Zenobia woke up startled and disoriented. Her hands shook, ice-water cold when she felt her face instead of her mask. They shook even more from the sting that came with the cuts on her face. It was real.
The shadowy man that attacked her was real. Skull mask and all he attacked her. That made her even more nervous as she swirled her eyes in all directions. Instead of a dark sky, the red-eyed girl was greeted with sunshine out the window. A very familiar window.
"Bark bark." The relief she felt hearing that glorious set of barks was unimaginable. Rosette nosed her hand, licking it from the side of the bed Zenobia stayed slumped in. She wanted to coddle the pooch for the rest of her days. If she had to dognap her from Elias, she would do so.
"I must say you have a knack for getting into trouble, little one." Zenobia blinked at Rosette. Then she swirled her head around the room. A nervous laugh escaped as she searched again. Much to her panic there was only her and the dog. Yet that made no sense since she heard a voice—
"Down here you, silly child." Following that lighthearted tone, she glanced down. Which only freaked her out more once she met deep eyes. The issue that sent her anxiety to extremely high stress levels was whom that voice and those eyes belonged to. It was a fox.
Her fox.
"My, my, you look rather pale. Although considering the danger you were in last night, it's understandable." What happened last night was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. A talking stalking fox—was here.
At this point Zenobia must have snapped. No normal person would hallucinate like this. No one just imagined a fox nonchalantly chatting away her concerns while hopping up alongside the nightstand. But of course, it had to be Zenobia.
The outcast of her school and family. The one born with unusual red eyes. And yet, no matter how much she wanted to say she was ready for the loony bin, the scrapes and aches she felt didn't lie. Gentle scrapes against the door pulled the girl from her staring match.
She gasped, still overwhelmed with the latest revelations going on around her. Her ears, so sensitive, could barely hear the words on the other side of the door as her mind tried to restart itself. Everything closed in, making it harder for her to breathe. Swallowing hurt, like needles lodged and slashed at her insides.
"Zenobia?" So, when she tried to tell the people on the other side to leave, she could only croak out weak whimpers. The door squeaked open, revealing wrinkled hands followed by three pairs of eyes. Jennifer and Elias were the first two.
Their presence was grounding, absolutely welcomed with how she needed some sense of calm normality. The third pair, belonging to her mother, was quite a different story. Her body locked up at the sight of her mother who for once was maskless. Zenobia was shocked at the aged wrinkles and pained eyes that stared at her.
"How are you feeling, dear?" Jennifer asked.
"Fine." Her still off tone sounded far too clipped; however, her gaze never left her mother's. Watching as she in particular stepped closer. Those cold predatory eyes returned, unwavering as ever when she stopped a few feet in front of the bed.
The old hag crossed her arms, proudly lifting her chin in the air. The actions were so familiar, yet not. How long had it been since she last saw her mother's actual face? And to see a flash of vulnerability despite her mother's harsh tone startled the teen.
"I hope you are grateful to both Jennifer and Willow. Despite your outlandish behavior they found and took care of you."
"Come now. No need to be so harsh on the girl. I swear you haven't changed at all, Lorin."
"Willow, I swear—"
A palm patted Zenobia's head from behind. She turned back and nearly jumped out of the bed she was sitting on. The fox was gone. Replaced with an old woman who offered her a kind smile.
"Now, now, no need to harp on the girl so." From the wrinkles, she looked like a relatively young granny. Her black hair only had a few silver strands peeking out. No mask covered her, but she radiated strength, even if she was slightly hunched over with age.
Zenobia knew better than to fall for such innocence—this was her fox. Those eyes were the same. Just like the voice she heard when she first woke up. She didn't have time to be wary of the woman. She saved that caution for her mother who looked ready to pounce. She snarled, shooting the both of them with disdain.
"She tried to run away, Willow! She is out of control."
"Did you not try to put her in my care? You wanted to throw her out of the house—you wanted to separate her from her sister. Running away and leaving on her own terms sounds perfectly reasonable to me."
"You—
"Don't you, you me, Lorin. If I knew this was how you were going to treat her, I would've never allowed you sole custody." It felt strange (and satisfying) seeing someone stand up against the proud lioness.
"Who are you to tell me how to—"
"I am still your husband's mother, just as those girls are of my blood. I have every right to stake my claim after her near abduction. You may have complicated feelings for my son but that doesn't mean you take out your frustrations on your firstborn."
Ice crackled its way into the air while the two glared at one another. It didn't feel like a spur of the moment argument but instead a war rooted with deep hatred. And Zenobia was right in the middle of it. She sighed, ready to go back to sleep.
Maybe when she next woke up, something would make sense. Except she couldn't go back to sleep. Her reality left her with two hostile women fighting over her as if she never existed in the first place. Neither asked her opinion on how she felt or what she wanted.
Though she had to give it to Willow for being able to read the situation as accurately as she did. Meanwhile Jennifer gave her a look, full of kindness. The only look she's ever given her. Which in turn made Zenobia feel awful. It felt like she was inconveniencing the wonderful doctor with every trip to her home.
"Z, can stay with us."
"Huh?" Everyone turned to Elias who shrugged at Zenobia's astonished gaze. He swerved his head away, silently begging for Jennifer's help. Not with his words, since Zenobia knew he could easily explain himself.
She could understand that receiving twin scorching expressions homed in on him could make even the greatest of chatterboxes mute. Luckily for the colorblind boy, his grandmother took the hint, clearing her throat. With the room's attention now on the tired elderly woman, the tension eased. If nothing else, Zenobia didn't feel like jumping out the window again while Jennifer took control of the situation.
"What my grandson means is, this is all so sudden and clearly there is more to discuss than the two of you originally thought. So why not have Zenobia stay with us for a day or two so that things can get—"
"Absolutely Not!" All of them jumped when Zenobia's mother smashed her hand into the wall, cracking it into tiny fractures. Before her eyes burned like ice, now they shot out like a tsunami, consuming all with her blazing orbs. Even Grandmother Willow startled at the harsh reaction.
"Your son is the cause of her outlandish behavior. I told her to choose her relations carefully yet here she is, associating with an outcast! What wretched eyes!"
Willow flared out her nose before roughly grabbing her daughter-in-law. Everyone watched how that frail hand yanked, overpowering Zenobia's mother to land a smack on her cheek. Huh...guess Zenobia learned where she got her impulsive strikes from.
"Shameful! Disgraceful! This is the woman my son married? Who begged me for his blessings?! How dare you judge that boy's eyes when clearly he can see more than you."
Zenobia knew her mother was ready to explode. Waves steamed off her face that flushed a deep red. However, minutes went by and nada. Not that she was complaining, but her mother not retaliating after being slapped?
The world had to be ending or—or something! Even more so since Zenobia's grandmother stood without remorse. Poised defiantly, her gaze silently daring for her mother to continue her enraged rant. And her mother...her mother stomped away, slamming the door so hard behind her that the room shook.
"Tea anyone?" Jennifer, looking absolutely drained from everything, offered a small smile alongside her suggestion. Zenobia wanted that and then some. Willow beamed at the suggestion, her intimidating stature vanishing without a trace.
"Sounds delightful, thank you."
Jennifer led the way back into the dining room. Zenobia swerved her body to the edge of the bed, ready to plant her feet on the floor when she felt a hand on her head again. Willow placed a finger to her lips. Zenobia raised an eyebrow as the two of them waited for everyone else to walk out of sight.
When they did, Willow's eyes flashed, and together Zenobia and her grandmother watched the world around them take on a mint green hue. The furniture was gone. The world shifted around them.
"W—what! How?"
"I think we're long due for a discussion, my dear. This time without interruption. "