Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 24

"Look, Brandon. You need to tell us what's going on." Tomas said.

Brandon took a deep breath.

"Brandon, please." Emma chimed in.

The three friends were sitting at a picnic table in the park. They had all walked there right after school was over, though they had made a brief pit-stop at Brandon's house to let Crys depart the group. Brandon felt bad about leaving Crys alone after what had happened the day before, but Tomas and Emma had also wanted to speak with him alone, so he didn't have much of a choice.

"I can't." Brandon replied, sounding a bit nervous with a touch of gloom. "If you guys know, then you'll be in just as much danger as us."

"What danger!?" Tomas questioned, a tad harsh.

Brandon frowned a little, bothered by Tomas' comment.

A small bout of silence took hold of the conversation.

"We are just concerned." Emma spoke up, calmly.

"I know..." Brandon replied. "I wish I could tell you what's going on, I really do. It's just that if I do, then both of you get involved and then you're both in danger."

"Can you at least tell us why Crys was so exhausted today?" Tomas asked in a much calmer tone than before.

"She wound up staying up all night long, or at least, the majority of the night." Brandon replied.

"Why?" Tomas followed up.

"She was scared." Brandon responded. "Too scared to go to sleep."

"Is that why she was asking me about hallucinations yesterday?" Emma asked.

"Yeah. She was hearing and seeing things yesterday. She hasn't had any more hallucinations today, but... she might not be telling me about them." Brandon replied.

"This is more than some bad nightmares every couple of nights." Tomas said frankly. "What's going on?"

"It's all werewolf stuff." Brandon said.

"We know that!" Tomas emphasized the 'that', sounding rather annoyed.

"Look, I'm just trying to do my best, Tomas!" Brandon snapped a little, getting rather upset.

"Both of you, please calm down." Emma spoke up again, coming off as unusually authoritative. "Tomas, Brandon is trying to answer us as best he can."

"We're getting nowhere, Em!" Tomas said back. "I just want to know what's going on!"

"I-" Brandon tried to speak up.

"Perhaps if you were more patient, you would find out!" Emma snapped back at Tomas, interrupting Brandon.

Tomas was taken aback by Emma's comment and at a loss for words.

"He is trying his best given the circumstances." Emma added on, back to her usual tone of voice.

Tomas thought for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Alright." He said, letting go of his frustration.

"Thank you." Emma said to her boyfriend. "Brandon," she said, turning her attention back to the main point, "is there anything else you can tell us without letting us know too much?"

Brandon pondered for a moment. "Look, I'll make you both a deal, I'll just explain what's been going on, but both of you have to promise not to get involved and try to help out."

"I can accept that." Emma said.

"I'll make it work." Tomas said as well.

"Okay, good." Brandon said. "Long story short, Crys is being terrorized by some guy who keeps showing up in the middle of the night out of the blue. He doesn't have a schedule or anything, he just shows up randomly and starts threatening Crys since she's a werewolf. Then he starts threatening that he's gonna do something to me since I know Crys is a werewolf too. He's the reason Crys was so careless a while back, and he's the reason she's been so bad recently. There's nothing either of us can do, and if he knows either of you know about Crys being a werewolf, then he'll go after you as well."

Tomas and Emma were silent for a few moments, letting the information sink in.

Tomas sighed. "I'm sorry for getting so angry with both you and Crys." He said solemnly. "It makes sense why you wouldn't tell us."

Brandon gave a little nod with a slightly smug grin that said "I told you so" without actually saying it.

"I take it Crys was seeing him yesterday?" Emma asked.

"Yeah." Brandon replied, a bit glum. "Look, that's all I can explain. I know it's not everything, but that's the gist of it."

"There's more?" Tomas asked, a bit worried.

"Yeah, but I'm not saying anything else. Especially without Crys saying it's okay. It's not my place to talk about some of that stuff." Brandon replied.

"I would say that you explained quite a lot, actually." Emma said. "Much more than I had expected, and more directly as well."

"Well, I thought I didn't say all that much, but..." Brandon trailed off.

"No, it is fine." Emma said.

"And there's nothing we can do?" Tomas asked, sounding rather glum now as well.

"Not really." Brandon said. "Crys and I are trying to figure out what to do still, and we don't want either of you getting hurt."

"If things change, we will be here for you both." Emma said.

"Thanks, Emma." Brandon replied.

Some quiet crept back into the conversation, swiftly ending it.

"I should probably get back to Crys." Brandon spoke up, ending the somewhat awkward silence. "I don't want to leave her alone after yesterday."

"Yeah, go do that." Tomas said. "I understand. I think Em and I will just head back to her apartment or something."

"Alright, well, I guess I'll see you two tomorrow." Brandon said as he got up.

"See you around." Tomas replied as he also got up along with Emma.

The friends parted ways.

When Brandon got home, he went up to Crys' room to find her laying down on her bed, staring up vacantly at the ceiling.

"Hi." Crys said, almost mindlessly.

"I talked with Tomas and Emma." Bandon said.

"And?" Crys asked.

"I explained a bit about what's been going on." Brandon said, almost ashamed.

"What!?" Crys bolted upright, a look of horror taking her face.

"No details!" Brandon jumped to defending himself. "Just that some guy had been showing up and terrorizing you and if they do anything that they'll be in danger too!"

Crys took a few seconds to think, then took a deep breath, letting go of the momentary anger. "So they don't know anything important?"

"No." Brandon replied.

"Okay..." Crys said. "Alright... well..."

"And I made them promise not to try and do anything." Brandon added on.

"Good." Crys said flatly. "Good..." She said again.

"You doing okay?"

"Not really..."
"Want to put on a movie?"

"Sure."

Crys got up off the bed and went to sit down on the couch, with Brandon joining her just a second later. The two of them put on another movie to help take their minds off of things for the rest of the night.