Page 148 of The Blairville Legacies

She looked at me in confusion.

“Bayla, what are you doing here, darling?”

“You won’t believe what just happened!” I gasped, half upset, half relieved. Then I realized I was probably almost smothering my mum and pulled away from her.

“What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be at Vanderwood?”

Just the name of the place triggered panic in me once again.

Where the hell had Mum sent me there?

“And anyway, why is your shirt so torn and your pants...Bayla, what happened?”

Her surprise gave way to a certain worry that I knew all too well.

“No, I didn’t have an attack, but there was this girl, and suddenly she was a wolf, and then there was this other girl with...”

“What did you just say?”

If there was supposed to be a peak of tension for my mother, she had reached it now.

Horrified, she looked at me and grabbed me by the shoulders. She seemed to be struggling with herself, but I didn’t know why. Right now, I knewabsolutely nothing, only that my headache was starting again, and I just wanted to get out of this town.

“It’s dangerous here, Mum...” I urged, but her expression remained unchanged.

“Bay, what are you talking about? Are you okay?”

Her words felt like a slap in the face. Had she even listened to me?

I knew I didn’t know what was right and what was wrong right now, but thiscouldn’thave been a dream. It had felt so real.

Mum didn’t wait for a reaction but pulled me down the stairs to the kitchen, where she sat me down at the table, went to the sink, and a few seconds later, put a glass of water and a pill in front of me.

Stunned, I stared at the pill and finally at my mother.

She didn’t seem to mind my horror, instead she asked, “When did you take your last pill, young lady?”

She sounded ...angry? After all, the only person who should have been angry wasme.

“When Bayla? When?” She paced impatiently.

“Mum, I...”

“Tell me what you dreamed,” she interrupted me, sitting down next to me.

Her eyes pierced me as if I were a piece of Swiss cheese.

“It wasn’t a dream, it all felt so real,” I tried again, hoping she would believe me. “The Copeland girl turned into a freaking wolf!”

Angrily, I pushed the pill and glass away from me.

“Bay, you forgot to take your pills. You’re hallucinating.”

“No, mum. Believe me, please!” I jumped up. “We have to get out of here!”

The panic inside me mixed with the feeling of oppressive tightness.

Why wouldn’t she believe me? I knew what I had seen there, and it scared the shit out of me. At any moment, a giant beast could show up here and make us its afternoon snack. But all my Mum did was give me one of those stupid pills that magically didn’t seem to run out.

---