Melody

2:29

Melody drove up to the familiar house, the smell of burnt clutch heavy in the cabin of the vehicle. Melody didn't know how to drive a manual, let alone an old truck with a heavy gear shift and broken power steering. Thankfully it didn't matter. The truck just had to get her here. Looking all normal, and human and alone. If the truck had to stay behind because Melody had wrecked the transmission on the relatively short easy drive over, no harm done. Flint would carry her to Alec's pack lands and virtual sanctuary until they could arrange to get back to their own home.

The home looked significantly worse than she was prepared for. The picket fence she had admired that first day hadn't been painted in a while when she had left, and hadn't been touched since. Many boards were missing or broken. Beverly must have hated it, she had been a realtor and she was good at it. At making homes look good enough that people wanted to live in the warm homey environments she created. Looks were often deceiving.

Melody had planned this out with Guillermo and Alexander. Quick and effective. She wasn't here to gloat, she didn't want to make him suffer, let alone be nearby when he died. The apple tree that had been the nicest thing about the small yard had been somehow hit by a car even though it was near the center of the green lawn. The cracked and broken tree had clear deep tire impressions in the now dry dirt in front of it. Almost like someone hit the gas instead of the brake when they reached the end of the driveway.

There was a broken chair on the veranda roof just outside one of the currently still broken open window of the attic. Someone had thrown the chair out the window and then never bothered to fix it. Melody made a promise to herself that she would convince Royal to never come home, that he should convince his mother to relocate to Melody's town. As far as anyone had been able to tell, Royal's mother was an innocent victim just like Melody and her mother. Only difference was, no one had tried to kidnap or harm her yet.

They still couldn't figure out a reason why the witches would help the hyena's with this, or what kind of information they had. WIth how deep Guillermo could go, that left them with far too many unanswered questions and too much to lose. Too many unknowns that Melody wasn't willing to leave someone on their own to face it, if she could do something to help them.

Melody shook her head. No time to daydream. She put the car in park and smiled when she saw the heavy bulky shadow underneath the front step, Guillermo was in place and ready, which meant Alexander was nearby. Melody couldn't see him, but she felt that he was near. He was the safety net. Melody wanted a moment, just one to confront Frank. To see what he said. To just look in his eyes when he saw that she was alive. That she knew what he had done.

Melody stomped up the front steps, ones she had rarely used when she had lived here. She smashed her knuckles against the door loudly, several times, before skipping back down the steps. Putting some distance between whatever was going to come out of the house. Safety first was always part of the plan.

Melody watched the shadow of her closest friend. He had shifted quickly while Melody had stomped up the steps and smashed her fist against the door. Hiding the sounds of his bones popping and rearranging themselves, at least a little bit. The air was still, then Melody heard the sound of the house creaking as someone moved through it. Then he was there. Frank. His hair looking greasy in his now deeply receded hairline as he stumbled out the front door, holding a clear liquor bottle of some kind like it was his tie to earth.

His now large forehead made him look even more surprised as his red rimmed eyes landed on Melody, and realized who she was. His voice was slurred when after more than a few moments of a staring contest between them he spoke. "Why the fuck would you come back here? Now that woman is going to be here again." He mumbled, turning to go back into his house. "If you're here, she already knows you're here. Stupid cunt." Frank was Laughing right up until Guillermo lowered a dog catcher's pole noose around his throat and janked him back.