Secrets Of The Woods: Werewolf Story

Chapter 14: Lunch

Matthew Knight's PoV

We head over to a small restaurant. We head inside and look at the menu. I order a sandwich and a drink. I make sure it's not super expensive, but not cheap. I don't want her getting upset with me for getting something cheap. She orders a salad and drink. She asks me "What were you doing with your friend earlier?"
"Fixing the house. Moving some furniture around. Nothing too interesting."
Our food arrives and we start eating. While we eat we don't really talk. After finishing my sandwich I'm still hungry. It's pretty weird because I don't usually eat very much. I know guys eat a lot more then girls but I'm still hungry. Does it have anything to do with me being a werewolf now? Or is because of how much work I did this morning? She asks me "Do you want me to buy you anything else?"
I don't want her wasting all her money on me. I have a lot more money then she does. I tell her "No, I'm good."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Is it because you don't want me spending too much on you?"
I don't answer. We sit here in awkward silence until my phone starts ringing. I jump, surprised that my volume is up before answering. Dylan yells "What the hell bro?! I've been trying to reach you all morning! A lot of us have! We thought you died! Or went missing!"
When he's yelling at me I remember last night. The party. Getting drunk. Getting bit. This morning changing after last night having a fever. Getting distracted by Mason and the others. I ignored everyone's messages except for Elizabeth's. I completely forgot about Dylan. Elizabeth asks "is everything ok?"
Dylan continues yelling, "Bro? Are you there? Would you answer me already?! Do I have to go over to your house?"
I tell him "Sorry. I was sleeping."
"Most of the day?"
"Yeah."
"There's no way you were sleeping this long."
"Yeah there is."
"No there's not."
"Bad hangover."
"Oh yeah. I forgot we were partying very hard. I have a bad hangover too. That was a great party."
"Yeah I know. I was there."
"You didn't seem like you were having fun yesterday. Everything alright?"
"Yeah I'm good. Are you done talking yet?"
"What?"
"I have a bad hangover. I would rather continue sleeping then talking with you."
"Oh. Yeah I'll get off."
I hang up and Elizabeth looks at me very confused. She tells me "You don't have a hangover. And you were out with friends and me most of the day."
I sigh and tell her "I was at a party late last night. I did get a little drunk. Not too bad. I'm fine this morning. I didn't want Dylan dragging me out to another party tonight. He handles hangovers better than I do. Mainly because I don't really drink."
"Isn't Dylan your best friend?"
"Yeah. That doesn't mean we don't lie to each other."
We awkwardly stare at each other until she asks "Aren't you a social butterfly?"
"Why does that matter?"
"Have you answered anyone's messages at all today?"
"I answered yours."
"No one else's?"
"No. I was sleeping for a while then Mason invited me over to help him. I guess I turned my volume off and got distracted. It somehow turned up again while sitting here."
"So you don't care people are worried about you?"
I shrug and tell her "Not really. Most the people at school aren't my close friends. I feel bad for not responding to Dylan. The others don't matter as much to me."
"But I thought you're a social butterfly. You love talking with people. And...you don't always pay attention in class. You're always talking to people or are on your phone."
"I'm not really a social butterfly."
"What? But..."
"Yeah everyone thinks I am. I enjoy talking with people but it's more of..."
"A way to releave stress?"
"Yeah. How did you guess that?"
"I do the same thing but by taking pictures and drawing. It's hard to make friends because I move all the time. So instead of making close friends I lose myself in my hobbies. It makes it easy to distract myself from wanting to talk with people. What's stressing you out?"
"There's a lot I don't tell people. I just keep it a secret I guess."
"Like what?"
"You don't want to hear all my problems."
"Why not? My dad makes us move all the time for his job. His hobby is hunting. He's out of the house hunting most of the time. He also has anger problems. He doesn't really trust anyone either. He doesn't like me or my mom making new friends. My mom married my dad shortly after she graduated high school. She's never had a job or gone to college. She heavily relies on my dads job. He won't let me get a job either. What could be worse then that?"
I'm surprised how much she tells me. I didn't know it was that hard for her. I decide to at least tell her part of the truth. I tell her "My parents are barely ever home. At a young age I learned how to cook and other basic jobs around the house to care for myself. My mom is a doctor. One of the only doctor's in the small town. She became a workaholic even though she won't admit it. She likes helping people and she assumes I'm able to take care of myself. My dad's traveling all the time for his job. When he's home we don't really talk. If we do it's always about his job. He doesn't ask how I'm doing. Most of the time I'm home by myself. I don't enjoy being on my own all the time. I wish I could come home from school and have one or both of my parents home. Or they would be home for dinner. I could tell them all about my day. The good and the bad. They aren't home so instead I distract myself by being as social as possible. If I'm social I'm invited to go places. That way I'm barely home by myself. That's why I'm probably the most popular kid in school. But I'm social because I don't want to be alone."
"I...I didn't know that."
"No one does. I guess... you're the first person I've told."
"Does Dylan know?"
"He knows my parents work all the time. He doesn't know I'm stressed about it and turn to socializing to cope."
"This might be personal...but..."
"You want to know why I don't date girls? Or if I do why I don't get too serious."
"Yeah..."
She blushes when I mentioned dating. I tell her "my dad...is very specific on who he approves of me dating. I want to date girls...but I also don't want to get him angry with me. I try not to get too serious because then when my dad is home all I would be thinking about is my girlfriend. He doesn't approve of it."
