Searching for food

Mark me? What am I? a cow? Whatever this mark is, I don't like the idea of it one bit. I smile, one of the few actual smiles I've ever made, and look at him tenderly.

"Nick?" I say with a kind voice, completely taking him by surprise. That was to be expected, my voice is always monotonic, robotic, or tired. Not really showing much emotion.

He smiles widely "Yes?" he asks. I raise my right hand and do a V sign with my fingers. "You're a pervert" I say while smiling. He looks confused but I don't lose time, I immediately thrust my two fingers in each of his eyes, making him back up and cover his face.

I get up from the bed and calmly get out of the room. I'm hungry, let's search for food. I start walking aimlessly but I find nothing but empty rooms. After walking some more, I find an elevator. A freaking elevator in a house. These people are definitely rich.

I get inside the elevator and select the first floor; I remember the party. The kitchen was on the first floor, kitchen means food and food means a full stomach. I lean in the elevator's right wall and close my eyes until I hear the door opening.

Did I close my eyes for that long? I'm already at the first floor. I get out and walk following the smell of food. I wonder what time it is. I don't have my phone and I don't see any clocks; I hope my dad hasn't realize I'm not there, I don't want him to worry.

Decided, I will talk to Nick about my dad. After around 5 minutes I finally reach the kitchen, unfortunately, some people are already there.

I look around and I see Lucas, Jos, Raymond, the cake middle-aged woman, that I think is Lucas's and Nick's mom, the two guys from yesterday's weird kidnapping and the other two people make me wince. Sophie's mom is here and she's being hugged by a man, both of them looking sad, the man has similar features to Sophie so I guess that's her dad.

Fortunately, there's food ready ordered in trays, as if it was a buffet. I slowly walk inside and when they notice me, they all look sadly but not surprised. Did they know what Nick was going to do and none of them decided to stop him?

"…" I look around without uttering a word. Lucas and Jos even slightly bow to me when we make eye contact. Alright, I know where I am now, this is a cult, these people belong to a cult, and I'm trapped inside.

-wolves cult- I giggle at the silly idea. I have to be careful though; cults are really good at messing with an individual's mind.

I finally notice Sophie's mom's features, she looks pale and weak, with black circles under her bloodshot eyes. I've seen people like her before, people that lose themselves after losing a loved one. I sigh, I now know I can't just tell her Sophie's last words and forget about her. If I leave her be she will kill herself.

Alright, I'm already at a weird cult after being kidnapped by a delusional man after he got a sign from a goddess telling him I'm his somewhat soulmate. Also, I already talked to a ghost in front of some of the people that live here.

"mmmmm" I tilt my head from side to side trying to decide what was the best action. You know what, fuck it! I'll do things using the direct approach, they're not humans, I'm sure they've seen weird shit.

Do I eat first, or do I talk to her first? Let's talk first, I don't think I can eat comfortably with that tired face in front of me. I walk and sit in the empty seat next to her, taking all the people around by surprise.

What do I tell her? How do I make her understand and convince her my words have a strong meaning? I wish I asked Sophie. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, I don't like to do this, but I will. This will hurt a little.

I spread my hand on the table and close my eyes -Sophie- I say inside my head. No answer. -Sophie, your mom needs you. Just tell me about you, tell me how to reach her- I try again, some ghosts decide to never answer, once they pass they don't feel the need to come back but I think Sophie will.

I feel a tiny hand touching my own as if she was touching me from the other side of a mirror. I feel her feelings and see her memories. I smile lightly. She had a happy childhood. I feel her death and I wince and just like that, she's gone again.

I open my eyes and I see everyone looking at me worryingly. "Are you ok!?" Jos shouts and I look at her confused. Why shouldn't I be? I finally feel the water running down my nose. I wipe it with the back of my right hand and finally notice it's not water, it's blood.

I lightly press my nose until I stop bleeding. "I'm good" I inform Jos. Time to focus. I lean my head on Katherine's right shoulder and I feel her flinching. I smile, this is what Sophie used to do but I know it's not enough, so I continue.

I raise my right hand and start taping the back of her right hand. "This little princess wants to go to sleep, but her mother, the queen, it's still here. She's talking with the king and she's happy but the little princess it's tired. Tomorrow morning you can talk but the moon it's here and it's time to sleep~" I sing while tapping lightly with my index finger on the back of her hand. This is the made-up song Sophie made when she was sleepy, and her mother was busy talking.

I stop singing and raise my head, Katherine and the man hugging her are looking at me with teary eyes. She turns to me and cups my face. "Sophie?" she says while crying.

I smile a small but tender smile. I cup her face with one hand and tap her nose with a finger of my other hand after that I press my forehead with hers. Things Sophie used to do.

"She loves you and she never blamed you" I say "Don't give up Katherine, don't use your child as an excuse to escape the pain" I say. After that, I get up and casually start walking toward the food.

I take a plate and grab a little bit of everything, the food looks yummy and there are many things I've never tried before. Once I have my plate full, I walk toward the table again and lazily start eating.

No one says anything which I'm thankful for. I just want to eat in peace and then convince Nick to do something about my dad, that or running away, whatever feels like the best option.

"Allie?" Jos calls at me and I raise my head. I finally realize the way Lucas is hugging her, is completely different from last time.

At the party, they were just flirting, as it meant nothing more than having fun but now? They were near each other as if being apart was painful as if they were the only thing that mattered to the other. As if they were in love, and it clicks.

She seems like she wants to ask me something, but I rather satisfy my curiosity first "So, you're mates?" I ask Jos and she smiles widely.

"We are!" she says happily while leaning on him.

"So… you're a Luna as well?" I'm guessing Luna is what they call their mates but it's better to confirm.

They all look at me in surprise and Jos even giggles "Nope! A Luna is the female Alpha of the pack!" she says while smiling.

"I'm confused, please explain" I say curiously. Nick called me Luna, which means I would be the female leader? Then that means Nick is the somewhat boss? But… does that mean he also controls his dad? That must be awkward.

"Well, Nick is the Alpha, which means he is the leader of the pack, he orders, and we listen. Dylan is the Beta, that would be Nick's second in command, then we have the Gamma, he's name is Arnold, I'm sure you'll meet him soon!" she keeps talking "Since you're Nick's mate that makes you the female leader, in other words, the Luna!".

"…I don't want to be anyone's boss" I say troubled, it seems they have a social structure of their own and that's awfully interesting! What experiences made them create such a society? Or maybe it's out of instinct? Is this like a monarchy? I want to focus on the interesting structure since the implications of being the boss is really annoying. I will ignore that as much as I can.