Chapter 4

I was so glad I had finally calmed down. I looked down at the floor. My favorite horse statue lay broken on the ground. On my way home from the grocery story, I saw a group of kids in about their teens picking on a kid who looked about ten years old. I pulled the car to a stop, got out, picked up the boy, and dragged him into the car without saying a single word to anyone. He was confused, but I was pissed. There was nothing right about teenagers picking on someone younger then them, let alone that younger and not to mention they shouldn't have been picking on anyone for that matter.

The kid had deep cuts all along the side of his body.

"They took a knife on you." I didn't ask the question, I knew.

The kid snorted, "So now you talk. Look I'm not answering any of your questions until you answer mine."

"I think the cuts will look cool when they turn into scars." Alice said from the back seat.

What was his questions? "I'm taking you home." I told him. That had to be one of his questions.

"Fine." He said, crossing his arms, pouting. He gave me his address and that was it. When I got home and landed on me bed, the horse statue flew to the floor.

"I see your calm now." Alice said, in smarty butt voice (Which I call her tone). So I ended up not commenting. "I don't blame you for getting upset, but I was certainly surprised by how upset you got." When I didn't speak again, she sighed, "Your mom said suppers ready."

"Thank you." I told her, getting up.

I walked down stairs. Dustin was sitting on the couch watching the news.

"Hey Liz." Dustin said, standing up to meet me half way.

"Hi Dad." I greeted.

"You came home upset. What'd you brake. I'll clean it up, if you haven't." He offered.

"My house statue." I told him, going into the kitchen.

"Damn and that was your favorite." I heard him say.

I walked into the kitchen to find my mom taking out the chicken. I felt my stomach turn.

"What's wrong dear, you've gone pale." My mom said, concerned.

"I just don't feel like eating." I told her, avoiding looking at the cooked bird.

My mother sighed, "You never do when you have gotten upset. Why don't you go to the North gas station and get a smoothie."

I smiled, "That sounds good, I will." I told her.

I said goodbye as I headed out of the door. I got into my car, Alice in the passenger seat and I drove down the road.

It has been at least a week sense that fateful day near the east park. Neither Alice nor I speak of it. Hell I don't even really think about it. Except for the slight nudging at the back of my brain, that's telling me that the place was important, but The Protectors life had more meaning to me. That I shouldn't just over look it, but it was telling about something more. That I knew why his life is so important to me. I could not place how though. I have stayed clear of driving anywhere near that road. I didn't need a second temptation.

Alice didn't speak until we were in the car, driving down main street, and I had my smoothie and some fries. I was sucking on me smoothie, through the straw, with my other hand on the steering wheel.

"Look Mrs. Saunders got a new dog. That's probably her tenth one." She said, in her tone.

I had actually looked to see the little white poodle barking at some man on the side walk. When I looked back in front of me. There was guy in the middle of the road. I hit the brakes. The car barley hit him.

"What is with that guy?" Alice asked.

The guy came around to my side of the car. He told me to roll down the window. I did, thinking, what could go wrong.

"Elizabeth we have to talk." The man said. He had the exact same bleach blond that I had, that came naturally. He had black penetrating eyes. He was wearing a cloak that waved around him. There was a sense of familiarity about him.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Oh he's the guy who was out in the middle of the street when your car almost killed him." Alice said, in her tone, though she had smile plastered on her face. I shot her a glare, before turning back to the man.

"I know it's been thirteen years, but I don't look anything different." He told me.

Thirteen years?

"Dad?" I asked.

A smile came onto his face, "There ya go. If feels good to hear you say that." He said.

Ok if I was pissed earlier, I was furious now.

"Uh-Oh." Alice said.

"Come on, I need to talk to you, your mother, and stepfather." He told me.

"What if we don't want to talk to you?" I snapped at him.

At that moment a French fry flew up to his mouth. He ate it. "Because I can tell you the reason for that." He said.

Great.

"Fine get in." I said.

"I'll go into the back." Alice said.

"No." I said, stopping either from moving.

"Dad in the back. Alice you don't need to move." They listened to me.

Once my father was in the back, he asked, "Whose Alice?"

"A ghost friend." Was all I told him as I took off toward home.

"You can see ghost?" He asked, more to himself then me, "That is great, honey. Two." I saw him shake his head in the rearview mirror. "Amazing."

We reached home, I got out of the car and slammed the door.

My father and Alice had to run to keep up with me, considering I was walking to fast and not caring if they could catch up or not. Once in the house, cupboards flew open.

"Mom!" I called. As I walked into the dinning room, I heard glass braking in the kitchen.

"Oh dear, not again." My mom said, "What happened?"

My dad and Alice walked into the room from the kitchen and Dustin came in through from the living room.

"He." I pointed to my father. "Is what happened."

There was silence.

"Christopher?" My mom asked, shocked. Dustin walked calmly over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Hey Crystal." He said, "I know weird timing."

"Try thirteen years late." I snapped at him.

"I know." He said.

The flower vase on the table flew off and hit the wall.

"Honey," Dustin said, "I think we should calm Lizy down, before we do anything."

My mother nodded, "Your right."

"Liz." Alice said. "Please calm down."

