Darren was not at church Sunday, nor at school Monday. No one could get ahold of him, and whenever somebody went to his house to ask his mother where he went, they would discover both had fled from home, and his father was desperately trying to track them. The cameras placed in his car by Adrianna were broken, and the last anyone had heard from them was when he told Grayson to leave.
"Something's not right..." Muttered Gregor, looking down at his feet.. The remaining friend group members were huddled over Grayson's kitchen table, poring over every social media site Darren and his mother owned to try and find them.
"Nah dip, sherlock!!" Snapped a stressed-out Grayson, taking a long swig of coffee.
"We have to find him. We just have to." Elaina had tears in her eyes, and Adrianna smirked knowingly. She seemed to be the only person that knew, though, and everyone else just stared.
"Nothing..." she murmured, looking down and blushing through her tears.
Just then, Grayson gasped in sudden thought. "Maybe... Check prince Harry's Facebook page. I betcha 20 bucks he knows something we don't."
"Yeah!!" Koda and Elaina squealed in unison, hopping onto their phones, and within minutes, Koda had a lead.
"The Crown Estate... something about them staying over..."
Grayson cut him off with a decisive gasp. "Let's all fly over to England and say hi!!!"
Everyone paused and looked at him, some gazes approving and some concerned. For example, Adrianna.
"How the heck are we gonna afford 6 plane tickets? Also, how do we know for sure he's really going there?"
Grayson froze momentarily at this before continuing. "I guess we're just gonna have to drain our bank accounts and pray we're doing the right thing. He's our friend, and we owe it to him to support him with... whatever's going on."
***
Darren's mom pulled the rental car, a Volvo, onto the side of the road and put it in park. Darren hated being on the run, but it looked like he was going to finally stay in one place for awhile. On top of the whole Grayson incident, Darren's mom had finally decided to leave Darren's step dad when he found Darren out of bed Saturday night. The guy had beaten Darren with his baseball bat and locked him outside, and he had to climb back into the house through the screen he had broken earlier. Now they were staying in England for a little while, at least until they could officially file for divorce and find a new house to live in.
"Darren, honey, you need to tell your friends where you are." His phone was continuously ringing with calls and texts from all his friends, but he'd ignored them in fear that answering them would somehow lure his ex-stepdad overseas to their new location. He hesitated a bit before giving in.
"D-darren!?" Stammered a confused Koda through the receiver. "Guys... Guys, he picked up!!" There was some celebration in the background before he continued.
"Where the heck are you!!"
"Shh.!!" Darren whispered fiercely. "I'm bleeding from the ears here, pacino. Let's calm down."
. "Okay, I'll try again," Koda replied sarcastically. "Where the heck are you? Scratch that, we're already on our way."
"You what!?!?" Shouted Darren, holding desperately onto the armrest for support. "No, you're not supposed to... Please tell me you at least covered your tracks."
Koda froze. "What do you mean by that?"
Darren's face drained of all colour (except for fur colours) "You idiots!! We're running from William. He beat me again Friday night, so mom's trying to divorce him. God dangit, guys!! He's gonna come for us now!!"
***
Evelyn Sutcliffe sensed a new wolf in town. Not that they were both wolves or anything, but... never mind.
She had to investigate. Slipping into a pair of fur boots (omg itz her own kind!!), she made her way down the hall, calling out a farewell to her older sister Raven, and stepped out into the busy London street. Her parent's Audi was parked in a small garage, and she ran to it in urgency. The scent was fading, and rain poured down on her like a waterfall.
She headed North towards the airport, singing along nervously to the local American Hits station. It wasn't often that furries came to this town, and she could tell something big was about to go down involving the poor thing. She wondered if there was some way she could help with whatever was going on. It was all she could do to make up for all the mistakes she'd made. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs of sadness clogging up her senses. Now was not the time to think of such things, she needed to be aware of every little wind current that had the possibility of carrying the wolf's scent. She couldn't explain it, but it was like some divine force was pulling the two together. Well, she'd find out soon enough.
The airport loomed in front of her as she pulled up to the front gate and payed the parking fee. The scent was stronger now, and she could discern six different scents instead of just one. There was also closer now the scent of the other newcomer, coming from the north, but she already had her eyes on him. He's kinda cute, she thought to herself, finding her parking spot and making her way into the lobby. She blushed a little at the afterthought (which will NOT be put) and walked over to baggage claim to await the newcomers.
