• The • Rise • Of • The • Shapeshifters •

Chapter Eight~ Answers.

Grandma was upset.

Not because I broke her mirror, but now she was using a pair of tweezers to carefully remove tiny glass shards from my hands.

"Why did you break the mirror Ally?"

I thought for a moment.

"I was trying to break my reflection not the mirror, that was collateral damage."

Even to me, that made no sense, but it was the truth.

After seeing yet another large cat around my face I just snapped.
She was rubbing alcohol over my hand now, it stung.

"Ally... Why would you want to break your reflection?" She asked corking back the bottle. "You're  a beautiful girl." 

I snorted.

"Thanks grandma, but that's not why..."

I sighed. "I have something to tell you..."

And I did. I told her about what I saw in the fountain, my dream, and the dead cheetah in the mirror... I purposely left out the part about Lucien. I'm not sure what to make of that, I wasn't afraid of Lucien.

Grandma listened keenly and she didn't interrupt, but her face looked worried, at one point she looked terrified.

I bet she thinks I'm crazy...

Grandma sighed. "Ally there's something I need to tell you."

"There's something we need to tell you." A voice from behind us said.

We both whirled around to see aunt Jessica leaning against the door frame, she looked irritated and harassed.

I ran up to her and hugged her for all she was worth.

"Did you hear everything?" I asked her when we parted.

"Yes." She turned to look at her mother.

"Mama... They're here and they don't want to have tea this time."

Who's here? And why wouldn't they want tea? Tea is life.

"We take her to Dahlia's house." Grandma said and reached for her phone.

Aunt Jessica shook her head. "No, I don't want to drag Dahlia into this one."

She reached for my arm and began dragging me towards the back door.
"Come on, we're going to Rose Hall."

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Rose Hall was not what I expected.

Instead of a place filled with roses, Aunt Jessica and Grandma took me to a dark sheltered willow tree.

Aunt Jessica rolled up her sleeves.

"We're climbing?" I asked.

She didn't answer, she reached for the nearest limb and made her way up quickly.

"Go on Ally," grandma said.

I looked at her. "Can you even climb?"

Grandma smiled. "Don't concern yourself about my abilities Ally, climb."