"Can you believe this?" I rant to the eagle although I know that I won't receive a reply. I have been spending about an hour cleaning up the apartment where as Nate was taking a bath. Until now, he hasn't come out of the bathroom, making me furious and impatient.
Times like this makes me angry at myself for picking the only apartment with only one bathroom.
Hazard is sitting on the bed post, watching me pacing up and down in my room. "My lazy ass brother is taking his sweet time - one hour, to be exact- in the bathroom while I clean up the whole bloody apartment? Who says girls spends more time in the bathroom than boys. That is a fact that only boys know of because they have nothing else to talk about. I bet at this rate, he will come out of the bathroom when we use pianos as . . ."
Just before I can continue to talk nonsense, Nate picks the right time to finally leave the bathroom. He has brown eyes and recently cropped jet black hair. He is tall and well-built. He is wearing a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans.
"What the hell? You promised to help me clean and instead ditch me for a bloody bath, god dammit Nate. What happened? Slipped on the soap, fall on your fat ass and try to get up for the last hour?" I practically scream in his face.
He stares at me in amusement. Then he says, "Ya know, Mel, I can't hear a single thing you said so that lecture does not bring any benefit."
I face palm, groaning into my hands. How can I forget that he is deaf but not mute? One fine day, I'm going to strangle him to prove my point.
Just put the bags into the car before I plan to dance on your grave after I kill you, I snap at him in sign language.
Nate smirks knowingly and leaves to his room. That boy even has the nerve to whistle loudly on his way!
"How did I end up with him as my twin brother?" I mumble absentmindedly out loud, stepping into the shower. Hazard continues to stare at me with its huge black lens with golden iris around it.
Once cleaned and dressed, I look at myself in the mirror. I have brown eyes and long straight black hair. I am tall but not as tall as Nate. I wear a shirt with the words 'Mess with me, you mess with a devil' and black jeans. My twin and I love to wear jeans. To us, jeans help us to run easier and we don't have to change our pants in case of emergency.
Within one hour, our bags and Hazard in a cage is in my Ferrari. Yes, we are rich. This is because our parents were rich. My father was the head of Hunter Headquarters. We didn't know they were hunters or even HQ agents until they were murdered and their fellow HQ agents found us. Among the HQ agents who found us was my Uncle 5, which is now the head of HQ after my father's death. Uncle 5 is better known as Director.
Back to the story, they explained briefly about werewolves and rules to hunt them down. There is one crucial rule that must be remembered by all werewolf hunters: Kill only for self-defence or if they kill innocent people.
At first the HQ agents didn't want us to live on our own since we were only ten at that time, but we managed to convince them as long as we keep updating them on where we're heading next.
Nate and I follow the rule. Somehow, we have never encounter into a pack after six years of hunting. Hopefully, there is no pack in Meadow Falls or else our job is a lot tougher than we thought. I heard from other hunters that packs are a nuisance.
"Melanie?" my twin brother says in a hesitant and broken voice. I jump in surprise, looking to see him buckled up and ready to leave as well.
You should talk more, I encourage before starting the engine.
He does not reply, only look ahead at the empty road. It is a good thing that it is a Monday or this road would be full with vehicles. How appropriate can our timing get?
We finally left our temporary stay in Great York. The journey takes up 3 hours so I turn up the radio as Nate stares at the green scenery. Once in a while, I would peek on Nate to see him smile.
He has been upset after the accident that took away his hearing forever. I tried all kinds of method to cheer him up, but nothing works. It makes me feel even guiltier for what I've done upon him. No matter how many times he told me that it wasn't my fault, I can't help but think it is. It is because of me, he can never hear the beautiful melody of his violin. It's because of me he can never listen to his favourite bands.
I'm glad that he's a little happy now that we're attending school. I don't get why he wants to go to school so badly. When we were still studying, I remember him whining about the loads of homework we have to do and have not enough time to finish it because we had to track down the rogues.
At that time, there were many rogues in Little Creek and we have plenty of jobs to do. Once there is no more trouble, Nate and I started moving from one town to another.
