Lexy’s POV.
I didn’t know what that ringing sound at the back of my head was but I knew I heard enough when I did.
“What. . . . What does that mean?” I managed to ask.
Cilia nods from behind Melissa. I tried to breathe. The room suddenly seemed stuffier.
I felt Melissa’s palm land on my shoulder comfortingly, her eyes looking into mine as if trying to confirm something and said “are you alright?”
I nodded and slowly shifted away from her touch. As far as I’m concerned I need a valid explanation for what she just said.
“Werewolves are. . . . Wait a minute, what exactly are you talking about?”
“Wait, are you for real?” Cilia cuts in ” Bronte didn’t tell you about this? About us and this place?”
“I’m sorry Lexy, this must be coming as a surprise to you” Melissa said calmly.
I noticed her deep crystal blue eyes and remembered the eyes of that werewolf I saw on the poster on my father’s office room wall when I’d first arrived from school. Then I noticed how her hair fell over her body, how her slim arms curved. Her physiology was enough evidence.
No! I’m not believing this madness! Werewolves aren’t real. They’re just myth.
“I know it’s hard for you to believe, to take in because to the world, we aren’t real but this is real. There’s nothing more real, Lexy and you have to believe us”
“Yeah, why would we lie?” Cilia comes forward “why would we bring you all the way here just to lie to you?”
“So. . . . you’re saying that. . . . ”
“Yes, all this is all real, Lexy” Melissa replied.
“Why else would you be here?” Cilia said ” your father has been with us for so long”
“He . . . He’s a werwolf too?”
“Oh no!” Cilia replied with a hint of laughter in her voice ” Bronte isn’t a werwolf. We just come a long way, you know? And he’s been so helpful to us”
“He comes and leaves, Lexy,” Melissa said “he’s a good and well equipped doctor who treats our wounded men” she walks over to the window and looks out before continuing “the world has advanced Lexy and so has the weapons. Some packs discovered how to prevent us from healing ourselves. We heard some roughed pack went into your city to steal some things to fight us with”
I remembered the night I was eating out when I heard those young boys discussing about some werewolves caught on camera at the building railroad site. I’d thought that was just stupid and didn’t even follow the news up. My hands suddenly itched to open my phone and browse about that incident. Hopefully I’d see the headline that says “some medical amenities has been stolen from head labs” so all this would make sense and I can finally believe something!
No, I can’t.
“And since we get more injured people, we need someone to treat them” Cilia added.
“There’s a war coming, Lexy” Melissa said spookily, her lips seeming to move only once for multiple words.
Suddenly, I was filled with this feeling of anger and betrayal. I didn’t know where this was coming from but I wanted so badly to tell at somebody. As much as didn’t wanna believe this and wouldn’t have believed it if my father had told me years before today, I felt left out, like I’d been sidelined and left in the dark. Left from all this.
Angrily, I turned towards the exit and stormed out. I didn’t know where my father was but I knew I needed to find him and give him a piece of my mind. I retracted my way back to the spot where I’d been with my father. I’d seen the direction he went with Drako earlier so I followed it and got into the large, tall house right in front.
The moment I stepped in I saw a man standing at the side of the door. He didn’t seem to be shaken by my abrupt barge In and instead just remained still like I didn’t just appear out of nowhere. I saw two dark entrances from my right and my left but I didn’t hear a single sound.
I turned to the man and asked “where can I find doctor Bronte please?”
He turns towards the left and pointed to the door. I hurried towards the door and pushed it open, letting myself through. I came out in a wide room with faces of men surrounding the place. The first thing I actually noticed was the bloodied man laid flat on a surgical table, unconscious.
His face is pale, blood streaked and unlively. Any life left on it was slowly seeping away. His eyes are shut close and his nose looked broken. His chest has a tear of three deep, hollow marks on it.
I’d come across many patients like this, even worse back in school and some hospitals but none had ever shocked me this much.
“Lexy?” I heard my father’s voice calling me.
I looked forward and saw him standing at the side of the unconscious man’s stomach, hand gloves on his two hands like he was treating the patient before I stormed in. Surrounding him were Drako and three other faces I didn’t recognize.
I stood for a while, speechless as the faces watched me. I didn’t know what to do not what to say so I did the only thing that came to mind. I stormed out and headed back the way I came.
None of this made any sense. None of them! What am I even doing here? How the fuck did I end up here?
