Chapter Two

“I should have…my little girl is now gone. And worst of all she never did fit in” she added, Harley pulled her close and wrapped her hands around her shoulders

“she wouldn’t want us to feel bad if she were here, maybe she was too good for this world. Not fitting in and not blending with the crowd is what made Danica….Danica? She was different and she loved it that way….we love her that way mom. It wasn’t your fault” She rubbed her shoulders as her mom’s eyes watered uncontrollably

“Just do me a favor and stay with me Harley… don’t grow too fast and don’t go too fast either. If you ever find yourself in danger which you won’t because I’d be there…I know I wasn’t there for Danica but if you ever find yourself in danger, stay alive for me” Her voice faded out completely and she buried her face in her daughter’s arms.

************

Harley covered her mom who had fallen asleep on the couch with a blanket; she stared at her for a while and just wondered how she’d be feeling. She couldn’t take away her pain and even if she could wouldn’t she just be adding to the pain she was already feeling.

She picked up the empty bottles of beer from the ground and the disposable plates some of the people used to eat, she wondered how they would be able eat and drink without it choking or without the flash of what Danica’s body looked like crossing through their minds.

Even with her thinking about the people who had come earlier as fake people who didn’t care and just wanted something to gossip about, something did scare her. And it was the reality that the camp site the school went for their annual camp trip was nearby….it was in their town which means whatever did that to her was living amongst them.

She needed closure as to what happened to her sister, the coroner couldn’t give any tangible result from the autopsy and the police couldn’t figure out what did that either. They assumed it could have been a bear but do bears kidnap their victims, some of the students from that camp were missing but most were dead. And just to clarify that their assumption was bogus, there hasn’t been sightings of bears in black hill California since forever.

And another shady thing is the fact that her dad didn’t even give a hint of sadness today made her even more suspicious of him, and with his reaction when he saw her body like he was expecting it made her even more scared of what he could be hiding.

She could boldly say that her dad was no killer but with the way his attitude changed, combined with the way he spends most of his day at Haynes anything could have gone wrong, I mean come on the man is a scientist after all. And what happens to scientist when they get too absorbed in their creation? They go mad.

She needed to find out something if at all anything that could explain just what the fuck the town should be getting prepared for. if grey doesn’t spend most of his time at work then he spends time in the mini office he set up for himself in the house. It’s off limit, it’s almost impossible to get in. why do people lock their doors and keep the keys in their pockets? Because they need privacy or they are hiding something, now what was grey keeping in that little office of his?

She dropped the empty bottles in an empty trash bag in the kitchen; she paused for a while and inhaled deeply.

“I need to know what is in that office. Why when I look into my dad’s eyes, I don’t see him there anymore.” she thought to herself.

The room was locked but she knew that and if anything spies movies has taught her, is that a bobby pin would always come in handy.

She exhaled and took one quick look at her mom before taking careful steps upstairs and towards the last door by the corridor in the passage way. Swallowing down hard and having second thoughts about letting it go, her hands shook as she removed the bobby pin from her hair and did the ol’ jam and giggle. The door lock clicked open and she heaved a sigh of relief inaudibly as she crept in and quietly closed the door behind her.

The room was completely dark but she could reach for the light switch on the wall, she flicked it and the lights came on. She started to calm her mind as there was nothing out of the ordinary here; it was just a normal private space an intelligent man setup for himself. Or was it?

Her eyes wandered, they were searching for something. She didn’t know what she was looking for but she was hoping for something that could shed a little light in this darkness she’s in, this cluelessness.

She began searching his drawers but then it’s just boring paperwork, she searched each paper she laid her hands on and kept dropping them hastily and with frustration back on the table. She was getting absolutely nothing, but why was she mad she wasn’t getting anything? Shouldn’t she be happy her father isn’t what she thinks he is? But instead her mind wouldn’t just let it go.

