Faze

Chapter 11: One Of Them

Chapter Eleven

Sunny's house was small, one floor with only two bedrooms. His bedroom was small too, but Sunny didn't seem to mind. Mackie sat on his bed and looked around, "Good to see the window closed."

"I took your word for it," Sunny shrugged. "Today wasn't the first time I've seen a wolf."

"It wasn't my first time either," Mackie said, imagining the brown wolf with soft golden eyes. He was sure that it was Zephan under the fur. And yet, he couldn't wrap his head around it. He couldn't accept the fact that people could turn into animals, wolves.

"Did you make it out okay?" Sunny asked. "Out of the woods. I managed to outrun Leland, he eventually gave up."

Mackie crisscrossed his legs on the bed, his hands tucked in his lap, "Zephan brought me to his home. It was huge. He said that everything would be okay but he ended up arguing with Leland when he showed up, and Theon was there just to tease me for getting caught. Lola was there too."

Sunny sprung from his seat and reached into his pockets, looking for his phone that he couldn't find, "she's there too, I should call her!"

"No, don't!" Mackie shook his head vigorously and waved his hands in front of Sunny. "She knew about them. This whole time. Her and Hazel–I don't know, they looked like friends."

Sunny sat back down, "are you sure?"

Mackie nodded.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes as if it would take away the vision of the wolves turning to humans–to people he knew. "Are you sure we shouldn't ask if she's okay?"

Mackie nodded slowly, "she's fine, her and Hazel. She got there before I did and explained what happened. And the woman there, she said Lola has known for a while. I can't believe she didn't tell me, we've been friends since we were like babies."

Sunny sat back down on his bed with a navy blue duvet. He sat facing Mackie, "what if she's one of them? Or maybe she's not allowed to leave them after finding out their secret?"

Mackie didn't talk right away. He thought about it. How Lola's shoulder brushed against Hazel's as it did probably many times before. How unafraid she looked being in the packhouse surrounded by wolves. How the only time she had fear in her eyes was when she was apologizing for keeping a secret too risky to share.

"Let's not talk about it anymore," Mackie said, reaching for a black remote resting on Sunny's bed. His room wasn't messy but he had random things laying around like remotes where they didn't belong. He turned the tv on and Sunny put a game disk in his console.

The two played video games until the front door opened and closed, the house so small it rattled the walls. Marshal called for dinner and Sunny offered Mackie to stay but he declined, "I have to help Elijah pack."

He put his shoes on by the door and Sunny disappeared into the kitchen. "Bye Sunny, and Mr. Springer!"

Footsteps came from the kitchen and Marshal peeked from the doorframe, "Just call me Marshal."

Mackie froze and even Marshal flinched when he recognized the new face in his house. Mackie quickly opened the door and left without saying anything else. He sprinted home and one question kept buzzing in his mind.

Why was Marshal at the packhouse?

_________________

Mackie avoided Sunny at school the following Monday and Sunny couldn't figure out why. He thought they would have been closer from the events the weekend held but that didn't seem to be the case. Sunny didn't know where to go. He hadn't processed Lola's lie and Mackie was his only other friend, and Leland wasn't an option even if he stared at Sunny every chance he could, his eyes hardly taking a break.

When lunch came, Sunny found Mackie at his locker, "why are you avoiding me? Seriously, what did I do?"

Mackie slammed his locker shut and faced him, "Maybe if you told me that your dad was one of them, I wouldn't be so mad. Does that make you one too, Sunny?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"He's a wolf, like them," Mackie lowered his tone and he said it in a way that Sunny should have known.

"What?" He widened his blue eyes. "Are you okay? I know what we saw was a lot but I think you are seeing things, as much as I wish everything we saw wasn't real, my dad isn't a wolf. My dad's not a wolf, Mackie."

He said it like he was trying to convince himself too, Mackie caught it. "I saw him at their house."

"I can't believe you," Sunny frowned and he didn't do that often. "I don't understand, my dad wouldn't–he can't!"

"Unless he has a twin you don't know about then believe me, your dad was there with me and he seemed close with Zephan's mom and dad," Mackie visibly calmed down after finding out that Sunny really didn't know about Marshal. "Let's go back in the woods."

"What?" Sunny frowned harder. "No way, not after what happened Saturday. Just like you said, I don't think we will be so lucky if we do it again."

"No this is different," Mackie defended. "We can spy on their house and see if your dad shows up. We will make sure no one sees us, it will be different."

"And what if my dad isn't there?" He asked.

"Then that's a relief but it's better to make sure than believe that it's not real, are you in?"

Hesitantly, Sunny nodded, "what if we get caught?"

"We won't and if we do, we have each other. No splitting up this time," he smirked, no longer upset over the almost second betrayal. "We'll go next Monday. You can watch your dad during that time, see for any weird behavior. This will give us enough time to prepare."

Sunny nodded, hoping that Mackie saw wrong and Marshal had no connections to the wolves.