I'll be honest, this is a difficult story to write. Sorry it's taken me a while to update.
"It was Liam." A deep voice rumbled from behind me. I jumped out of my chair and onto my feet, spinning around to find Derek with his hands shoved in his pockets, rocking back on his heels by the kitchen door. His hair was starting to hang in his face again, covering his eyes and he needed a haircut.
"You know not to scare me like that!" I held my hand over my heart, waiting for my heartbeat to steady. Closing my notebook, I laid it out on the kitchen counter and approached him. "How did you even get in here?"
"Door." He muttered sarcastically and scratched at his arm.
I huffed. He obviously wasn't in a good mood. "Okay, what was Liam then?"
"Last week. The sirens. It was him, I overheard the authorities."
I sat back down in my seat, taking in this new information. Liam had caused trouble. Enough trouble that the whole town went on lock down. I couldn't help but wonder what happened but pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. "So he's gone. We don't have to worry about him?"
He nodded his head to confirm.
"Huh."
"I thought you'd be jumping for joy." He said.
"I should be, but I don't really know what to think. It makes me wonder about this place." I sighed. Blackbridge was still a mystery to me. The only thing that I really knew about it was that it was full of supernaturals that were being watched by hawks that called themselves the Edison Group. Why did they kill unruly civilians instead of rehabilitate them? Unless they couldn't be rehabilitated...
Derek was still scratching his arm as I was deep in contemplation. The sudden appearance of red was what broke me out of my thoughts and I swatted his hand away from his arm. "You're bleeding." I said, cradling at his arm to inspect it. The scratches weren't deep; the amount of blood made it look worse than it actually was. I made a move to grab a paper towel when he stopped me.
"I'm fine." He yanked it back and continued to scratch. A frustrated look took over his face and I finally took a good look at him. His hair was plastered to his face with sweat and his skin was flushed pink. I went to hold my hand up to his forehead but he quickly dodged it.
"You look sick."
"I'm fine." He repeated, turning away from me. Frustration could be heard in his voice and I watched him work his jaw, clearly uncomfortable.
"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing something was going on.
"I said I'm fine." He snapped, a harsh tone seeped into his voice and his eyes narrowed at me. When he realized what he had done, his face softened and he began to murmur apologies but I held up my hand to stop him.
"It's okay, Derek." I said and touched the side of his arm. Hopefully a forgiving gesture.
"It's not, I just..." He sighed. "I don't even know. Ever since I got here I haven't been able to... change."
"Change?" I asked. Change what? His socks?
He gave me a pointed look as he scratched again at his arm. "You know. Werewolf? Changing..." It was as if he didn't want to say it.
"There hasn't been a full moon?"
This time he scowled, baring his teeth. "That's not how it works."
I recoiled back into my seat and thought about it. "How often are you supposed to... change?"
"Every week." He mumbled.
"Every week? But you've been here for months! What happens when you don't change?"
"Just frustrated. Sick." He began to scratch at his other arm. "My body wants it to happen. I'm getting the usual fever and itch but I just... can't do it. When I try, nothing comes. It passes but each time it gets worse and worse."
"Maybe some fresh air will do you some good." I offered, not knowing what else could possibly help him.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, not out of frustration but as if he were trying to soothe an oncoming headache. A headache that I probably wasn't helping with all the fussing I was doing.
"That might be good." He nodded.
I grabbed my keys and followed Derek out the door. Blackbridge didn't have too much to offer in terms of things to do. It looked like any other boring town you had passed through on a road trip. It looked pretty, but it sure as hell didn't have any substance. A museum or an art gallery would have been nice - just something to look at to kill time. So we were left wandering around town with nothing to occupy ourselves with. People would usually say hello but today they never really offered to stop and chat. I suspected it had something to do with the grumpy, six foot seven werewolf with a killer scowl that walked beside me.
"At least try and look happy." I mock whispered, trying to lighten the mood.
"My body wants to turn itself inside out right now and something is stopping me from doing it. I'm in pain. Tell me you could be going through the same thing with a smile on your face." He snapped. If I had never met him, I probably would have cowered in fear at the tone of his voice. But fortunately, I did know him. I knew him well enough to know that he was just frustrated.
"Okay, okay. Jeez..."
He pinched the bridge of his nose again. "I'm sorry, I just-"
"I understand, Derek. Stop apologizing." The truth was, I had no idea what he was going through and I didn't understand. It was wrong for me to say that I understood but what else could I have said? I looked over at him. He was wiping his sweat plastered hair out of his face once again and rubbed his eyes.
"I think they did something to me when I got here." He admitted. "I don't remember everything that happened in the research building. They had me drugged. But I've never had problems changing up until now. Some sort of injection or spell or steroid or hormone..." He trailed off, mumbling the last part.
"Are there any other werewolves you can talk to about it? See if they're able to change?"
He snorted something that sounded like a laugh. "Yeah right. There's probably about four werewolves left in Blackbridge, including me. If they wanted to be chummy then they would have made an effort by now. I'm not getting information out of any of them."
