Part of the Pack (Book 1 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 29 Normality Strikes

Chapter 29 Normality strikes

I turned around to see my little brother enter the house, time must have gotten away from me. I was so busy cleaning up I didn't notice that it had reached three in the afternoon. "Good afternoon." I said with a smile as he put his bag down, a smile replaced the frown on his features.

"Afternoon." He took his shoes off and put a pair of slippers on. "I didn't expect you to be coming over today." I chuckled slightly as I took the plug out of the sink. Harlow was fifteen, he was just starting his GCSE's. His hair was a little bit longer than mine, just to his shoulders but his was much more curly.

"No need to sound so happy about it." I said sarcastically, we were still being rather quiet. When I last phoned up, they had said that mam's sleeping schedule wasn't the most normal. She found herself waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping through the day. I must've come just after she fell asleep. Thinking of that reminded me on to ask Harlow and dad about locking the door. "How was school?"

He laughed at my joke but the laugh was cut short when I asked about school. He shrugged slightly. "It was alright. Same as normal"I narrowed my eyes at him slightly, he never explained much about his school life, even to me. I took that as either he was getting bullied or he just didn't want to share anything, I felt like he was embarrassed for some reason. I am quite the paranoid person, I usually think the worst when it comes to these things.

"You know I didn't mean it like that." He punched me in the shoulder playfully, he copied my actions of peeking into the living room and then starting to head upstairs."I thought you would be in the middle of the woods around about now." He entered our room and sat on his bed. I sat on my own bed where I had placed my bag.

"Had to cut the trip short." I nodded and kept my eyes on my fidgeting hands. I was a rather good liar, just not to my family. I could lie and make it somewhat convincing, yet they always seemed to be suspicious. "I got a little bit anxious about the wildlife." This was the truth. I'm not sure if werewolves come under the term wildlife but it was the most accurate thing I could say.

"Poppycock."He snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Aiden, you've nearly jumped into the lion enclosure at the zoo because the lion was choking on something. You've risked your life several times for animals and your degree. I don't think anything simple could've scared you away."

I bit my lip slightly, that was true. I was such a silly child and teenager that I did risk my life a few times like that. "Yes but those were zoo animals." I trailed off in a convincing way. "This was...uh, a bear." He stared at me long and hard, trying to decipher if I was joking or not. He had his mouth slightly open and he looked like he was ready to whack me over the head with something.

"A bear?" He related with a sort of deadpan tone. He nodded slightly and blinked. "A bear?" He said again, his voice becoming sterner and still held a tone of disbelief. "You study animal biology and habitat and yet you didn't know there would be bears where you were camping?" He had an extremely good point. There were many dangerous animals in the forest. He seemed to be waiting for an answer.

"Well obviously I had thought about it." My mutterings made a laugh come from Harlow. "Hey, I went there without bumping into any bears before. I'm sorry if I expected the same this time!" I joined in with a slight laugh at my ridiculousness. "Either way I'm alright."

That seemed to comfort him a little bit as he nodded."Right you are." He then stood up with a pillow in his hands. "Which means I won't feel bad about this!" He then swiftly hit me over the head with the pillow. I laughed as I was tackled back onto the bed, I hit my head but that didn't bother me too much as I continued to try and block my face from the pillow.

"I surrender!" I yelled quietly as I tried to raise both my hands. I was having a rather good time despite the pillow being repeatedly smashed into my body. "I yield!"Harlow had to move out of the way as I fell onto the floor slightly. He stopped hitting me and stood back, admiring the state he had put me in with a look of satisfaction in his eyes.

"Like you surrendered to the bear?" the two of us shared another chuckle as we resumed our previous positions on the bed. "Seriously though, I'm glad that you re alright and that was extremely stupid of you." His voice was stern as he pointed a finger at me like a parent telling their toddler that they had done something wrong.

"I know, I'll do my research and be more careful next time." He didn't seem too thrilled that there was going to be a next time but he didn't question it. Instead he just nodded and leant back on the wall. Our room was littered with posters and photographs in an attempt to add more personality to the place. My side had more animals and nature shots and Harlow's had more pictures of friends and bands, along with some pieces of artwork. "So, how is everything going on?"

That made the atmosphere a little sadder. Harlow took in a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, the same way that Ralph did. "Not good." He looked down and tapped his heels together like he was expecting to be taken back to the previous minute. "Ma's getting worse and nobody knows what's wrong." The words made my blood run colder and yet warmer at the same time.

I didn't know why on earth the doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She was fine not too long ago, she was healthy and lived a rather active lifestyle two years ago. It was devastating that something just came out of nowhere without any indication that something was wrong.

"I don't know what we're gonna do bud." I breathed out through my nose and looked down, I got up and sat on his bed , hearing it creek under my weight. I wrapped an arm around him comfortingly. "We'll just take it one day at a time yeah?" I tried to be as comforting as I could, he was rather close to mother. Neither of us were that close with our father. It would be heartbreaking to lose either of them, though sometimes it felt like they were both incredibly far away from us.

"Yeah." He gave a weak smile and leant into me. Both of us gave a collective sigh as we heard the front door opening and heavy footsteps downstairs. "Time to face the music." He muttered and stood up, stretching. I gave him a small smile and nodded, standing up with him. Time to go see how our dad did today. I had no doubt that the laughter we had earlier was the last of the evening.