Chapter 144: 114. Making Connections

We managed to get through the last two weeks of high school without any other supernatural emergencies. No new mysteries, hauntings, possessions, or any other strangeness that required Club Luna's attention.

Things with Ms. Fields seemed to go ok too. We all sort of kept an eye on her after we had that conversation, but there was never anything negative going on with her. Kaylee and Paige both talked with her and Eirys a few more times too, but I did my best to avoid those conversations. In fact I kind of tried to avoid Ms. Fields entirely, apart from when I was attending her classes.

Something about her situation still creeped me out, but I hadn't been able to figure out why. All I knew was it made me really uncomfortable whenever I thought about it too hard, and I felt even more uncomfortable whenever I had to talk to Diane or Eirys. Fortunately I didn't have to do that too often.

Finally, without any more incidents to worry about we were all able to focus on our school work and studies. Assignments were handed in, exams got written, and as of yesterday the school year officially came to an end. Me and Kaylee and Paige all graduated grade twelve, while Nina Cerys Melanie and Willow all passed grade eleven. And Brooke passed her exams and stuff, her first year of college was done, while Melody graduated.

My grades weren't great, after all the classes I'd missed and all the troubles I'd had the best I could manage was a D. My parents weren't very happy, but at least I passed. Cerys did about the same, but she also had a lot of troubles throughout the year. Melanie managed a C, same as Willow, while Nina and Kaylee were both in the B-plus or A-minus range. Paige got a solid A which was the best of our group.

Now it was the last Saturday of June and we'd all got together at the wolfgirls' place to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer, and to officially welcome Willow into the club. It was about five in the afternoon and we were all out in the backyard. There was a cooler full of soda cans and water bottles, and the BBQ was heating up while Melanie had a bunch of burgers and sausages ready to hit the grill.

With Willow's introductions out of the way the two wolfgirls were standing around the BBQ getting ready to cook the food while Kaylee and Paige were telling Brooke and Melody how things wrapped up with Ms. Fields. Nina and Willow and I were sitting with the others, but we were mostly just listening to the ongoing conversation.

"Her physical changes slowed down a lot after the first two days," Kaylee explained, "But she kept changing over the next week? Looking at her yesterday she could have fit in with her students, like she barely looked older than me or Paige."

The tall athletic brunette agreed, "She'd easily pass for nineteen now. Her hair's bright red like Kaylee's, but really long and straight. She has emerald green eyes, and fair skin with some freckles? Basically she looks like the archetypical Celtic beauty. Neither Ms. Fields or Eirys came out and said it, but I'm pretty sure that's what Eirys would have looked like when she was alive."

My girlfriend took over again at that point, "Ms. Fields said she was completely ok with all of that, she wanted the do-over. She said it's the opportunity to get things right this time. And she didn't mind sharing her life with Eirys, although neither of them really went into too many details on how they'd be sharing exactly? Like if they're both active simultaneously, or if one is sort of dormant while the other's doing stuff."

Hearing that sent some chills down my spine, it was exactly the sort of thing that freaked me out for some reason. I had a gulp from my water bottle and tried to put it out of my mind, when I noticed Melanie was sort of looking at me with an odd expression.

Meanwhile Melody asked, "What about the Welsh text from the blackboard, that pact thing? The translation sounded a bit intense, was Ms. Fields ok with all that?"

"Yeah we asked about that," Willow responded. "Ms. Fields knew what it said, but it wasn't to bind her? That was a preliminary thing, to bind Eirys to Ms. Fields. So they could start working together on the actual pact when they got back to Ms. Fields' apartment. And like Kaylee said, she was totally ok with how things worked out. For her and for Eirys."

"What was so wrong with Ms. Field's life that she wanted the do-over?" Brooke asked. "Did anyone find out about that?"

"Yeah," Paige sighed. "We asked at one point, but she didn't go into too many details because it was still pretty painful for her? Apparently she was trapped in an abusive marriage, and when she finally tried to do something about it he kicked her out and left her with nothing. He had money and expensive lawyers, she couldn't afford to fight him and didn't think she had a chance of winning anyways."

Kaylee took over, "Basically she was out on the street with nothing at age thirty-nine. So as far as she's concerned, if she had to start over anyways this at least gives her back those twenty years she lost. Now she's planning a move to Vancouver and looking at going back to school. She's already applied at UBC for a physics program, both Diane and Eirys are interested in studying astronomy."

