Club Luna

Both me and Sasha were pretty freaked out after hearing the message Henry had to deliver. Kaylee and Cerys were both a little creeped out too, since the ghost basically confirmed he found his rest almost two years ago. And like I figured, once a spirit was at rest it was really rare and unusual for them to come back again.

Nina, Melanie, and Willow weren't as uptight about it, but they were all still a little wary since whatever was going on obviously involved both me and my cousin. And Violet didn't really know what to make of any of it, apart from being glad that it seemed like the haunting was over again and her woods wouldn't be disturbed anymore.

Despite how freaky the whole thing was, both my girlfriend and my cousin were smart enough to quickly write the ghost's message down on their phones before any of us forgot the details.

Then our club leader was eager to get back home so we could all try and figure out what it meant. Except the moon was calling to both her and Melanie, so the two of them stripped down and shifted to their wolf forms like they planned.

Nina and Willow carried the wolfgirls' clothes and stuff back to the Lunamobile while the wolfs ran off to enjoy the full moon. It took us an hour or so to retrace our path back out of the conservation area and back to the mini-van. After a brief debate my little sister ended up driving us home since she was literally the most experienced driver in the club, even though she hadn't got her licence yet.

Back at the clubhouse Willow and Sasha were both eager to start trying to decipher the weird rhyming message, but Nina suggested we should wait until tomorrow so our wolfy friends could participate. Which was a good point, especially since Cerys was really eager to be in on that.

Instead the six of us talked a bit more, some video games were played, then we finally called it a night around two in the morning. Nina teleported home while Violet walked around the block, and the rest of us all went to bed too.

Now it was around noon on Saturday, and both Kaylee and I were the first ones up. She grabbed a can of orange soda from the fridge while I got a glass of water, then the two of us ended up cuddling together on one of the big comfy chairs in the living-room.

We both had our phones with us, and as soon as Kaylee looked at hers she frowned, "Did you see the message Melanie posted on group chat this morning?"

"Not yet," I replied. As I opened up the chat app I added, "Looking now."

I sighed a moment later when I read the message.

The wolfgirl wrote, "Hey y'all just a heads-up. Me and Cerys came across Alison Sinclair's scent around Island Lake last night. Mostly along the west side of the lake, well away from where we were."

"There was a scent pool on one of the west bridges though," Melanie said in a second text, "Which would have given her a good view of the whole lake. The moon was bright enough she'd have seen us all on our way in, and the rest of you on your way out."

After I'd read it my girlfriend asked me, "What are we going to do about Ms. Sinclair?"

I shook my head, "Cassandra said as long as Alison's just looking at us it's not a problem."

"Except my therapist told us at our last session that a 'man in black' showed up and started questioning her about me," I added with a frown. "We don't know for sure it was Melody's dad, but it sounded like a council agent. And the name he used was Adrian Sinclair."

"What?" Kaylee glared. "Cass that's crossing a line if you ask me. It's bad enough she's spying on us, but questioning your therapist?! I hope Tess didn't tell her anything."

"According to Theresa she told the guy her records and stuff were confidential, so he didn't get anything." I explained.

The tiny kitsune still looked angry, her tails were all twitching around while her ears folded back. She shook her head, "I don't like the fact that my dad spends all his shifts with her. Dad thinks she's a nice friendly person, I'm sure they talk while they're on duty. He probably tells her everything, and I hate that I have to think about keeping secrets from my parents again now that I've already told them everything? But I can't exactly tell dad that Alison's evil without some kind of proof."

I sighed, "I don't think she's evil. Remember, Cassandra said she's not doing this stuff willingly. The council forced her to work for them again. They've probably got something over her, maybe they're threatening Ms. Hughes or Melody?"

"Well that's just another reason to shut the council down once and for all," my girlfriend scowled.

That only made me feel more uncomfortable, but fortunately there was a distraction as Willow emerged from her bedroom. After a visit to the washroom then the kitchen she finally joined us in the living-room, with a can of cola in hand.

The cute sorceress hadn't bothered to dress yet, all she had on was an adorable purple nightshirt with pink kitties all over it. Then again neither Kaylee or I were dressed either, my girlfriend was in tiny orange pyjamas and I wore a white and pink striped nightie.

Willow slumped down onto one of the sofas, before yawning a good morning to the two of us. We returned the greeting, then just a minute or two later Sasha got up as well.

