Song: Prom Queen by Molly Kate Kestner
Words: 2432
Published: August 14th, 2020
Third Person POV
Rayna

After making a plan with Keane, Emmett, and Calum, Rayna had lunch and then headed into her art studio to try to de-stress herself.

She sets up a Bob Ross video on her tablet, plays some soft instrumental music from her phone in the background, and gets to work, painting. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, and smiles, finally feeling calm and relaxed. She has a plan, and everything will be okay. She doesn't have to worry about the rogues or Johnathan or anything.

Not even fifteen minutes into the painting, the door to her studio opens.

She smiles softly, knowing exactly who it is. She doesn't turn around to look and continues painting.

They walk up behind her, reach a muscled, fair skinned arm with rolled up sleeves, and pause the Bob Ross tutorial. They then reach their arms around her stomach and bury their face in her neck. They start kissing her, making her giggle.

"What're ya doin', baby?" Harley asks.

"I'm paintin'," Rayna tells him.

"What're ya paintin'?"

"Somethin'."

He chuckles.

"What've you been up to today?" he asks, pulling up another chair in the studio to sit next to her.

Lie, lie, lie.

"I trained, napped, ate, and have just been relaxing," she replies. "You?"

"I've just been working. How'd you sleep?"

She shrugs. "Okay, I guess." At least, the sleep she did get.

"I slept really well, actually," Harley tells her.

She giggles to herself, remembering how Harley woke up to her waking up that second time, and then she helped him back to bed.

"That's really good, babe."

*~*~*~*

That night, as Rayna is fast asleep in bed, she finds herself deep in a dream.

She's somewhere in a forest. All of the trees as far as she can see are either dead or white, giving the place a dead and bleak aura. Oddly, she doesn't hear any of the usual forest sounds. No birds, no bugs, no wind, now animals. Everything is unsettlingly still.

She looks around. There aren't any sort of paths anywhere. The ground is covered in dead grass, twigs, and dead thorn bushes.

Suddenly, she jumps when she hears the flapping of wings and a loud croaking sound. She looks up at the sky, searching for the source.

She's surprised when she's met with a familiar black bird.

"Ray?" she asks aloud.

The bird croaks a positive answer and flies down to Rayna, who holds out her arms for him to perch on.

She runs her fingers over his neck feathers.

"It's been a while, dude," she says with a smile. "What're you doing here?" she asks. She looks around. "Actually, where is 'here'?"

He croaks loudly and flies up off of her arm, then disappears through the trees.

"Hey!" Rayna yells at him. "Where are you going?"

He circles back and croaks at her.

'I guess I should follow him? I don't have any better ideas, so much as well.'

She starts running after Ray, as it's hard to see him in the dark trees. Though, she also makes sure she doesn't follow too fast to watch out for thorn bushes or out of luck tree branches.

She follows the bird though the forest until they reach a . . . wall?

It's made of stones, and looking left and right, the wall doesn't seem to end. Looking up, it doesn't seem to ever stop. It's an infinite wall, but there where she is, there's a tunnel going through it that Ray leads her to.

She cautiously walks closer to the tunnel and looks inside. After the small bit of light can't reach farther into the tunnel, it fades into a dark abyss. Ray starts flying inside, urging her to continue following him.

She lets out a breath and takes a step inside. She instantly gets chills throughout her body and steps back out.

Ray croaks furiously, like he's mad at her, making the hairs on her arms stand up.

"What is it? Why do I have to go through this tunnel?!" she asks loudly, scared and confused.

That's when she hears something behind her. A low, unusual growling. It's unlike any type of growl she's heard before.

The sound makes Ray grab the fabric of her shirt sleeve and tug her inside the tunnel, whet her she wants to or not. The turns around as she falls, and she lets out a scream. She scrambles up to her feet and runs deeper into the tunnel.

Right by the trees was the creature emitting that growl. She can only describe it as an absolute monster. Black, matter fur over pale, bald ding white skin. Huge canines dripping with black liquid and huge thorns growing from it's spine.

