a clear look at the male. He’s got curved, black horns like a ram, and his skin is gray with black fissures running through it.
Some sort of demon, then. A simplynatural one, since they’re the only ones allowed in law enforcement.
How is a demon okay with enforcing laws?
“I am so sorry. It was an accident. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” I say timidly.
Since I was small, I’ve been told how to handle interactions with the police: Keep my eyes down, don’t be aggressive, keep my stance non-threatening, and my personality demure. Do not flaunt my spirit, and do not engage in aggressive posturing.
“An accident? You attacked me!“ he snarls. “And with a weapon.” He points at my empty coffee cup that lies discarded on the ground. “That is a class three infraction, and you’re going to have to come with me.”
My chest seizes.
A decade.
I have been in hiding for a decade, and on my first day as a visible supernatural, I am being arrested.
“That won’t be necessary. I’m already on my way to Robert Sinclair’s,” I say softly. “I can show you my admissions paperwork. Will you permit me to reach into my pocket and grab my phone?”
The officer wrinkles his nose at me, huffing a breath that overwhelms me with the strange scent of the brimstone that lingers on many demons. “A likely story.” He reaches into my pocket for me and then thrusts my phone in my face.
A few taps pull up my email with the admission date on it. I hand him my phone and watch as he scrolls through the welcome packet. Eventually, he shoves my phone into my chest.
“Fine. I’ll let you go since you’re already on your way to the Academy. But others may not be so lenient and send you directly to prison, so be on your best fucking behavior, angel.”
The way he sneers that last word makes my skin crawl. Normally, I would immediately correct someone who made that erroneous assumption, but I’m not going to push my luck. I pick up the coffee cup, tuck my wings back into my flesh, and get the fuck out of the supernatural district.