"I have all the right to be upset." I told, not just Alice, but the rest of my family. My eyes did not leave from looking at my father.

The glass on a picture that was hanging on the wall broke.

"Were not saying you don't." My mom tried.

"You have all the reason in world to be." My father said.

"We just need you to calm down so we can figure out what the heck he wants to he can leave." Dustin said.

Another picture broke.

"That's harsh." My father said.

This time a picture flew off the wall coming toward my father.

"I thought you like this house." Alice said.

The picture froze in mid air, I had froze. The picture fell to the ground.

"I do… like… this house." I said slowly.

"Then why are you braking it?" Alice asked.

My body tensed.

"Who is she talking to?" Dustin asked.

"Your right, Alice." I told my best friend. "I'll stop."

I calmed my self down with a few calming breaths.

"Whose Alice?" My mom asked.

"Ooops." I said. I turned to face my parents, the ones who raised me. "Alice is a ghost. I can see ghost." I said.

"Don't mess with us, Liz." My mom said.

"I'm not." I told them. "Alice lived at this house before we came here. Sense we moved here, her and I have become best friends. She follows me everywhere." It felt good to finally tell them about Alice.

"Ok, we believe you." Dustin said.

"We do?" My mom asked.

"Or at least I do." Dustin winked at me. I giggled. "Honey, Lizy here, can make things break and fly across the room. She also knows things. Little things. And you can't believe she can see ghost?"

My mother sighed, "Your right. We believe you." My mom told me.

"Good." My dad said, coming to stand next to me, "Because that's exactly what I want to talk to you three… I mean four." He looked around the room, probably for Alice. "About."

"It's the only reason I let him in." I said, seriously.

Dad motioned us to the table, "We best sit down."

Everyone, but my mom took a seat. My mom was looking at her chair like it was going to snap at her.

"What's wrong, Crystal?" My father asked.

"Dear," My mom sot a glance at me. "Alice isn't sitting there, is she?"

"No mom. She's on my lap."

"Oh, good." She said, taking a seat.

"Now what I'm about to tell you, may be difficult to believe, but I think you can handle it."

"Is he gonna tell us, or is he gonna stall?" Alice asked.

"Shuu." I shushed her.

Everyone looked at me.

Dad gave a low chuckle before continuing, "I'm a shape-shifter."

There was silence.

"What's a shape-shifter?" Alice asked.

"A shape-shifter is a person who can transform into an animal." I told her and possibly Dustin and my mom.

"Your right." Dad said. "Now I guess you'd consider this a secret society. We consider ourselves Moon people. I don't mean, not just shape-shifters, there's witches, werewolves, vampires, and demons."

"Oh my." My mother said.

"The reason we consider ourselves Moon people, because each and everyone of us realizes on the moon in some way, even the mixes." My dad explained.

"Mixes?" Dustin asked.

"Or an inbreeded Moon child. Where one Moon creature has a child with another Moon creature, that's not of the same species." Dad said.

"What about having children with humans?" I asked.

"Well that doesn't really change much with the child, that's why the Elders don't specify them. There just as much of the Moon as the parent." Dad explained.

"Who are the Elders?" Dustin asked.

"There the people who create and enforce the rules." Dad said, "You might consider them a council. There's one of each creature, maybe one or two more. Werewolves, witches, and demons are not immortal. So there spot goes down by generation."

"So your immortal." I said, "There's why you don't look any different from when I was five."

"Exactly." Dad went silent then. But then he continued, "Now Moon families rules are highly important in the Elder's eyes, not that the other rules aren't important… Anyway any Moon family is not suppose to tell their Moon child about what he or she is until there eighteen, that's when there powers come in. Every Moon child must not know of their heritage, everyone, but withes and vampires." We all showed confusion on our faces. "This is because there are times when the Moon genes will skip a generation. It happens most often when a Moon creature will mate with a human. The only reason vampires and witches are aloud to know is because they show there difference from humans before there powers come in."

"This doesn't make sense." I said. "If I'm a shape-shifter, then why am I experiencing powers that shape-shifters don't have and before the age of eighteen." I asked.

My father's gaze was fixed on my mother's, "Crystal there is something I have to tell you." My father said.

There was knock on door.

"Grandma Iris." I cheered bolting to the door. I opened the door.

"Grandma."
"Lizy." Grandma Iris said, hugging me. "How's my favorite granddaughter?" She released me.

"Grandma, I'm your only granddaughter."

"Oh that's right." She said.

There was a crash in the dinning room.

"What was that?" Grandma Iris asked.

Alice came running in, laughing her head off.

"You.. Have… So gotta… see this…" She fell to the floor laughing.

Grandma Iris and I ran into the dinning room.

My mother had dad pinned against the wall. Lucky! I so wanted to do that.

"Don't you dare lie to me, Christopher." My mom said.

Alice was by my side. "Liz, your father's a shape-shifter whose getting beat up by a human, whose a girl." All Alice did was laugh after that.

"Quiet Alice." I told her. She did and gave me a look.

"But it's funny." She said.

"Yeah, but when your doing that, that's all I can hear." I told her.

