Wolf Hollow

Chapter 7

Darren woke up to banging on the bedroom door.  It was barely 7 PM and the gust of clouds pulled in. Ruthie was still asleep. Darren closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

"Darren!" Leah yelled outside the door.

He rubbed his eyes and walked to open the door. The floorboards creaked as they always did.

He opened the door and his Mom stood there with bags under her eyes. She looked upset or tired.

"The neighbor wants me to help him sort some stuff." Mom informed him. "are you sure you and Ruthie will be ok until Kent arrives?"

"Oh." He sighed. "Sure?" 

He want to ask his Mom why she wanted to help the creepy neighbor but he kept it in. It's better not to ask anyways.

Leah shrugged her shoulders and closed the door. Ruth rubbed her eyes and started to wake from the commotion. She gave a wave, half asleep and groggy.

Out the window, Leah walked toward Albert's house. Darren slowly walked down the creaky stairs. It's like everything in the old house likes to creak and squeak. It did.

The cabinet squeaked as he pulled it open to get a bowl. It sounded almost like a mouse.

He placed down the bowl and grabbed the box of cereal from one of the rusty top shelves. While eating cereal, Darren sighed.

He decided to have a moment in his head. I worry too much. What if Mom gets hurt and Kent has to take care of us? Kent is like a dad to me but him taking care of us? Just him? I can't imagine that. And would he really do that?

He tried to stop worrying and finish the cereal.
The sound of the gravel stirred up outside. Someone must be pulling into the driveway. It's Kent's car.

"Ruthie!" He shouted for his sister. "Kent is here!"

Ruthie rushed down the stairs with Darren to wait for Kent to come. Kent was practically family now.

"My kiddos!" He greeted happily. "What's going on?" He sat at the table.

"Just bored as usual." Darren sighed.

"I understand that." He assured. After that little talk, everything is silent for a moment again.

"You were okay alone weren't you?" He worried.

"We were good." Ruthie told him.

Darren looked at the telephone on the table. There are 5 missed calls from an unknown number. He feel like panicking.

I have to be brave and face my fears or I won't survive here.

Whoever it is answers back to Darren at his call and his heart start to pound out of his chest.

"Hello?" A man said over the telephone.

It sounds like Dad. My heart can't stop going so fast in my chest. This most absolutely is Dad and I can't deny it.

"Hello?" The man said again in a muffled voice. There is scratching in the background.

Who's this?" Darren asked, even though he definitely know that it was his Dad.

"Son? Darren?" He responded. "Tell me where you are son! I miss you and your sister."

He seemed so happy and like he really meant it. He didn't though. Everyone could see straight through him that he didn't mean it.

They couldn't trust him. He would kill them if he got the chance to.

"Tell me where you and Ruthie are. I love you both." He said in a sad voice that breaks down.

Darren hung the phone up and started crying. He couldn't bear to talk any longer. He didn't have the courage to listen to his abusive dad go on about how he misses them.

"I can't have you calling your dad everyday. He could use that number to find us." Leah sighed. "He's not that dumb. He would do it." 

Shock, realization, panic, and fear. Darren didn't really think about the fact that he could find them. He was clueless and wanted to find out who was behind the number. My life will most likely be over soon because of this stupid thing I've done.

It was  another day on the bus to school. Girls talked and giggled loudly and boys chuckled together about stupid things, mostly about girls though.

Darren and Eleanor sat together and didn't bother to even talk, for some reason. They watch out the window as the bus passed everything.

Soon, the bus pulled into the school parking lot.

"Calm down everyone!"  The bus driver shouted in his sharp voice. Everyone shut their mouths fast.

While walking to class, Theo kicked Darren's feet under and he tripped to almost falling.

"Hey!" He shouted. "What the fuck was that for?"

Darren got flustered at him. Theo threw a punch and they started going at it. A crowd surrounded them, giggling, chanting, pointing, and gossiping.

Darren pinned Theo to the ground and constantly punched him. Blood started to flow out of his nose and everyone watched as they went their separate ways.

At lunch, Darren sat down at a table with Eleanor and Felix. Two boys walked over and set their trays down.

"The famous Darren," One boy said. "everybody's talking about you!"

"I'm not famous." He sighed. "It was a stupid fight."

"I'm Asher," One of the boys said and pointed to the other boy. "And that's Noah."

Noah raised his hand after he heard Asher say his name.

"Yeah, We should all be friends." Noah said.

"Sure you don't hate him though?" Felix asked.

Noah laughed. "Ah no, We wanna be friends."

We all laughed together. When lunch came to an end, they all headed to their classes.

"I'm already having a bad day so calm down everyone!" The teacher shouted.

Everyone calmed down and shut their traps.

"As everyone knows, we left off on page forty so turn to it if you have some sense."

Everyone stared at Darren like he was the center of attention and there's a lot of chatter. He was the center of attention now.

Mrs. Myers became mad and started to shout. "Stop your talking for Pete's sake!"

"Who is Pete?" Someone said sarcastically and everyone laughs.

"You want to play that?!" Mrs. Myers screams loudly like she's completely lost it because she has.

Mrs. Myers escorted the boy out of the class and signaled everyone to stop their chatter. There is one giggle and Mrs. Myers becomes madder than a hornet.

"Goddamn it!" Mrs. Myers hollered and everyone is frozen.

No one said anything for the rest of class.

Darren couldn't find Leah or Kent but their cars were parked in the gravel lot. He and Eleanor made their way upstairs to go to his room.

They suddenly heard moaning coming from my Leah's room. They knew what was going on but refused to talk about it. Who would?

As soon as slammed the door shut, there's a knock. Ruthie stood there behind the door, shocked with her hands on her hips.

"Albert has a random kid at his house," Ruthie worried. "and that's weird because I'm pretty sure he has no children or grandchildren and he's kinda lonely.

Shirley and Darren stared at each other and then back at Ruthie. In shock. Maybe even anger along with it.