My cousin seemed a little more alert, she was already dressed in a pair of shorts and a white top. She got herself a glass of water then joined the rest of us in the living-room, settling down on the sofa next to Willow.

"I trust you've all seen Melanie's message from this morning?" she asked the rest of us.

Kaylee nodded, "Me and Cass were just talking about it, and what we're going to do about Alison."

I shook my head, "Cassandra said she was watching Ms. Sinclair, and she hasn't said anything about that situation changing. As long as she's just watching or observing us, I don't think we're going to do anything."

My girlfriend made some frustrated sounds but she didn't argue. And anyways there was more important stuff for us to be dealing with, that Sasha reminded us about a moment later.

"Do you suppose our resident werewolves will join us soon?" she asked. "I'm eager to get started decoding last night's ghostly missive."

Willow shrugged, "We could try texting them? If they're up they'll write back, otherwise we know they're still asleep."

Our sorceress ended up sending the text since it was her idea, and after a couple minutes Cerys wrote back that the two of them would be joining us shortly. Meanwhile I sent Nina a message too, asking if she was going to come over.

My sister teleported into the living-room about ten minutes later, then after getting herself some water to drink she sat down on the sofa with Sasha and Willow. So far my sister and cousin were the only ones who'd gotten dressed, Nina wore leggings and a large loose top.

It was still another half hour before the wolfgirls finally joined us. It took them a while to actually get out of bed and up the stairs, then we all had to wait for the coffee machine so they could get their morning lattes.

The werewolfs weren't dressed either, Cerys was in a nightshirt and Melanie wore pyjamas. The fact that almost all of us were still in our sleepwear almost made it feel like a sleepover or something, except it was early afternoon. But with everyone finally present we were ready to start figuring out what that weird message was all about.

"If I may," Sasha spoke up first, "I believe the first half of the opening couplet refers to something I told Cassandra when the two of us met. This is particularly worrying as that encounter took place in the heavens, there should be no way for anyone to have been privy to that conversation."

I grimaced as I added, "The second couplet mentioned something about 'becoming real'? That's something me and my therapist were talking about at our last session. It's possible someone overheard I guess, but it's still really creepy."

Kaylee added, "The second line straight up mentions Sasha, it talks about 'your cousin'. Honestly the whole thing's creepy."

"The fact that whoever sent it knew about that ghost, and somehow pulled him back from his afterlife then forced him to deliver the message is what's really freaking me out," Cerys stated as she sipped her latte.

My girlfriend agreed, "That's technically possible, but it'd be really hard to do. Someone went to a whole lot of trouble to set this up."

"That's the big mystery though, right?" Willow asked. "Like the last line was about meeting, but if we don't know who sent it how are we supposed to meet?"

Sasha stated, "That's what we're hoping to deduce. And we should bear in mind, the message was specifically meant for Cassandra rather than all of us."

I sighed, "So where do we start? How do we do this?"

"We start at the beginning and take it one line at a time," my cousin replied. "And I believe I already understand what the first couplet means."

She read it off her phone, "Serendipity is a lie; reason begat you, now ask why."

"When you and I first met I was surprised that you even existed," Sasha continued. "Nothing in my plans or the rituals I prepared for Nina were intended to create life or implant a soul into the body I intended for myself. That you existed at all was entirely unexpected. I said it was serendipity, a happy accident. This missive seems to suggest otherwise."

"I believe 'reason begat you' is a convoluted way of saying there's a reason you exist" she added. "Someone or something took advantage of my preparations and brought you into existence within the body I intended for myself."

By the time she was finished I could tell the others had some questions. Nobody but Sasha and Nina and me knew that my body's human soul died all those years ago. So they probably wouldn't understand what my cousin was talking about.

I didn't want to talk about that though so I just sighed, "They're saying it wasn't an accident and I exist for a reason, we just have to figure out what it is. Maybe the next line has a clue about that?"

Sasha agreed, "My plans were enacted much later than I expected. I thought Nina would begin immediately, rather than waiting eighty years before getting started."

"For which I blame myself," she added as she turned towards my sister and gave her a hug. "I should have been much more honest and open with you from the very beginning Nina. I'm sorry for the pain and anguish my deceit and distrust caused you."

"It's ok Sasha," Nina responded quietly. "So we know I took a long time to do all the stuff you wanted me to do, but I don't understand what 'becoming real' is supposed to mean in this context?"

I blushed, "I think that's about me? It's something me and my therapist talked about. It's um, I don't want to go into details but it was about when I walked in on that very first Club Luna meeting two years ago? That's when I was exposed to magic and became a girl and everything."