I noticed everyone had taken there attention off of the two wrestling Xs and on to the ghost seeing girl.

"Wow." Dustin said, "That is definitely going to take some time to get use to."

"Crystal Karin Patterson!" Grandma Iris scolded, "What do you think you are doing?"

"Mother, he's trying to convince me that I'm a witch." My mother said.

"You are a witch, dear." Grandma Iris said.

"I am?" She asked at the same time I asked, "She is?"
My mom dropped dad. He brushed himself off as if it was no big deal.

"So you come to tell them about Liz's heritage. Most honorable thing you've ever done for her." Grandma Iris said.

My dad sighed, "You know I should probably tell everyone why I left." Dad said.

"Yes, that would wise." Grandma Iris said.

My dad turned his attention to me and spoke to me as if it was just us in the room. "You didn't get much sleep that night and you were very tired. The whole day was cloudy. I didn't think much of it because it was Minnesota, anything's possible and there's nothing unusual about a cloudy day." As he spoke, I looked out of the picture window in the living room. It was cloudy today too, but there was a black tint to it, like it was gong to storm, but it didn't, well that I knew of anyways. "Kids were a trouble at school. They were picking on a girl heavily. You had ended up stopping them and you and the kids got in trouble. You had hurt them in order to get them to stop, so the teacher had to punish you. She had me pick you up from school.

You were upset, mostly sat, but a bit of anger. So I decided to take you to the park. You swung while I pushed. I had you vent your anger and whatever else. The clouds had been worse, much worse then this morning.

Then a boy came up to where we were swinging. His name was Derek Blasé. He was a cute boy. He had a huge grin on his face. He asked if he could swing with you. There were only two swings. I agreed as did you and I left you two alone. I sat on a bench and watched.

It wasn't long until you were smiling and laughing with the boy. The smile on your face was something I hadn't seen on your face before. To this day, I still can't place my finger on what it was. The sun had seemed to becoming from the clouds.

You had started swinging high to the point where you flew off of the wing." Grandma Iris, My mother, and Dustin gasped. "You were about to fall to the ground, even I knew I wasn't going to be able to get you in time, not that I didn't try. The wing came up rushing fast. It caught you and placed you on your feet, unharmed, and then lightly left." My father paused. Confusion filled me and when I looked the others, Alice, Dustin, and my mother also looked confused. Grandma Iris looked shocked and happy. "Derek went running out to you starting telling you how cool that was and how he'd seen his father's friend control earth, but never had seen wind used before. After they had talked about it for awhile and I was thinking about it, and other things, Derek soon said he had to leave.

You seemed to be getting really sad as he left and you watched him go until he was out of sight. The clouds got dark again this time, though, it did rain that was when I noticed you were crying. Before going home I got you some ice cream. It had stopped raining about the time when you seemed to have stopped crying. I decided that night that I needed to leave. If they found… if my conclusion was correct… you were only five… I knew if I left, no one would come around because your mother was human." When he noticed our confusion about how he figured out how he knew she had been skipped with the Moon gene. "Grandma Iris told me, everything. It wasn't hard to guess after you starting using telekinesis." He paused. How did he know that? The question must have been plastered on my face because h said, "Do you think I would not have kept tabs on you guys? Leave Crystal and my daughter unprotected especially sense you…" He full blown stopped.

"I think that's enough." Grandma Iris said, "You and your mother, and… stepfather have been given a lot to think about." She was addressing me. "There is just one more thing we need to tell you tonight."

"Moon school?" Dad asked, making sure.

"Yes." Grandma Iris said.

"School?" Mom and Dustin asked at the same time.

"Yes, Crystal. When a Moon child has their powers come to them, they need to go to school for training. To have full control over there powers and what ever else that comes with it. It is the job of the Moon parent to tell there child about being a Moon person. If their parent an not do that, then the next closest living Moon relative must and if they can't the Elders will." Grandma Iris explained. Then it hit me. Why it hit me now I had no clue.

I groaned.

"Don't worry, dear." Grandma Iris said, "It's not bad actually, it's quite the adventure."

"That's not it." I swallowed. "I've been to the closest Moon school." Each of my family members gasped.

"That's impossible, it's well hidden." Grandma Iris said.

I snorted, like it was well hidden, sure to humans. "Sorry." I said before anyone had time to think. "Alice you were with me."

"What you talkin' about?" She asked.

"Remember a week ago? The place that scared the pants off of you, the place that we refuse to talk about, think about, and go near." I told her.

She gasped.

"We stumbled upon it." I told my family, "Though we shouldn't have been snooping in the first place. Which was my fault."

"It doesn't matter." Dad said.

"Crystal, dear, I'm sure your not gonna like this, but can Christopher stay here for a week until Liz goes off to school?" Grandma Iris asked.

"What?" My mother was outraged by the idea.

"Liz, is there a place you can go think in town?" Grandma Iris asked, "There might be a fight and I don't want you to be here for it."

"Yeah, the park. One last question, though." I said.

"Yes, anything." She said.

"When do I got the Moon school?" I asked.

"In a week and a day. The day right after you birthday." She explained.

"Oh, right." I hugged my grandma, before heading out with Alice.