*WARNING: The chapter that you're about to read contains content that you may find unpleasant or troubling or too sad. Please read with care.*
“Grams…Gramps…you guys want a cup of tea?” Kendal called out. The whistle from the boiling kettle echoed in the kitchen. “I’ll leave you some.”
When none of her grandparents replied, she poured the kettle's hot water into a large coffee mug where the words Let Life Surprise You shimmered in bold fonts from the porcelain.
She smiled. The mug was a birthday gift from Harper back when she was in college.
With the smoldering mug in hand, she then made her way to her bedroom, where she'd finish the latest Netflix series she’d started to binge until sleep would come to her.
Ever since that night with Claire, lack of sleep had been a constant thing in her life. Her parents thought the sleepy town of Clearwater Crossing would be best for her, and when she arrived, her grandparents thought the truth about other beings existing in their world would help her accept and move on. Somehow, they were right, but it hadn’t really been an easy journey of discovery for Kendal. And to say that her mind was blown with what was revealed to her would be an understatement.
Outside her window, the sweet, musty smell coming from the woods after hours of rain reminded her of how simple things were before, yet perhaps, how oblivious she had been about the existence of the other beings.
Who was the wolf that killed Claire?
She figured that truth would come out. Sooner or later, she would find out who the beast was. But had Claire known? Did she know about the werewolves and vampires walking among them?
For Kendal, it was hard to tell. Claire had never mentioned anything about those shifters and bloodsuckers to her. She never shared an experience or moments in her life when she had, in fact, encountered one. Like her, Claire thought that those two things only belonged in the movies or books. Not in their reality.
Sipping her tea, Kendal shrugged the thought of and lightly touched the play button on her iPad and tuned out the rest of her thoughts about Claire and the word of the supernaturals as she watched the screen.
Halfway through the episode, though, a sound of glasses breaking caught her attention. Although it took her a moment before she realized it wasn't all part of what she was watching. And when she did realize, she quickly removed the earphones off her ears and lay entirely still. Her heart was pumping.
Then, she heard more noises, and this time, she was certain it wasn’t her iPad. Soon, heavy footsteps and voices echoed in the living room. And it was until she heard the shrill, unpleasant noise of shoes stepping on grinding pieces of broken glass that shook her from her momentary paralysis.
She gasped and, straightaway, got on her feet, clutching her robe to her body as soon as she heard footsteps climbing up the staircase.
*Nan! Pat!*
Desperate to get to her grandparents first, she ran out of her room, but she was a couple of steps short when she was tacked to the floor.
“Kendal!”
“Keane!”
Keane’s weight on her pinned her hard on the floor and made her intention to call out for her grandparents an absolute struggle.
“Stay still!” Keane ordered, his hands on her wrists.
For a moment, she did, but a soon as she got the chance, she screamed.
“Shut up!”
“Hey, Keane! I don’t think the Lycan’s still here.” Older than Keane and definitely more well-built, a second man casually strolled through the door from one of the rooms where Harper and Alex used to stay.
“Nan! Pat!” Kendal screamed, and before she could even call her grandparents for help, something hit her head hard, and quickly enough, she blacked out.
* * *
The first thing Kendal noticed was when she regained her consciousness was the pain. The throbbing pain in her head that only meant she most likely had a concussion. When she slowly opened her eyes, she could hear ringing in her ears. Everything started to get a little fuzzy; her head lolled against her chest. She felt blood on her lips from her nose, too.
She moved, and she soon realized she was sitting up, her back against something hard and her hands tied behind her back. She tried to push the pain to the back of her mind and tried as much as she could to remember what had happened. She looked around the room; blur and blackness had edged her vision a little bit. But her heart immediately fell as soon as her eyes adjusted to her surroundings.
“Grams!” she gasped.
Tied to a chair with duct tape, just like her, were her grandparents. But unlike her, both Nan and Pat were unconscious in their seats; duct tape tightly covered their eyes and mouths to keep them from hearing and seeing anything.
"Oh, good! You’re finally awake!" Keane almost coos with excitement.
“What the hell did you do to them?!” Kendal glared at him and then at the other four men behind where Nan and Pat were tied unconscious.
Keane walked steadily to Kendal and kneeled beside her, blocking her view of her grandparents. “Good evening to you, too, Kendal.” He hovered over her and eyed her up and down.
“You’re a dead man, Keane! Your mom and dad will hear an earful of this,” Kendal said between gritted teeth.