***
William Westinghouse climbed into his Bentley and sped off in the direction of the DMV, where he would run Grayson's license plate and track them to where his wife and son hid. They'd discovered too much, and now that they had left he'd have to put an end to them and what they knew. He'd already killed before; this wouldn't be a problem.
Pulling up in the DMV parking lot, he had a sobering thought that shook him to the bone.You know, just when I thought I could possibly a good person, a loving father and husband, and start over in life, I have to go and kill someone to hide my past. It's getting old. He sighed and took a swig of Coffee from his Yeti cup before stepping out of the car and walking into the small building. Oh well. Too late for that.
***
Darren sat alone at the large dining table, writing a paper for English class. Just because he was on the run and in a different country didn't mean he had an excuse to fall behind in classwork.
He wondered if everyone back at home was okay. After seeing William kill to keep his secrets safe, he knew better than to expect he wouldn't kill again, whether that be his mom, himself, or his friends. He couldn't let them suffer anymore. Speaking of friends...
Koda slowly stepped across the threshold from the sitting room into the eating room, slid into a chair across from Darren, and let out a small cough.
"Yeah, I get it. You guys just wanted to help," Darren sighed, closing his Macbook with a satisfying thump, "But the problem is you can't. You're all in danger, I'm serious. You guys need to go."
"Darren. That could change, you know that? We've always been here for you, just tell us what's going on and we can at least do something productive."
"I said go!! None of you guys know what he is capable of, and he can kill you the moment you find out. He'll do anything he can to keep his secret safe, and I don't want to lose you guys. I've already lost enough as it is." He leaned his head back and stared sorrowfully at the ceiling, thinking of what could've been different if he had no knowledge of what his ex-father had done.
"You know what, Darren? I can't do this anymore! You're always talking about everything you've lost, everything that's wrong with you, and I've had it!! You've never bothered to notice what's wrong in the rest of our lives, haven't you?" Shadows leapt across the room as the rest of Darren's friends crept out of their hiding spots in the room and sat huddled around the table. A butler stood in the doorway, blocking Darren's only route out of the room. "Now you're going to talk, the rest of us are gonna talk, and we're gonna work everything out. Together."
***
Evelyn let out a silent gasp as she overheard Koda and Darren's outburst from her hiding spot under the table. These people's situation was tougher than she had thought. She considered for a second possibly coming out from under the table and introducing herself, but the tone in these people's voices convinced her otherwise. She wanted to remain in one piece for a little while longer, and she guessed now was a good time to stay quiet.
"Look guys, let's be reasonable here..." Someone stuttered nervously, she guessed Darren. "I'm nothing if not fair, right?" A chair scooted softly away from the table, and a figure stood up and backed towards the door. "Right?" She could smell the fear scent wafting off of the poor guy. She had to do something, the only problem was what.
She watched frantically as the other six people in the room closed in on Darren, then had somewhat of a good idea. She slid slowly out from under the table, formed a finger pistol with her hands, and exclaimed: "Don't move, any of you."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked confusingly at her. She brought down her hands and laughed. "Well that worked better than I thought it would."
"Who the heck are you?" Growled the one she identified as Adrianna Helms.
"My name is Evelyn Sutcliffe," she began, looking straight through them all and to the back wall. "I've been watching you all since you've arrived here, and I'd like to know who all of you are and what your purpose is here."
"Can I leave now?" Asked the butler, checking his wristwatch with a worried expression on his face. "It's getting close to teatime."
The one named Grayson sighed, facepalmed, and shooed the butler away before turning to her. "Why do you even want to know?"
"I made a promise to myself after my..." Her vision blurred with tears and her voice choked up. "After what happened that I would do my best to help people I feel are in need of it." she wiped her eyes and regained composure with the blink of an eye. "Listen, you people need help and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to give that to you. Take it or leave it."
Darren hesitated at the offer, and regardless of how hard he tried to hide his thought process Evelyn could see his emotions playing out of his face as clear as a glass of water. "Okay, fine. But I'm leaving right now, okay? We'll reconvene after a brief recess."