Chapter 2

Chapter 2: "Preparations to leave"

You have heard my first account of how I came to be in the hunting business, but let me show you a regular hunt. I think this hunt that I am going to show you were a rogue werewolf.

“Willy! Father wants you in his study!” my sister’s voice called upstairs. She was the only one that I would allow to call me Willy, mostly because she would pout and go to mom. She would tattle saying that I was being mean to her.

I called back down to her, “Okay. I’m coming! Go play with Gary and Kody. They want to play hide 'n seek outside.”

As I walked from my room, I saw the light brown hair of my sister disappearing out of sight, as she led our brothers outside. They were probably going to play in the backyard where we had set up a large playground for the three of them to play on. We had also set up a trampoline up.

I followed after them, as there was only one hallway that leads outside to the small shed-like building where my dad made his study.  My mother stood in the doorway of the kitchen, moving her blonde hair from her eyes.

“Be careful, as you go further down the hallway. The little ones have toys scattered across the floor. And the floor is wet since Kody spilled some juice and I haven’t got it cleaned up yet. And if you could put up the jackets on the hooks before you head out?” she said.

“Yeah, Mom. I’ll do that,” I replied back to her.

She called toward the back of my head, “When you return from the job, I am going need you to buy some blue, white, and green paint. I am tired of these yellow walls in the kitchen, and the pink in the hallway.”

“Okay, Mom. I promise that I will get it,” I called. I had called back down the narrow hallway since I had walked away. I bent down to get the jackets and coats that were thrown carelessly onto the floor.

After I picked up the jackets and set them on the clear plastic pegs, I put in headphones and played my music. I walked out into the back yard and jogged across the lawn to my dad’s study. I jumped up the one lonely step, and knocked while saying, “Dad?”

“Come in, William,” he yelled just loud enough for me to hear over my headphones.

I opened the weather-worn wooden door that had a screen door behind it. Frowning, I walking inside, happy to get away from the screams of children that pierced even through the headphones that I had in.

“Be careful not to track mud across these rugs. It was just put in and I don’t want to have to call someone out here to clean it. And besides these are your mom’s favorite rugs,” Dad told me, turning around to look at me.

“Okay...” I said. “Why did you want to see me?”

“I have a job for you to do. I mean I would take it but since I am injured currently I am unable to take it. Are you willing to take on that job?”

I remember him coming home from that job. It was about a two weeks ago. He had gone and was hunting a coven of witches. He had told us that he had been hexed and was directed to walk into traffic that was heavy because it has been lunch hour. He had only gotten a broken arm and a broken leg.

“Now listen to me, William. You are lucky to have me here. You know that right?” he asked me when he sat me down across from him in his study.

“Yeah, Dad. I do.” I replied.

“Don’t forget it.”

He hasn’t been the same since he returned from that trip.

Leaning against the doorframe, I asked, “I can if you really want me to take this one. What will be the story for the little one’s this time?”

My dad laid in hands on the paper that litter the top of his desk. Old newspapers by the look of it. He was probably doing research. He is the one that finds jobs for me to do since I have a lot of other things to worry about.

“That you went to visit your aunt, who is stuck at home because of a surgery,” he said. “You’re job is located in Missouri. A small town, that has lost 5 people within a month. They are all missing their hearts, though.”

“Hmm. Werewolf maybe? Or an out-of-their-mind vampire?” I asked him,  my foot tapping against the solid concrete floors. My foot hit the edge of the rug that Dad has set down and saw the fact that he had spray painted what looked like Latin phrasing.  

“I see you have found the secret that is hidden underneath these floors, haven’t you? You are currently a step away from a complex devil’s trap. It uses phrases from an exorcism to weaken the demon a lot much. It will render their powers useless,” he said, his voice suddenly dropping from his careful diction of words to a more tired slur.

“You okay Dad? You completely changed tone!”

“What makes you think that I am anything but fine. I am normal. Just go. Denton, Missouri. Go now! Don’t come back unless you are done with the job or you are dead.” As he said the last part of his sentence he slammed his hand down on the desk, his eyes dark with masked emotion.

“Fine,” I replied back with, as I strode from the office. I ignored the weird looks from my siblings as I angrily stomped across the grass. “Don’t come back till you finish or you're dead,” I muttered to myself. “What kind of father tells their child that.”

I pounded up the wooden stairs of the porch. I walked down the hallway with long steps, my face set in a grim fashion, or I thought it did based off of my mom’s face. I just gave her a small reassuring smile, that was well very unreassuring.

“I was given a job Mama. I’ll be gone a week or so.” I told her as I walked past her.

She nodded. “Be safe William. I don’t want to have you injured. Just be safe and make sure to return home.”

“What if I fail?! Dad told me to kill them or not return home at all.”

With that, I ran to my room and dug out two duffel bags from beneath my bed. One clanged with the sounds of metal, the other landed softly upon the bed. I picked them up once more, as I started to head out of my room, and out the door. I promised to return as soon as I could.