Chapter 13: Thatch's Soft Side

Casper had spent all of breakfast trying to deflect a lot of his friends questions. He just tried to keep it vague, saying they went to Thatch's house while claiming he forgot exactly where it was- that the location was just far away and he doesn't even know the way because all he did was follow Thatch. Casper did say Thatch's house was pretty big, but scary looking with large stone towers and big hallways. At that point they asked even more questions, so Casper had to tell them it was a castle and not a normal house, and that it was in the human world. That only spurred their confusion and interest. Thatch lived in the human world? In some castle? So outdated and Casper agreed to that.

Casper managed to avoid talking about a lot of stuff. Thatch's father, Vincent. The human town nearby with that weird fleshie, the ballroom dance... The kiss. There was much to avoid, Casper too shy to admit much to his friends. He didn't want to say much until he and Thatch figured out what was going on between them. Yes, Casper knew he could trust Mantha and Ra to keep secrets, but this was his and Thatch's secret. He needed to protect it more than he did his own. So, by the end of breakfast he had only told them Thatch lived in a very fancy castle- he had described many of the rooms in grand detail to take up as much time as possible.

When the bell rang Casper smiled and got up to walk with his friends. His blue eyes turned to look across the room, spotting Thatch with his friends doing the same. Casper could see Slither glaring right at him, not even trying to hide it.

"Oh, Slither was so mad after you left to follow Thatch." Mantha whispered, grabbing Casper's hand to guide the ghost out. "Best to avoid him for now. He was the one that informed the Headmasters you had left."

"Oh…" Casper softly murmured. He never thought Slither would go out of his way to make his life hell. Normally Slither was the most passive of Thatch's gang. He'll have to be more careful, that snake monster was keeping such a close eye on him and Thatch now. But Casper knew at night they would sneak out and have their moonlight stroll. He knew now the vampire cared for him.

But even so, it bugged him to see Thatch so distant- and there he goes bullying Wolfie. Great. Casper stopped at the cafeteria doors, sighing heavily.

"What's up Casper?" Mantha paused, looking back at the ghost.

"It's nothing. I'll catch up." Casper said simply and started to walk back towards Thatch and Wolfie, feeling slightly annoyed. They were barely back an hour and Thatch was giving Wolfie hell. Yes Casper remembered why, but surely Wolfie could have a break for just one day!?

Ra and Mantha stood by the door, while their braver ghost friend walked up to the gang. "Thatch, Wolfie- we're going to be late." He said instead of telling the vampire to stop. It felt awful not truly helping the wolf, but if this is how Thatch cared for Wolfie nothing could be done, right?

Thatch glanced at the clock, and even if there was plenty of time to get to class he nodded. "Come on gang." He said swiftly and left Wolfie's alone very quickly, passing by Casper rather swiftly without looking at the ghost. Casper did happen to notice the light coloring on Thatch's normally pale cheeks. So cute…

Slither seemed annoyed when Casper came close, but followed Thatch and the others. His beady gray eyes narrowed hatefully at Casper as they passed. Casper paid them no mind. He did what was needed.

"Wolfie," the ghost started gently as the werewolf stood up. "You gotta fight for yourself. Get mad, fight back some? Aren't werewolves and vampires equal in strength?"

"I know but… I don't want to hurt anyone." He whimpered weakly.

"You don't have to hurt him, just get mad and push him off." Casper gently smiled. "Show that you hate how much Thatch picks on you. I'm sure he'll lay off then." The ghost said thoughtfully. Wolfie seemed unconvinced, but at the same time content to have gotten off of his daily pounding so easily.

Casper gently escorted Wolfie out so he could walk with Ra and Mantha to their class. This was going to be a long day…

Classes were fine and Casper found it surprising how much he was actually able to focus on his lessons, even raising his hands to answer despite daydreaming the previous class so much. It was nice having a human friend that helped teach you so much about humans already some of these lessons didn't seem needed because of that.

Whenever Casper wasn't taking notes or paying attention he would sneak a glance at Thatch, faintly smiling as he watched the diligent vampire take his fancy notes. Ra would always chuckle and bring Casper back to his own notes, which was helpful. Ra still had his concerned and questions about Thatch and casper, but he seemed to be getting a lot of things slide for Casper's sake.

When lunch rolled around Casper was feeling better, energized and back into the loop of being at school. He hadn't realized just how much he had missed Ra and Mantha. Hanging out with them was certainly great, easing his mind and bringing comfort. Mantha and Ra didn't ask much, and Casper knew they were going to wait for him to open up and willingly talk about the weekend. Honestly they were just the best friends he could ask for. While he was so happy with his friends he almost forgotten about that morning completely and his advice to Wolfie when he heard screaming.

