By morning, Lily was still recovering from her violent night. Physically, she had miraculously healed - her bloody knuckles were non-existent, only the slightest trace of scarring, but not noticeable to someone who wasn't looking.
For a while she thought what happened was a dream, that her music spun her into a wild, impossible scene; she saved an alpha and fended off werewolves with her inner creature.
But Lily couldn't find her waterproof jacket.
In the 'dream', she had given it to little Alice to keep her warm and dry, and Lily didn't recall taking the jacket back. Alice had run into someone's arms, but then Lily had run from them both, too driven by shock to stand the sight of the family reunion.
Sitting at the edge of her bed, she looked over at the small picture frame on her bedside table. A dark wooden border of a life she would never forget. That picture, along with a few other select items, were Lily's most valuable possessions.
In the picture, she herself was barely eleven years old. Little Lily stood in front of the four, in the middle of her two sisters, and her two parents behind them. The five of them were smiling in front of a waterfall, her mother and father grinning, hands protectively over their daughters' shoulders. Rio and Delta, her two older sisters, were beaming on either side of her, Rio sticking two fingers up behind Lily's head. Delta had her long, dark hair in soft waves, smiling to the side so her hair was like the waterfall behind. They all had the same shade of soft brown eyes, despite the different hair colours they had.
Lily was the only survivor of the car crash that killed them a year later.
Sighing, she bounced off her bed and turned to get ready for school, eagerly looking forward to the end of the day when she was free from the torturous life that was Nova High.
In a way, it wasn't so bad. She was just the outcast of the entire school because she hadn't found out what species of supernatural she was, so Lily never had the same classes as the other students. In fact, she only had the compulsory classes of English, History, and Maths like everyone else, and the rest of her time was spent in the library studying in a hope to identify what she was.
Yeah...not so bad indeed.
As Lily, after throwing on a long t-shirt, jeans and heel-less boots, devoured her platoon of a fruit platter and glass of milk, she heard her aunt moving about upstairs.
Olivia Haphern wasn't her aunt by blood. She was her mother's best friend before she died and it had been in her will that, if anything dared happen, Lily was passed to her. It'd been six years since the Morgan family died and Ollie had been a beautiful, caring guardian to her despite their differences; Ollie was incredibly human, and more alive in the morning than Lily ever could be.
Lily let her head hit the kitchen counter when she heard Ollie slide down the banister, letting out a high squeal of delight. Lily almost left the house early when she spotted the fluffy dinosaur boots and the Lord of the Rings themed pyjamas.
"Lily!" She sang and Lily groaned. It was too early for her aunt's outrageous personality. "It's a wonderful day today isn't it?"
"The day hasn't started yet Ollie," Lily groaned, her eyes drooping from lack of sleep.
"Oh but it has!" Ollie laughed, massaging her shoulders with firm, energetic hands. Lily flopped in her chair, just stopping in time so she didn't fall in her breakfast. "It started when we woke up!"
"I'm not awake."
"Come on Lily, liven up!" Ollie encouraged as she made herself a cup of coffee. "What does your day look like?"
Lily glanced at her school books, nudging them into her bag with a sigh. She was going through Nova High's small library for the fifth time but it still meant a thousand books to look at. One of the old books had to give her a clue on what she was, Lily knew she was missing something in those pages, but her hope was fracturing.
"I have a history class, then library the rest of the day." Lily lightly answered, flicking slices of apples and strawberries across her plate. "Nothing special - you?"
Ollie paused in her coffee-making. "Hopefully nothing as well, but you never know with the patients in the hospital."
Lily smiled at her aunt. Ollie was a paediatric nurse in an oncology unit, a nurse to children with cancer. Lily liked to think that her eccentric personality was due to her not-so-eccentric workplace, but also knew not every nurse there had a ringtone of I Like To Move It from Madagascar.
"Did Chrissie get the all clear?" Lily asked, mentioning one of the kids that Ollie spoke of at dinner a few nights ago. Her aunt nodded, picking up her cup, turning to face her and froze.
Ollie screamed, coffee flying, and Lily jumped in panic. A large spider, intimidating with only seven legs, was crawling on the kitchen counter towards Lily, and Ollie flailed. Lily yelped, leaping off the stool to the kitchen, mindlessly grabbing her bag and running towards the front door.
She was ready to run out and yell for the nukes.
Ollie, still screaming, grabbed a spatula and started swinging aimlessly at the kitchen counter. The spider flinched, rearing, and Ollie slammed the tip against its legs.
The spider sprang off the counter and onto the floor, causing Ollie to lose her mind and scream again, running towards Lily by the door.
Lily had a hand on the doorknob and a hand on her schoolbag strap, eyes wide. Her aunt stopped screaming and Lily heard them both breathing heavily.
"Go to school, I got this!" Ollie ushered with uncertainty, but Lily took the opportunity and sprinted out of the house. When the door shut, she heard Ollie groan. "I don't got this."
By the time Lily arrived at school, it was almost time for her first class of library time. Keeping her head down, she walked quickly towards the library's safe walls of knowledge. She ignored the quiet ambiance, the side-eyed looks of tension, and found her scuffed shoes more interesting to watch.
The bell, a low-toned vibration that thrummed in the walls of Nova High School for the creatures with sensitive hearing, sounded just as Lily entered the library's double doors. Pushing some of her red hair behind her ears, she sat in her usual spot on a long table with a window view of the schools courtyard.
Getting out her books, she began to read through the supernatural creatures once more, just in case she missed something which could identify herself.
Vampires:
Vampires are sensitive to sunlight but can venture in the day. While a vampire is young they are almost stricken to night-time activities, and have a natural skill of blending in with shadows.
