Chapter 7

Next thing I knew I was being woken up. Again. Did no one around here understand the importance of sleep? Not only had I not gotten my eight hours, but it was about six in the morning when my dad decided to get me up after Sarah had woken me up for midnight gallivanting which almost resulted in our deaths. Not to mention he still had that terrified look on his face when he did so leaving me more confused than ever. "What's wrong, Dad?" I asked sleepily as he reached over to shake Sarah awake as well.

He merely shook his head at the question, "I want you girls out in the car in five minutes."

"What?"

"Don't argue for once in your life, Sadie, please just do it."

I was about to protest anyway, but he walked out before I could. So not only had I gotten woken up, but looks like a shower was going to have to wait until we got back from wherever we were going. Frowning, I got up out of bed stumbling over Sarah's now empty makeshift bed on the floor. Dropping my dirty clothes on the floor which was already littered with other already worn clothes I pulled on clean ones. As I was pulling a tank top over my head Sarah came marching in from the bathroom dressed in clean clothes startling me and causing me to trip over my own two feet. Needless to say when I hit the floor I made a pretty big thump. One that was big enough to get my father's attention. "You two ready to go yet?" he called from somewhere outside my door.

Pulling the tank top on the rest of the way I climbed back to my feet shoving my only pair of flip flops onto them. Then I felt Sarah loop her arm through mine and I was being dragged out to the car. Joy. Being the one doing the dragging Sarah got shotgun much to my dismay and I was crammed into the back of my dad's ancient Rabbit. I used to think the car was pretty cool until I realized it was a hunk of scrap metal that barely ran some days. I think the only reason I ever liked it was because it was called a Rabbit. Too bad the appeal of it sharing a name with one of the fluffiest creatures on the face of the planet wore off when I was about seven. Leaning forward as far as my seatbelt would allow I poked my head through the gap between the two front seats. "So where are we going?"

At least this time when I spoke Dad could be bothered to glance over at me a moment before returning his eyes to the dirt roads devoid of any kind of traffic at all. "The Uleys," he answered simply.

"What?" I demanded, scrunching my face up in confusion, "Why are we going there?"

Again, he didn't answer me as he pulled into the driveway, the gravel crunching beneath the car tires as he did so. Seconds later he was pulling the keys out of the ignition as the engine ceased its roaring. He pushed his door open and Sarah followed his example the both of them climbing out of the car. Still safely buckled into the backseat I hurried to unfasten my seatbelt and get out of the car. In my haste I almost hit Sarah in the back with my door as I climbed out. "Dad--"

"Just go inside please."

I let out a frustrated sigh and felt Sarah latch onto my arm and begin to pull me towards the door once more. God, why was she so pushy? Didn't she want to know why we were here? After all, Dad hadn't taken me to the Uleys' house since I was about eleven. So why did he think we needed to go back now? Of course, I knew that while I was at school he spent some time there, but that didn't tell me why he was insisting upon Sarah and I coming. After all at seventeen and sixteen we were plenty capable of staying home and looking after ourselves. Not to mention he'd left Grandpa Billy home alone. That realization struck me quite deep; he never left his father at home alone. Whatever this was it must have been pretty serious if it called for that. Dad was already at the door hammering at it with a fist and knocking about fifty more times than was necessary. What the hell had gotten into him?

The door opened and Josh Uley stood there, glancing uncertainly at my dad. For a kid who had a terrible sickness he sure didn't look all that sick to me. In fact, he looked pretty healthy, bigger than I remember him and more muscular as well. As my father shoved past him Josh's brown eyes then settled onto Sarah and me, growing wide with something, before he turned, slamming the door in our faces. Confused, I reached forward and pushed the unlocked door open just in time to see him sprinting up the steps that lead to the loft which was his room at an alarming fast rate. Perhaps he'd run track in high school and that was the reason for his speed. He'd only graduated this past May after all. Shrugging it off Sarah released my arm as we stepped into the house not knowing what we should do. I felt as though we should have our ear pressed to the wall behind that so that we could hear what the adults were saying in the kitchen. It was an oddly Sarah-like thought for me and that idea only frightened me a bit. Sarah on the other hand seemed to be perfectly content to just throw herself on the couch and sit down. So I followed her example not knowing what else to do. Just as my butt made contact with the cushions my attention was pulled in another direction at the sound from upstairs where Josh was. My first instinct was to go investigate, but then there was a thump from outside.

Both our heads swiveled in the direction of the noise to see the black wolf-thing from last night outside the window. We screamed simultaneously and threw ourselves on top of the couch.

Author's Note: So I'm sorry about the lack of updates, soccer owns my life right now and probably will until the end of April. But here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully the next one will be up soon, next weekend probably because I have a project to do this weekend. Anyway, reviews are loved! But thanks to the people who have reviewed and those that favorited the story, you have no idea how much it means to me.