Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Three

Lily's day at school was nothing out of the ordinary. She received the pitiful stares, even some of dislike, but she knew why that was the case. 

The students didn't like her because she didn't know what she simply was. And because Lily didn't know, they didn't know, and it meant she was a possible threat. For all they knew, her abilities could blow up the Earth, or they could be as simple as breathing underwater.

Lily was an enigma in the supernatural world and the students were afraid.

Everyone at Nova High were afraid. 

As Lily walked out of the library for lunch, her fingers playing with the bracelet on her wrist, she ignored the stares she received. After so long being the outcast of Nova High, the alien in a school of monsters, she was used to the whispers.

However, the other students were still talking about the attack on the alpha family. 

Rumours were flying around left, right, and centre, but none mentioned Lily's help. Apparently no one saw her rescue Alice and Andrew hadn't said anything either. What Lily was scared of, despite someone figuring out she rescued Alice, was the last werewolf that ran. 

That last werewolf saw her eye colour, saw her creature, and saw how she fought the others. He heard her voice, saw her face. He knew Lily, and Lily feared he would return.

She feared that he knew what monster she was.

As Lily sat for lunch she quietly ate her meal. Her food wasn't much, just enough to get by. She didn't need as much as the other students - they were spending their energy focusing on their inner creatures and Lily was just using the energy she needed as a somewhat ordinary student. 

At lunch though, she tried to overhear any information the few wolves at school were saying, but they weren't giving anything away. Their eyes were constantly glowing gold, their high emotion of grief pushing their animal sides to the surface. No one was provoking them today, no one dared to. 

She spotted the trio of girls she'd heard in the library - the witch, the vampire, and the fairy - who edged to sit at a nearby table. Lily almost breathed a sigh of relief when they weren't talking about her, or the werewolf attack at all.

No one knew she saved them. She could still remain in her invisible, normal reality. 

Lily breathed deeply through her nose, fidgeting with her bracelet, before she packed up her bag and chucked the remains of her sandwich in the bin. Lily, with her mind running a million miles a minute, didn't notice the witch from the trio giving her a weird look as she left.

"Did you guys notice Lily?" She whispered to her two friends, who stopped their gossiping to see where Lily left in the cafeteria.

"She's by herself a lot Jack, you know that." Claire responded, cuddling her lunch like it was about to be chucked out as well. "You know the whole school basically pushes her aside because she doesn't know what she is." 

Jack frowned. "That's not her fault." The witch tapped her fingers on the table, her rings echoing slightly. "Where do you think she was last night?"

Karen's lips trembled. "You...you think she did that?"

"No, Karen for crying out loud, she doesn't know what she is." Jack huffed, leaning back in her chair. "What if she knew something though?"

Claire scowled. "What, like a psychic? Surely you, or the whole school, would know that by now. Unless you mean a telepath? They don't exist though."

"Who says they don't?" Jack pointed at Claire's lunch. "You prove to me there is no such thing as a telepath and I'll buy you lunch for a year." 

The fairy's eyes widened and she immediately dived into her phone. Karen shook her head, drinking her blood-red smoothie. "You shouldn't encourage her."

Jack smirked, tendrils of green energy dancing around her fingertips. "It's entertaining."

Karen pointed her chin at the magic on her hands. "You spoken to the teacher about that?"

Jack closed a fist, the magic snuffing out. "No." The witch looked at the door Lily had exited from. "But I think Lily knows something. I have an itchy feeling."

"You should probably speak to someone about your itches too." Karen ignored Jack's glare so the witch focused on what kind of mystery Lily could uphold. What better place to hide than in the shadows?

~

Lily Morgan strode through the dark of her second home: the cemetery.

She brought colourful stones to decorate the family grave. When she was little, she would always collect them, and it was a young memory with her family she wanted to honour. Her aunt brought beautiful flowers she slotted in the built-in vase but Lily hated seeing them slowly wilt and die as time went on.

So pebbles it was, and never flowers.

Lily smiled as she came across the tombstone. When she knelt before it she ran her hands over her family's names, sticking her tongue out when she stroked Rio's name.

"Hey Mum, Dad, Delta and Rio," Lily said. "I'm back again."

As she brought a hand to the bag she'd brought with her, she began to tell them about her week. Lily visited her family every weekend, a routine she'd developed after they died, but occasionally she came on a weekday like today. As she brought a colourful orange pebble out from her bag, she spoke about her subjects. Lily spoke about her days with Aunt Ollie and the spider that escaped capture.

"And then yesterday..." Lily's voice wavered. Her dark eyes focused on the gravestone, she almost hoped her eyes would burn for her inner creature then, that she would know what she was with her family there with her. "My eyes shifted for the first time." She admitted to the wind.

"I was walking home, Ollie was on the late shift, and I cut through the forest." Lily's mind churned up the memory and she clutched one of the multi-coloured stones tightly. "I heard a scream, and yes Dad I heard it through my music, but I ran towards it.

"You always taught me help others whenever I could." Lily licked her lips, wishing for some water to wash down, but she pursued on. She could tell her family anything, they would never judge her.

"Anyway, I came across these three werewolves and an alpha girl." Lily explained, spreading her hands out in front of her, showing them what happened. "They had her surrounded, and my eyes started to burn. I heard so much about how they burn, right? From school? But feeling it, it's so weird that they actually do!

"I'm distracted again, I know Mum." Lily smiled. "But Rio, you're gonna love this! I kicked all their arses!

"Sorry Delta, I know you don't like cursing but Rio it was awesome!" Lily was grinning as she told her sisters, but her smile faltered as she looked over her parent's names. "It was actually more terrifying than awesome. I was so scared afterwards, because whatever we were, whatever I am...it's dangerous." 

Lily fiddled with the bracelet around her wrist, the one she treasured so much. "I don't know how I can control this side of me when I don't have you to guide me." She admitted. "What were we? We can fight and we scare the crap - sorry Delta - out of werewolves! And nothing scares those guys, they can be wolves!"

She sighed, leaning her head against the stone. It was warm from the sun, like a comforting blanket, and the stones dropped out of her palm and onto the soil above her family. "I don't know how I can control her, when I can't even bring her out...what do I do?"

Lily rested against the tombstone for a while longer, before she said goodbye to her family and left for home once again, unaware of the shadow trailing in her wake.