In an hour, we stop in a small town for gas before resuming our journey.
When we reach the town of Meadow Falls, I park the car in front of a random store. Hazard has been crying out in anger for the last ten minutes so I let Hazard out of his cage to fly around and adapt to the forest nearby.
Nate is so lucky he's deaf because Hazard's cries so loud that they might cause my eardrums to bleed.
Want to have lunch now? I sign Nate once Hazard is out of my sight.
"Yes," he answers out loud, unbuckling his seatbelt.
Nate and I argue on where we are going to eat in sign language as we walk around the little almost empty town. The silent debate attracts a lot of attention to us, but we pay no mind, only focusing on winning. I crave for my food at my used-to-be-favourite restaurant when I was younger, Uncle Sam's cafe. Nate, on the other hand, wants to eat at Dave's bistro.
My stomach starts to grumble in protest due to the lack of food I've eaten for the last few hours.
Please, I plead.
No, he argues.
Pretty please, I try again.
No, he repeats.
I pout and give him the puppy face. Nate tries to look away but fails.
He throws his hands up in surrender. Fine, he gives in.
Yay! You are my favourite brother! I literally skip happily as we make our way to Uncle Sam's cafe.
This is because I'm your only brother, Nate points out the obvious.
I stick my tongue out at him like when we were kids. What a big meanie he is for ruining the moment.
He rolls his eyes and picks a random seat by the window. I sit across from him. When I look around, I realize nothing has changed. The cafe still has the old 80's style with waitresses serving by rollerblading, a small dance floor in the middle of the cafe and many antiques displayed around the cafe. I order my usual coffee and sandwich. Nate tells me his order in sign language and I repeat his order to the waitress. The waitress skates off after repeating our orders.
Nate and I act professional whenever we are out of the house. At home, though, is the complete opposite.
Werewolves, Nate warns me. He tilts his head slightly at a direction of a group of buff teenage boy. Sign language is an advantage to us so no one can know what we are talking about.
The teenage boys are chatting loudly without respecting other customers. Judging by the amount of food laid on their table, they eat like pigs.
Actually, Nate, when we were walking around town, I noticed most of residents of Meadow Falls are werewolves, I sign.
Great, a pack. Makes our job so much easier, he signs with a sarcastic expression plastered on his face.
We just have to be careful and find the killer rogue. We must also not capture any unwanted attention from the pack. The last thing we need is a pack of mutts asking for our help.
Nate chuckles without amusement. I highly doubt they need any. Werewolves are known to be cocky.
So true, brother of mine.
The waitress finally arrives at our table with our orders. Nate and I eat our lunch in silence, unlike the werewolf boys. I pay for our lunch after we're done and walk to the car.
I notice that many werewolves are staring at us. Some are talking among themselves. I concentrate to eavesdrop on them.
"Are they new?"
"Damn, more humans. We should inform Alpha."
"She drives a Ferrari?!"
I chuckle lowly at the last remark. Huh, I suppose Meadow Falls is a town where everyone knows each other. On top of that, majority of them are werewolves.
When we reach Uncle Scott's house, I am relieved to be surrounded by the green. I feel so much safer in the woods than the town, eventhough I know better. I climb out of the car and whistle loudly. Hazard fly towards me and land on my shoulder.
"Hey boy. How do you like this forest?" I ask Hazard. He just stares at me as usual.
Nate unlocks the front door and opens the door widely so we can see the inside. Everything is covered with sheets and dust. I wrinkle my nose at the thought of more cleaning.
"Welcome home," Nate says humorously. I narrow my eyes at him and hit him in the shoulders, only getting a laugh from him. He knows how much I hate this house when I was younger.
Okay, let's clean up and unpack. In the evening, we can check out the forest, I sign at Nate. He nods and begins carrying our belongings inside. I tie my hair into a pony tail and start pulling the sheets off the furniture.
This is going to take a lot of time.
Author's Note
Peter Hollens as Nate by the side!
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-M.