Maggie Grey
What a freaking world I live in… I didn’t recognize the Hey Arnold sheets I was laying in nor the room, but I turned back over after telling Bellamy to give me a minute.
I just stared at the ceiling. I was starving for one, but I was afraid to question whether it was for actual food or something else.
God, I hope it was for actual food. The thought of biting a human or putting my teeth to flesh just…Gross Still, I couldn’t help but think about the disappointed look on Gaia’s face when she realized I was only half of what she wanted me to be…or expected me to be.
“Okay so he would have told me if something happened to my friends.” Which means they were alive and probably nearby.
Namir was probably here. God, I don’t even know how to apologize to him, but it had to happen.
I don’t even know if he wanted to see me let alone speak, but things were going to be different.
It only felt like a few days but here, a few months have already passed.
I wasn’t sure where our relationship was heading.
I wasn’t the same woman as before and knowing that we…
are fated in some way, I just…I don’t know.
I wanted to take time to learn about myself.
“Maybe I’m powerful enough to break whatever curse is on my family,” I said as I looked down at my hands.
I could see my veins trailing my skin before seeping back in, disappearing altogether.
Standing up, I looked down at my body and the random male clothes I wore before looking around the room.
The single plant in the plot leaned towards me.
The rug inched towards my feet, bunching up against my bare toes and the walls expanded, breathing in and out in response to me.
I closed my eyes, listening to everything from my own heartbeat to the chatter of the trees in the distance.
They were talking amongst themselves, whispering about wolves and creatures wandering around.
Their voices alone sounded like something that carried in the wind, deep and full of vibrations.
Opening my eyes, I smiled as my dark brown hair was suddenly bleeding back to white.
The small light from the window shined down like the moon’s very own spotlight on me.
There is a deeper connection I’m feeling towards…
everything. I’m naturally tapping into it.
I just need to work on my spiritual side, but it’s there.
I felt the connection to the moon stronger than ever now.
“Okay, apologize to Namir, see my friends, and then we find a way to get my parents. After all of this…I still haven’t found a way to reach my family, but I meant what I said.
They were all I had left, and it wasn’t much of us.
I was prepared to do whatever it takes to––– The sudden sound of heavy footsteps above caught my attention as I looked up at the ceiling, seeing the dust chip away with each step.
“STOP ALL THAT DAMN RUNNING IN MY HOUSE BEFORE I MAKE YOU PICK A SWITCH FROM MY GOOD TREE!” A voice shouted.
The door suddenly burst open as a little girl with a red satin bonnet on her head, came barging in.
She wore a pink night gown with a cartoon pig on the front and pink slippers.
Her eyes widened as she placed her hands on her hips with a proud stance and raise of her chin.
“Well don’t just stand there. Come give yo Auntie a hug.”
I thought I misheard when my head shot forward, confused.
“My…who?”
The little girl smiled as she walked further into the room with her arms out.
“I’m your Auntie… You can just call me Auntie Rae…Young lady, you caused a lot of confusion in my life…”
She looked down at her pink nighty before looking at me with a pouty expression.
“This ain’t my real body or form but I woke up like this after–––”
“Mama, they told you not to bother her,” another woman said as she poked her head in.
Mama? The door opened all the way as three little boys came running in and jumping on the bed that I guess…
belonged to them. The woman introduced herself as my cousin Bree before hurriedly getting her…
mother? The aunt, who looked like a child…
the three little boys, and then left the room.
The door closed shut. I was alone once again but confused.
“Okay so that was a child, right?” I said out loud as I gripped my chin.
I looked out the window where the moonlight was shining down and stared at it, feeling the chills crawl against my skin.
It’s highly possible for a child Aunt but why did she talk like that and which side of the family?
My dad? The sound of the door creaking open caused me to look up but before I could turn around, I heard the whispers.
“If this bitch goes crazy on us, Souxie, you have to pin her down,” Asha whispered. “If she thinks we’re Namir–––”
“She’s not gonna think we’re Namir…and he isn’t really trying to hurt her…”
“This is why I say never, ever,” Isis started but I smiled, knowing what she was going to say. Turning around, I saw the three eyeballs peeking in the crack.