"Why wouldn't they want to help out another werewolf?"
"We travel in packs. I'm not a part of their pack so I'm as much of an outsider to them as they are to me."
"Whose pack to you belong to?"
Derek tensed and for a moment I thought I said the wrong thing. Before I could finish stammering out an apology he stopped and sat down on a park bench. He brought his hands up behind his head and gestured for me to sit down beside him, so I did.
"I was born into a pack. There were four of us and we lived in a lab that belonged to the Edison group." He sighed. "Werewolves are temperamental, which you've probably already figured out just by hanging around me. The nurses always praised me for being able to keep my temper in check, but never my brothers." He shifted in the seat. The look on his face told me that he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell me this next part, but he continued with a strained voice. "They attacked a nurse. The Edison Group terminated them after that and then it was just me. They gave me candy when I tried to ask questions, but I wasn't an idiot. I knew they were dead. They killed a bunch of five year olds because they had to go ahead and fuck with our genetics in the name of science." He spat his last sentence as if it were poison on his tongue.
"O-our genetics?" I had been in Blackbridge long enough that I should have known more about how people came to be supernaturals, but I was clueless. Nobody really said much about anything. They were all too worried about getting in trouble or being accused of conspiring.
"None of this came naturally. Those idiots thought it'd be fun to make humans pop out super humans at birth and here we are." He gestured around us. "Well, some of us. Who knows how many they've killed off by now? Or how many they haven't caught up to?"
"S-so you knew about the Edison group before coming here. How?"
He looked me in the eye. "My dad worked for them. He left them once he realized how full of shit they were."
His dad. Derek never mentioned his family before, so what happened to them? Did he have siblings? There was no mention of his mom.
"So where's your dad now?" I asked.
He waited a painfully long time before speaking. "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"He went missing." He ran his hand over his mouth. "We went to visit him for thanksgiving last year and he wasn't there. Everything was pretty much untouched. He was just... gone. We thought that he was here in Blackbridge so the moment they released me from the medical facility I went looking for him and nothing. Not even a trace of his scent. I thought if I could get in here, then I'd find him and now Tweedledee and Tweedledum are out there fending for themselves all because I'm held up in this place. I honestly thought if they brought me here, I'd find my dad."
While Derek did't straight out say it, it was obvious that he purposefully got caught by the Edison group so that he could find his father. Clearly it backfired, because he still didn't know where his dad was.
"Tweedledee and Tweedledum who?"
"My brother and sister."
And there it was. He did have siblings, and by the sounds of it, they were in danger of being caught by the Edison group too.
"Do you think they're safe?"
He hesitated. "Tori's smart. Really smart. She knows how to take care of herself and she's probably more powerful than she should be. Simon is smart, but not in the way he needs to be for situations like this. He acts without thinking and dad always joked that it was going to get him killed."
"You seem worried." And he did. His voice was strained and his body language told me that the whole situation was stressing him out.
"Of course. Simon's my best friend and Tori... well she's a pain in my ass but she's still my sister." He stiffened beside me before leaning down and whispering something in my ear. It was so low that I barely caught it. When he pulled away and wove his arm around my shoulder, I looked up at him to ask what the hell was going on.
"So what's your favorite film?" He asked.
I looked around, finally catching onto what he was doing. Two men clad in yellow uniforms were quickly approaching, deep in conversation about whatever was going on in their probably uneventful lives.
"The Godfather." I replied.
Derek mumbled a response while the two uniformed men walked past, none the wiser.
"I don't know what's acceptable to talk about here, but better safe than sorry, right?"
"Right." I agreed. "Maybe we should get walking."
He nodded and stood up. It was only then that I realized he hadn't bothered removing his arm from around my shoulders and I suppressed a blush. This wasn't a time to be blushing over some guy. Derek was sick and his father was missing. What the hell was I thinking?
We walked towards CeCe's Cafe where Derek ordered a coffee. His condition hadn't improved much. He was still sweaty and I was worried that he was becoming disoriented when he got his directions confused. But of course, being Derek, he refused any assistance from me.
When he came out of the cafe I motioned for us to walk towards our houses but he stopped, taking a moment. The muscles in his arms tensed as he stood there in thought and his eye twitched. He lifted his head and his nostrils flared.
"Derek?" I asked.
Nothing.
"Derek." I said, this time a little firmer. This time I planted my hand on his forearm. That seemed to snap him out of it because his green eyes made contact with mine and he visibly relaxed.
"What's going on?"
"I just thought I smelled-" He shook his head. "It's nothing."
I was going to question him further, but the look in his eyes was enough for me to know that I needed to shut up. We continued on our way back in silence. Derek mentioned wanting to pop a few Tylenol and having a nap, so I didn't pester him further.
I retreated to my own house where I curled up on the sofa with a million questions running through my mind.
Where was Derek's father? Could it be possible that because he used to work for the Edison Group that they were responsible for his disappearance? How were his siblings going to fend for themselves without Derek? How were they going to find their dad?
But ultimately, how the hell were we going to get out of here?
Not my strongest ending, I know. Please review xxx
