Kayleb and Vanessa (5th in werewolf series)

Chapter Two

"Mommy, the monster is back again." Vanessa opened her eyes to see her five year old daughter standing beside the bed in her tinkerbell sleeping gown.

"Faith, there is no such thing as monsters." Vanessa replied with a sigh. For the last three nights her daughter had been waking up several times a night complaining about a monster. Vanessa blamed it on her ex-husband and the highly inappropriate movies he let Faith watch when she visited him (which wasn't very often).

"But mommy, he says he's going to kill me." Faith replied and Vanessa could see the fear in her wide green eyes. She sighed and sat up throwing her legs over the side of the bed and slipping her feet into her bright pink bunny slippers.

"Get in my bed." she sighed. "I'll go get your blankie and I'll be right back." Faith happily jumped up into her bed and snuggled up under the covers. Vanessa stood and ran her hand over her messy shoulder length chestnut hair and walked slowly to her daughter's bedroom with her sleepy shoulders slumped and her feet dragging.

Twelve hour shifts, six days a week at the hospital combined with taking care of her home and her daughter on her own while taking online courses through the community college were taking their toll on her and making her feel much older than her twenty-five years.

She walked into Faith's room and clicked on the light. She couldn't help but feel a little bit of childish fear as she looked around the room. Her daughter had never complained about monsters before. It had started suddenly three nights ago and Vanessa kept imagining that her daughter's closet door was going to fly open at any moment and a big hairy monster with lime green eyes and lots of drool was going to burst out and get her.

She jumped and nearly screamed when she felt something cold and wet press against her bare leg and she turned to see her German shepherd Scout standing behind her. He kept casting nervous glances at the closet and whining and Vanessa felt her nerves come back full force.

"What is it boy?" she asked in a shaky voice. She wanted to run and find someone to open the closet door for her but a single mother living on her own did not have that luxury. There was no big strong husband in the next room that could protect her or Faith from danger. It was all up to Vanessa. She saw the big metal bat that her ex-husband Steven had bought for Faith's last birthday. Yet another drug induced gift that made no sense for their five year old little girl who liked tea party's and princesses.

She grabbed the bat, happy that she had finally found a use for it, and walked on shaking legs to the closet door with Scout standing behind her and peeking between her legs.

"You darn coward." she whispered at the canine. She grabbed the doorknob and let out a long breath before squaring her shoulders and throwing open the door. She let out a nervous laugh when she found herself staring at nothing but a closet full of toys and wrinkled clothes.

She scolded her over active imagination and closed the door before leaning the bat back against the wall. She grabbed Faith's pink blankie off of her tiny bed and walked back to her own room with Scout following close behind.

"Here's your blankie." she said as she crawled into bed and handed it to her waiting daughter. Faith snuggled up to the silky pink blanket and closed her eyes. Vanessa knew her daughter was too old to still have a blankie but the poor kid had been through a lot in her life with a drug addicted father and a mother who was forced to work long hours because she was supporting them herself and she had not been able to bring herself to force Faith to give the blankie up.

Vanessa's nerves were still on edge and she turned the combination on the cabinet next to the bed and looked reassuringly at the black pistol inside. She left the cabinet open so the gun would be easy to grab and then she curled up with her daughter to try to get some sleep because she only had four more hours before it was time to get up and get back to work.