“Date a werewolf,” I finished for her. The door burst open with Ayira being the first to walk in, seeing her quick blue flame burst from her hand while Asha was the first to run to me.
I fell back on the floor with her heavy self-planting right on top of me crying.
Isis jumped right on top of her hugging us both.
Souxie picked at her nails, seeing the red tearful tint gloss over her eyes but she calmly sat on top of the pile with her leg crossed over the other.
“I…Can’t…breathe…” I strained through my own teeth.
“I don’t care!” Asha cried. “I don’t give a damn! Don’t you EVER do no dumb shit like leave us at this school by ourselves!”
“Outta my way, outta my damn way!”
I heard Quan’s grouchy voice come through with his heavy feet stomping in. He was in his full nymph frame with those vertical eyes. Glaring at the cat below that insisted on following him every step of the way. I wondered if that was the same damn cat that tried to…
“This damn stray won’t leave me alone!” Quan fussed.
“Quan!? What are you doing here?!” I laughed before squeezing my chest away from the pressure of the three girls. “Damn it! I can’t move!”
“A few seconds more,” Isis laughed.
“I told them all about how this only feels like a day or so to us,” Ayira said as she sat on the bed.
Souxie got up and closed the bedroom door before coming back to sit beside Ayira.
“I said I was not sure what happened when we split and was about to get into my side of the story when they said you woke up.”
“I called Souxie, and she got here just in time,” Asha said as she and Isis pulled back.
I laid out on the floor for a moment, just happy to hear familiar voices before slowly sitting up to look at everyone.
Souxie was upset but she was happy to see me.
Asha was beaming with so much energy and pride, but she was emotional, and Isis always looked like she was ready for a party.
Quan of course looked at Isis but was occupied by the weird cat that stayed by his side.
“She said you met Gaia,” Souxie said, voice calm and southern. Not at all dainty like before but she was stripped down of all the extra sweetness and quiet shyness. “Is that true?”
“It has to be,” Asha said as she leaned in to touch my hair. “Look at her. You don’t even look the same.”
“I don’t?”
They all shook their heads while Ayira grinned.
“My hair is still white and–––”
“Have a look,” Isis said, handing me a small compact mirror.
I flipped it open and nervously stared at myself, still seeing my white hair and usual features.
My eyes were the same dark brown and my lips didn’t look any different.
Yet when I looked at them, I could tell there was an uncertain tension between us.
“Your aura has changed,” Souxie said. “I can feel it in this room alone. You aren’t the same Maggie as before.”
“I still look the same.”
“Naaaaah,” Asha let out with a shake of her head. “Naaaaah mannnn, you’re maaaaad different babe.”
“You look like…that little bit of childhood stench on you is finally gone. You look grown,” Asha added with a nod of approval. Only to snap a second later. “And who the fuck are those people in the pictures?! Why weren’t we invited?!”
“Huh? What pictures?”
“Uh…The pictures in your house?” Isis added with a roll of her neck. “When we broke in with Souxie’s dad, trying to find things that could help get Hillary out of the ground at your mother’s house.”
“Wait, what?”
“The pictures!” Asha clapped before me. “Who are they and why were we not invited?!”
“You all are so damn nosey,” Quan said as he sat down beside me like he was still in his cat form.
“You and Namir…your time away from the school…”
“Oh…those are his friends. Not mine,” I said, realizing what they were talking about.
“Most of it was Greek stuff but…I think he was trying to cheer me up and get me out of the house because there would be days I wouldn’t leave, or I would just sit outside my parents’ house from time to time.
So that was his way of trying to get me involved… Clementine too, naturally.”
“That bitch,” Asha groaned. “She’s been texting nonstop asking have you woken up yet and where we are…Can you believe she thinks y'all are friends like that?”
“Nooo,” I gasped, acting shocked as Souxie laughed. “Wait, go back to Hillary being in the ground at my mom’s house and…what were you doing at my mom’s house?”
“We went to go get your family,” Souxie said as she pulled something out of her bra like it was a storage unit. She handed me what looked like a photograph of my childhood self, standing next to another little girl against the curb with a pinwheel in my hand. “I found this in your photo album…”