Lunar Eclipse

Chapter 1: You’ll See


“Dad, stop worrying so much. I am going to be with all my friends. Nothing will happen to me.” I countered, dragging a brush through the tangled mess at the back of my head. “Besides if anything does happen I have my cell phone. I’m not a little girl anymore, legally I am an adult.”
“Selene, you know as well as I do that you will always be my little girl. And, as far as being an adult, you have been 18 for two hours. That hardly counts as being an adult!”
“Dad! Ok, fine! I will call you when we get to Emily’s house, then when we go to the mall, then when we are on our way back to Emily’s, then when we actually get there. Happy now, oh great destroyer of freedom? Anything else to make my life more miserable?” Arguing with him was like arguing with a brick wall. I yanked on the brush so hard that the handle snapped completely off in my hand. Starring dumbly at the piece of plastic in my hand, I reached back to touch the piece tangled in my unruly hair. My eyes narrowed as I stormed past my dad, mumbling, “Oh great! One more thing to add to my list!” My dad unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh as I headed toward the bathroom with the hairbrush still securely locked in place by my thick mane of hair. The giant rats nest seemed to be altering my mood, leeching away all the niceness and friendship I had and replacing them with frustration.
“That should about do it.,” he said with a chuckle, and then his smile vanished, “Oh Selene, I know you think I’m being unfair, but I’m just trying to keep you safe. Are you so grown up now that you don’t need your old man?” His blue grey eyes welled with tears at the imagined thought of his daughter leaving him. I knew they were fake. If he wanted to win an argument, he used them. No matter what they always broke my heart. I was so close to my dad, after all, he was my only family. I would give anything to make sure he never got hurt. It also helps that if I put on a few pounds and had laugh lines I could pass for his twin sister
“That is so unfair,” I grumbled, “you know I’ll never stop needing you, dad. Although I sometimes seriously wonder who needs who more.” He was a horrible cook and if left to his own devices could come up with the strangest concoctions that could send even the strongest of stomachs to the E.R. Apparently Fire Fighters had iron stomachs and steel constitutions. As soon as I was old enough I took over the cooking.
“You’re probably right.” He said with a laugh, allowing me to finally step into the bathroom. So far, my eighteenth birthday was a disaster. First, my dog Sigi was sick on my bed at four in the morning, the coffee maker broke, I spilled hot oatmeal down the front of my favorite robe, discovered that Sigi was sick because she ate my most favorite pair of shoes, and found that my hair was refusing to cooperate with me today. As I picked the teeth of the ruined brush from the knarled roots of my hair, I drifted into my most familiar daydream:

I am sitting on the couch watching TV.
The doorbell rings and I go to answer it.
There on the other side, stands my mother.
(I can only guess that it is my mother; she left
when I was very young.) She keeps telling me
how much she misses my dad and me. She says
she wants to come home and never leave us again.

I smiled and shook my head, dispelling the sad thoughts, and sending the last piece of the knot into reluctant submission. Just a silly daydream, it has not happened in eighteen years, might as well get on with my life. Speaking of my life, I would lose mine in about five minutes! My little daydream took my one hour of precious time to get ready for the sleep over my friends were throwing me. Kryztyne was going to be furious! She was my driver and absolutely hated to be late, and it does not matter if we were late for my little get together. She does not except excuses. The fact that my hair would not cooperate would only make her insist that I chop my hair as short as hers, which I was absolutely against.
Jumping into my favorite old blue jeans, my red T-shirt, my grandmother’s cameo choker, and a pair of sneakers, I took off down the stairs. In my rush, I almost completely forgot my overnight bag. I threw a quick good bye over my shoulder so my dad could tell I was leaving and was out the door before he could see me sprint past. I jumped into the passenger seat of Kryztyne’s waiting car steeling myself for the barrage of complaints, lectures, and cold stares coming from my impromptu driver. My dad had nothing on Kryztyne. If I had a choice between a pissed off Kryztyne and a bunch of starved vampires, werewolves, and flesh eating zombies, I would so take the latter. Compared to Kryztyne my dad looked like Mother Theresa. Expecting the worst, I peeked at her through my curtain of hair. She was smiling as if she just got away with stealing the hope diamond.
“Okay I give, why are you smiling like that? Why aren’t you mad? And….And where are we going?!?” I just looked out the window into unfamiliar surroundings. We were not on Emily’s road. The clock showed we had been driving for nearly a half an hour; it only took five minutes to get to Emily’s house from mine. Kryztyne’s smile just widened.
“You’ll see!”
“Yeah, whatever.” Somehow, that did not make me feel more comfortable.