They have a heightened craving for nutrients, minerals and vitamins commonly found in blood - because they're 'living dead' they need to drink blood to mimic a faster, normal blood flow. The higher nutrient levels mean they are faster, stronger, increased stamina and energy, but if levels are low it can result in a feral bloodlust.
Ability to eject fangs from their gums, used for puncturing prey. Eyes glow red when threatened.
Lily re-read the description, pondering over the night before. Could she be a vampire? She didn't particularly liked the sun but she was a red-head. That was the only thing that was plausible to her being a vampire though - she definitely didn't project fangs when she was fighting the rogues.
Lily reached amongst her books, grabbing a small notepad with a list of all the supernatural creatures she had researched. She had a list of the four most common species at the top of a page, and a single question mark on the fifth line. After scratching off 'vampire', she turned back to the book.
Despite feeling the librarian's pitiful stare, Lily read on with a frown.
Fairies:
Fairies have the ability to heal injuries, depending on their strength and control, and the state of the injury. It is crucial fairies have extensive knowledge of anatomy before they begin to heal.
The stronger the fairy, the faster their ability works. The strongest of fairies can extended their magic outward, healing multiple at once, giving the illusion of wings covering the wounded.
A fairy's eyes will glow a shade of purple when their abilities are in use, and their magic is the same colour as their eyes.
Lily almost laughed out loud in the library. She definitely wasn't a fairy, she knew that as soon as last nights escapades had ended. Her abilities were focused around fighting. If she was a fairy she would have healed the werewolves rather than attack them. No, she was on the other end of the spectrum.
Witches:
Witches have their abilities focused around nature, in the flora around them. They can nurture shrubs and saplings into large walls of greenery if desired.
Witches, while commonly seen as female, can also be male. Their magic is rumoured to have no limits, and their strength of magic depends on the strength of the witch.
Their eyes glow green and their magic is the same shade. If in use, their magic can attack and defend, nurture and destroy, and when emotions are climbing, the witch's magic can effect the nature around them.
Lily scratched witch off her list. She didn't use magic in the fight, and she wasn't 'one with nature'. She could barely handle a spider in her house! That left one more species on the list.
Werewolves:
Werewolves have the ability to shift into a wolf. They have the same overall shape and size of a standard wild wolf and have the same fur as their hair colour, varying in shades.
When in human form, they have as much heightened hearing, smell, and sight as possible for human noses, ears, and eyes. When in wolf form, their senses are the same as a wild wolf.
Werewolves have a hierarchy; the dominant wolves, the alphas, have shining black eyes when their emotions are at the surface and/or about to shift into a wolf. All other wolves have gold eyes.
Those outside of the hierarchy are identified as rogue wolves.
Lily snorted. She wasn't a werewolf. It wasn't just because she didn't shift into a werewolf, it was the fact that whatever the werewolves saw in her eyes last night was definitely not one of their own. They were afraid, they stepped back, and they still couldn't take her when there were three of them.
As she scratched out werewolf from her list, she heard a bunch of people enter the library, talking in hush tones to not annoy the fierce librarian, Ms Li.
"-but can you believe it?! I mean, how does that just happen overnight?" Lily heard someone say, and peaked out amongst her loose hair to see a trio of girls. She recognised Jack, a witch in history, and Claire, a fairy in the same maths class as her, with another girl whose eyes flashed red when they passed through the sunlight from the window.
Suspiciously, there were very few werewolves at Nova High today, and Lily had suspected it had something to do with her adventure last night.
"I heard that it was a rogue with a vendetta against Alpha Roman," Jack pondered, running a ring-covered hand through her dark locks. "Which is very Gladiator, if you think about it."
"I heard it was a rogue too!" The vampire pitched in, dark eyes narrowing again as they passed another window. "And they kidnapped the alpha's daughter!"
"Oh!" Claire chirped, clapping her hands together. "Yes, Alice was definitely taken, yes, it was a rogue, but it was more than one, about a hundred of them, and they killed Roman."
They all froze. The vampire was almost crying at the news. "Oh poor Andrew... He's the Alpha of Trawalla now, and he's only our age."
Jack frowned. "Come on Karen, you know Andrew would have to take over from Roman eventually - he was born an alpha too."
Karen's lip trembled. "I know but...it's just really sad that his father's died and he's suddenly in his shoes, you know? He's probably losing his mind."
Claire pointed at the two of them, her blue-green eyes glimmering. "And he almost lost Alice too, so I hope she's doing okay."
Lily froze in place at her desk, the pen in her hands shaking. They was a rogue attack, Lily realised, the reason why Alice was with them finally revealed. She didn't know that there'd been more than the three she'd fought, and it had been a full-scale attack on the pack house. Lily remembered the night before where little Alice leapt off her back and into a guy's arms, one about her age, and realised that it must have been Andrew - who was now the most dominant werewolf in Trawalla, the Alpha.
"How'd Alice get away though? The rogues wouldn't have just given up an alpha's daughter and sister, Claire." Jack contemplated.
"Maybe she ran?" Karen suggested but Claire shook her head with a frown.
"She wouldn't have gotten far, she's too young - the rogues would have chased her down."
Jack shrugged, walking further into the library. "Who knows, guys? Anyway, this trigonometry homework is going to screw me sideways."
"At 180 degrees?" Claire joked, and the witch glared at her.
"Shut up."
Lily listened as their voices drifted off, panic setting into her bones. The alpha was dead. Andrew was in his place - it must be why the werewolves were all off today, and Lily shut her eyes in mourning. She knew what he and little Alice were going through.
She wouldn't forget what it was like to lose her family and live in an empty home. Lily was just grateful that unlike six years ago, when she'd been helpless with the accident, she was able to help this time and bring Alice home to a family waiting for her.
Lily was glad she hadn't walked away.