The Luna Witch

Chapter 16

I hold my mom tight as Collin and Annie's bodies get taken from the pack house, along with their severed heads. My mom has lost too many people in the past few months and with only me and Rochelle as her consolers, I'm not sure how much longer she'll cope before her witch flicks that switch.

In every witch, there's an ability to not feel. My mom wanted so bad to not feel the pain from my dad's death and I could see it in her eyes that she wished for the ability to just switch it all off but she didn't because of me and Emmy. Of course, switching it all off isn't the thing to do and some even say it's the cowards way out but holding her now as she cries for her dead friends makes me wonder just how close she is.

I shush her, hug her, squeeze her the best I can but I know nothing can reduce the pain. One by one, people from her old pack and the pack she looked after are beginning to die and I don't even want to tell her that Will has taken over, pushing people to either flee or join the awful pack that he's building.

I look to Ben who's talking to the wolves on patrol at the time and we lock eyes momentarily. His eyes are sad, for me and my mom but not for Will's parents. I know that this causes more anger and suspicion within' the pack but it's not members of his pack that were killed.  Me and my mom are now joined by Rochelle, who offers me a sympathetic smile before hugging my mom from the other side. Rochelle is very loyal and loving, she's been the balance of this pack for many years and she compliments Jeff well, they're a team who work well together.

I let my mom cry, tears falling from her eyes and onto my shoulder and I wonder whether me and Ben will have the stability and love for this pack that has been shown by his parents. Of course we do, even if we didn't then we'd have to learn and who better to learn from than Rochelle and Jeff?

Jeff walks over to us, kissing Rochelle on the side of the head before turning to me "Arabella, do you mind just coming inside for a second?"

I take a deep breath, looking from my mom to Rochelle who takes over the consoling and I feel guilty for pulling away and leaving her. It's not often that you have to console your mom, not many children are put in that position, yet here I am in it for the second time.

"I'm sorry that I had to pull you away, I just need you to look at some things" Jeff says.

I shake my head "Don't apologise, we have to find out why they were killed"

Jeff is a nice man but I know that he has a side to him that the rest of this pack wouldn't dare to cross. "Have we found anything in relation to Will?" I ask. A hair, a tooth, a bit of blood that isn't Collin or Annie's- this would be hard to find, it was a total massacre in here with no holding back from whoever did it.

He leads me inside and I see the phones of both of them resting on the table. "They're not password protected, I'm not sure if they took this off in case something bad happened to them or what" He says, looking down at the phones. I sit at the table. "Look through the photo gallery, I have a feeling you're going to be slightly shocked."

I frown but do as he says, picking up the left phone first. There's pictures from a while ago, pictures that I've never seen before. Some of these are of my mom, my dad, me, Emmy and in every single one, I'm circled. There's even pictures from when I was a child, before Emmy was even born.

I frown down at the phone "Why would they have these pictures?"

"They're automatically synced onto the camera roll, they've been sent to them from a shared album with an unknown number, we think it's been blocked when they were killed"

I shake my head "It doesn't make sense, they knew who I was"

"Did they? Look at the date"

I tap the screen and the folder date comes up "This album was started in 2007." I say, my voice laced in confusion.