~°~Chapter Twenty~°~

Tonight is really quiet, just my mom and I quietly eating a light dinner. She seems more subdued and she had gone shopping earlier, which only means one thing. She's stressed out.

I want to help out but I'm not sure how.

"Mommy is fine." She smiles at me, patting my tousled hair.

I'm not even surprised that she guessed what I'm thinking, I've always been a very expressive person. "I know but I'm still worried." I stand up and take her hand, pulling her up.

"Come on, you deserve a hot soak and some quality rest." I say to her. "I'll help out."

She laughs but lets me pull her along, her messy ponytail almost nonexistent, grey eyes weary but smiling. "Want to mommy me now?" She teases and I make a face.

"This is why I don't do nice things for you." I pout.

She throws her arms over my shoulders leaning entirely on me, she's slightly taller but we make it work as we waddle over to her room. "Well if you were nicer to me often then I'd know how to handle it." She fires back and I smile in indulgence.

I've missed enjoying some alone time with my mom, I know she's just worried about me but I want to let her know that I can take care of myself and her too.

Absently, I lead her to her room. It's actually not as chaotic and impulsive as she is, instead it looks like the room of an adult who has their shit together.

I'm slightly worried about Virgil, we didn't even have the time to talk earlier today at school because we had different subjects almost the entire day. Dale was even worse, I frown pouting a little. They're annoying idiots who bother me all the time so why am I… unhappy?

"Hay don't put hair dye into my bloody bath!" My mom's screech intrudes on my uncomfortable thoughts.

I pause in the middle of turning over the opened bottle. "W-What?" I stutter distractedly, still disoriented.

She crosses her arms over the towel wrapped around her body and pouts. "I go in to undress and I come back to find your spilling dye into the bath water." She quickly grabs the upturning bottle from my hand and places it in the sink. "And it's the dark green dye, do you want me to wake up looking like an alien tomorrow?" She wails.

I laugh nervously, tugging on my tawny hair. "O-Oops, sorry mom."

She stops freaking out and gives me a fond smile. "You're obviously distracted so why don't you take a shower and go to bed, my bath is already ready."

"Sure." I mumble, already making my way out. I feel awful that I'm too distracted to spend some quality time with my mom but I get distracted again and I forget to feel bad.

I get ready for bed, lost in thought about everything and nothing in particular, I'm worried about Virgil, I hope he doesn't get in trouble for whatever he did to Tyrone.

There's a half moon outside my window and I get lost staring at it too.

I sigh heavily when I finally climb into my bed, wearing one of Virgil's shirts that he left over - what? I miss the annoying human okay!

The night is cool but not cool enough for me to wear pyjama bottoms and still survive under my blankets so I throw on some old boxers, weakened with time and well worn.

I would have loved to sleep with Apple but apparently she's still too little to stay on the bed with me, my mom kept saying that I'll crush her, I frown a little, still upset.

I look up and find that I can see the half moon through the spaces in my half opened curtains, if you ask me the next day when I fell asleep I'll have probably said I have no idea because looking up at the moon is the last thing I remember.

I wake up to total darkness, the kind that only happens when you close your eyes but my eyes are opened right? I want to find out but I can't, I can't feel my face, literally.

Strangely I don't panic at this, I just simply reach out to pat where I'm sitting on. It feels soft, I run my hands through and feel a little wetness… is it… is it, grass?

I lay down on my back, feeling the wet grass tickle the side of my face and ears, it's so peaceful that it feels like sleeping while asleep.

I can't measure how much time I spend like this, hands gently moving through the soft wet grass that strangely doesn't itch.

I remember now that I'm slightly allergic to grasses but maybe this is a different type of grass if it's even grass at all because it's so soft.

Something moves in my peripheral vision and I sense more than anything, my features taking shape. My eyelids are closed and there's a light source behind my closed eyelids, my lips are parted and I can smell the dew in the air.

Making these deductions, I open my eyes, expecting to see myself in a field watching the sun rise or at the very least in a garden with the moon in the sky.

And I'm not wrong, guess dreams can be predictable.

But I'm not in a garden, actually I'm in the woods. At least I think it's the woods, there are a lot of pines but forests all look generic.

There's a cleared path that leads deeper into the dark forest that's illuminated here and there by splashes of moonlight that manages to pierced through the thick foliage and obviously my legs start moving.

I know it's just a dream and nothing is going to hurt me but it's terrifying to be all alone at night in the woods.

A sound afar off startles me but my leg doesn't stop moving, no matter how hard I try to stop them, they just keep moving closer to the eerie sounds that sound like wolves... howling?

The path opens up into an open space and there a ragged cliff with a snow white wolf standing the the highest peek and howling at the full moon, It's so bizarre and enrapturing at the same time.

The moon starts to grow brighter and bigger until it swallows up the howling wolf and the cliff it was standing on, it grows bigger still until it swallows me.