In a split second, her belief fell and the step up became a stumble back, and back, and back; her heart kicked and her eyebrow rose and instead of looking at his words from where he was standing, she adjusted her perspective. Seth’s voice filtered through with the rest of his explanation and she heard it when he said that on full moons, he turned into a raven and that’s why he couldn’t stay with her on Monday and when he met her eyes, Alex didn’t look away, but she didn’t quite connect.
For a second, anger rushed over her and she felt it like a rash across her skin; she’d believed that he was going to be honest with her and he was turning this into something ridiculous and she wasn’t sure if it was retaliation for leaving him for a week with everything going on or if it was some sort of awful joke and the thought made her hyperaware, but after a beat, it cooled. Seth was better than that, and he was funnier than this, but that left her with explanations less tangible to hold onto and she became fixed on his words.
Her skepticism grew in inches while she listened to him talk. Any part of the incredulous laugh she wanted to give when he talked about werewolves died at the inception and he spun his story about how his family had helped found Willow Creek as a safe haven for supernatural creatures, like him, and she wasn’t sure if exasperation or concern was bleeding through her emotions more. That Seth was saying these things…
Alex remembered the first time she saw Seth. The way he dressed had reminded her of the people who had lived in her childhood neighborhood. Crisp and color coordinated and successful. That image had never changed; sitting next to her right now, his tie was perfectly knotted and his hair perfectly in place and his jacket draped over his shoulders in a perfect fit, but in a few words, the image she had of her husband started unraveling, snagging on a loose thread she hadn’t even known was there.
If she wasn’t still so incredulous, she might have acknowledged that hearing him say these things scared her, because she didn’t know what it meant about him.
But she did know that he wasn’t crazy. He kept saying that he knew how what he was saying sounded, but that didn’t stop him from continuing and when Seth said that she could ask anyone in his family, she shook her head. Saying he knew how all of this sounded didn’t make it sound any more reasonable and saying that she could ask the people who were part of… whatever this was didn’t give her any reliable sources. Is this what Cassie had been keeping from her? That couldn’t be right. Cassie couldn’t believe this.
Her husband just told her that he turned into a bird on the full moon.
Alex needed a drink. Or to get out of that car.
When he finished, her eyebrows knit together and she shook her head, looking away. A minute passed before she spoke. “Seth…”
Maybe it was a cult. And maybe they just indulged in a lot of peyote during those full moon parties and it would take some getting used to, but Alex had known plenty of people who believed in totem animals and spirit guides and nature symbols. She’d never thought they were crazy and so, maybe Seth and his family had a secret drug addiction and believed they turned into birds one night a month and maybe… Although if Seth identified as a bird, how was he still so uptight?
No.
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” Alex’s voice was sincere; it didn’t match the quick tempo of her heartbeat and when she looked at him, she was trying to be calm, even though she had to try very hard not to set her jaw in a tense line. “But it sounds crazy because it is. That can’t be everything. A genetic anomaly like that doesn’t exist. Tell me you know that.”