Chapter 125: Interlude 27 – A Friendly Betrayal

=::= Melanie's PoV =::=

"If that stuff I scraped out of the markings really is some kind of lichen," Melody explained to the rest of us, "And right now that's only speculation, but if that's what it is, then odds are those markings have been around for years. Maybe decades?"

The shape-shifter continued, "I can't promise we're going to get any definitive answers either. I'm just relaying what Craig told me, and he was just relaying what his friend told him, and that's all based on a couple pictures I sent. I'm going to see my guys over the long weekend, I'll give Craig the sample of that stuff and he'll pass it on to his friend. It might be a few more weeks before we get an answer, if we get anything at all."

It was Thursday evening, and not even a week had passed since five of us visited that cave again. The next full moon was happening on Saturday though, so the gang was over at my place again for our April club meeting.

This was also a long weekend, we all had tomorrow and Monday off from school and college, and Melody was taking advantage of that to go hang out with her two boyfriends. I wasn't sure what everyone else's plans were, but me and Cerys would be busy with the full moon stuff until Saturday night.

There was one other little detail about today that had me a bit on edge, but so far it seemed like nobody else noticed or knew about it. My girlfriend knew, but I wasn't worried about her. My real concern was she might have let it slip to one or two of our friends.

Meanwhile Paige was talking again so I focused on what she had to say.

"Thanks Melody. Best-case scenario, what do you think we might find out?"

Our newest club member shrugged, "Is it lichen? If it's lichen, can we identify it? If so, can we guess its age. Absolute best case scenario is we find out exactly what it is, which tells us how long it takes to grow, which gives us a minimum age for those mystery carvings. We already know lichen grows very slowly, so those strange glyphs definitely weren't recent additions to the cave. On the other hand, worst case scenario the stuff isn't lichen and can't be identified. Then we're left with another unsolved mystery."

"All right, well keep us informed if you do hear anything back from your boyfriend," Paige replied. Then she looked to her girlfriend.

Brooke took over, "I haven't received any more of those mystery texts, not since the last one on March tenth. That was over a month ago now, which makes me think there probably won't be any more. With everything else that happened, and the evidence Paige and I found suggesting someone else had a trail-cam up on the cave, I think we can assume whoever sent those texts got what they wanted."

"Obviously it's a concern," she added. "It feels like someone lured us out to that cave and probably got some pictures of the seven of us who were there that day? But no idea why they'd do that or why they wanted those pictures."

My girlfriend spoke up, "Like I said before, it doesn't make much sense. Anyone who knows us well enough to set us up like that would be able to get pictures off our social media. The only exception is if they were looking for evidence of supernatural stuff, which means they might have caught Melanie's wolfgirl form and they might have some evidence of Nina's magic."

"Maybe it's someone from the council?" Cass asked quietly. "Like maybe they're investigating us after all?"

A few of us looked at Melody again, but the shape-shifter just shrugged. "I still don't know that much about them, ok? But wolfing out or doing magic in the middle of nowhere with no witnesses around isn't a crime. And some fuzzy trail-cam photos aren't going to do anyone much good if they're looking to expose us."

"Then why bother doing it at all?" I asked. "Why go through that whole elaborate scheme to get us out in the nature reserve, if all it was going to get them was some fuzzy pictures they couldn't use?"

The others were all quiet for a few seconds, till Kaylee spoke up.

"There's only one thing I can think of," the redhead responded. "Maybe it was some kind of test? Maybe someone was testing us, to see if we'd take the bait? Or testing us to see what we'd do when we got there. If it was the council, maybe they were looking for some evidence that our club is truly supernatural."

Brooke sighed, "In which case odds are they have their answer. They've probably got images of seven of us, so they'll know we're all involved. And they've probably got proof that Melanie's a werewolf, and maybe proof that Nina can use magic. Like Melody said, that doesn't necessarily mean we've done anything wrong? But it might mean we're under even closer scrutiny from here on out."

"So we all have to be extra careful going forward," Paige stated. "No magic in public, no showing off supernatural abilities. We need to be on our absolute best behaviour from now on."

Cerys frowned, "The full moon's coming up. I still can't resist the shift, so I don't have any choice in that matter. I'm going to wolf out tomorrow night. Melanie does her best to make sure nobody sees that, and at least it's quick and painless now, but it's going to happen whether I want it to or not."