That was one of the scariest things she has ever seen.

She looks over her shoulder, and the creature's gone.

"What in hell was that?" she whispers, her heart beating hard.

Ray croaks, making her turn back towards the void of a tunnel. She can't even see him as his black feathers match the darkness, and there's no light reflecting off of them.

She mumbles something about how dark it is under her breath and starts walking through the tunnel.

It doesn't take long for it to become impossible to see anything, causing Rayna to stumble every now and then. With Rays encouraging croaks, she continues on.

Eventually, she sees a bright white light at the end of the tunnel.

"Am I dead or something?" she asks herself out loud. Ray croaks in a negative.

She nods and continues walking through the tunnel. As she gets closer to the light, she realizes that it isn't just a light. There's a bunch of colors—scenery—which makes her walk faster. As the light starts to fill the tunnel again, she can finally see Ray. He quickly flies out of the tunnel.

She comes to the end, and she's in awe.

Outside is a huge, lush, beautiful garden, filled with green grass, trees, and colorful flowers. She exits the tunnel, and her body is filled with a nice, warm feeling.

"I still don't know what's going on, but I definitely like this place a lot better," she mumbles to herself.

Ray swoops down and continues leading Rayna somewhere. She walks through the large garden to find a path. She starts following it, and after a few minutes, it leads her to a beautiful gazebo by a small stream.

She notices that someone is already inside the gazebo.

She walks closer, and then she freezes.

Is it . . ?

It's a woman with thick, shoulder length auburn hair, olive colored skin, and big brown eyes. She wore a beautiful red dress. She looked in her mid to late 30's, and Rayna could recognize that face anywhere.

"M- Mom?"

The woman turns her head towards her and smiles

"Hello, Rayna."

Rayna has tears stinging her eyes as she runs up to the gazebo and into her mother's arms.

"Mom!" she sobs. "I missed you so much."

She even still smells like her perfume.

"I missed you, too, honey bunch," Rose says softly, rubbing Rayna's back soothingly, she kisses the top of her head.

It takes a few minutes, but Rayna is eventually able to pull away from their long awaited embrace. Rose wipes the teas from her eyes, and they sit down in the gazebo to talk.

"Before you ask any questions, let me explain some things," Rose says.

Rayna nods.

"Yes, I am dead. No, you are not dead. Right now, we are in the Afterworld. I brought you here because there is something very urgent I need to talk to you about. You can only stay for up to six hours at a time, which—don't worry—won't be long on Earth. I haven't brought you here before because traveling puts a lot of strain on your body, and you were never strong enough. I don't want to strain your body, but this is urgent."

Rayna nods, taking all of this in.

"That makes sense."

"You . . . You aren't mad at me at all, right?" Rose asks.

"Why would I be mad at you?" Rayna asks.

"I- I was just worried-"

"It's okay, Mom."

Rayna holds her hand, and both of them smile.

"You can ask me questions now."

Rayna thinks for a moment.

"What would happen if I stayed for longer than six hours?"

"You could possibly die and be trapped here forever, which I'm not going to let happen."

"What was that place on the other side of the tunnel?"

"Ah, yes. That's the Dark Forest. There's three different sections of the Afterworld: the Dark Forest, The Gardens, and The Void. First time visitors, like you, go to the Dark Forest. Average or better beings come here, to The Gardens. Bad beings go to The Void."

Rayna nods.

"What was that . . . thing?"

"That," Rose says with a grimace. "That's a thorn hound. They're the only creature that can live in the Dark Forest. You see, no one is supposed to go to the Dark Forest, so they protect it. There's magical barriers that prevent them from exiting through the tunnels, so they're stuck there and very protective of their territory."

Rayna shivers. "They're scary."

Rose nods in agreement.

"So . . . why'd you call me here?" she asks.

Rose sighs.

"You've already found out about Johnathan pairing up with the witches and rogues. I need to tell you before you fight them."

"Okay . . ."

She sighs again.

"It's a long story, so I'll try to make it short."

