No Matter How Dark It May Be, There Is Redemption

Blessings

“Hollis!” the beast growled, using one large paw to shove Richard and the chair he was sitting on into the wall opposite the window.  “I heard you’ve been hunting down my pack in my absence!” 

The wolf-man hybrid towered at nine feet, standing on its hind legs, a fiery anger in its eyes.

The beast flipped the desk over with its other paw, knocking Laura’s chair over backwards.  She let out a shriek as she fell.  “You wanted me? Come get me!”

Carmilla ran to help Laura up but the wolf monster noticed her supernatural speed and identified her as a threat. It grabbed her by the throat and threw her through the office doorway.

“Carm!” Laura scrambled to her feet and picked up the chair and smashed it over the wolf’s head.  The wolf turned around to address the puny target.

Richard had since gone into one of the drawers and whipped out a pistol.  He fired off one shot into the monster’s back but it didn’t seem to faze it as it used its paws to push Laura to the ground by her shoulders.  In fact, the shot seemed to help give it momentum.

Laura gave as much of an uppercut as she could in her current position against the beast’s ribcage, which caused it to look down at where it had been hit – apparently the small girl hit harder than it thought she could.  Carmilla took the opportunity to leap from the doorway and tackle the wolf off Laura. She rolled out of the tackle to her feet, while Richard quickly took another shot, this one right between the wolf’s eyes.  It crumpled to the ground, dying immediately.

Carmilla rushed to Laura, who was still on the ground. “Cupcake, are you okay?” she asked, her eyes scanning for injuries.

Laura went to sit up and winced. “My head kinda hurts from behind knocked over twice,” she said, looking down at her hand, “and I think I hurt my hand a bit trying to punch that, uhm—”  Her eyes wandered to the beast lying dead a foot away from her. “What was that?”

“Lycanthrope,” her father answered, kneeling next to her.  “Like a werewolf. They’ve got the mind and thinking capabilities of a man, but the body and ferocity of a wolf.” He cupped the back of her head with his hand, put a small amount of pressure, and then removed it to examine his hand. “No blood.  Are you dizzy?”  Laura shook her head.  “Good,” he sighed in relief.

“I don’t think your hand is broken, either,” Carmilla noted.  “But it’s already starting to look like it’ll bruise.”

Laura frowned at her hand, as if personally offended by the red color it was starting to turn.  She looked from her girlfriend’s face to her father’s face. “Are you guys okay?”  They both nodded.

Carmilla put her hand gently on Laura’s bruising hand. “I assume this is the case you’ve been working on?” Carmilla addressed Richard.

He nodded again.  “He murdered a small village and his pack covered it up. In order to make him turn up, I rounded up a few of the pack’s more prominent members and spread around a rumor that I killed them.”  He looked over at the corpse.  “Now that he’s been put down – so to speak – I’ll let them go.”

“Won’t they seek retribution?” Carmilla asked.

Richard shook his head.  “I spoke to the members I kidnapped.  Apparently they agreed with my decision to kill him but knew they’d lose the support of the pack if they executed him.  They agreed to order the other pack members to not pursue any revenge fantasies, though.”  He gently nudged Laura’s other arm.  “You okay, kiddo?”

She sighed, not answering right away. “I-I just don’t understand how you could’ve hid this all from me.  I thought we told each other everything…”

He looked down at the floor.  “I know, and it sucked, all of it.  I hated lying to you about where I was every day, and where I was going, and what I was doing, but I did it to protect you. Or at least, I thought I was.” He looked back up to Laura. “After I found out there were things going wrong at Silas and that there was a cover-up, I watched your videos and saw just how much I couldn’t protect you from monsters.  But someone else was doing a great job of it.” He looked over to Carmilla. “It didn’t hit me who you were until I met you because, well, you looked different thirty years ago, and it wasn’t anywhere around here so I missed the connection.” He took a deep breath. “I see how much you care about my daughter and you’ve done more to protect her while not hiding anything from her, while I have, and,” he spoke purposefully, making sure that each word was as sincere as possible, “thank you for being good to her.”

Carmilla blinked, not prepared to receive her girlfriend’s blessings after such a long confession.  “Uhm.  You’re welcome, Richard.”

She saw a small glimmer of a smile flash on his face, but it disappeared as he regarded his daughter again.  “Laura?  I’m so sorry.” Laura sat there, thinking of a response that never came.  “Laura?”

“Dad, I’m gonna need some time,” she said slowly. “Just to process things. Like, uhm, I get that you did this because you thought you’re protecting me… And… But I just need some time to think everything over, is all, okay?”  She flashed her dad a smile.  He seemed relieved and smiled back.

“Okay.”  He smiled back.  He and Carmilla helped Laura up and the trio slowly put the office back together.