"We can't do that indoors either," I added. "If we shift inside then we can't really open the doors to get outside. So we shift in the backyard, but we stick to cover as best we can."

Paige nodded, "I understand. Melanie, Cerys, do your best. I can't imagine anyone faulting you two for who and what you are, and I know you're not out there flaunting it."

Our leader then turned her attention to one of the other supernaturals, "Cass I know this came up briefly at last month's meeting, but you're not still handing out plushies to people at school or around town are you?"

The shy brunette cringed into her hoodie as she shook her head, "I'm not giving them out at school. I'm still mailing them to people who ask though."

"How many of those things do you still have?" Brooke asked. "And sorry if I missed this at some point, but did we ever figure out where they came from in the first place? I know we suspected Brian, but I don't think we ever verified that?"

Cass shrank a little deeper into her hoodie while both Nina and Kaylee turned to look at her. The shy demonic goddess sighed, then quietly admitted "I created them about a year ago. Last April I guess. It was Socha's idea, but I modified her plans to make them nicer, so they'd make people happy."

"I've got less than two dozen left now," she added. "Out of two hundred and fifty in total, but fifty-seven went out unenchanted."

For the next few seconds everyone was staring at Cass in surprise. Everyone except Kaylee and Nina, I noticed.

"That means almost two hundred of them were enchanted?" Paige finally asked. "And you've only got two dozen left? So around a hundred and eighty enchanted plushies have ended up in the hands of the public?"

Cass replied quietly, "One hundred and seventy-one enchanted plushies have found their way into human hands. Only a hundred and fifty-one have been used though. There's seventeen enchanted plushies still in people's posession that haven't been triggered yet, plus two that were thrown away unused and one more unused plushie that was burned. And May Hawthorne still has two in her possession."

Several of us exchanged surprised or startled looks.

"That's all?" Melody said sarcastically, "Only a hundred and fifty-one? That's a whole lot of demi-humans!"

"Compared to eight billion humans it's nothing," the demonic goddess mumbled.

Then Brooke asked, "So you have nineteen left at home?"

"For now," Cass sighed. Her voice was even quieter as she admitted "I have another shipment on the way, another two hundred and fifty new plushies. It'll take me a week or two to enchant them all."

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That led to another few seconds of stunned silence, until Paige asked "Cass? Why are you still doing this? Socha's gone right? She's not still controlling or influencing you. So why are you still distributing her enchanted plushies? And why in the world would you order more of them?"

The normally-shy quiet Cassandra sat up straight, rather than cringe even further into her hoodie. She looked our club leader in the eyes and stated, "For exactly the same reason that I've supported the plush toys all along. They help trans people."

"And yes I know Kathie and Kimmie are cis," she added, "But for every cis person who gets fuzzy ears and a tail, another nine or ten trans people get their greatest wish granted and their biggest source of dysphoria and stress eliminated. Thanks to my plushies there's over a hundred and thirty-five trans girls, guys, and enbies out there who've had their prayers answered and received their miracle. Which isn't even a rounding error compared to the number of trans people out there still suffering."

Cass glanced around at the rest of us before finishing, "So I've done what you and my parents asked, I've stopped handing them out at school. But I will not stop distributing them. And fellow student or not, if any trans person asks me for an enchanted plushie I'll give them one."

Once again the rest of us were stunned quiet for a few seconds, as we all stared at her.

She hadn't yelled, she didn't even raise her voice. She was a little passionate about the subject, but the biggest thing was how confident and self-assured she sounded. And I couldn't help thinking, we were all so used to Cass being quiet and shy and soft-spoken, but maybe we'd just got a real look at Cassandra the demonic goddess.

It actually reminded me of a few other times I'd seen her suddenly become more confident and self-assured, before returning to her usual shy quiet self. In retrospect I was positive those were other times she'd been channelling her inner goddess.

Since the others were still quiet I decided to speak up, "You've got my support Cass, a hundred percent. Anything that helps trans people is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned."

Then Melody chimed in, "Same. Sorry if I came across as judgemental before, I didn't realize this was something you were doing to help trans folks. I'm all for it."

"Me too," Kaylee added, which I really wasn't expecting. "It's a worthy cause, and I'm glad my girlfriend is able to help people like that."

