Part 1: Mommy Dearest

James Addison walked down the prison hallway with his police escort. The officer dropped him off by the phones.

"One call only Addison." The officer said thickly, then walked away to stand by the wall.

Addison picked up the phone and dialed the number he'd memorized for years. He sighed as he waited, looking around.

"What do you think you're doing?" the voice on the other end answered sharply.

"Listen-"he started.

"No, you listen, you don't call from a prison phone to try and talk to me, you dumbass."

"I thought you said this was a safe number?"

"It is, but I can't risk anyone around catching on."

"Look, just hear me out." Addison replied angrily.

"Fine, you have 30 seconds, make it quick."

"You said this would be a safe deal, that no one would get caught." Addison tried keeping his voice level, "Do you realize that once Holly Clark testifies, I could end up in prison? Do you know what happens to guys in prison with a pedophile rap?"

"Holly can't testify. For God's sake, she can hardly talk. All she does is snarl." The voice replied shortly.

"Did you know about her…condition, before you sent me out there with her?"

"Look, she acted funny, but I never thought she could do that to someone. I mean for God's sake, she was seven years old, how hard can it be to kill a seven year old kid?"

"You should have warned me before you got me into this mess."

"You should have just killed her like I told you to, instead of getting creepy ideas into that sick head of yours. Then maybe she'd be dead by now and you wouldn't be in this mess."

"She ran off, I figured she'd die in those woods anyways or at least get mauled by a bear."

"Well she didn't, and now, you're stuck. Lesson learned bub."

Addison sighed, "You know she'll turn on you next."

"Oh please, no one suspects a thing. Just hang tight and I'll make sure she can't testify. I'll see if I can fix the mess you got us into."

"Hey! It was your idea, not mine."
"Hence why you should have just done what you were told to do."

The line went dead and Addison stood there seething, holding the receiver. He hung up and went back to his cell.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, Ms. Clark threw her secret cell phone back in the locked drawer and continued to fold clothes. You know, like a good mother should.

…

Monroe woke up to the sound of footsteps in the room. Instinctively, his eyes turned red and he readied himself to "wolf-out" and defend himself. He heard the soft footsteps again and he sniffed the air. He nearly did a double-take. He knew that smell but couldn't quite remember it. He heard soft breathing and he quickly sat up and his face morphed and he stared into the eyes of Holly Clark standing at the foot of his bed.

Her eyes turned red to match his and her face morphed. They stared at each other for a moment, then her face changed and he could see her tear-streaked face. He calmed his face and took a moment to study her.

She was wearing black running pants and an grey oversized t-shirt that had a college logo on it. Her hair had been cut and she had tied it back behind her head.

He could hardly believe that Holly was standing in his bedroom. He hadn't seen her in four months.

"Holly." He whispered

She took a ragged breath and smiled meekly, "Holly." She whispered back.

He got up, ignoring the fact that he was in a blue t-shirt and his boxer shorts, and opened his arms. She ran right into them and buried her head in his shoulder crying.

Monroe felt terrible. He should have made an effort to try and contact her in some way. He did promise her after all that she was not alone. Poor kid probably got desperate waiting.

"Oh, Holly, it's good to see you." He told her as he rested his chin on her head. She definitely smelled better but still had her usual scent that he remembered chasing in the woods long ago.

She stepped back and wiped her eyes and stared at him. Her eyes turned red, telling him without words she was very glad she was with him again. He changed his eyes to comfort her.

She struggled for a minute, as though thinking real hard about something, then she spoke in a ragged and shaky voice, "Where…were…you?"

Monroe wanted to punch himself. He took a breath then sat with her on the bed.

"I am sorry, Holly. I know you don't understand, but I couldn't see you yet. Know that I wanted to, but I just couldn't risk it." He looked at her and she seemed puzzled, so he tried, "Too dangerous." She looked down then back at him as though beginning to understand, then she nodded.

Monroe smiled at her, then realized it was very dark outside; he quickly looked at his glowing alarm clock and saw that it was 3 am in the morning.

"Holly," he asked, "Why are you here? Does your mother know you're here?"

"Mother…" she shook her head. Monroe took that to mean she didn't tell her mom she was here. He didn't know if that was a good thing.

"Holly, you know it's dangerous at night and your mother is going to worry about you."

Again, Holly shook her head and said, "Mother…" then she suddenly started to cry.

Monroe was dumbfounded on what to do in this situation. He had never had kids and never had a sister growing up, so this was new to him. He did what he felt he should do. He carefully put his hand on her back. He knew how hard it must be to live with someone who may not understand what she is. He also knew it must be frustrating not to be able to communicate with words.

"Let's go downstairs, I'll get you something to drink, and then I'll drive you home, okay?"

"Home…no!" she blurted getting up, her face morphing again.

Monroe stood up and morphed to calm her down, "Look," he said as he morphed back, "I know you really wanted to see me, but you can't stay here, it's not safe."

"Not...safe…home…mother…" she sobbed, "Bad…home."

Monroe was baffled, he knew she would have issues being a Blutbad in a strange new home, but he never thought for a minute that she wouldn't be safe there.

"Holly, are you telling me that your mother is…" he tried thinking of a word she may understand, "dangerous."

She looked at him, tears in her eyes and nodded.

Monroe didn't know what to do. He rubbed his hand over his eyes, "okay, Holly, let's go downstairs and talk about this."

He ushered her out of his room, grabbing a pair of his sweatpants along the way. He also grabbed his phone. If anybody was going to help him get out of this mess, it would have to be Nick.

…

Nick groaned as his cell phone rang. He looked at the time, 3:30am.

"No way." He thought, as he picked it up and answered groggily.

"Nick?" Monroe said on the other line.

"Monroe?" Nick yawned, "This is weird, normally I'm calling you at random hours of the night."

"I know man, but listen, Holly Clark is here and she…more or less said her mom is bad news."

"What? Holly Clark?"

"That's what I said, man."

"Okay, so…what, do you need me to come over or something?"

"Yes, Nick, jeez man you are slow when you wake up."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming, hang tight."

"Better hurry, once her mom wakes up and finds Holly gone, we could both be in trouble."

"She's in your house."

"Yeah, but you dragged me out to help you in the woods, so-"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I'm on my way."

Chapter 2 is coming, so hang tight. I feel like there was more to Holly's mom than meets the eye so I decided to write about it. Feel free to review :)