After searching two drawers, she was skeptical about opening the last one because she was sure she’d be met with the same disappointment but she did anyways and it was empty. Or was it? Her dad has this heap pile of paperwork but squeezes them in two drawers while the last drawer just laid there empty and with little cobwebs hanging by the sides, now remembering Harley isn’t your typical teenager. Her IQ comes in, this was a trick drawer.

Her father was smart but he sure birthed a daughter that could outsmart him, “Nice one dad, a false drawer front” she smirked as she shook her head slowly, her dad was smart. A normal person would just overlook the empty drawer and walk away.

But Harley could tell by the sound the wood makes when she knocks on it, it sounded faint. Her dad sure did put a lot of work into it, trying to make it real. But with one slide up the real contents in it was shown to Harley. There were several documents kept in envelops.

Great, it was just paperwork again. Except only more shady, she held the brown envelope and exhaled deeply. She was finally going to get something out of this if at all there was anything shady in it or her father just found this paperwork more valuable that he had to install a fake drawer front for.

She hesitated and her heart beat increased, what if her dad is exactly what she thinks he is? And that Danica was just collateral damage in whatever he’s working on at Haynes. She wasn’t ready for the truth and she sure wasn’t ready for what she was about to see next.

On bringing out the contents in the envelop she saw pictures of teenagers her age, all wearing white hospital gowns with numbers tattooed by the side of their necks. Her dad had “X” some with a red marker, out of the 15 headshot and profile of teenagers only 6 had the “X”

What does the X mean? Her hand trembled and her breath became shaky, she didn’t know or understand what she was looking at

“Experiment 14_ Cole Meyers_ Chimera testing “X”

Experiment 06_ Janette McCurdy_ Werejaguar “X”

Experiment 03_ Maddie Cult_ Chimera “X”

Were they all dead, what do all these mean? Chimera , Kanima? She flipped from page to page and it goes on like that, the teenagers names and another strange name in front of it. some had x and some didn’t?

“Experiment 25_ Roman st. Laurent_ Alpha werewolf “X0” Xo? Now she was just getting even more confused, why did her dad have all these? What is he getting his hands into that involved teenagers her age

She flipped the third page and she gasped before covering her mouth quickly, she couldn’t believe who she was seeing. It just couldn’t be.

“Hen-Henry?” she said shaky as her eyeballs wandered in disbelief as they shook in its circuits.

“Experiment 12_ Henry Bart- Alpha werewolf- “X”

Henry happened to be Harley’s childhood friend, it was even part of the reason she agreed to move here when her dad suggested they had to cause of work. Henry used to stay in Los Angeles but his parents moved here after they lost his sister, they planned a fresh start. Harley thought she could reconnect with her best friend after his grieving but soon teenagers started missing and Henry was one of them. Many still haven’t been found.

Tears prickled from her eyes and tainted the paper in her hand but she didn’t budge, why was Henry wearing hospital gowns like the rest of the kids? Why did he have a number and what is this “Alpha werewolf and this stupid X” her dad had something to do with the disappearance of her best friend and now she’s convinced he did something to Danica and the other kids at camp.

She heard a door close downstairs and she flinched, shit! She didn’t think her dad would be back tonight. She quickly arranged the documents and placed it back in the drawer, turning off the lights she crept out quietly and walked back downstairs while wiping off tears with the back of her sleeve.

She looked around, “Dad?” she called

Her mom was still in her sleeping position so who came in? and which door slammed shut? Something creepy was going on and someone was in the house but that was the least of her problems.

“I need to find out what happened that night….” She turned back to look at her mom who was sleeping tiredly on the couch and she remembered what she had said to her earlier in the kitchen

“And maybe try to stay alive while I’m at it….” she added. She wrote a quick note and pinned it on the fridge

“If anybody wouldn’t tell us what happened that night, then I would just have to find out myself” The note stated and she grabbed a jacket from her room along with her phone and climbed out of the house from her room window. She is convinced she is living with the enemy which is her father but her evidence weren’t solid yet.

Why did he have that file of those teenagers and of Henry? If he took all of them all in the name of science then tell her how he wouldn’t sacrifice his own blood in the name of science too.