The Werewolf Gene

Part Four

It had been two weeks since Isobel had the argument with her friends and nothing bad had happened since. They had gotten along perfectly as if nothing had happened between them.

One afternoon when they were walking home from school, Lexi was talking to Jess and Isobel about how her mother was always out of the house working on cases and her stepfather was either drinking at home or going out and drinking there.

"If you want you could come and stay at my place for a few days. I'm sure Heidi won't mind, she loves it when you both come over." Isobel suggested.

"Thanks and I would love to but I have Tyler at home still and I wouldn't want to leave him there by himself or with Ian. He's only 11 and I really worry about him." Lexi replied, and Isobel thought that she could here a hint of concern in her voice.

"Okay well if Tyler goes to a friends house one night and you just want to get away you are always welcome at my house." Isobel confirmed.

"Mine too!" Jess added.

They had reached the turn off to Lexi's house so they said goodbye and Lexi left. Isobel and Jess walked about a block in silence until all of a sudden,

"Do you think we should say something to Lexi's mother about Ian?" Jess blurts out.

"I'm not sure. Im really worried about something happening though, he's always drinking. I'm pretty sure that Natalie knows but I think she might be scared of him physically retaliating."

"Natalie?" Jess questioned.

"Lexi's mum. I normally just call her Mrs Kemble but every time I go over there she asks me to call her Natalie and I guess it's sort of getting stuck in my head."

"Oh, yeah me too." Jess replies, "But I haven't been over there in a while so I guess I forgot." She adds, with a slightly curious tone in her voice.

"Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't been over there in quite some time either. Maybe we need to talk with Lexi about what's happening at home. I'm really worried now that something is happening that she doesn't feel she can talk to us about." Isobel admitted.

"Me too. What about if you and Lexi come over to my house tomorrow and we can talk to her about it?" Jess proposed.

"That sounds good, we need to figure this out."

Just then, they reached Jess' house and she went inside, leaving Isobel to her thoughts. It was Friday afternoon so Heidi would be at home. She was let off early on Fridays because she works from Sunday through to Friday. Isobel was lucky that Heidi was home most of the time she was, she only worked the hours that Isobel was at school and one or two extra hours either way. When Heidi went for the job, she was told that her hours could be all over the place because they never really know when different people will be needed at the hospital, but after they heard about what happened with their parents and how she was the only one looking after her sister, her employers at the hospital did their best to get her hours that meant she was home most of the time when Isobel is.