"When Johnathan I first met, I was newly 18. I knew that something was . . . wrong with both him and our relationship. It was only about six months later that I found out that I was the Rose Wolf—the Flower Wolf before you—which is ironic because of my name."

"Anyways, I told my entire pack, and they were ecstatic, but soon after that, Johnathan moved me off to his pack. He told me not to tell anyone in the pack and cut ties with my old one for 'safety reasons'. For so,e reason, I obeyed."

'So that's why I only had one set of grandparents . . .'

"We started having children with ing the next year, and being busy with them, I forgot all about the earlier red flags and my powers and simply did my best to be happy with Johnathan, and it was natural with the boys."

"When we found you . . . I knew you were special somehow. It's like we were connected. Johnathan was against us taking you in, but I convinced him. As you grew older, with all of the bullying, Johnathan and I grew farther and farther apart, though no one knew. When you first shifted, I remembered everything."

"I kept trying to explain it to you—what we are, how powerful we are, our powers—but Johnathan kept telling me that it was dangerous and that you wouldn't understand. You didn't seem to believe me, so I eventually got discouraged enough to give up."

"Then, that walk . . . I am so, so sorry that I left you like that, Rainy."

Rose starts crying, so Rayna hugs her.

"It's not your fault, Mom. I really missed you, but I'm not mad at you," Rayna tells her.

"Thank you, sweetie."

Rose takes a deep breath and continues.

"After I died, I ended up here. Again, keeping this short, as Flower Wolf, I was crowned as the new Queen of The Afterworld. I met my true mate, Eunice, who you can meet another time."

"Wait . . ." Rayna asks.

Rose smiles.

"I'm bisexual, sweetie."

Rayna smiles.

"Oh, and we have a son!" Rose exclaims. "Raymond?" she calls out.

Ray flies up to the gazebo and lands on the steps, but as his talons hit the wood, he turns from that familiar raven to a human boy. He has pale yet smooth and clean skin, slightly long and shiny black hair, and dark eyes. He wore a black t-shirt and black ripped jeans with black converse. Rayna obviously isn't interested in him, as he's her brother and she has a mate, but he's overall attractive.

"Hello, Rayna," he greets with a shy little wave.

The girl stares in shock.

"You're telling me . . . after all this time that I thought I was just talking to a bird . . . I was talking to an unknown 4th brother?!"

*~*~*~*

Rose and Rayna talked and hung out for a few hours.

Rose explained the different gardens you can be placed in inside of The Gardens based on how good you were on Earth, and also how Ray—who's actually Raymond—is seventeen when Rose has only been dead for four year Earth time. Time warps and is always shifting in the Afterworld compared to Earth, which is why she can only stay for up to six hours.

Rayna wanted to stay the full six hours, but Rose convinced her to start heading back to the tunnel early, saying that they'll have more time in the future. She also taught her how to enter and exit the Afterworld.

To leave, she just walks back through the tunnel. Instead of entering the Dark Forest again, she'll be transported back to Earth. To come back, she'll have to focus all of her energy towards entering The Garden, and she'll arrive right from the tunnel instead of the Dark Forest.

Specific words echo through her head.

"I feel bad for those poor pack members and rogues that Johnathan is controlling. They didn't ask for any of this—they're innocent."

As Rayna can see the tunnel again, she also sees someone she hasn't since she met Harley.

"Jamie?" she asks.

He sits under a tree next to the tunnel at a foldable table that wasn't there before. He turns his head towards her, smiling.

"Hey, Rayna," he greets, standing up. He opens his arms for a hug. "It's nice to see you."

"Hey," she says, walking closer. She hugs him. "What are you doing here?"

"Mom brought me here, though I'll end up passed out for at least twelve hours after this. I have something to add to your plan."

*~*~*~*

Rayna wakes up slowly. She grumbles nonsense and rolls onto her other side, but her alarm only continues. She feels even more tired now than she was going to bed.

She groans loudly.

She sits up, turns the annoying sound off and rubs her eyes. She starts remembering.

'What a weird dream.'

'That wasn't a dream, Rayna.'