Keane’s laughter suddenly filled the room. “Oh, Kendal, they sent me here.”
“Go to hell!" Kendal barked, unconvinced. She was not going to fall for his lies. Anger flashed through her eyes.
“Oh, I wish I was lying to you.” Keane brought a hand towards her face. “But I am telling the truth here.”
“Why the fuck are you doing this?” She flinched away. “Let my grandparents go! Untie them! You’re fucking hurting them!”
“I really I give a damn care. But I don’t.” He stood up.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked again.
“It’s simple. Your friend’s fiancé, where is he?”
“Alex? I didn’t know you were into him—”
Suddenly, Keane slapped her already bruised face. “He fucking killed my sister!”
“Sh-Sheila?”
“Her body was found dead outside town, next to our friend’s car. So don’t you fucking even dare try to tell me they’ve nothing to do with her death!” he angrily yelled as he swung his fist up and punched her in the face.
“The news…”
“What news?”
“About the gruesome animal attacks on humans. It was Sheila, wasn’t it?”
"You have no idea what she was going through! That fucking Lycan will pay for what he did," he said as he raised the knife.
“How can you even be so sure that it was Alex who did it? What if some other wolf got to Sheila and…and…oh god, what if it got Harper and Alex too?” Kendal muttered, feeling scared of the possibility that Harper was harmed.
“How can you be so fucking stupid, Kendal? Or are you just in denial? That man is not what you think he is! He’s just like us, and he killed my sister, and you will tell me where they’re heading!”
“I don’t know!” Kendal screamed, obviously freaking out.
Keane then punched her hard in the gut. "You will tell me.” He looked to Nan and Pat over his shoulder. “Or I will hurt them.”
“Keane! Please, don’t hurt them. They’ve nothing to do with this. They don’t know where Harper and Alex are heading! You have to believe me,” she begged, scared for her grandparents’ lives.
But he ignored her please and walked over to where her grandparents were unconsciously tied. He grabbed Nan’s hair and pulled it as hard as he could.
Nan let out a pained groan. She was obviously shocked by what was going on. She shrieked, but even her cries were muffled.
“Please, Keane! Please don’t hurt grams? I’m begging you! Please!” Kendal cried.
“Where is Alex?” Keane asked.
“I don’t know!”
With his other hand, he gave a brutal blow to Nan’s midsection. The old woman groaned in pain. “Untie him.” He nodded in Pat’s direction.
One of the men quickly removed the tape around Pat. The old man tried to speak, but no words came out aside from angry grunts against the duct tape around his mouth.
“Kendal, I know how much you love your grandparents…”
“Please! I’m begging you, Keane. Please don’t hurt them,” Kendal begged, hot tears streaming down her bruised cheeks.
“I will stop hurting them as soon as you tell me where your friends are. You can’t honestly think we will let them get away with fucking murdering my sister, can you?!”
“I swear to you—”
“Nooo! Wrong answer!” Keane yelled and followed his anger with a kick on Pat’s stomach. The old man lost his balance, fell off his chair, and blindly rolled on the ground, clenching his stomach.
“Oh no! Grandpa! No!”
“Where are you friends, Kendal?!”
“Please!”
“Wrong answer again!” He kicked Pat in the face and followed this with a series of kicks. Finally, one powerful kick sent Kendal’s grandpa flying into one of his men.
“Grandpa!”
“I’m losing my patience, Kendal. Where are they?!” He viciously punched Nan in the gut and the face.
“No!”
“Where are they?!”
“Her mom! She went home to her mom!” Kendal finally broke down, the sound of her cries ringing out through the entire house.
“Where, Kendal? Fufcking where?!”
“Black Hallows.”
“In Maine?
Kendal nodded erratically.
“That wasn’t too hard, was it?”
“Please, let my grandparent go…” Her voice was now rough and husky from all the crying and screaming that had ripped from her throat.
Keane slowly smiled, nodding at his men. “Go ahead.”
The men smiled and loomed over Kendal and her grandparents, each one taking their turn to shift into their wolf forms.
“Wait. What are they doing? Keane?!” Kendal asked in a panic.
“Goodbye, Kendal. You and your grandparents will be missed.”
“What? But you said—”
“I guess lied.”
Kendal broke into violent screams as she watched her grandparents being mutilated right in front of her.
One by one.
Again and again.
She cried and begged and cried some more.
Until her turn came.