ODELIA

Chapter 19

(A/N Please do not skip flashbacks. They're important.)

Flashback

I needed to pee.

We had just recently passed by a gas station not more than five minutes ago. My mother asked me if I needed to do small business, but I simply nodded 'no'. I wasn't lying to her when I said it. I really didn't feel the need to go, but now I wish I did earlier.

My timing was always terrible.

"Mommy!" I sat and squirmed in the back of the car, trying my best to hold it in.

"Odelia, just wait a little longer." Dad continues to drive along the middle of the road. "Mommy asked you earlier, you should have gone with her."

"I thought I didn't need to." A sour look on my face had been plastered. Dad noticed my ugly, distorted face of discomfort from the rearview mirror. "I gotta go pee!"

Dad had driven a lot faster than the usual speed. It could have put us in danger, but a wet carpet and seat is probably the worse case scenario at the moment, mom said. I didn't know what she meant by that.

Thankfully, we found another store just around the corner. Mom and I bolted straight into the small building, just like the last time I got rushed inside the emergency room for stupidly inserting a marble up my nostril.

"Can we use the bathroom please?" My mother spoke rapidly, she trembled as she stood in front of the cashier lady. "My daughter badly needs to go."

The lady in front of the counter pointed to the direction of the restroom, and I finally did what I had to do.

"Wash your hands." Mom said, patiently waiting for me beside the sink. I did what she told me to do and we made our way to the exit.

"Oh, what a beautiful sight to see. The mother with her daughter. How lovely!" A man, who looked awfully familiar, flashed a horrific grin at us. We halted in front of the stranger. I felt my mom stiffen, her hand squeezed my tiny hand. It was impossible for me to escape her tight grip. The situation felt familiar. I knew that the man looked familiar. He was the same man I accidentally bumped into, when my dad and I were buying juice in another store.

"Looks like our dearest Odelia knows me."

"You know my name?" I asked the stranger, out of curiousity. I'd never seen him having long chats with my parents. He certainly didn't look like he belonged to my parents' circle of friends.

"Why, of course, I do!" He laughed. It was the scariest laugh I had ever heard. It made me want to go back to the toilet again. "Sweetheart, everyone in the pack knows who you are."

"What's a pack?" Another question escaped my little mouth.

"Enough!" Mom yelled at the stranger. She didn't like the way he talked to me. I didn't like the way he looked at us with those evil eyes. He looked like bad news. "Don't say another word."

"Relax, Luna Diane. I'm just answering her simple questions. It's not going to kill anyone." He smiled with his crooked teeth. "I honestly can't believe what I'm hearing right now. You haven't told the child anything about the family?" His dark eyes stared at my mother's then he looked at me. "Did your mummy tell you anything about our pack?"

I shook my head to the side as a reply. And quietly wondered why he called my mom in such a funny way.

"I said, ENOUGH!" My mother shouted at him. The tone of her voice scared the stranger and I. At least, I thought he did. He took a step backwards, like I did. He might have looked like a monster, but he was absolutely frightened of my mother.