I suppressed a little shudder, then to try and distract myself from that stuff I got up and moved over to the BBQ to see how Melanie and Cerys were doing. The older wolfgirl was just loading up the grill with burgers as I joined them.

"Hey Cass," Cerys said. "How's it going?"

I shrugged, "Ok I guess. How are you two doing? I guess you're happy my parents finally finished all the renovations and stuff they were doing to your place."

Melanie responded quietly, "It's your place Cass. You're just letting me and Cerys live here. Which we're both grateful for by the way. I know I've said it a bunch already, but thanks again for everything."

"It's fine," I mumbled as my cheeks heated up.

Then Cerys asked, "Do you think you might be moving in with us? Now that the work's all done it looks pretty nice, and the last of the new furniture arrived this week. Me and Mel have been enjoying the new living-room set and the big TV."

I shrugged again, "I don't know? I'm ok living with my parents and Nina, but I guess I might want to move out at some point? And it does look nice, I saw the way they did up the two bedrooms. But um, I just don't know right now."

"Well no rush," Melanie said as she watched the meat sizzling over the flames. "You've got this place for whenever you want it, but if you're happy with your folks then that's good too."

I nodded quietly, but didn't say anything else. I was still a little uncomfortable about the conversation going on behind me about Diane and Eirys.

Cerys obviously noticed I was trying to avoid the other subject. She gave me a curious look as she asked, "Does that Eirys stuff really bother you? I figured out of the whole club you'd be the most familiar with it."

"What?" I gave the blonde wolfgirl a worried look. "Why would I be familiar with that?"

Melanie gave her girlfriend a brief glare then told me, "She just meant after all the wild stuff you've been through. Like after everything you've dealt with, a spirit possession seems kind of tame I guess?"

"Anyways," she added quickly, "I think they've finally shifted that conversation away from Ms. Fields. A little bit anyways."

Sure enough my girlfriend was talking about the ghost hunter guys now, after Brooke asked about them.

"Yeah I did hear back from them eventually," Kaylee replied. "It took them a week or so to email me, and that was only after they figured out that their haunted chalice wasn't haunted anymore. By that point we'd already more or less wrapped things up with Ms. Fields, so I told them the situation was resolved and not to worry about it."

She continued, "They were really curious and wanted to come talk to us and meet Ms. Fields and everything, but I suggested it was probably better if they didn't. I told them the spirit and the host were both happy with the situation and each other, and they wanted to put the whole thing behind them. Mostly I just didn't want them to show up and start snooping around here. We had enough of that already with those podcast guys."

"Good call," Paige agreed. "I'm still a little paranoid that someone might be watching us. It would be nice if we can get through a whole month without having to worry about some new incident potentially exposing us to the public."

Melanie let everyone know when the food was ready, we all got burgs or sausages, plus there was cheese and toasted buns. And there were the usual condiments and stuff as well.

Then as we all started eating the wolfgirl commented, "Speaking of new incidents, I don't know if anyone noticed on the way here but me and Cerys got new backyard neighbours."

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"That place over there," she added as she gestured towards the far end of the yard. "It was owned by the same guy who used to own this place? It looks like the same kind of house too, another little two-bedroom bungalow. It was empty for months, but someone new moved in last Sunday."

Melody commented, "I went past it on my way here today, there were some people carrying boxes from a mini-van and into the house. Maybe they're still moving stuff?"

"Maybe," Melanie shrugged. Then she lowered her voice and added, "The interesting thing is the scent. Whoever's over there, they aren't human. I don't know what, but they're some kind of supernatural."

We all looked over that way, but there wasn't really anything to see from where we were. The new neighbours weren't out in their backyard and we didn't even have a good view of their house due to the trees and bushes and stuff along the fence.

Then Cerys added, "We haven't met them yet, but we've seen at least one of them? She's cute, looks about our age, and she's got pretty purple hair."

"Purple?" Melody responded. "The girl I saw this afternoon had green hair. Or maybe she just dyed it a different colour?"

That was the topic of conversation for the next little while, everyone was quietly speculating who or what might have moved in next door. Which lasted until Paige quietly reminded everyone we shouldn't be talking about that sort of thing outside where neighbours could overhear.

