Banished

A few hours later when the silence had grown heavy and the darkness deepened, people from town came to the field to meet me in the pool of my parents blood. They were dressed in black, wearing their mourning clothes. I sat down and wondered where my mum was, looking around the bowed heads. I didn't see her, and then afresh I remembered she was dead, among one of the bodies on the floor. 

I let out a scream and started crying all over again. 

I punch hard at the ground, angry. 

“Wake up! Please, wake up!”

I went over to the next body. “Please please please.”

Nothing changed, and I started to cry all over again. 

I sat in the mess and looked up at the pack members for comfort. What I saw there chilled me to the core. They seemed angry. And I understood that, but their anger seemed to be directed at me. I shook my head, as if to tell them that it wasn't me. I was away. I didn't even know what happened! 

“What happened?” I barked out, hoping someone would answer me. 

The silence was so thick like a knife could cut it, yet I waited in it with them. I needed someone to explain this catastrophe. 

It was one of the Elders that told me what was going on.

“After you ran off yesterday, the celebration kind of fell apart. 

Alpha Khal was angry and talking to the moon goddess, and while he was yelling, he hit the beta of the Crystal Blood pack. 

In anger, their Alpha retaliated, and before he could, your father stood in his way. Alpha Khal got injured, but was taken away before he was killed.

Alpha Carter called for reinforcements and they got Alpha Khal to safety, but Alpha Carter, he-” 

He bowed his head, and shook it. 

He didn't make it. 

I looked around the bodies and spotted that of the Crystal Blood pack members. I spit on the ground and buried my head between my legs. It all felt like a nightmare I was outside of. 

“Why?” I asked myself, ignoring everyone else. 

Unknown to me, someone else heard, and it was Moira. Moira had lost her mate in the battle, and was streaked with blood and mud, just like me. She turned to me roughly, anger coloring her cheeks red. 

“Why?” she mimicked, letting out a dry laugh. I covered my mouth, swallowing back a sob. 

“This is because of you! You're the one who has bad luck. You're the one who didn't get to shift, even after she turned 18. It was you who hadn't had any shifts. It was you who was called a witch, wasn't it?” By then, she was already in front of me, her small fingers jamming into my chest with each word.

“This. Is. All. Your. Fault!! ”

“I'm sorry,” I muttered, all the fight leaving my body. Maybe if I wasn't there that day, none of it would have happened. Maybe if I wasn't a witch, if I wasn't born, everyone would still be alive. 

“Sorry! She's sorry!” she yelled, walking around the bodies. 

“You're sorry? Tell that to my husband. To my pups. Hell, tell that to Gabe, who no longer had either parent. Or please, Mira tell that to all these families. It doesn't fix anything, so just stop it. Shut up and stop it!”

Just then, Elise stepped forward and told her to stop. 

“Moira! Stop it! She had no part in this. Our Alpha King made a mistake and the other side retaliated with violence! She wasn't even there!”

“But why did he make the mistake, huh? It's because she's bad luck! If she wasn't a witch he wouldn't have been yelling at the moon goddess, and if he wasn't doing that, the celebration wouldn't have ended like it did!”

A few murmurs went around the camp and I felt them all agreeing. 

“Moira's right.”

“Yes, if Mira wasn't a witch, none of this would be happening.”

Elise tried again. 

“She is not a bad witch, you guys!” she pointed at someone in the crowd. It was Felix. I had healed him when he was very sick. “She healed you when you were sick.”

“And you, Leo, she helped you when you fell and sprained your ankle that one time. She has healed many things from paws to broken noses and concussions in this pack. Treating her this way is wrong!”

Moira turned to me and started me down like I was something rotten. 

“Being a witch is bad. Witches are bad luck. And look! She started all this. She's the reason why they're all dead.

Remember the prophecy? From the seer? How we had been having issues with the Crystal Blood pack? Did you forget? From two full moons back?”

Her words cut through the night air, and I felt each jab against my heart. 

It was all my fault. I should have left the pack when I heard the prophecy. I should have known it would come back to haunt me, and that I would somehow harm the members of the pack around me. 

The crowd ignored the protests of Elise and the others and wanted to chase me out of town that night. They were angry, and right. It was all my fault, and I felt even more tears rolling out of me. Two of the pack members followed me home to take some clothes and essentials. 

They did not let me take any weapons, but they stood and watched as I picked up a few of everything else. 

“A true wolf wouldn't need any of those weapons you're carrying,” said the one with the cruel smile. 

The other one grabbed my arm after a few minutes and dragged me out of my home. “That's enough. Get out of here. ”

I headed towards the edge of the forest and turned back to look at what used to be my home, my pack. Many of them had refused to come, and a few were burying their dead and mourning.  I searched their faces for some empathy, or kindness, and I saw none. 

I realized that before, the only reason they cared for me was because my father was Alpha Carter, the pack warrior leader. Now that he was gone, they had no use for me. 

That was okay. I didn't care much for them either. 

Elise was in the bushes waiting for me, and she gave me a long hug and a knife to use to protect myself in the forest. 

I thanked her and went on my journey into the forest.