Poison and Wine

Little girls, this seems to say, never stop upon your way, never trust a stranger friend, no-one knows how it will end. As you’re pretty, so be wise. Wolves may lurk in every guise. Now, as then, it’s simple truth, sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth.

—Rosaleen, The Company of Wolves

Hemlock Grove was a town of many secrets. You didn't have to be a genius to figure that out. It was eerie and dark, but intriguing all at once.

Living in New York you would think we would be used to all the hospitals, but the hospital here had this air about it that just seemed off. I didn't like it. Chris worked there and said it was the best hospital within a hundred miles. I think I would risk driving the hundred miles to another hospital. That's how scared I was of that hospital. Everyone in this town had the same air about them. And I was going to get to the bottom of it. Even if it cost me my life, I was going to find out what the hell was going on in this town.

"ANNIE, COME THE FUCK ON!"

She was always so rude.

"SHUT UP, BRYNN! I'M GETTING MY BACKPACK!"

With that yelled back, I scooped my backpack up off my bed and bounded down the tiny, rickety set of stairs. Brynn held out a granola bar and my keys which I snatched up as I walked past her.

"Have a good day at school, girls!" Chris hollered after us.

"Peace," I hollered back.

"Adios," Brynn hollered. Yeah, we weren't the affectionate type. I unlocked the car and we both slid in. "Can you hand me my aux cord?"

She bent over in her seat and picked up the cord off the floorboard. "Thanks 'Welcome To The Jungle'," I grinned.

"No problem, 'Peter Pan'."

It took me all of two minutes to plug my phone in and find a song. Florence and The Machine was my poison today.

If you could only see the beast you've made of me
I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free
Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart
drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart

My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in
You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl
My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in
You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to

Howl, howl
Howl, howl

As I drove down a winding road, we passed two cars; one was the sheriffs car and the other was a station wagon of sorts. "Woah, wait. Was that Dr. Godfrey in the sheriffs car?" Brynn rushed out, twisting around in her seat.

"Why would he be in a cop car? Was he in the back?"

She shook her head, craning her neck to look around the headrest and out the back window. "No, he was in the front. What the hell?! I want to go back and like, ask what they were doing. Do you think I'd get in trouble? Maybe a slap on the wrist?"

I chuckled. "I say do it. It'd add that much more badass to your reputation you already have."

She sighed loudly, flopping back in her seat. "No," she dragged out. "We need to make it to school on time."

Party pooper.


The fact that kids and just people in general felt the need to bully other people to make themselves feel better about themselves, was sickening. I don't know what their parents were doing when they were growing up. No, I know what they were doing, and it was nothing. They don't care about what their kids do. All they care about is themselves. Parents like that need to be shot. That was why I felt the need to protect Shelley.

Shelley was a poor defenseless girl. She couldn't stand up for herself. So when her big brother Roman wasn't around to protect her, I was. And I always would be. I didn't even know her that well, but I would never leave her. I just felt this need to protect her and help her. And that's what I was going to do.

"Tell me, what part did you eat first?" One of the boys asked. The second one smirked. "I know what part I'd eat first."

They both laughed as did the group surrounding them. Shelley sat curled up on the floor, making whining sounds and hiding behind her fringe. My eyes hardened and my muscles tensed. Without a second thought, I power walked over to them. My arm was jerked back making me come to a halt.

"What the hell, Brynn?!" She just motioned behind us. My eyes followed where she pointed and I saw Roman.

"Oh shit." Those words were something that those two twats needed to quit saying. If they stopped saying them, that means they stopped bullying Shelley. My eyes watched everything unfold. Roman checked on his sister before dealing with the boys.

"Kiss him," Roman stated, staring at both of them. The boys looked at each other and then back to him, scoffing. "What?" The darker haired one questioned.

"Kiss him on his pretty little lips," Roman snapped.

And they did it. They kissed. Just like that. And something wasn't right. The whole thing wasn't right. This whole town wasn't right. I couldn't move. Brynn had to force me to, by grabbing my upper arm and pulling me down the hall to our next class. As we passed the Godfrey siblings, I caught a glimpse of blood coming out of Roman's nose.

What just happened?


If I said I hated Google before, I take it back. I was either completely out of my mind or half asleep. As soon as Brynn and I got home, I raced upstairs to our room and logged on my new laptop that Chris had got me. Brynn did the same, tossing her backpack on the floor beside mine.

controlling someone with your eyes

How to Seduce Someone Using Only Your Eyes: 6 Steps

EYE CONTACT THAT PUTS YOU IN CONTROL

How to control people with your mind

Eyes - Body Language of the Eyes - Psychology

My eyes skimmed the first few links that popped up, but immediately went back to the third one. Mind control.

"I think I found it," I murmured. Brynn jumped up off her bed and threw herself on mine. "Nuh uh! What is it?!" She rushed out.

My shaky right pointer finger rested on the screen right where it read How to control people with your mind. Wait a minute. His nose was bleeding too. So I made my cursor go back to the search bar and I deleted what was up there, then typed in mind control with nose bleed.

Brynn told me to click on the first link, so I did. She leaned closer and started reading what it said.

"Purely mental battles are hard to show with special effects. Sure, you can have the characters sweat, strain, or show veins swelling on their forehead. But when a character with Telepathy or other Psychic Powers pushes them to the limit, or when a character is under mental attack, nothing quite exemplifies the true state of affairs like a thin trickle of blood oozing from their nose."

I stopped her right there. "This is about tv shows and their special effects, this isn't about real life."

She shot me an incredulous look. "Does anything in this damn town seem real to you? This town isn't your normal town, Annie. It has secrets that not even the sheriff knows," she exclaimed. "And all the secrets have to do with the Godfrey's."

"And Peter Rumancek." Her eyebrows raised in question. "Have you noticed how no one hangs around him except Roman and that snobby cousin of his, Letha? And how nobody hangs around Roman except Peter? They're both in on the secrets. They have to be."

The more I thought about it, the more it all made sense. Nobody hung around any of them. And the rumors that were floating around the town about Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies were just icing on the cake. I mean, it's rumored to conduct sinister experiments on a daily basis. What kind of sinister experiments? Is that why Shelley was the way she was? Because her mother let them do that to her? Did her mother make them do that to her? And why did her skin glow when she got worked up? Why could Roman control someone with his mind? And why was Peter being called a murderer and werewolf? Why was he being blamed for killing those two girls? It all circled around to the him and the Godfrey's.

Hemlock Grove was a dark, eerie town filled with many surprises and secrets.