Worse Than His Bite

Chapter 16: What time is it, Mr Wolf?

"Is Sebastian alright?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"But he was hurt pretty bad. Shouldn't we stay with him?"

"No."

"Is he alright though?"

"FUCKING CHRIST!" Leo turned on Phineas with a vengeance. "Will you shut up about Sebastian! He's fine! You saw him with your own eyes! He's fine. He's not hurt. And even if he was, he's a big boy and who can take care of himself!" Leo was out of breath by the time he finished yelling.

"Sorry." Said Phineas meekly.

"Whatever. Just please stop talking about." Leo took a deep breath, obviously calming down a bit. "Listen, for this dinner tonight with Callum's family, I need you to be your nerdiest self, okay? His dad likes all things old and dusty and so do you. So, you spout out all that ancient what's-it you shoved into your brain and then he'll like us."

Phineas continued to trudge after Leo. The McCameron family lived far off from the rest of the village. There manor —because the size definitely wasn't small enough for a house— rested on the green pastures of fields further up land. The land stretched on as far as the eye could see. Fields upon rolling fields of green grass and golden wheat, separated by stone walls that were missed and crumbled with age. The grey sky loomed over the land, not a blue patch of sky in sight.

It was a miserable day and that weighed on Phineas. Was Sebastian lonely on this grey day? Was he still in pain? His wound looked much better todays, but no one could recover from that quickly. It had been so deep and there had been so much blood. Oh, Sebastian. Or did he call him Alasdair now? Sebastian asked him to call him that, but Douglas insisted he definitely should not say that name under any circumstance. It was all so confusing.

When it came down to it, he didn't know Sebastian like Leo did so he wasn't sure if he had a right to worry about him and nose his way into his personal life. But, he felt compelled to. Was that a good enough reason? Just because he wanted to.

"Remember what I said?" Leo asked, his hand resting on the doorbell.

Phineas nodded his head. It would be good for him to think about something else, to think about archeology, his passion, the reason he came here before his head began to get clouded. He was here for work, not for whatever there was between himself and Sebastian. Not that there was anything!

Leo rang the front door bell and they were forced to stare at the grand oak door in front of them and the iron door knocker shaped like a wolf's head with an iron bar hanging from its monstrous jars. Why a wolf? Phineas tilted his head as he looked at the iron beast. A lot of signs in town depicted wolves, the claw he found could technically suit an animal like a wolf if large enough and the way Leo always used dog terminology and phrasing when talking about Sebastian and Callum. A coincidence? Was he over thinning things? It was possible, he was maintaining his medication that didn't technically stop his paranoid thoughts running away with him, but certainly did calm and keep him focused to a certain degree. Most likely it was all in his head. Wouldn't be the first time.

The door creaked open. An elderly woman peeked her head round the door. A smile struggled its way onto her face, the wrinkles of her face pulling like strings to lift her expression. Her eyes were barely open and even when they were, her irises themselves looked red and bloodshot. Her hands trembled as she tried to pull back the heavy weight of the door. She was wearing a pink gown that billowed around her lithe body and a shawl was wrapped around her shoulders that kept slipping down. There was a severe lack of hair on her head, patches of white curls then exposed scalp with horrible red spots. Her nails contrasted everything about her, they weren't thin or brittle or delicate in any form. They were yellow, thick and pointed. They left scratches in the wood of the door as her shaking hand fell down.