Saving The Bridges

Chapter 3

"Dad, how many times are we going to go on these stupid hunting trips?" Noah asked as he picked at his food, watching his brothers prepare for the hunt they were about to go on.

"I wouldn't say it's a trip. We haven't gone out of town for a hunt in months," William pointed out as he checked his knifes before putting them in his duffel bag.

"Then what would you call what we do?" Noah asked conversationally, stirring the SpaghettiOs in his bowl.

"I guess you could say we're going on a quest," Liam suggested and was immediately booed by the others.

"A quest definitely takes longer than a trip. A trip can take a few days while a quest takes months," Fred said dryly before shoveling food into his mouth, Noah urging him to slow down so he wouldn't choke.

"We're hunting locally, so... I guess we're just going on a hunt," Issac said with a shrug, helping Jonathan with some new equipment.

"That makes it sound like we're going to grandma's house," Noah said, clearly finding that suggestion lame.

"Now that would be a trip. Probably a hunting trip too, knowing her," Issac said with a smile, chuckling when Noah rolled his eyes but couldn't help letting out a snort calling Issac a dork.

"Guys, let's focus on the mission. You can debate about this later," Jonathan said seriously as he brought some of their bags out to the garage.

"A mission! Why didn't I think of that? Missions are usually done locally, or you have to hang out locally to get the lay of the land, right?" Liam said, the others murmuring in agreement that mission was the proper word to use in this context.

"What's another word we could use?" Noah asked, looking around, when Jonathan came back into the house giving Noah a disapproving look.

"You're buying time," Jonathan said. He didn't ask, just made a statement crossing his arms over his chest causing all the boys to go quiet. Noah practically stabbed his SpaghettiOs with his spoon, looking away from his father. "Noah, I know you don't agree with what we're doing, but we can't let those monsters go unchecked. The minute we get sloppy, they could go on a rampage and hurt civilians, even taking innocent lives. You've seen for yourself what they're capable of," Jonathan said as the boys continued to pack, loading up the truck including Noah's things which had been packed for him since he had been moving too slowly for Fred's liking.

"Yeah. I've seen what they're capable of," Noah agreed. Jonathan started to smile, but then Noah slammed his hands on the table as he stood up abruptly, almost causing his chair to tip back, making all of his brothers jump. "I also know that, just like humans, there are bad individuals who do bad things. We're been living here my entire life after mom died and both the werewolf pack and the vampire coven haven't done anything wrong. We've hunted real monsters across the country who have hurt people, I've taken out a few of them myself," Noah pointed out as he looked his father in the eye, challenging him it seemed causing Jonathan to narrow his eyes.

"More than one of them was on accident," Liam pointed out with a grin until Issac knocked him upside the head, dragging Liam into the garage with William and Fred following along who were looking between Noah and their father with wide eyes going back and forth like a pair of ping pong balls.

"Like I said, we've hunted real monsters who've done really bad things. There werewolves and vampires in this town haven't done anything. They're just living their everyday lives like normal humans. The vampires drink blood in moderation or get blood bags from hospitals and the werewolves act almost exactly like humans. They just occasionally turn into wolves and frolic in the woods," Noah said, flapping his hands around like a bird or a fairy at the end.