My cousin nodded, "That actually makes sense. That chance encounter unlocked your true form ahead of schedule and also exposed you to my mother and the girls of Club Luna. And they went on to teach you about magic and the supernatural. That moment essentially led to the chain of events which ensured my defeat the following year."

"So that's the second line solved then?" Cerys asked. "Basically it's saying that when Cass walked in on her first club meeting, it sealed Sasha's fate."

I nodded, "I guess so, yeah. It fits."

Our club leader asked, "So what if that wasn't random chance? The first line's saying you exist for a reason, what if the reason was to ruin Sasha's grand scheme?"

"Maybe?" I shrugged. "I don't know though, it still seems pretty random to me. I only walked in on the meeting because someone left a post-it note outside the door that said 'Club Luna Meeting'. I got curious and wanted to know what the club was all about."

My girlfriend made a face, "That was Cerys goofing around. The whole thing was secret remember? We didn't advertise and didn't put up signs."

"So it was random chance after all?" the blonde wolfgirl asked. "The one time I put up a joke Club Luna sign you happened to see it, so you walked in on the meeting and that led to a thousand more random events that meant when Brian did the ritual last December you beat him and Sasha was defeated."

Willow shook her head, "Serendipity's a lie, remember? No such thing as happy accidents or random chance. If we're taking this literally then the whole thing was planned out ahead of time. Like fate I guess."

That led to a lot of uncomfortable looks around the room as we all seemed to be wondering if that was possible or real or whatever. I couldn't speak for anyone else, but I definitely felt weird about the idea that someone or something controlled my whole entire life just so I'd ruin Sasha's big plan.

Eventually Kaylee spoke up, "Fate or not, let's keep going. The third line talks about 'an agent for your greatest foe'. I wonder if that's about Alison Sinclair? She's an agent working for the council, spying on us and everything."

A sense of calm came over me and I knew my other self had joined the meeting. A moment later she spoke up, "The council are not my greatest foe. They're troublesome pests, like mosquitos in the summer. I already know where their headquarters are located, and the only reason I haven't gone to Madrid and eradicated them once and for all is they're not worth my time to bother."

Inside I was cringing and blushing at all of that. Knowing how easily those council thugs took down all our friends, it felt like Cassandra was bragging or something that she could wipe them out so easily. Plus I really didn't like the idea that we might actually do something like that.

"Correction," my other self added. "The other reason I haven't wiped the council from the face of the Earth is the idea makes my inner demon uncomfortable."

Apart from Sasha everyone else looked almost as uncomfortable about that stuff as I did.

Then Melanie asked, "So if it's not the council, then who's your greatest foe? And who's working as their agent?"

We looked at our cousin and she looked back at us. Then Sasha answered the wolfgirl's question, "I would certainly consider the status quo to be my greatest nemesis, and considering that Cassandra and I are now working together to dismantle it perhaps it is her greatest foe as well?"

"I guess that means we have to figure out who's working for the status quo then?" Willow asked.

"Or who used to be working for them," Cerys pointed out. "Didn't the rhyme say whoever it was stopped? Or was going to stop?"

Kaylee nodded, "Yeah, sort of? The second half of that couplet says, 'until a nudge from down below'? It's not clear if it's talking about something that already happened, or something that's going to happen."

"I'm not sure there's enough information in that line for us to deduce who the agent is," Sasha stated.

My girlfriend agreed as she stared at her phone, "The third line isn't even really a proper sentence? Like boil it down and it just says 'a possibly former enemy' but not what to do about it?"

Cassandra and I were both staring at the text on Kaylee's phone as well, and some unspoken communication seemed to pass back and forth between us. Rather than words it was more like emotions, images, and memories. One in particular stood out, from back in April when we were dealing with the podcast guys and Willow's wild magic at school.

Our parents were telling us something about how the status quo worked, and how one of the first lines of defence it used to stop upstart gods was by having plans fail. According to our mum it might be something like computers dying or phones breaking or whatever. She said it could be some small random thing that would in turn lead to a big divine plan falling apart.

As we remembered that conversation another cold feeling settled in my gut.

"It's me," I mumbled quietly. "I was an agent for the status quo. That's what the message means."

I looked at Sasha and gulped, "It's saying I didn't come from random chance or a happy accident, the status quo deliberately caused me to exist. My whole life was a set up, just to ensure your plan would fail."