Grim Business

Chapter Five

Their parents arrived five minutes later.

It didn’t take them very long to gather each of their children up and force them into their cars, even Dru who whined that she was in too much pain for a lecture that night. Phoebe caught her eye as she was lead out of the room, shook her head to tell her not to worry, and then was swept off by her own father.

The car was icy awkwardness all the way home. Christopher was driving, and as a result moving, but his face was eerily still, eyes staring straight ahead with a determination that Phoebe had never seen in her father before. “Dad, look—“ she began.

“No,” he cut her off, “Not here.”

They arrived at home fifteen minutes later, and Phoebe was marched straight up the thirteen steps and into the house with little preamble. Christopher sat her down on the black leather sectional in the living room, pacing in front of her while he considered what he should say.

Phoebe watched him, worried. She had never seen him this seemingly angry before, especially over something as small as being out after curfew. Okay, so maybe it was more than that—the fact that her best friend had nearly been mauled to death chief among the things that made this a bigger deal—but it was terrifying, the way her father hadn’t said anything yet. She waited in the eerie quiet of the home, the only sounds being the sound of the grandfather clock in the den chiming distantly down the hall and her father’s footsteps on the dark hardwood floors.

“I want you to describe every little thing about this creature,” Christopher said, whirling to a stop in front of her and pinning her with an intense stare. Phoebe blinked, surprised once more. She had expected an interrogation, but not about the creature. Rather, wasn’t he supposed to be asking her what she was doing out so late, why she hadn’t told him where she was going, etcetera? This was completely uncharted territory for her. Unfortunately, that was seeming to be a theme for the night.

“It was a wolf, dad. A really big wolf with giant teeth and gold eyes. What else do you want to know?” she said wearily.

“How big was it? Did it walk on two feet, or four? How did you get away?”

Phoebe squirmed uncomfortably, reminded once more of the sound the wolf-beast had made as it caught flame. “It was really big,” she said, not sure how much she should tell him, how much she could trust her perceptions—it had been dark, after all. What if they had gotten it wrong and the thing had been a normal wolf all along? What if fear had made it seem a lot bigger than it was and they’d only imagined that it had walked on two feet instead of four. “It ran at me, and I didn’t know what to do so I threw my lantern at it.”

“Anything else? Any…strange smell when it caught flame? Did it…” her dad stopped, biting his bottom lip. He, too, seemed torn between what he should tell her and what should be kept silent. She could feel the secrets between them like a cement wall, preventing them from communicating the way she knew they ought to. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him everything. There was one thing, though…

“I think…I think I smelled something sort of off,” she began, and her father piqued up in interest, “It was almost like the smell before a storm—electric and sort of metallic. It might have just been the lantern, though, I don’t know.”

Christopher nodded, taking in the information. His face looked shadowed. Suddenly, he glanced back up at her. “Go up to your room,” he said.

“What?”

“Go to your room, Phoebe. You’re grounded. It was very dangerous, going out late at night like this.”

“Late? Dad, it was only 9:00 PM when I left, and it’s Friday! My curfew isn’t until midnight!”