The ghost turned around in his seat, seeing the person who had screamed was Dummy Girl, and for good reason it seems. Thatch and Wolfie were on the floor, fighting fiercely. Thatch seemed to be winning, overpowering the weaker creature by shoving him to the cold hard floor, trying to pin the werewolf down by his wrist to avoid getting scratched. Wolfie didn't seem to take this kindly and used his sharp teeth and grab Thatch's free flowing cloak, shaking it roughly until the clip came loose and let Wolfie yank it off of Thatch. Thatch was instantly distracted by his missing cloak and even released the monster to grab the cloak, trying to pull it back. It was like a very serious game of tug of war.

Wolfie saw an opportunity and suddenly released the cloak, causing the vampire who had been pulling with all his might to fall back onto the stone floor, his cloak covered in Wolfie's slobber. Gross.

"You'll pay for that muttface!" He threatened before he lunged at the werewolf, knocking the fellow student onto his back once more, his cloak now discarded away on the floor- safe from Wolfie's teeth.

Slither kept Mosshead and Dummy Girl out of the fight. Everyone knew better than to get involved when vampires and werewolves fight. It was never pretty. So he kept his friends safe as he watched their leader fight. Ra, Mantha, and Casper left the table swiftly, but couldn't get to the fighting pair because of the growing circle around the fight, everyone chanting for who they wanted to win.

The fight didn't last long surprisingly, maybe a few minutes at most. Casper had just pushed his way to the front of the surrounding circle to see what happened next clearly. As Thatch hissed loudly the werewolf had twisted them around, shoving Thatch down. In the process Thatch's fang cut Wolfie's forearm, drawing a small amount of blood.

And that was it, Thatch was panicking and yelling for the fight to stop, his struggle against Wolfie ceasing as he willingly laid on the floor- letting the werewolf completely win this fight.

"Get off, get off! I give, I give you dumb mutt, get off of me- did I just bite you?!" He almost screeched at Wolfie, who seemed surprised by the fact he just won against Thatch. The pure blooded werewolf got off of Thatch, only for the vampire to roughly grab him and look at the cut. Casper swore he could see Thatch grow paler- if that was possibly for the vampire.

Wolfie was only in pure confusion, looking at the cut. He hadn't even noticed it had happened amidst the fight, too pumped up on adrenaline to feel the pain. Thatch seemed to be having a major freakout as he looked at the cut because the vampire grabbed Wolfie and started to drag him, trying to pull the furred monster out of the cafeteria.

Wolfie growled and planted his feet stubbornly. "Let me go, you said you give!"

"I did now we're getting you to the nurse, now you dumb creature! I bit you, I fucking bit you! Don't you even know what that means!?"

"...I turn into a vampire too?"

"I'm surrounded by idiots!" Thatch yelled, still stubbornly trying to pull Wolfie along. "A vampire bites a werewolf and the werewolf loses its ability to BE A WEREWOLF! You're going to be a fleshie if we don't fix this!" At this point Wolfie stopped struggling so much and seemed rather willingly to follow Thatch, the pair rushing out of the cafeteria.

"What just happened?" One of the skeleton sisters, Monaco muttered. "Like, I know I'm not too bright but surely others are confused too, right?"

"Like, yeah totally. Thatch was like, freaking out!" The fellow skeleton, Mickey laughed. "How strange."

Casper didn't feel like sitting around and listening to the students ponder what had just happened. The ghost instead flew out quickly, rushing down the halls and taking the most direct route to the nurses office.

Casper opened the door, carefully entering the creepy nurses office. This was never a nice place to be- the nurse was insane and everyone knows it. To his surprise Wolfie was already up on the nurse's examination table. Seems she was taking this very seriously as she looked over the cut. Thatch stood by Wolfie's side, watching with wide violet eyes.

"I swear I didn't mean to, it just sorta happened." He whined weakly. "He won't turn into a fleshie, right?"

"Hmmmnnn…." The creepy nurse drew out slowly. The gorgon then just put a bandaid on Wolfie's arm. "It's not deep at all, barely a scratch. Can't even be considered a bite, even if it was done with those sharp fangs little vampire. You fear for nothing." She laughed.

Thatch sighed heavily and looked at Wolfie, who was still looking pretty fearful. He still remembered the last time he was turned into a fleshie and hunted in the school. He really didn't want to be turned to stone.

"Wolfie, Thatch,..." Casper floated over to the pair as the nurse calmly started to clean up her examination tools. "What on earth happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened, I nearly got turned into a fleshie!" Wolfie whimpered.

"I'm sorry ok, I really didn't mean for that to happen. Besides you attacked me." Thatch frowned. "What was that even about?"

"I don't like it when you pick on me! Casper told me to stand up for myself."

"I didn't mean to fight!" Casper defended quickly as the vampire turned to him.

"Whether you meant it or not that almost ended badly for Wolfie… If he turned into a fleshie I don't know what I would do…" Thatch sighed heavily.

"I might be going deaf, maybe I am becoming a fleshie but it sounded like you care." Wolfie tilted his head to the side, his large yellow eyes watching Thatch,

"...Shut it muttface." Thatch hissed and moved away. "I'm going to get my damn cloak." He muttered as he stormed out, leaving Casper and Wolfie behind.

What a mess…