Premature Metamorphosis

Chapter 12

With Hunter finally settled down in bed (his parents' bed, of course. He was still refusing to sleep in his own and Caleb and Evelyn had both long given up on that fight) after a good hour or so of persuasion, Caleb and Evelyn could finally sit down and have a much needed chat.

"You said you kept him off school?" Caleb mentioned, kicking off the conversation.

"Yeah... He really didn't want to go and I tried to persuade him but he told me if I didn't let him stay home then he'd hurt himself and then proceeded to slam his head into the doorframe till he bled."

"Oh jeez... Um, that's—"

"Not like him? Disturbing? Worrying? Yeah." She sighed, half tempted to just lay her head down on the table and go to sleep right then and there. "And that's not a normal thing for a six-year-old to be saying. He has to have heard that from somewhere. From someone."

"You think it's Philip, don't you?" Caleb asked hesitantly.

"You know what I think. But yeah, I do."

There was a slight pause as Caleb decided what to say. "He messaged me earlier, Philip did. He was asking for Hunter to visit again."

Evelyn replied immediately. "I don't want Hunter going."

"Yeah... I don't think I really want him going either." Caleb agreed with a little more hesitancy.

Evelyn turned to him with a look of genuine surprise. "You don't?"

He shook his head. "I think I'm starting to understand what you were saying about things feeling... off. I've been feeling the same way since the start, really. I just don't think I was willing to see the possibility that Philip might be the problem. But now, as time's gone on... there are only so many possibilities, right?"

Evelyn was quite surprised by his sudden open-mindedness to the possibility of Philip being in the wrong. Though his constant defence of him was quite irritating at times, she did understand. He'd practically raised his brother, he'd been forced into being a parent far too young. Philip was practically his second kid. It couldn't be easy for Caleb to now open himself to the possibility that Philip had hurt his son.

"So... What do we do?"

Caleb gave a half-shrug. "It's not like we have any definitive proof that Philip's done something. And though I'm open to the possibility that, yeah, that might be the case, we're still just going off of theories and gut feelings."

"So, what are you suggesting?"

"We... could invite him over to keep an eye on him and see how Hunter reacts?"

Upon seeing Evelyn's look of clear disapproval, he tried to placate.

"I know, but if anything happens, if we notice Hunter's not comfortable, we'll just send Philip home, say it's bedtime or something. Look— we've not really got many options."

"We could just go straight to the police." Evelyn pointed out.

"...No. I don't think we could." Caleb said quietly.

Evelyn frowned. "Why not?"

"Well... back when I first wanted him out of my life, he would... stalk me. I saw his car following me around sometimes or I'd catch glimpses of him out in public. I tried going to the police but they refused to believe me unless I had clear proof. Philip was rather close friends with most of the officers."

She hadn't known that.

"He stopped the stalking after a while though, your sister, Edalyn found out and had a 'friendly talk' with him, as she called it. I think she scared the living daylights out of him since he didn't bother me again after that. But yeah, without sufficient evidence, police are siding with him."