A Wolf's Purpose

•Chapter 40• Not So Lovely Home

"So, did you have fun, sweetheart?" Liz's mother asks her. Liz looks down at her dinner plate. "Yeah, we had a lot of fun." She answers while looking back up at her parents. Her mother smiles at her. "I heard her father was in the hospital. Do you know what happened to him?" Her father asks. Liz shrugs and shakes her head. "No, I don't know. Megan and I weren't home when it happened. Maybe it was just a checkup?" She suggested. Liz tried to block the horrible images of Eric's beaten-up body. The triplets hurt him over and over again. Then of course Jade too. "Should we visit him? Send flowers?" Liz's mother suggested. "I'm not sure, honey. If it's just a checkup I don't think that's necessary." Her father replied with a kind smile. "Honey, do you want to watch a movie tonight? Netflix added some new ones." Her father said turning to his daughter. "Uh, yeah, sure that would be nice." Liz answers. This was so much different from the Salvini's. It was so strange not to worry about anything. She didn't have to think about staying hidden or worry about if they would eat that night. Not to mention that the boys were disgusting. They were all in desperate need of a shower. All of them were. Liz's mind started to wander off to her boyfriend in no time. She missed him already, she wanted nothing more but to be with him right now. Both of her parents noticed their daughter wasn't in the room with her thoughts, making them smirk a little at her. Her mother nudges her slightly.

Liz quickly snapped out of her thoughts. "What? Huh? Oh, hi, sorry," She stuttered. The woman smiles at her daughter. "Where are you with your thoughts?" She asks. Her father gave his wife a look. "I've got an idea." He chuckles. Liz could feel her cheeks heat up slightly, just like her ears. "It's nothing." She assures them. Her father grasped his daughter's hand. "Sweetheart, we're just teasing you." he smiles kindly. "You still want him to show up, don't you?" Her mother questions. Oh, if only they knew where she'd been the past few days. Liz nodded her head. "I still think that boy didn't do anything wrong." Her father admitted. Liz's parents never thought Jerry was guilty. They never spoke up about the other two boys, but they believed Jerry. They knew the boy. They had trusted him with their daughter's love, happiness, and life. And they continued to support that after he was put away. "You still don't think they're guilty?" Liz asks them. Both of her parents told her no. "If you say he's not guilty, we support that, no matter what. You know that, sweetheart. Besides, he's a good kid." Her father told her like he had many times before. Every time her parents assured her that the Salvini boys, Jerry in particular, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. Liz felt terrible for lying to them about where she's been the past few days. Maybe they would help them... no, no, she wouldn't tell them. She promised. "We love you, sweetheart. And him." Her mother assured her with another squeeze of her daughter's hand.

Suddenly, her phone started buzzing. She ignored it the first time and the second. She earned a slight glare from her mother. "Honey, no phones during dinner." She reminds her calmly. She didn't want to sound naggy but it was their rule. "Sorry, Mom, I'll turn it off," Liz replied. She reached for her phone in her back pocket. Her phone was blowing up with text messages from Megan. She frowns at her screen. "Liz," her mother said. "Sorry," Liz replied. It wouldn't matter if she replied ten minutes later, right? It wouldn't hurt any of them. Besides, she wanted to spend time with her parents. Especially because she felt bad for lying to them. She smiles at her parents when she puts her phone away again. "There. Sorry." She apologized again. "That's alright, honey." Her parents tell her.

"Alright, so, this dude just tried to blow up Spider-Man. In case you don't remember, Spider-Man is awesome. So he survived." Henry explained. He flipped through the pages of his comic book while he read to his uncle. Eric's fingers moved every now and again which made Henry smile. He heard the boy reading to him. So he was still in there somewhere. Henry heard somewhere that people who end up in a coma sometimes lose themselves. "Alright, so, Spider-Man is jumping from building to building. He's dodging the villain's attacks, like a pro because that's what he is." Henry tells his uncle. Suddenly, the door of the hospital room opened. Henry looks up and sees a nurse standing by the door. She smiled at him sweetly. "Is everything alright in here?" She asks him. He nodded, scared to speak with a squeaky voice. She was stunning and it made him nervous. It was almost like being thirteen again and getting your first crush. The nurse gives him the sweetest grin. "You're such a great company for your uncle. He's doing so much better since you've arrived." She smiles at him. "Are you sure?" He asked awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. The nurse walked over to check Eric's IV. "You're great. There are a lot of people who would kill for someone like you by their sides." She tells him. He couldn't stop smiling and blushing at her compliments. "I'll be back in about an hour to check up on him again." She added. "Alright." Henry smiles. "So, Spider-Man?" She questioned. Henry furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

The boy looks down at his lap to see the comic book. "Oh, yeah," he chuckles. "I've never read the comics. But I love the superhero." The nurse added with a blush. Henry could feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest. He couldn't help it. His whole face started to turn red. "I'll be back later." She says, "Maybe we could get some coffee? He can handle a few minutes without you." She suggested. Henry nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, I'd love that." He answers. She walks toward the door again. "Oh, by the way, there's someone here to visit your uncle as well. He should be up soon." She informs him. He thanked her and watched as he walked away. He sunk into his chair and let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, between you and me, she's too young for you. If you don't mind, I'm going to have a coffee with her later." He tells his passed-out uncle.

His limp body moved around slightly in the hospital bed. He groans as his eyes slowly start to open up again. The bright light from the hospital ceiling hurt. It felt like years since he'd last seen light... or anything. His sight was a bit blurry. He started to look around as he slowly came to. "Good, you're awake." A male voice spoke up next to him. Eric glances next to him. His gaze falls on the floor on his left. He saw shoes, but he didn't recognize them. But next to the shoes, was something red. His sight slowly started to adjust and his vision became clearer. On the floor was his nephew. Henry was lying in a puddle of his own blood. And a lot of it. His heart rate increased. The beeps on the monitors started to get louder and louder, faster and faster. He looks up at the person standing beside his IV. The man was putting something inside of the IV bag. "Took you long enough." The man added. Eric's mind was foggy. He couldn't seem to grasp what was happening to him. He could see it, but his brain didn't process any of it. The grey man sat beside him on his bed. "It's good to see you," Bill said. Eric's heart started beating harder and harder. The psycho himself. He was alive? "B-boy," Eric whispered. Bill's gaze moved to Henry. The boy was slowly bleeding to death after he stabbed him. He wasn't bothered by it at all. He literally shrugged it off. "Oh, that, yeah. Such a waste. But we are in a hospital. That's kind of ironic, don't you think?" Bill chuckles. He pulls out the blade he used to stab his nephew. Blood smeared all over it. "Now, where were we?" He said.