Annie came through the door boldly and powerful, a wind immediately pushing the books open and fluttering through the pages on her desk, she was a force that I don't want to go up against. She no longer seems like my soft, loving grandmother, instead, she was tall and powerful. My face was pulled up in a way that shows my thoughts because as Annie spins on her hell on the other side of the desk, taking a seat in her high-backed chair she falters for a second. A flash in her eyes, a creak in her old bones as she slowly lowers herself into her chair.

"Morgan." She says my name slowly, deliberately like she's coaxing a small terrified animal out from under something after a storm. I notice my hands beginning to shake and even though I'm not scared of Annie I tuck them quickly underneath myself so she doesn't see.

Beside me Nathaniel watches me, his eyes darting to my hidden hands a moment later. I take a deep breath placing a fake smile on my face but even I know both of them can see the lie behind it all.

"Grandmother." My voice is thick as if coming from someone else. As I sit there in my Grandmother's office waiting for her to tell me the truth I had just been so desperate to know I'm suddenly afraid, something isn't right here, something isn't normal and I know in a second Annie will open her mouth and my world will shatter. All I want is someone to golf me and tell me everything will be alright because as I look from Annie to Nathaniel, I'm not too sure that's true.

Annie takes a deep breath and puts on that headmistress's expression that I've seen too many times in my life but never from her. She watches me curiously as she begins.

"You're not the first student to come here not knowing the truth of our world." She says it like a speech she's practiced a thousand times and at that moment I know the truth, Annie knew the minute I arrived here that she would give me this speech she was never going to let me stay in the dark. The things clawing at my heart loosens its hold for a moment allowing me to breathe deeply.

"The truth about what?" My words are low and slow, and as soon as the words are out I become breathless waiting for them to finally tell me.

In front of me, Annie gives Nathaniel a quick short nod, that shows just how worried she feels about this next moment. Nathaniel's words come back to me about the pressure Annie is under and I feel myself forcing my shoulders to relax from their hunched position. I look over to Nathaniel trying to make sense of everything but he no longer meets my eyes.

"Myths hold more truth than you know." He starts talking after a long moment and I suddenly have the desire to laugh at him but the look of fear and raw emotion in his eyes as he looks at me has me shrinking away. His eyes burn me and for a moment all I can hear is my blood pounding loudly in my ears. I take a deep breath and nod once for him to continue.

"Every myth is grounded in truth. The myths that surround this school that is so often talked about in the towns surrounding us do come from some basis of truth." I try to think back to my research of the school trying to remember if I had come across any myths but then a different memory comes to mind, my first day here on the bus and how when the bus stopped at Westtown Peaks the people instantly whispering and glaring at me, like I was no longer one of them but something else.

"What myths?" My voice is barely a whisper and Nathaniel rips his eyes away from me, looking but not seeing at the surrounding books.

"That this school isn't your average high-class boarding school, inside these walls you won't find the next generation of geniuses or CEOs, instead all you will find is pain and secrets." He talks in a way that makes me feel like I'm watching a movie but then my own voice whispers back, terrified in my own ears.

"What is the truth?"

I feel the blood rushing around in my veins, my skin turning pink as I wait for his answer. Even though Nathaniel doesn't look at me I can't seem to look away from him. This is it, I think to myself, this is the truth I have been so desperately begging to find out. What is this place, really?

I notice a second too late as my hands unhook themselves from under me and find his cold, solid arm for support. He looks at me at once, his eyes digging into my soul with a deep longing. Then he turns away ripping his arm away, a small gasp falls on deaf ears.

"They've got a surprising amount right." His voice is emotionless. "This isn't your average school and the students here aren't normal but this is one of those times that the truth seems even more unbelievable than the myth."

I feel my body begin shaking with adrenaline, it takes me a second to realize it's my flight or fight response waiting for his next words and the decision I will be forced to make when he finally opens his mouth.

"The students here, the teachers, god everyone in this school isn't normal, we are all the thing of myths. The vampires of the night, the werewolves of the full moon, and even the witches that watch over it all."

I don't know what I had expected him to say, I suppose a part of me should have realized what with the words the boys spat at each other in the cafeteria but for one second my mind had been filled with murderers and killers that a small hysterical laugh flows out of me in relief. Nathaniel glares at me as soon as the noise escapes my lips, Annie watching the pair of us with a pained expression on her face.

The laughter doesn't stop for a long few minutes, not under tears fill my eyes and a sobbing quickly takes its place.

Relief quickly turns back to mind-numbing fear.

My throat is unexplainably dry with fear. My blood is pounding relentlessly and I can almost feel the pounding of the vein in my neck.

"Vampires, werewolves, and witches?" My voice is scratchy but I don't have the energy anymore to swallow.

