Separated by the Sea

Ice Cream and a White Van

Dez POV 

"Can you turn me into one?" I asked Piero while licking my rocky road ice cream. 

He almost choked on his mint and chip and replied, "No! It's too dangerous. I don't know how your body will react to the change. I've never turned a human into one before-"

"It can't be that bad. Worst case scenario, I die." 

"And you dying isn't 'that bad'."

"Maybe I'll go to heaven..."

Piero burst out in laughter.

"What?"

"You? Go to heaven?"

"Aw, I'm not that evil." 

We were walking on a path in a park near his house. It was a beautiful sunny day and everything seemed perfect. 

"Why would you want to be a werewolf? It makes things so much more complicated and it's a lot of stress having to be mindful of territories and the other packs-"

"There are other packs?!"

"Yeah, we're not the only ones." 

"Cool. Are you guys friends with each other?" 

"Mostly business acquaintances." 

"What do you eat?" I said, changing the subject.

"I eat normal food."

"So you don't hunt animals?"

"No. That is such an old suspicion. They might have done that several centuries ago, but not anymore."

I looked around the grassy meadows and my eyes landed on a huge white van parked next to the sidewalk. 

"Hey kid you want some candy?" an ugly man in faded colored clothes asked a chubby little boy.
"YEAH!"
"Alright, it's over here in the back of my van." He guided the boy to the back doors of his white van, opened the door, and to my horror, shoved the boy inside. I smacked Piero's shoulder and turned him to face the van.

"That creep is trying to kidnap that boy!" I was surprised to see that no one else in the park was seeing this. Piero handed me his ice cream cone and sprinted to the van. The guy was busy trying to get the fat kid in, so he didn't see Piero come up behind him. 

"Hey, creep. Pick on someone your own size!" The guy turned and Piero gave him a hard punch in the jaw and he fell to the ground. Unfortunately he didn't stay grounded and got back up. He raised his arms and clenched his fists taunting Piero. "Is that all you got?"

Piero reacted by kicking out the guy's left leg and he fell to his knees. Piero gave him a final blow to the head and the man fell to the cold ground, unconscious. Piero helped the kid out of the van and walked him back to his frantic mother. She pulled her son into a hug and thanked Piero. "No problem, signora."

When Piero got back I praised him. "My hero! Look at you saving little kids!"

He shook his head at my sarcasm and I gave him back his melted ice cream. "Do you want to head back home?"

"Yeah."

We drove back home with him driving like an old man, but at least he was being cautious. At home, everyone was gathered in the dining room playing a board game. 

"What are you guys playing?" I asked Clover as I took a seat next to her. "Cards against humanity."

"Ohho! I F'ing love that game! Give me some cards." 

Reece handed me several cards as Theo read the next black question card. "Instead of coal, Santa now gives the bad kids blank."

Everyone set down a card and he tried not to laugh as he read out the answers.