Melanie and Cerys both promised to keep an eye on things just in case, but if their new supernatural neighbour had already been there a week without any trouble we figured whatever they were wasn't an immediate threat. On the other hand it seemed kind of weird that there were even more supernaturals moving into our small town. Almost like there was something here drawing them in.

By that point some of us had enough to eat, while a few others got seconds. And the conversation moved on to school stuff, like how exams went and how happy everyone was that it was all over for the summer. That led to the next topic, which was what everyone's plans were for the summer break.

Melanie and Cerys both said they'd be working more shifts at the grocery store, while Brooke and Paige both had summer jobs again like last year. Willow got herself a part-time job for the summer as well. Melody was going to spend some time with her boyfriends, the three of them were going to start looking for a place where they could all live together.

As it got later the party eventually moved inside and down to the basement, so Melanie and Nina could show off their video game skills. Willow was into that too so she was happy to participate in another little tournament.

It was a lot like any other club get-together, with snacks and drinks, video games and talk. Everyone was in a good mood, there were lots of smiles and some jokes and laughter. And for some reason I couldn't relax and join in.

As much as it creeped me out I was still thinking about that stuff with Diane and Eirys, how they were coexisting and sharing Ms. Fields' body and life and all that stuff. It was like I couldn't get it out of my head, even though I really wanted to just forget about it.

As it got a little later I quietly excused myself, then sort of slipped away while the others were all talking and gaming and stuff. I still felt weird and uncomfortable, and I wanted to find somewhere quiet to just kind of chill and relax for a bit.

I ended up in the bedroom that would probably be mine if I ever moved in with Melanie and Cerys. I sat down on the new bed while facing out the window at the backyard, then took a couple deep breaths to try and calm myself down. Then once I felt a little less anxious I started to try and think rationally, to figure out what it was about the situation with Diane and Eirys that made me so uncomfortable.

It didn't take long to find a similarity between myself and their situation. Eirys basically possessed Diane, sort of like how Socha wanted to possess me. The only difference was Socha planned to replace me, while Eirys and Diane were more like friends who were sharing their body.

Once I made the connection it all sort of fell into place for me. I was probably still scared of Socha, scared of being possessed and replaced by her.

Continuing the rational thought thing, I reminded myself that Socha was banished from Earth and could never return. And even if she could, she no longer had any power since I got it all. So I was positive that Socha could never possess me.

In fact I was pretty sure I couldn't be possessed at all. Between those magic-draining runes in my arms and legs and the fact that I was half demon and half goddess, it seemed impossible for anything to successfully get into my head.

That felt reassuring, and I mostly calmed down once I convinced myself that's what I'd been freaking out about and that it couldn't ever really happen.

On the other hand it got me thinking about Socha again.

I thought back to the stuff May said when I was in the hospital last June, and the stuff Nina said last summer. I remembered the stuff my parents figured out from all the notes Nina gave them, and what I learned when I read them myself. And there was the stuff I'd kind of figured out or guessed, based on the fragment of Socha that was hiding inside the shard.

Then there was the stuff my little sister said when she was feeling really guilty and got angry at Socha last October. And finally I thought about what Nina told me back at the beginning of the year, after I confirmed that I'd replaced her as the goddess of chaos.

Of all the different things I'd learned about Socha, that conversation with my sister in January was the longest, and it also felt the most genuine. And the Socha I learned about that day didn't sound evil or cruel. For that matter I couldn't imagine Nina being friends with anyone who was outright nasty. The fact that my little sister was friends with her for a full century told me she couldn't have been that bad.

That did leave me with one puzzle, since her big plan obviously involved killing me when she came back. If she wasn't evil or nasty then the casual murder seemed out of place. It left me wondering if that's really how her plan was supposed to work, or if she actually intended it to work differently after all.

And all that left me wondering what she was really like, and if there was any way I could safely meet her. What I really wanted was -

"Cass?"

Kaylee's voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I turned to the bedroom door where my girlfriend was standing.

"Yeah?" I asked.

She came into the room and moved to my side as she asked, "Are you ok? I got worried when you disappeared."

I grimaced, "Yeah I'm fine, sorry. I was feeling a little off so I came up here for some quiet time. I'm feeling better now."

"Then why don't we go back downstairs and join the party?" she suggested.

"Ok Kaylee," I replied as I got up off the bed.

~ End of Episode Fourteen ~