She added a moment later, "Cass includes instructions and warnings in the capsules now, so people know ahead of time what they're getting into. That was my biggest problem with the plushies last June, and she took that concern seriously."

Cassandra elaborated, "I've been doing that since last summer. I started including instructions and warnings in the packages I was mailing out in July, but when I realized some people were throwing that away with the packaging I switched to putting the information right inside the capsules."

"All right Cass," Paige nodded slowly. "Thanks for explaining all that."

"Getting back on track with the cave situation," our club leader continued, "Mystery number one, someone unknown lured us out there for reasons unknown, and odds are they have pictures of most of us along with potential confirmation of Melanie and Nina being supernaturals. Mystery two, the unknown markings near the cave entrance. Mystery three, an unknown Wiccan is or was using the cave to perform rituals, possibly seeking to invoke Hecate."

"That last one's probably the least of our worries," Kaylee pointed out. "Unless something really unusual happened, a normal human following directions they got from a modern book isn't likely to have any real success. I hate to downplay or dismiss that stuff since I know some people have a lot of faith in it, but it's nothing like the real magic we all know."

Paige agreed, "Odds are the mystery Wiccan is unrelated to the other two things, and they're probably not going to be a problem regardless. So that just leaves the first two things for us to worry about. And I'm not sure the strange glyphs are something we need to be concerned with either? They're mysterious, but they probably aren't a threat to anyone. Which just leaves the first thing."

After a brief pause she stated, "So like I said, let's all be on our best behaviour until further notice. If we've got the council investigating us, we need to be very careful. Like May said before she left, we all need to be a lot more cautious. Ok?"

Nobody argued or questioned any of that, so Paige continued "That's actually all the club business I have on the agenda for this month. Does anyone else have anything they want to talk about?"

I found myself on edge again as I glanced around at my girlfriend and the rest of the club, but it seemed like my secret was safe after all. Nobody said anything, so Paige brought the meeting to a close.

Cass was back to her quiet shy self again as she dispelled the circle, then me and Cerys put out all the candles and gathered them up. After that was done Nina helped us put all the furniture back where it belonged.

"I'll go grab some snacks," my girlfriend said. "Why don't you get the TV and console ready to go?"

We all had dinner before the meeting, now it was time for the after-meeting social stuff. The cooler full of drinks was already down here with us, we just needed some chips and pork rinds to munch on while we relaxed and played games.

"Melanie?" Nina asked quietly while I turned on the console and grabbed the controllers. "I noticed the for-sale sign is already gone from your front lawn. Did the landlord change his mind? Or...?"

That made me grimace, "I saw it was gone last night when me and Cerys got home from work, so I asked my dad about it. According to what he heard from the landlord, somebody already bought the place. Now we're on borrowed time I guess. No idea if the new owner's going to boot us out or if dad has to sign a new rental agreement with them or something."

"The closing date's not till next month though," I added, "So we might be in limbo for another few weeks yet. I guess whenever we find out what's happening I'll let the club know."

She was about to reply when suddenly everybody else went completely quiet. The silence was so obvious I had to turn around and see what was going on, and when I did my heart skipped a beat.

My girlfriend had just come down the stairs, and she was carrying a birthday cake with a couple lit candles on it.

With a wide grin on her face she announced, "Happy birthday Melanie!"

"Happy birthday!" everyone else echoed, and that's when it hit me.

They all knew. Cerys must have told them in advance, maybe they even planned the whole thing together. They all knew, and they were all waiting for this exact moment. Sure enough Cass had a stash of little paper plates and plastic forks ready for the cake, while a few of the others had birthday cards for me.

I groaned, but at the same time I couldn't help smiling. The cake had my name piped across the top, there was even an image of a cute wolf drawn out in icing under my name. It was the first birthday celebration I'd had in two years, the first cake I ever got with my real name on it. The last time I had a party or a cake was the year before I came out to my parents.

My girlfriend set the cake down on the coffee table, then I was subjected to all my friends singing the birthday song in different keys at the same time before I got to blow out the candles.

After that I had to struggle to keep up my tough-girl image while I thanked all my friends and accepted their cards and well wishes and stuff. Then as I hugged my girlfriend, I made myself a secret promise. When Cerys's next birthday came around on August fifth, I would have my revenge.

For now, I just smiled and enjoyed my surprise birthday party.