Darkness. She had always been in it. Well, at least
when she was alone. On the outside, she was a strong female Alpha with locks of sun kissed fur, oro like honey. Her eyes were a wood brown and every feature on her face appeared to be perfect. Just not what went on in her head.
"Kate? . . . Kate? Are te listening?" A small voice asked and broke Kate out of her deep thoughts.
"Huh?" Kate responded, dumbfounded at the moment.
"Are te having one of your...moments...again?" The voice asked and the sound gradually got closer to her.
"My moments?" A laugh escaped Kate's muzzle. "Psh, no! I told you, Lilly, those only happened when we were pups." She explained, her keen canine smile masking the lie she just told.
"Well...if te say so." The smaller white lupo uttered with a nod. She pushed her white hair back so that it wouldn't cover her eyes. "Mom wants te in the front of the den." She detto before walking out of Kate's area of their den.
"My moments..." The Alpha repeated to herself once her Omega sister left. Her golden brown eyes flicked to the side of the area of her tana, den and she gasped sharply, quickly stumbling backwards onto her tail. Her eyes went wide as she backed into a corner, staring at something unseen.
"No...no......get away from me..." Kate demanded, seeming to be talking to nothing. "You leave me alone..." Her voice faltered at some points and a tinge of red swam through her brown colored eyes.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Kate shouted, bringing her paws up to cover her face.
"Kate?" A voice asked.
The lupo lowered her paws slowly, the red tint in her eyes gone as if it had never been there before. She looked up to the beige lupo before her.
"Kate, darling, what's the matter?" The Alpha's mother asked and tilted her head.
Kate contemplated what she should tell her mother. She wasn't about to admit that she was still seeing things, that they had never completely gone away.
"I...I saw a spider, mom." She choked out before clearing her throat and standing up.
"Hm. Well honey, like I always say, when one seems a threat, te go for the throat and don't stop until the body stops shaking." The female detto with a certain nod before turning.
Kate never really understood the gruesome imagery that her mother liked to talk about when threatening others. Though it finally dawned on her that that certain trait of her mothers could be a reason why her head was messed up, on the inside of course.
The golden Alpha nodded at her mother and began to follow her out to the main area of their den.
"Kate! Eve!" A huskier voice called out. A bigger, older, Alpha male with gray and black mixed pelliccia sat with Lilly, the small white Omega.
"We're here Winston." Eve chided and entered the den, followed da Kate.
"What was that screaming I heard?" Winston asked and looked curiously at the two.
"I saw a ragno in my den." Kate answered, stepping inoltrare, avanti and sitting down in their family circle. Winston nodded in understanding. "Why are we here?"
"Well, I wanted to remind te all that today is the giorno of the black sun." Winston explained and the females listened.
"What was that again, dad?" Lilly asked, swaying her tail around playfully.
"It's the giorno where the moon blocks out the sun and we have eclipsed darkness for a certain amount of time." Winston answered and his restless eyes moved to Kate's who quickly looked away once she heard the word darkness.
"So are we having a celebration o something?" Lilly asked again, still playing with her tail. Eve put her paw up so that she would stop.
"I'm afraid not. te girls probably don't remember this, because it happened when te both were very young. The black sun came to us long ago, and while the darkness began to cover us, some Lupi of our pack went mad." Winston told the story as if it were etched in his memory.
"Mad?" Kate asked, her ears lowering. She wondered if that's what would happen to her.
"Yes, mad. They claimed to see things in the darkness that came, but they never were able to explain what because they were too unnerved. They ultimately brought themselves down. Driven to madness. The screams are hard to forget." Winston now spoke softly.
"Oh it was like Musica to my ears." Eve chimed in, being her usual self.
The others all turned and looked at her with the same wide eyed look. Kate was first to break the awkward silence.
"So why are te telling us about this black sun?" She asked and looked at her dad.
"We need to be cautious. We have to watch out for anyone who sees...well...whatever they see, and get them out of here." Winston began to explain the plan. "There's bound to be più than one lupo going mad today. It's our job to protect those who aren't and deal with the ones who are."
Eve made a biting motion with her sharp canines and uttered a low growl.
Kate swallowed slowly and curled her tail close behind her.
"I'm going to wait outside then. For the black sun. And I'll keep watch." She offered, and without waiting for anyone's input, she exited the den. The Alpha sighed heavily to herself as the light of the giorno bathed her in its warm rays. But she knew this wouldn't last.
Kate sat down on a boulder and watched the Lupi below, most were carrying on with their usual day-to-day norms. Her head then tilted upwards to the blue sky and the bright sun that was not yet covered.
"Dad detto we need to deal with the ones who go mad." She told herself quietly. "But what if one of the mad wolves...is me?"