What A Family

It's been one year since I looked at you

School to school, pretending I'm a student and solving town cases.

Two thousand voicemails.

Four thousand emails.

One hundred text messages.

One year.

I graduated early. I'm now seventeen and free of school work.

But that doesn't stop me from going to high schools.

I've been sending everyone a perfect birthday present in the mail. Same thing on Christmas and Father's Day.

Dad called me again last night as I slept in a motel room.

"I'm just letting you know that if you come back home I won't be mad. We were never mad. Sam understood. John can do that to people. We're just worried you're not okay." He had said, "I love you baby girl."

I cried this morning upon hearing it.

Someone knocks on my door and I open it.

"I thought you were here." John barges through the door, shoving me into the cabinet.

"Get the hell away from me." I pull a knife out and slash at him. He grabs my wrist and slams it into the wall.

"I knew you couldn't fight me-" I kick him in the knee and slam my fist into his throat, causing him to drop my wrist. I grab a gun out of my holster and press it to his head.

"If you make one single move I will imbed this goddamn bullet into your useless empty brain, ass cabinet." I sneer. He grabs my shoulder and spins my around, pulling the gun out of my hand and pressing it into my back, bending my arm in a way it shouldn't.

"Victories are short lived."

"Hell no." I slam my combat boot into his sandal, ducking and sweeping his legs out from under him. I press my knee into his throat and keep his arms pinned to his sides. "I want you gone." I move my knee to his chest so he can speak.

"I need your help. I need you to convince your dad that this whole year we've been hunting together."

"No."

"I want another chance."

"You've gotten one."

"Please."

"No."

"Take this hunt with me. I'll prove it to you." I think for a moment before rolling off him and unloading my gun.

"Get your own room." I sneer, "I'm not sleeping anywhere near you."

"Come on-"

"Go pay for your own damn room, John." I seethe, "Or I'm not hunting with you."

********************************************

"So you just want me to go into the woods with you and we hunt this Wendigo together?" I ask.

"Sure."

"When I was doing research it didn't sound like a Wendigo-"

"But you're an amateur."

"This doesn't seem safe, John."

"Have I don't anything wrong since we agreed to this?"

"Well you ate one of my French fries and the diner and everyone knows that's a dumb thing to do."

"Pay attention. We're going to spilt up. You go that way. Shoot a flare when you see it and then shoot the flare at it. Shout if there are problems."