Blood Moon Falls (Book 1 in the Original SOCIETY Series) ✔

☙14❧

☙ONE MONTH LATER❧

"I really miss you at home, Thea."

My aunt brushed her hand against my hair, pushing it back while continuing to say, "I get kind of bummed out on not having someone try out my new recipes."

I laughed lightly, smiling in return to hers. She looked down with a small frown at the outfit I had on, her fingers brushing the thermal sleeve of mine until they stopped at the plastic wrist band with some of my personal information on it.

Her hand shot up to her hand, covering her mouth to cover the sob that escaped her. Aunt Penny turned away on the small bed that I'd been occupying for the past month. I frowned, watching her cry, and leaned over to touch her shoulder so she could look at me.

"Aunt Penny... What's---what's wrong?"

With every visit my aunt made, she hadn't broken down until now. I guess I didn't think it would be so hard for her to see me in the mental hospital since she had agreed to sign the form that the therapist presented to her after my emergency appointment. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get my aunt to understand that I needed this, and that it was important for her to let me get the help I needed.

It wasn't like i was leaving her forever. I was just at the mental hospital located on the outskirt of Blood Moon Falls. It was about a twenty minute drive and was close to where my aunt worked, which was why she'd visit during her lunch. The hospital wasn't as bad as i imagined.

The floors were all carpet and the walls were a dark green color. The rooms had two beds each. We weren't allowed to keep anything in the rooms; no clothes, no toothbrushes, shampoo, notebooks, books, pens, nothing that could be used to potentially harm another. Everything like that was kept in an assigned locker that we had to request our stuff from. It was annoying to be honest, to not have my music of all things, but it was part of the rules that i agreed to when I signed that document.

Aunt Penny had to be frisked whenever she came to visit and would have to wait by the front desk for the staff to check whatever she brought me. My phone and headphones were taken away the first day here, so I got my fix of music in the "happy lounge" as the staff called it where the patients could sit down for arts and crafts while listening to music, or watch TV.

"Aunt Penny...?" I tried again, saddened that she was crying so hard.

She shook her head, sighing, "I'm so sorry, Thea... I just... I just feel like a failure as a guardian if my niece had to come to this place to get the help she needed. I failed your mom, sweetheart!"

Shaking my head, I pulled my legs underneath me, sitting on my haunches as I took hold of her hand. I squeezed it a bit, smiling, "Aunt Penny... Please stop crying... You didn't fail at anything, okay? This was going to happen anyway. I feel so much better after being here. I needed to help myself the most even if you were there the whole time."

Her brown eyes looked confused and i sighed, sitting back and twisting the band around my wrist.

"Sometimes the support we have isn't enough, and unfortunately for me--- I needed more than just your love. I couldn't keep depending on you to fix me when you have a life to live too."

My aunt frowned, wiping at her tears and turned to face me better. She brushed my hair out of my face again, holding my face in her hands.

"Thea... You are seventeen years old. That doesn't mean you have to do things on your own. The feelings you had to deal with didn't have to isolate you. I was there to help you, to deal with these feelings you had."