Eventually, the group had arrived at the Wolf's Pool club. Their clothes were still covered in blood, since none of them had brought along a change of clothes, which worried Gary… nearly as much as what he was supposed to do with White.
Taking a deep breath, Gary mentally prepared what he should say as he entered the place. Opening the doors, he saw Amy and Tom at the bar talking to Miss Degrace. They immediately turned their heads.
Hopping down from the bar stool, Amy ran over to her brother, yet before giving him a big hug, she stopped. His little sister checked him from top to bottom, before asking the obvious.
“Gary… is that blood?!”
Too many thoughts were going through her head, and it was the same for Tom. Still, his heart settled down somewhat when he saw the rest also had bloody clothes. Whatever might have happened, at least they made it out alive.
“Ah, don’t worry about this.” Kai explained with a smile. “We were just making a promo shoot for this place. I know it's a bit early for Halloween, but we’ll need time to edit things before we upload it. Hopefully, it will get us more customers.”
Tom was quite satisfied with the explanation, yet Gary was happy that Kai had taken over explaining. He seemed to be better at lying than the green haired teenager, that was for sure.
However, Amy didn’t quite buy it, and seeing the blood on Gary’s clothes, reminded her of the blood she had already seen in his closet. The shady place, what happened to those people and now this, especially after hearing Miss Degrace talk, she really didn’t know what to think anymore. Which made her look Gary up and down in a suspicious way, and she soon looked at the rest of them with a wrinkle in forehead.
“Looks like you guys need some catching up to do.” Kai said, patting his friend on the shoulder. “I’ll be down stairs looking over a few things. If you need anything you can call me.”
“I need to get out of these clothes before the police are called or something.” Innu said, making a swift exit.
“What's that mum, you need help with counting the stock!” Marie randomly shouted and walked off.
While, Austin just walked past the two without saying anything.
‘I see now, you’ve all left me, the only one that's stayed by my side is White, and it would be better if she left.’ Gary was inwardly slapping his forehead now in his head space.
“Amy, what are you doing here?” Gary asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Both her and Tom looked at each other before answering. They were planning to learn a bit more about what the teenager was doing. For one, Tom wanted his best friend to come clean to his sister about his Werewolf tendencies, he thought she already knew about them and had questions. For Tom though, there was also something else he wanted to ask him.
However, their earlier curiosity had diminished after their talk with Miss Degrace.
——
Earlier in the day, they both had sat down towards the bar since the place wasn’t as busy yet. Tom was expecting to see the others or maybe even Gary himself, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh, you're that boy who took me to the hospital before. It was Tom, right? I’m afraid I didn’t yet have time to properly thank you. Can I make it up to you by offering you and your date free drinks during your stay?” Miss Degrace suggested with a friendly smile.
The middle-aged woman seemed to have mistaken the relationship between the two teenagers, not that Tom was going to correct her.. … Not that he needed to anyway, because Amy did just that the next moment herself.
“I’m not his girlfriend, I only came here because I wanted to talk to my brother.” Amy clarified, sitting down on the stool. She showed no fear even in front of this person who was practically a stranger to her. “You know my brother is only sixteen, right? So why do you have him working in a place like this? I know it's legal, but this place serves alcohol, right? And he’s not allowed to handle cash.
“Do you have him doing other things for you as well?” She might not have stated it clearly, but Miss Degrace understood that the teenage girl accused her of. Given the location of the Wolf’s Pool Club, Amy felt like it was only a question of time until her brother would get into trouble.
Tom wanted to calm Amy down, but thankfully it didn't seem like the bar maid was upset, instead she let out a chuckle. “You know, I haven’t known Gary for as long as you, but the way you're acting right now, it's almost as if you're the older sister looking out for him. Your brother is really lucky to have such an overprotective sister.”
These comments, of course, just made Amy even more angry, but before saying anything else, she poured out a pint of coke and placed it on the table in front of her.
“There you go, as the Boss’s sister you deserve a free drink, right?” Miss Degrace winked.
The two looked at each other, wondering if they had misheard what the woman in front of them had just said.
“Boss?! What do you mean ‘boss’? Is he the manager here, but how’s that possible?” Amy questioned..
Originally, she had just come to find her brother, maybe learn a bit more what he had been doing to earn the money to pay their mother’s hospital bills. Of course, if possible, she had liked to discover the truth behind the bloody clothes, but learning that he was living a type of second life, a life that she wasn’t involved in, was worrying her.
“Look, I'm a bit older than all you kids and have learnt a few things during my time. I can understand why he might want to keep secrets from you two, but as I’ve grown older I’ve also learned how much problems secrets can cause.
“It’s only human to want to know the truth about everything, and it would certainly mean troubling situations like this one could be avoided, but you should ask yourself something first. Are you really ready to learn the truth? Why do you think a person would want to keep something a secret from you in the first place?
“To me, you look like someone who has drawn her own conclusion to what’s been happening and are hoping to get a different answer. Anyway, I decided to give you a hint into his world, but do you really want to know everything about Gary?” She asked.
This also wasn’t what Tom was expecting either. He knew Gary was spending more time with the people that worked here, but what was she saying about this world? Right now, Tom felt like he was in a red pill, blue pill situation. Learning the truth about Gary, would it affect both of their lives forever.
‘I already know about him being a Werewolf, and I'm sure Gary hasn’t told others about that? He would be insane if he did. So just what could be a worse secret than that?’ Tom wondered.
*****
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