Scarf 1

Astrid's Point of View

On Thursday, it was early in the morning when this happened. I had to drag myself out of bed. As I greeted my twin sister, Atasha, the two of us immediately started preparing our morning meal. In spite of the fact that my mother and father praised me for my outstanding grades, I felt as though they were insignificant in comparison to my other achievements. They didn't know that I was also good at other things.

I did like to cross stitch scarves, but I didn't get enough credit for that, so I stopped doing it. While Atasha, on the other hand, received constant praise from our mom despite her terrible performance.

"Don't be concerned, Atasha, you're doing fine! Take a look at yourself!" she stated while caressing Atasha's forehead.

"I pledge to do better, just like Astrid." Those words came out of Atasha's mouth with a pout. "Even though I tried to put on a phony smile for everyone, I'm already getting tired of it."

The sound of a knock on the door drew our attention, and we quickly turned to face it.

"Leave it to me, and you can get back to enjoying your meal." Our father, Juliene Green, pushed himself to his feet and walked to the door to see who it was.

"Hi, is this the residence of Mariane Greene?" A raspy voice of an old man from behind the door said. I turned to look at the door to check who the visitor was, but my father's back was blocking my view of him.

"Please stay away from our family! Don't ever go to this place!" After hearing my father shout at the visitor, he slammed the door and then returned to the dining table, where he appeared to be a little concerned.

"Can you tell me what happened? Who is it?" Our mother wondered.

"We'll talk about it later," my father said. Then he looked at me and Atasha with a knowing smile.

"Are you feeling alright, father?" I inquired. He didn't say anything, except smiled at me and gave me a tap on the shoulder.

"Always remember to look after your sister, alright? You're more responsible than Atasha," he remarked, with a chuckle in his voice, as he returned to eating his meal.

"I will also take good care of Astrid! I'm going to be a good sister for her!" Atasha remarked as she entered the conversation, trying her best to assure our father.

The notion that there was anything in that black book that I had stolen from the library made me a little apprehensive. It talked about a prophecy that was coming from the Silver Moon Pack, which made me feel a little uneasy.

In this territory, there was a family that would cause a ruckus amongst the Montreal folks. As a prophecy and rumor that originated from the Witches' Mountain and had soon spread, it said that it had something to do with a cursed werewolf.

"There's something not right here. Are you hiding something, Astrid? For the past couple of days, I've felt that there's something that bothers you…" Atasha said one time as she held my shoulders.

"I'm just tired of studying these past few days. Let's get to school!" I said enthusiastically so Atasha would not be worried.

As soon as we walked out of our house, we walked on a long road that led us to our school. My surroundings piqued my interest, and I noticed something that gave me the shivers. It was the people's eyes that cast glances our way. Because we were identical twins, we always got strange looks. There was no way for anyone to tell us apart because the two of us looked the same.

But my actions became conscious after Leo was able to tell us apart without even analyzing our appearances, and I realized what I had done. I became too competitive for everyone's attention. It triggered me to do that so that everyone could tell us apart.

I suppose that was the day that I also developed a romantic interest in him. However, I was only fifteen years old, and I was not supposed to fall in love with anyone until my wolf awakened inside of me, which would take several years to come.

"Astrid, come on, hurry up!"

From a distance, Atasha yelled and waved her hand. I then saw Leo approaching her, and for some reason, I shifted my gaze away from them.

"Astrid..." His voice called out my name, and I recognized it. But I didn't say anything and just continued walking past them.

"Does she seem to be alright?" I overheard Leo asking my sister.

Atasha responded, "Astrid is acting in this manner because she is preparing for examinations. Don't be concerned, she's doing fine!"

I shook my head and didn't bother to listen in on their conversations. Instead, I continued to head to the school. When I came, I overheard someone talking about me, and it was truly annoying!

"Yes, that girl, Astrid. Isn't she the teacher's pet? I despise girls who behave in this way. Did you believe what she did yesterday? All of us in the class were expecting to not submit our paper work, but she insisted that yesterday was the due date for that. That lame pup didn't cooperate with us!"

Then someone added, "She believed she was in a superior position to us. Isn't it true that her mother was just a common slave before?"

I spotted the two girls who were chatting and gave them a deadly glare.

"Oh, hello there! Astrid!" One of them greeted me, but before I moved past them, I put on a phony smile for both of these ugly girls.

"Good morning, I remember that I need to remind our teacher of that school project she gave us last month. The due date was today. I hope you guys have it all prepared," I said with a sweet smile, then headed to our room when I had finished satirizing them.

***

Everything about my family, my twin sister, and my own expectations of myself piled up and compounded. There was even a point when I contemplated ending my own life. However, I kept being reminded that it did not permit me to exact revenge. I didn’t want these people to be happy.

"That church… It might solve my problem," I whispered to myself as I recalled that I needed to find the witch's church and an idea sparked in my head.

After our class, I quickly gathered my things and headed right away, to the library, where no one would ever be able to see me. I settled myself in a corner, reading the Black Book of the Witches. I focused on reading and flipping to the next pages, until I read something so important. According to the book, someone who would like to work with a witch needed to provide something in return. My eyes widened with wonder.

