The Moon Goddess [3] ✓

☾Cross the Line

They say there's a fine line between good and bad, a distinct line that separates one side from the other. You can be either all good or all bad, you can't be both and you can't be neither.

But does one bad act cross the line and make you bad? Or does one good act cross the line and make you good?

Not everything is black and white.

I know I should be sad and depressed about being apart from my family. . . but the truth was, I loved feeling so free. No one was there to compare me to Cassie, no one was there to tell me who to be. It was a terrible thought but I liked these rogues better than my own family, even if some of them acted cruel. At least they saw me.

Did that make me a bad person?

Day seven came around faster than I anticipated. I hunted my own food, which was mostly fish because I couldn't stomach eating squirrels or birds. Even if they were werewolves, that doesn't make me one. Zander was helpful, he caught the fish for me and I got used to eating charred fish everyday. Though, I never really got used to the cold.

Or the fact that I hadn't washed or brushed my hair in a week. It was absolutely disgusting, my hair dry but also drowning in oils. I was frustrated by my hair. It was a gigantic mess on the top of my head.

I asked Sabine if she wanted to braid my hair but she told me to do it myself.

But I didn't want to tell her that I didn't know how.

"I'll braid it for you." Milo came up behind me and told me to sit down. I sat down in the snow, drawing words. I wrote my name with my pointer finger, my mind blank for a few minutes as he braided, until a question popped into my head.

"How did you learn to braid?" I asked as he swiftly moved his fingers, taming the ends of my hair.

"I had a sister so I'd braid her hair everyday." That was surprising, I got the notion that these rogues had broken all contact with their family and friends.

"You have a sister? Where is she?"

"She died." I didn't get a chance to apologize because Milo quickly stood up and walked away. I wondered what he was really doing here, what his story was, what all of their stories were. Even if they didn't belong anywhere. Kind of like me.

I stood up and shivered. The cool, refreshing air hit the nape of my neck and I touched the back of my head. I dragged my braid onto my shoulder and saw that he tied my hair with a string. Who knew a guy could braid so well?

I spent the day walking and gathering some sticks to feed the fire. I breathed in the musky scent of the woods and sighed. Out here in nature. . . I felt different. New.

When I returned home, I wouldn't be the same person. It was a slow change but it was there. And that was even if I made it home as I could stay in the woods forever. Somehow that thought made me sad.

The sun was low in the sky when I got back. I threw the branches in the pile and picked my head up, spying their resting bodies on the snowy floor.

I looked at them, sitting in a circle around the roaring fire. Sabine, Noelle, Zander, Milo, Ever, North and four others were talking, Milo laughing and Sabine scowling at what was said. Ever continued to sharpen her wooden spear with a knife and Noelle talked quietly to Zander. They were all eating, enjoying themselves, an air of tranquility around them.