"Why should he chose who's good for you?"
"It's...complicated."
"You can tell me."
"I don't really want to talk about it all right now."
"I understand. Do you want to go to the coffee store? It's a couple stores down from here."
"The one Mason works at?"
"Uh...Yeah...if that's ok with you?"
"Sure."
We get up and she pays before we walk outside. We head down the street to the bookstore and coffee store. It's called Smith Books. We head inside and a older woman greets us. She asks "How can I help you?"
Elizabeth tells her "I would like a triple chocolate latte."
The old lady asks "What would you like?"
I tell her "A coffee."
Elizabeth pays the lady and she makes them. It takes longer to make Elizabeth's but we don't mind the wait. We get our drinks and walk around the store. One of the walls has pictures of the employees. I see Crystal in the picture labeled with owner. Mason, Zoe, and Morgan are labeled as employees just like all the other people who work here. I don't see Liam's picture. He doesn't work here? I know he's a lawyer but I thought he would occasionally help out. I sip my coffee and jump when my phone rings. I check and it's an unknown number. I decide to answer it and I hear Mason tell me "thank goodness you answered. I didn't think you would. We forgot to exchange numbers."
I ask him "What's up?"
"Are you still with her?"
"Yeah, why?"
"We have a problem."
"What?"
"Her father is out in the woods with a group of hunters. More wild wolves are wandering around the woods. They are completely lost without our pack. The pack is getting crazy being stuck in the basement because they are used to running around everywhere. We turned the temperature down. It's freezing cold in the house now. I'm wearing so many layers. We turned the radio up very loud and all the TV's on to try and block out the packs noise. They are slowly falling asleep but not fast enough. Morgan's staying at the house because she's still recovering from this morning. Me and Zoe want to go help the wolves but it's too risky. There's too many hunters. They could kill us. We managed to save some wild wolves that are injured. They got away and into our private property. They are unconscious in our house right now. We need help to get the bullets out. You're the only one who's been able to do it and do stitches. Can you please hurry back?"
"What about-"
"I don't care! Bring her!"
"But-"
"I know it's against our rules to let her know. We'll try not to tell her but if she learns I don't think she will tell anyone. Just please hurry back!"
"I'll tell her. I'll text you."
He hangs up and I turn towards Elizabeth. I ask her "Can you drive us to my friends house?"
"Sure, why?"
I look around and tell her "I'll tell you in the car."
"Ok..."
We head to the car with our drinks and get in. She sets her drink down, puts her seatbelt on, then turns the car on. She starts driving and I ask her "Can you please drive faster?"
"I don't know where I'm going."
"I'll tell you where to go."
"Matthew, what's going on?"
"You're dad is out with a group of hunters in the woods. They are going after the wolves."
She starts driving faster. She asks "Do you want to stop them?"
I tell her "We can't. But my friends...they try there best to save the wolves. That's why they have the private property. Some of the wild wolves made it into there property. They are badly injured. There's bullets inside of them and they are slowly bleeding to death. My friends need our help to save them."
"I'll do whatever I can to help."
"Don't tell your dad or anyone else about how they help the wolves."
"I promise I won't."
We continue driving very fast to the pack house. I tell her the directions and eventually we make it up to the end of the driveway. We get out after turning the car off and I run inside. She follows me. We see four wolves laying on the floor unconscious. They are covered in blood. I rush over by Mason. He's wearing so many layers. It's really cold in here. Morgan and Zoe are also wearing layers. Mason. Tells me "T-t-t-this...w-w-w-w-o-o-lf...t-t-t-the wor-r-r-st...."
I nod my head and do my best to reach my hand inside. I move it around until I find the bullet and I pull it out. I start shaking because it's so cold. I can't put stitches in if I'm shaking. Elizabeth tells me "Let me do it. I know how to. I've taken plenty of classes on first aid and basics about stitches."
I nod in agreement. I go to the next wolf and reach my hand in to find the bullet. Morgan wraps a blanket around me and herself too. She's badly shaking but she's trying to help me. I pull the bullets out of this wolf then move onto the next one. Morgan follows me. Elizabeth stitches the wolves whole I pull the bullets out. Two of the wolves have more then one bullet in them. When I'm done I move away to let Elizabeth have more space to stitch them. I'm starting to shake a lot worse. Zoe comes and wraps more blankets around me. It doesn't help. I look out the windows and see more wild wolves wandering around outside and looking into the house. Mason tells us "W-w-w-eeee have...t-t-t-t-oo....bas-s-s-seme-e-e-ent.."
I nod my head agreeing.
Elizabeth asks "Why the basement? Is that the door with the couch in front of it? Why is it so cold? You're all shaking."
Mason stands up and moves the couch out of the way. He falls down and she walks over. Elizabeth opens the door and gasps. She says "There's....so many...wolves..."
She looks towards the injured ones and asks "Do we need to move them down there?"
We all nod. We all work together and slowly move them downstairs. Mason is about to close the door when Elizabeth runs to the front door. She mimicks a wolf call and a group of wolves run inside. They somehow know to run into the basement. When the wolves are all inside she closes the front door and Mason closes the basement door. We work together while we are all badly shaking to move the couch back to in front of the door. After we do I fall back down to the floor. Mason whispers "don't."
I continue shaking. The next thing I know, Elizabeth is looking at me with her mouth dropped open.

*Picture at the top of the chapter is Matthew Knight*