"I don't have anything that’s included on this list…"

To which location should I go in order to get these unique items? Gems and exotic plants? I didn’t have any material wealth that I could offer as a gift.

As the window next to me was opened, the wind swept through my hair and into my eyes. I smiled back when I saw Atasha from a distance, as she had already opened the door.

"Astrid, please come here. I'm waiting for you!" she exclaimed from the main entrance of this library. I told her that I would not accompany her to the park to play.

"I'm currently immersed in a book." I said and then she left as soon as I responded.

Atasha was very persistent in her efforts to support me. There was a period when I was convinced that she was merely doing this to make me feel better about my situation. But then minutes after, I would become irritated with her whenever I saw her with our classmates, the same people who I had overheard gossiping about me. I also figured out that Leo had a thing for her, which caused me to second guess myself.

While I attempted to be polite and reach out to others, I felt that every time I became close to someone, I was betrayed and that I was simply being used for their personal gain. That was what happened between me and my classmates… I've been doing their schoolwork and assisting them with their studies. However, when I declined to do their favor just once because I was exhausted, they drifted away, and then the next thing I knew, they were making insulting comments about me and my parents.

"Let's go, little wolf," I said, clutching my cross-stitched scarf. It had the print of a wolf. A lone wolf just like me. I went outside the library and made the decision to return home.

On my way, I was hit by a tremendous gust of wind. When I touched my neck, I realized that my scarf had vanished.

"Little wolf?" I murmured, and I felt nervous. I looked around, and saw it fly through the air and settle on the ground.

When I went to fetch my scarf, it was stepped on by the dog's paw, then it bit it and ran away from me.

"Hey, get back here!" I yelled. I was moving so fast, and the dog was rushing away from me, that we ended up in the middle of the corn fields.

I was in such a hurry that I took my shoes off just to run faster and close our gap before the dog got away. The dog got my scarf in its claw, and I was about to get too close to it, so I jumped over and grabbed the scarf.

"Here you are, little wolf," I said and took it out of the dog’s claw.

I then gasped as I spotted an abandoned church in front of me as I rose to my feet. The dog was barking loudly outside the church. I then stepped inside as my curiosity peaked.

The chapel was abandoned, and it seemed weird to see a church in the middle of farmlands. There was no trace of life here. There were no lights, and there was no pathway to walk on to get to this place.

"This must be the chapel of the witches," I mumbled to myself. There were crawling insects and hundreds of rodents roaming around on the benches in this chapel.

I gazed up and saw some large chandeliers. I was also impressed with the mural on the ceiling.

"Wow!" I murmured.

The artwork wherein people rushed around, as if someone was chasing them, and their expressions were horrified. They were injured and looked afraid, yet I found it beautiful at the same time.

"This is what I wanted for the people of Silver Moon Pack," I muttered under my breath.

As soon as I came into this church, I went right to the chancel. There were a lot of skulls scattered about, which I noticed after a while. I was curious as to whether or not these skulls belonged to the people who had died in this place.

In addition, there was a statue of a human with a goat's head that was sitting in the center. His body was in the shape of a person, but his head was that of a menacing goat, with eyes that cried out in sorrow, anguish, and hatred.

These were items that piqued my interest, which I already saw when reading through the black book. My face lit up with a broad grin as I thought about the genuine possibilities.

Here, I could go to a witch and ask her to put a spell on everyone who lives in the Silver Moon Pack. My goal was to negotiate with the witch, knowing I didn’t have anything to offer. It was the next problem that I had to solve.

I would ask the witch to curse those who wronged me, especially my identical twin sister, Atasha. I made certain that she would not transform into a werewolf and that she would not have a wretched existence.

I would put an end to this tragic story of mine. By using Atasha, I would fulfill the prophecy of the witches for Montreal. Based on that black book, someone from the Silver Moon Pack would destroy Montreal's ruling for the Crimson Moon Pack and the entire werewolf land.

It sounds like fun. Everyone should suffer.

I didn’t know whether that prophecy was true or not, that a cursed werewolf would terminate the bloodline of the Montreal once she got married to one of them, but…

"Atasha, you'll need to fulfill this…" I uttered.

One thing was certain: war would erupt in this land if she was cursed. Once the news spread out that someone from our territory wasn't able to shift, the Crimson Moon pack would come to this place and destroy it to make sure that there would be no other wolves that would spread the curse. I was not able to control the laughter of my thoughts.

If the Montreals found out, they would surely kill everyone here, but I needed to ensure it would not be Atasha. I should frame her up to be the "cursed werewolf" and it should be none other than Atasha, the true cursed werewolf in this land.

"Perfect, everything falls and comes into pieces. Good thing I got that black book, probably it was destined to be found by me," I mumbled under my breath.

If the prophecy was accurate and Atasha was able to marry one of the Montreal as a cursed werewolf, it would destroy the Crimson Moon pack and would make the werewolf land suffer. I didn't know how it would happen to Atasha and the Montreals, but knowing she would suffer was enough for me.

I was sure that the Silver Moon pack would be destroyed if that transpired. Once the rumor spreads about the "cursed wolf", I would make sure to leave out these "loser" places before I get killed.

I chortled because of the plans that were formulating in my head.

I emitted, "I'm such a genius," and I went back to the house with a wide grin on my face.