Don't go in there

Chapter 4

We walked for a while before Oliver stopped abruptly. "We're here." he said before walking off again. I did not what 'here' is or whether I really wanted to go there, but curiosity got the better of me and I followed.

What greeted me was unexpected. There were very large houses, almost mansions, all in a semicircle in front of me. There were about fifteen houses in total. They were all in light grey tones with black roofs and they were all modern looking.

"Welcome to the Family Houses." he said rather proudly. " How is it possible for all these houses to be here without us knowing?" I said shocked gesturing to Sarah and I.

"It's all a magic trick." Oliver laughs.," The Leader lives in the middle house and then his second in command lives next to him." Oliver tells us as he walks toward the houses.

On closer inspection the middle house looks empty. Weeds are poking through the flower beds and a thick layer of dust rests on a black mailbox. A gravel pathway leads to a red front door.

"Red is for the Leader, orange for the second in command, green for esteemed families and blue for the..." his face scrunched up slightly and he seemed to be searching for the right words. "...other families." he finished.

Sure enough the house on the right of us had an orange door and the few houses surrounding it had green doors. Then the houses on the outskirts had blue doors.

"Don't you think it's kind of dick to categorise people like that." I said. "No, it's not. It's logical. Everyone has a job and everyone knows their place. Our system works." I rolled my eyes but said nothing.

We arrived at the front door of the Leader's house. "Why is it empty?" Sarah asked. "It's a long story." Oliver said. "We don't have anywhere to go." Sarah said.

"You might want to sit down." he said lowering himself on to the overgrown lawn. Sarah and I did the same next to him.

"Well long story short, our Leader died seven years ago. My people have this tradition that the closest relative to the Leader has to bury him. Our Leader had a child, which in our tradition is who needs to bury him. But to bury a werewolf you have to be a werewolf." he said.

Sarah gasped at the word 'werewolf' and my eyes widen but Oliver just carried on with the story. If I had not seen Ethan change into a wolf right in front of me I would not have believed Oliver.

"Our leader married a mortal and had a mortal child. He spent his entire life protecting his child from his other life. He died protecting her actually."

"There are some who want to Change the child so we can bury our Leader, but others argue that it is not what he would have wanted. Since his death we have been divided. Until he is buried we can't choose another Leader." he finished.

"Why doesn't someone else just bury your Leader?" Sarah asked. "But our tradition..." he started.

"But it's just a tradition, you don't have to follow it." I said. " Of course we do. Our traditions are the soul of our kind, they are woven into our very being. We are our traditions. Breaking one of our traditions is an unforgiveable offence. So no, we can't just have someone else bury him." he almost yells. His cheeks are red and his eyes are shooting daggers at me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." I said trying to make peace. Oliver's expression softens slightly.

"So, what was your Leader's name?" I asked. "Henry Harrison." Oliver said and my stomach flipped. He smiled knowingly. I took a deep breath.

"So I'm the problem mortal child." I said. "Pretty much." Andrew said. "You must be related to me on my dad's side." I said. "Yes, his surname used to be Thwait. He changed his surname to protect you." he said.