45- Lachlan’s shadow

"Ehhh…ehhh…mmnh…" Skritch. Skritch. Skritch.

Sirius woke up on the floor in Lachlan's bedroom to the familiar sound of Lachlan's nightmare. He opened his eyes and raised his head, looking over at the other end of the room where a small nightlight reflected a soft blue hue on the wall, illuminating it a bit so the boy wouldn't be scared of the dark.

(It didn't seem to be working. Yes, hello, smiling bunny face, I am still here! Just because mom didn't know what I was up to, or where I was, doesn't mean that I didn't. I can be anywhere and everywhere…..bahhahahaha. I wasn't sure if I was going to be a baby yet, but I got Lachlan out of my parent's room. Not the nicest way to do it, making mom think I'm dead and all that, but honestly, it's not like they had a miscarriage either. Being told you're not pregnant is better than that at least. It was very confusing to me. Either way, I was still a Dís.)

Sirius looked at the direction of the sound groggily as another set of whimpers left the crib. Lachlan was laying on his side, having completely assumed the form of a wolf cub and was kicking his legs and paws, scratching at the sheet that covered him as he slept.

"Hey beastie." Sirius said lovingly, "It's ok…shhhh.. I've got you my little man…."

He came closer to the crib and went to console him from his nightmare. Setting his large hand on the child's side, he attempted to wake him. The weight of his hand usually helped the baby to return to this world and leave the dreamworld that scared him so much.

However, as his hand made contact, with Lachlan's back, he pulled back in shock as the shadow around him engulfed his hand with a cold, moist sensation and his flesh began dissolving.

"Ah!" Sirius cried as he pulled his hand away. Burns had formed on his skin. It was as if he had placed his hand in acid. But the acid didn't burn the objects around Lachlan, just Sirius' flesh.

The wound began closing as he clutched his hand tightly at his chest and looked at Lachlan with a bit of horror on his face. What is this? An ability?

Lachlan opened his eyes as if he realized his shadow had been touched and let out a shrill wail.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!" He cried startled.

Sirius jumped into action, his wound now gone, picking Lachlan up, the shadows around him had dispersed. He bounced him excitedly to calm him down and patted his back. "Hey it's ok!" He said reassuring him.

"Aaaaaa haaaa ha! Aaaaaaa…." He continued crying, the efforts Sirius made to calm him down didn't help.

(Yes Usurper, make dad's experience with parenting hard. I thought. My usual feeling to compete with him rising up in my chest. I know he was nice to me, but I just can't help myself. However, it was also coming from a place of envy. You see, I myself was making Mom's experience with parenting just as bad, if not worse….)

Sirius looked around the room frantically, Where did I put his formula?

"Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhh!" Lachlan continued. This made Sirius stress a bit. The efforts he made to console him by bouncing him futile.

Sirius opened the door to his room and searched the living room and kitchen for the can of powdered werewolf milk.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Lachlan's shrill sound pierced the silence of the apartment.

"Shhhh! You're going to wake mommy!" Sirius begged.

"Aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!" Lachlan continued in response.

Sirius had no choice. He had to open the door to his bedroom even if that meant that Saoirse would wake up. He turned the knob and burst into the room apologizing.

The sounds of Lachlan interrupted the stillness of the room, but it was met with another sound. The sound of Lachlan's competition.

Saoirse was in the middle of puking her guts out in the bathroom.

(This is why I was upset. Mom had kept vomiting like this even a month later after the pregnancy scare and still tested negative for pregnancy. It had left her feeling very emotional and bitter about her situation. She really wanted a baby now. She was mad that she was throwing up and it didn't mean she would get a baby out of it. I felt so bad. Had she actually conceived me at all? Or was I just affecting her with my powers? My mere presence seemed to make it worse. Now mom was in the bathroom crying.)

"Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Lachlan exclaimed unphased.

Sirius no longer focused on him though. He had become distracted. Had Saoirse continued nauseous, even until now? If she had, she had kept it from him. Saoirse had learned over the years how to keep some of her emotions from crossing to him through their bond.

He carefully opened the bathroom door and Saoirse was laying there on the floor, clearly not well. Sweat was running down her pale face and she cooled herself on the tile floor, willing herself to return from this episode she was having.

"You're still throwing up, even a month later?" He asked, astonished.

She became uncomfortable when Sirius found out this secret she had been striving really hard to keep from him. This was because she didn't want to return to the hospital."I'm sorry, I just didn't want you to get your hopes up. I still can't assume I'm pregnant, it just doesn't work."

"Why? Isn't this exactly a confirmation? Who cares what the doctor said a month ago. If you're still throwing up, then you must be carrying a baby! How are you still doubting this? We should be able to have an ultrasound by now, why were you keeping this from me?"

Saoirse got up and hurled into the toilet again. Lachlan stopped crying and looked at her curiously.

"I tested again an hour ago. That's why." She answered.

Sirius turned his attention to the countertop, which had a plastic stick on it. He picked it up.

"Not pregnant." Digital words announced.

(And there it is. The reason that I was making Mom's experience with parenting hard. Because if I was supposed to do it, I didn't know how to make a friggin' plastic stick say yes!!!!! Was my soul supposed to enter her body? Is that what I was doing wrong? I could feel a connection, as if our fates had been woven, even if I wasn't able to see our strings. The Norns said I had one now right? But a Dís is an entity right? Like a Fylgia, it wasn't a soul, so how was I supposed to figure this out? In all my years of existence, I had never heard of another entity trying to do this, but I wanted this so badly, was all I could do was make her sick? Who had made this decision?! Who had made me a Fylgia in the first place instead of making me into a soul! I clenched my fists. Lachlan! Please enlighten me! I wanted to shout. The Norns. That's who. My old bosses, who gave me my job back without even asking me if I wanted it. They had made me into a Fylgia, and then a Dís, but never a soul. And now, because of this, I was on my own to figure this stuff out.)

Sirius didn't know what to think, "It couldn't be!" He objected.

He lifted her shirt abruptly to have a look at her belly. It was still the same size as it had been, a slight bit less lean than before, but he didn't want to tell her that or she might smack him.

He grabbed the collar of her shirt and yanked it open, peeking down her shirt without thinking.

"What are you doing!!!!!!!!!" She shouted angrily as she pulled her shirt out of his grasp and away from his prying eyes. "Why are you being a pervert?! Lachlan is right here!!!" She said angrily, her pale nauseous face gaining its color back.

"I'm trying to see if your breasts are bigger." He said as if he hadn't just done something invasive to her.

"How would you know!? They're the same, so just keep your eyes to yourself!!!!"

Her sudden outburst seemed to make her forget she was nauseous.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" Lachlan resumed crying, once again startled, only this time, it was by Saoirse's yelling.

"Oh I'm sorry for yelling Lachlan!" She exclaimed as she attempted to take him from Sirius' arms.

But to her surprise, probably because she hadn't interacted with him much this past month, preferring to stay in her room mourning her brother and the baby that couldn't be, he didn't want to be let go.

He buried himself in Sirius' chest shrieking, and his shadow suddenly leaped off the wall behind him, coming to life, taking the form of a black smothering wolf. Then it shot forward, gnashing its teeth and phasing through the boys with a woosh of cold, chilling Sirius' spine, and rammed into Saoirse with full force. Then it engulfed her and she was gone, leaving her clothing and a small blanket that she had wrapped around her shoulders in a pile on the floor.

Sirius grasped at the air desperately in shock.

(I think I get brownie points for this one. Lachlan couldn't be the favorite child after this.)