Mushroom Blood

Chapter 2: Discovery

Chapter 2

Discovery

            When we eventually got home, I ran up to my room and closed my door. The parents don’t like when I lock it, but my mom knew I was pissed at something and she didn’t bother me. That’s the nice thing about Mom, she doesn’t bother me unless she really needs to…drama and storming off to your room after school for a high school girl was normal… right?

            As I was getting ready to go to bed around ten, I heard my mother talking. Everyone in the house was asleep… and she doesn’t talk in her sleep. It sounded like Mom; I went downstairs to check it out. Her bedroom door was halfway open and she and Dad were both asleep. My father's pistol lay unused on his nightstand. Why I looked to see if it was there, I don't know. I went to my mother's side of the bed, she looked fine.

            "No, don’t," she mumbled. Her eyes were still closed. Apparently she does talk in her sleep. This was my first time hearing her. Then, she opened her mouth, as if to talk, but there was a click and her lips rose over her upper teeth and revealed a set of fangs as a hiss escaped her mouth. The fangs look like a set of snake fangs.

            Deadly snake fangs.

            My breath caught in my throat.

            "Mom?" I whispered in a shaky voice…she didn’t respond. I must be going nuts, my mother doesn’t have fangs. Or does she? "Mother?" I whispered again but I still didn’t get a response. "Pamela?" I never use her real name, only in emergencies. This was an emergency. Her teeth, I refuse to call them fangs, snapped back up and I got my breath back. "Okay? That was weird," I said, not whispering this time. Her eyes half-opened and the irises, normally light brown, were a light gray. Maybe it's just the lighting…yeah…the lighting.

            "No, Alexis," she mumbled, still asleep.

            My breath caught again and I took that as my cue to get the hell out of that room. I'm just tired, that’s it. I ran to my room and closed the door. I walked over to my bathroom trying to catch my breath. I turned the water on and splashed my face and looked at the mirror. At first all I saw was myself, the normal looking brown haired, brown eyed teenager; but after a second, my skin went pale and my eyes were light gray. I opened my mouth in awe and a set of fangs snapped down just like Mom's. I quickly closed my mouth and eyes tightly and shook my head, as if to get rid of the disturbing image. When I opened my eyes again, I looked normal. I drank some water from the faucet and left my bathroom and shut the door.

            "You're just very tired, Lex," I said to myself. I got my iPod out and started listening to music while I tried to go to sleep. Thank God it's Friday, I thought. I'm so telling Lambert about all this tomorrow! And so I fell into a deep trance, not sleep, definitely not sleep. I got up when the sun rose, and I could hear my dad downstairs getting his morning coffee; he works on the weekends, and gets Wednesdays and Thursdays off. Mom is a stay - at - home mother on the weekends; she lets me go over to Lambert's house whenever I want. She trusts me whenever I go over a boy's house alone; she knows I'm not stupid enough to screw up my life by having a kid now. She doesn’t have to worry about Lambert and me. He’s like my brother, nothing would happen between us. But still, I was so telling him about Mom…and my…hallucination.

            My Saturday day started around noon, my mother was awake. I ate a quick lunch, hotdogs. Mom didn’t eat; she blamed it on a diet. I asked her if I could go over his house and she, of course, said yes and threw her car keys at me. I smiled and thanked her. She smiled back with her lips closed, but I could see that her eyes were gray…