Werewolves? Every second I spend here only makes all these more real than I’d ever accept. That man lying on that table was a proof for what Melissa had said.
But I thought werewolves were meant to be myth. How come there’s a settlement on the outskirts of the city whom appears to be nothing more or less werewolves? I needed answers and the more I thought, the more questions invaded my mind and the more questions, the more this sickening headache threatens to resurface.
The darkness was slowly looming in and I could barely see where I was going. I hurried back out the crowded road we came, reaching for my phone. I wanted to call Millie.
When I retrieved my phone, I realized I didn’t have reception at all. The network bar was completely empty with an exclamation. Damn it.
I stopped when I caught sight of a rocky area. Looking back into my phone, I saw a single network appear on my network bar. I slowly closed in on the block to take a seat, ignoring the eyes watching me. I searched for Millie’s number and dialed it but it didn’t ring. Then the network went all bad again. I wanted so badly to scream. This is all so frustrating.
Sticking my phone back into my pocket, I looked up to the sky and sighed.
Whatever.
None of this matters.
“Lexy?” I heard my father’s call and I turned repulsively to find him standing a bit far from me, like he was cautious not to come any closer.
I felt the anger rebuilding again and I looked away.
“Lexy, did something happen?” He adds.
“You tell me dad” I replied, my voice seeming to break.
I stood up so I could look him in the face and continued “I was with Cilia. And then I saw Melissa. And they told me everything. They told me what this place is. Werewolves? Seriously Dad?!”
“Calm down, Lexy. . . . ”
“Don’t tell me that, Dad. Don’t tell me to calm down”
“You’re just upset, Alexa”
“Damn well I am! Dad, how could you keep this away from me?! You were always leaving to come here, that’s how important this thing was for you huh? But you never thought of telling me!”
“Lexy. . . . . . ”
“How did you even find this place? How is this even real?”
“Lexy, let me explain things to you”
“Okay, fine,” I folded my arms across my chest ” go on then”
He sighed, like he was frustrated about something. The thought of that makes me wanna scoff out loud. I should be the frustrated one right now and not him.
“Lexy. . . . Everything Melissa or Cilia told you is true and I’m sorry I never told you earlier. Werewolves, they’re real, more real than anything and I’ve known this pack for long”
“You’re a human dad, how do you even know their existence? How do you even know them?”
“Some things are better left unsaid till the time is right, Lexy”
“Till the time is right? Like how you waited till the right time to tell me you’ve been going off seeing werewolves? ”
“Lexy listen to me,” he said calmly but seriously “everything you saw, everything you heard is real and they’re all true. I’m indebted to this pack and one day you would find out how and you wouldn’t have any doubts about them or anything. You will find answers to the questions that traumatize you now. You will see things from a greater perspective, Lexy and when that time comes, you would learn to accept them. For now, it is my job to treat them and help them any way I can and I hope you would do the same by my side”
I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out, no words seemed to make sense and i just shut my mouth again. I was angry just a second ago but right now I didn’t know where that anger went. Maybe the realization that he’s doing all he’s doing for a genuine reason?
“Alexa” he calls, placing a plan over my left shoulder “I’m very sorry that I kept this all from you. I am but I need you to understand why I had to do that. I was protecting you. The world we live in today doesn’t just believe in the preexistence of werewolves but they are still being hunted.
For years, packs upon packs has been facing challenges. Of being hunted by the human and some of their own. Recently this pack has been fighting a rouge pack and some neighbouring packs and I’m needed many times, Lexy. And I hope you understand that as a doctor, my first priority is to make sure my patient is well taken care of. You damn well know where I’m talking from”
I nodded.
“And I wouldn’t stop you if you wanna leave now. This was all my fault”
I casted my gaze down, thought hard about this and realized I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else but here, where he was. As wrong as this felt some minutes ago, I’m suddenly making peace with my feelings and accepting this.
“I’ll stay dad” I replied.
I saw the smile that crossed his face and knew how he felt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile so honestly in weeks. And I actually wondered what this pack meant to him. Why he was so keen on helping them in their time of need. How he was indebted to them to begin with.
All I knew was that I wasn’t gonna ask him any more questions and whatever I wanted to know I was gonna find out myself.
“I love you sweetie” he said, his hand leaving my shoulder to caress my cheek. I watched his eyes and saw how they poured into me. And it felt like I could interpret the emotions I saw in his eyes.
“I love you too dad” I replied with a small smile.