Howling Hours

Chapter Four: Locked & Key

The two women that shared the last name Fisher had made small talk with Sophie for about thirty minutes, it had been shared over a cup of coffee from the almost new coffee machine in the lobby. The pot still held the leftover brew as the ladies drank, Sophie with more sugar than coffee.

She was thankful the women weren't pressing her for information, none at all, not on why she was here or where she was from. They asked simpler questions that she didn't fear answering, like 'do you like coffee?' She was relieved that nothing was being asked that gave her intense flashbacks or a mental breakdown. It was almost like they sensed her nervousness.

After they were doing asking her the few question they did, it was her turn to ask them, sipping the sugar coffee before quietly asking, "So what is Yachats like?"

The women both smiled, looking at each other, something they did often in response to the things Sophie asked or said.

"It's small," Alice stated, "and most of us are extremely close knit, a family really." Her smile grew wider when she spoke of the people in the town.

Timothy Greene, the police chief who had just hit 45 in February, he was a kind man who believed in the law, but also believed in treating everyone with respect and giving people a fair shot. His wife was baker from home, and their twins grew up in town, one boy and one girl. The girl, Jamie, left after she met a tourist passing through, and they fell in love.

Sophie shuttered thinking about doing that, she couldn't imagine just meeting someone and than running off with them, she was far to cautious for that, and for good reason. She tried to push the thought back in her mind, but that went as well as it usually did for her.

"Dad, he's scaring me," Bella began, her hands shaking in her lap, her eyes blood shot, and dark bags hung underneath her lifeless eyes, "we-we need to go or-"

"B, my love, it's okay, he's not going to do anything and if he does we can protect you-" Her dad attempted to calm the girl down, but his interrupting was than interrupted.

"NO! You don't get it dad please-" The only to describe Bella's voice was intensely distraught, she was a wreck.

"Calm down Bell, listen to your father." Her mother stated, looking closely at the teenage girls disheveled state, her beautiful amber colored hair was knotted. It looked like a rats nest on her head.

Sophie was watching from behind the corner of the hallway, she wanted to angrily yell at her parents for not listening to Bella! Why didn't they care what she was saying, what if she was really in danger! Her fist closed tightly as she hung on the wall, staring at her older sister who was slowly unraveling.

"-and my husband, Nate, he's just the best, he works down at the mechanics shop on Central!"

Sophie came back to the real world, tapping her chest next to where her necklace charm was. Pretending she hadn't just drifted on into the dark abyss that was her own head, she nodded along with what she was saying, trying to seem engaged. While Danielle kept rambling off about her own family, Alice just looked towards Sophie, staring hard, yet gently at the young woman. Sophie grabbed the charm hanging around her neck now, rubbing it between her thumb and pointer finger.

Danielle was now on the topic of her adorable freckle faced brunette son, Archer, the smile on her face was that of pure joy. Alice recognized that Sophie was in and out of the conversation clearly. Stopping her daughter, a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Danny, perhaps it's time to let Sophie settle into the Denn, she can get her stuff in the room, and than we can talk about finding a real estate agent to help her find a permanent place."