Chapter Three
Forced To

Their mother shrieked and ran over, sobbing hysterically to see her son awake and, hopefully, well. She pulled him into a hug and told him that he didn't have to tell anyone what happened, his sister would.

"But she doesn't know," Remus argued, his voice muffled from his mother's hug. When she finally released him, she got up and sat down on a spare chair. She nodded for Remus to talk. "Okay, so we were walking in the forest trying to get home from the store and a werewolf had been following us for a long time. It found us and chased us and, well... it bit me."

His mother's eyes widened, as well as Rachael's. She had only known of the werewolf's presence, not that it had bitten Remus. She leaned back in her seat and sighed. She could have stopped this, but she didn't. Remus continued unraveling the tale, even though he had said everything that needed to be said. A werewolf had bit him and that was all there was to it. He said that (after his mother had asked him angrily why his sister hadn't helped him) Rachael had run into a tree yelling for him to run.

Mrs. Lupin shot a cold glare at Rachael, who had become highly occupied with the full-length mirror across the room from her. She had only just noticed it and saw that her reflection showed that she had two large black eyes; her nose was crooked and covered in dried blood. She must have run into the tree hard.

"Rachael Michelle Lupin!" her mother shrieked.

Rachael jumped in fright and turned quickly to look at her, which she suddenly realised she shouldn't have done. Her mother's eyes were bulging at an unnatural bulge, they were red with flames. Her skin was flushed with fury, hands on her hips, hunched over. She stalked over to her daughter, bent down so that she was level and glared Rachael in the eye.

She tried to defend herself. "But, Mum," she whimpered, cowering under her mother's rage.

"Y-y-you l-let y-your brother get bitten by a werewolf!" she yelled, spraying her daughter with spit.

"But I-"

"But you what? You were too clumsy... too foolish... too... too... you let your brother get bitten. Do you know what you've done to him?" Rachael didn't move. "Do you?"

Rachael slowly nodded, close to crying. Why was her mother yelling at her like this? It wasn't like she had meant for it to happen. She didn't even want to go into the forest, it was Remus's idea. He had suggested it, not her. And here was her mother, yelling at her as though the entire thing was her fault.

So let's backtrack a bit, their mother loved Rachael, but she had always loved Remus more. Rachael was her dad's favourite and, speaking of him, where did he get to?

The door to the room opened and in walked a sandy-haired, tall, lean, green-eyed man, Mr. Gregory Lupin. He adjusted the glasses framing his eyes, went over to his wife, pecked her on the cheek, and turned to the other man in the room.

"Sorry, Dr. Griemer," he said politely. "I would've been up here sooner but they make a lot of forms to fill out here." He gave a short laugh, trying to lighten the atmosphere. He looked around the room and saw his wife still glaring menacingly at his daughter and Remus sitting in the hospital bed. He didn't seem to know what to do.

"Greg," Mrs. Lupin said quietly. He looked over and she gestured for him to follow her. Mr. Lupin accompanied her over to a corner of the room and Dr. Griemer excused himself from the room.

Rachael moved her chair over towards her brother. He had lain back on his bed with his eyes shut. The hair covering his forehead had been brushed back and revealed his bandage, covering the spot where the wolf had bitten him. She couldn't help but wonder if her mother had been right, that she could have done something, but didn't. Maybe she had been too clumsy and too foolish.

Wait, she thought. No, I told Remus to run; I kept looking back for him telling him to run.

Yes, you did, said a little voice in the back of her head. But was it good enough?

She hadn't thought of that.

Of course it was.

If you were a real sister you would've run back and gotten him.

But he told me to run.

And you listened? Wow, you're thicker than I thought.

No I'm not!

Rachael you are... "Rachael... Rachael."

She snapped back to reality and saw her dad kneeling next to her. He looked at her with pity, sadness and worry. What was going on? She looked and saw that her mother was eyeing the back of her dad's head with an expectant look. What had she planned? Her dad took a long, hard sigh as though he were about to do something that he didn't want to do which, in her case, he was.

"I didn't want to do this," he said quietly, his voice cracking. "But I had to... well... I was forced to."