Nathaniel looks away from me, his glare turning to worry as he looks out the small window.

My eyes quickly search for Annie's who is sitting on the other side of the table watching me with a worried expression. I can't talk anymore but my mouth silently calls her name. She nods.

Once.

Twice.

And that's all it takes for me to crumble once again, a tear falling slowly down my face.

"What do you mean?" I ask Annie instead because Nathaniel is still searching the sky outside for anything that might distract him from what's happening in here.

"Every myth-" She starts but I cut her off immediately.

"No, enough myths, just tell me the truth." As I sit there my anger is pushed to the surface from the adrenaline, there's no real heat in my words and no burning in my stomach like normal. There's just emptiness.

"Everyone here is supernatural," Annie tells me slowly, her eyes watching me cautiously sad. "Every student, every teacher. Even you, darling."

Those last words are shocking and something inside me doesn't let me focus on them. I grab onto anything else before they can take a hold of me, take over me. My eyes turn to Nathaniel catching him watching me.

"What are you?" My words are quick, rushed. He opens his mouth once but nothing comes out, his expression turning to pain as he watches me. He closes his eyes before he can get the word out.

"Vampire."

The urge to jump, to run, and move away from him as fast as possible pounds through me. I work hard not to move away, instead of taking a deep calming breath. I turn back to Annie.

"Lucian?"

"Werewolf."

A feeling of deep understanding sends a zap of pain down my chest as it all slowly comes together.

"In the cafeteria, it was werewolves vs vampires, right? The myth so engrossed in every supernatural story about them being natural enemies the truth is just that they hate each other for something they don't even remember?"

Nathaniel nods his head.

I shake mine in response, turning to Annie because there's nothing left to ask or talk about and her words have finally taken hold of me.

"What am I?" My voice is detached and a tear falls down my face once more, because those words hurt. How am I anything but myself? How could I possibly be some supernatural benign without ever noticing?

Annie nods once at Nathaniel, who stands upright away leaving the room in a rushed movement. I watch him go with a blank expression turning back to Annie feeling more hollow as time goes on without an answer.

"I am a witch." She says it with so much power and authority that there's no denying the magic running through her veins. Slowly I start remembering moments from my childhood that now that I know this truth can only be explained away with magic.

The way Annie brought plants to life in the middle of the desert.

The way she always had the perfect gift for me even if we haven't spoken in months.

The way she always seems to know what someone needs before they even know themselves.

I had thought it was all grandmotherly love and intuition but now I feel like all of those things were simply a lie orchestrated by the one I trusted the most.

"However," she begins her voice lower, "I'm not sure yet if you have followed in my footsteps. Not yet."

I quickly shake my head holding onto that small bit of hope that I am still me.

"That explains it then, I'm not magic Annie. I've never done anything fantastical or amazing. There's nothing but the blood running through my veins, no magic, none whatsoever." Annie watches me, she keeps her eyes expressionless as she waits for me.

"I know this is scary Morgan. But you can't push this part of yourself aside." She explains, slowly standing up and taking my hands in her own. She pulls me over to the window, a small breeze has started and the sun starts its descent hidden behind the clouds.

"A witch's power comes from her surroundings." Annie begins with a voice like a fairy godmother, probably more suited to her than I ever knew before. "Nature, earth, air, fire, and water we get our powers from them but more than that. The most important thing is our ancestors."

She waits for a beat and then raises her hand, the air outside stops swinging through the leaves of the trees, everything goes still. I seem to stop breathing along with it until Annie lets it all begin moving again.

"You might not have shown any magic in your time because you have not been surrounded by it. I feel something inside of you Morgan, something your mother never had, a light. A fire." She turns to me with a proud smile on her face. "A passion burning to come out."

"My mother?" I ask her and she shakes her head, frowning as she looks back out the window.

"Jenny didn't have the fire of magic inside of her, she often felt misused, mistreated and so her magic never had time to grow and flourish. Even if she did have this, I think Jenny hated all things magic so much that she would have abandoned it." Under her breath, Annie continues almost silently. "She believed we were monsters and she wanted nothing to do with any of us."

My whole I had been in the middle of my mother's hatred for all things to do with this school, along with that hatred that slowly boiled away at her for her own mother. Annie, whose magic comes from family and being surrounded by it, was pushed away by her own daughter.

As I stood there watching the first person to believe I was anything but a delinquent pushed away by family but holding strong for her school, her people I couldn't help but be inspired. So just like that I agreed with her, I would stay here with Annie and I would try and raise the fire inside of me into magic. I would try to belong in this world that feels like sandpaper against my skin. I want to make her happy and maybe I really am magic and I can make her proud of me.