Moana
I woke up after a night of dreamless sleep to the sound of someone rushing around the room. When I cracked open my eyes, I saw Edrick pacing back and forth. He had a pile of shirts in his hand, and I watched in a state of shock as he walked over to a suitcase and quickly shoved the shirts inside. “What are you doing?” I asked, sitting up. Edrick didn’t even look up at me. “We have to go,” was all he said. My eyes widened. “Go where?” “We’re going back to the mountain estate for real this time.” As Edrick spoke, I felt my heart sink. My limbs still felt too heavy from the sleeping meds to move quickly, and as I threw the covers off and swung my limp legs over the edge of the bed, it felt as though I was moving through a thick mud. “Why?” I asked. “You didn’t mention that we would be leaving before. Was it because of last night?” Edrick didn’t answer. I watched with wide eyesEdrick“Moana… Just… Go inside.”Moana’s eyes widened. She glared at me for a long moment before she took off like a bolt of lightning into the house.Maybe I was being a little too harsh when she was only trying to at least help me carry the bags inside, but the property wasn’t fully secured yet and I didn’t want her standing out in the open if someone was trying to hunt her down. Maybe tomorrow, when the property was deemed safe, she could go outside with her bodyguard. But for now, she needed to be inside where it was safe.“Should I go after her, Mr. Morgan?” Kat asked.I nodded. “You don’t have to be right next to her if she doesn’t want it. But at the very least, keep an eye on her whereabouts.”Moana’s bodyguard nodded understandingly, then took off after Moana. I sighed as I heard the echoes of Kat calling Moana’s name.Of course I felt bad for suddenly ripping her away and not b
MoanaI went to sleep that night with anger still in my heart for Edrick.When I woke up, however, that anger turned into fear.I found myself no longer in my bed, but I was now at the little desk that was in my room. And it wasn’t just that, either. I had my sketchbook lying on the desk in front of me, and what was drawn on it…Was the knife.I gasped and quickly snapped the sketchbook shut. Why was this happening to me? I stood, knowing that I needed to tell someone, but I couldn’t tell Edrick. If I told him, then he would likely only freak out even more, and I already felt like a prisoner.These drawings had to be prophetic. And the only way that I could get to the bottom of what they really meant was by accessing whatever part of my brain that they were coming from. Maybe then, I could start to use them to my advantage before something really bad happened.It was late, but Dr. Rhodes did m
MoanaI let out a yelp. I jolted, and then everything stopped. The rain, the wind, the grass… All of it turned back into the still, calm air of my bedroom. Michael’s hand no longer gripped my wrist, and the golden glint of the knife in his hand turned into the soft amber glow of the lamp on my bedside table.“Moana?” Dr. Rhodes said, sounding concerned. “Are you there?”I quickly sat up and rubbed my eyes. “Y-Yes,” I replied. “I’m okay. It’s just…”“What is it?”I shook my head. “Nothing,” I lied. “Dr. Rhodes… Will you be available to try again tomorrow?”The therapist paused, then cleared his throat. “Sure. You can call me anytime if you want to try again, or even if you just need to talk. Are you sure you’re okay, though?”“I’m fine,” I lied again, even though my hands were shaking. “Thanks, Dr. Rhodes. I’ll call you tomorrow.”…I didn’t sleep very much at all for
EdrickI stayed up almost all night thinking about things.Moana was right about Ella needing to know the truth about her mother. Especially if bad things were about to happen, I felt as though I needed to finally tell her everything. And besides, Moana was angry with me; maybe this would remind her that I wasn’t all that bad, and that I was trying my best.“Ella, can you come here, please?”Ella sighed and pushed her chair back, causing it to scrape against the floor in an unpleasant way. She was upset with me, too, because she didn’t understand why we had to leave the penthouse so suddenly. But nonetheless, she came over to me and sat in my lap.I caught a glimpse of Moana standing in the kitchen. Her green eyes met mine, and as I held Ella, I saw them soften as they looked at the two of us.“Ella, there’s something that I haven’t told you. And I think you deserve to know the truth.”
MoanaSeeing Edrick finally tell Ella about her real mother made me soften toward him.I softened even more when Ella said those sweet things, and it made me feel as though we really were a little family despite everything that was going on. I couldn’t help but hug both of them tightly, and I felt comforted when Edrick buried his face in my hair.But when we pulled apart and I watched them reconcile Edrick’s lies, I felt my smile fade because something just felt off.I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It almost felt like some sort of sixth sense, but for what was still a mystery.All I could do was stare wistfully out the window as I tried to rack my brain over it. Maybe I was just feeling cooped up…“Do you feel strange?” I asked Mina.“A little,” she replied. I could tell that she was just as confused as I was. “Some fresh air could be nice.”I nodded to myself. Ella was play
MoanaI felt my eyes go wide at Kat’s proposition.“Really?” I asked quietly. “You could actually help me shift… today?”Kat nodded with a smile on her face. “It’s easy,” she replied. “You could get it over with really quickly.”I could feel my wolf reacting strongly to this. It had felt as though Mina was coming close to shifting for a while, ever since Edrick and I marked each other, but it still hadn’t happened. And maybe, just maybe… shifting could finally make all of this ambiguity stop.“What do you think?” I asked Mina.She seemed excited. “We should do it,” she replied. “I’ve been feeling stuck, like I keep coming close to shifting but I just can’t make it happen all the way. This could be what I need… And I trust Kat.”I agreed with Mina. With a smile, I nodded at Kat. More than anything, I was just excited to finally be able to shift. Maybe then, Edrick wouldn’t think that I was so i
EdrickI watched as Moana’s head of red hair slowly faded into the distance. She seemed to stop and look over her shoulder before stepping into the treeline, with Kat following secretly at a distance.From where I was standing, I could still see her as she began to wander around the entrance to the forest.Just one day ago, I wouldn’t have let her go out like that. But I had a constant patrol keeping watch around the entire perimeter of the property where anyone could feasibly get in, I had patrolled the whole property myself just last night, and I sent Kat along with Moana to keep an eye on her.If my father was going to try to get at Moana, it would certainly be near impossible for him to accomplish. And besides… keeping Moana cooped up would only make her more likely to be in danger.“Daddy?”I was suddenly snapped out of my deep thought by the sound of Ella’s voice. I didn’t realize it, but I mus
Moana“Kat?” I called out.My bodyguard was nowhere to be found. One minute she was right beside me, and the next she was just… gone. She just took off running and didn’t look back.Maybe she found the valerian roots, I thought to myself, although I think I knew deep down that it wasn’t the case. She had left me; although I didn’t know why.“Hello?” I started to jog in the direction that she ran off to. Over my head, the wind began howling more aggressively and the sky darkened as a horrible thunderstorm began to form in the sky. No matter which way I turned, I couldn’t see the mansion anywhere.And we had taken so many turns that I didn’t even know where I should go to find it now.“Okay…” I stopped and shut my eyes for a moment, thinking. We hadn’t been walking for that long… Maybe if I just got my bearings, I could find my way back to the mansion. When I opened my eyes again, I resolved to start off by heading upwards, since I remembered walking down a gradual slope.But from here