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This small town in Denver was supposed to be quiet, normal and boring. That's what Terrence Blake had promised his children when he made the decision to move here and leave their old life behind.Gwen’s brow furrowed before she hesitantly parted her lips and voiced a question that had been playing on her mind since her father told them they were moving, “Do we have to leave… everything behind?” She asked, giving her father a pointed look.
A look that Terrence instantly knew the meaning behind.
And a look that immediately made Finney avert his eyes and try to stop the hand from subconsciously reaching up to trace one of the many deep gashes scattered across his body.
Terrence bit his lip, expression twisting and adding more and more discomfort onto his face with every second that passed between them in silence. But then, his expression fell. And Gwen knew that he had made a decision.
She saw the reluctance and the slight hope in his eyes as he muttered, “It’s your choice, Gwenny,” Terrence uttered like a promise.
A promise that she was certain he would break.
After all, he always did.
But, as Terrence’s eyes drifted towards his son, sorrow drawing out all of the other emotions that once shone in his dull eyes, Gwen felt a surge of hope hit her.
Because maybe, now, it would be different.
Because they were different.
But when that latter thought popped into her mind – when she glanced at her brother – all of that hope vanished.
She was certain that if Finney looked up from that bowl of cereal he was gazing at but not really seeing, he would find Terrence and Gwen wearing the same expression.
And maybe, just maybe, his face would be filled with the same emotion.
Gwen didn’t know if the look of woe plastered across Finney’s face would be better or worse than that empty expression Finney frequently wore since he left that monster’s basement.
But she hoped that, soon, Finney would find a new emotion to paint his face with.
She only hoped that it wasn’t fake like their mother’s was before she took herself away from them… forever.
But, as Gwen and Finney walked around the neighborhood they were slowly supposed to get used to calling home, they knew it wasn’t quiet.
“Holy shit,” Gwen gasped out the rows and rows of candy that once held her attention no longer interested her, “He’s got a knife, Finney,” excitement swirled in her dark eyes as she watched the blade of the small pocket knife hover in the air like an uncertain threat.
Finney slowly threw a glance towards the commotion happening next to the pinball machine, looking a mixture of uninterested and unconcerned as he watched the scuffle between the small group of boys play out.
Finney’s cunning eyes scanned over their stances, their bodies, their weapons and caught whatever glimpses of their either (fake or truly) ruthless faces he could before he turned his eyes away from the scene that would soon be broken up by the police or the first… or maybe second draw of blood.
“The blond will win,” Finney quietly muttered his deduction to his younger sister.
Gwen’s brow immediately scrunched up with confusion, not even sparing her brother a glance in case she missed something riveting as she asked, “What?” She muttered before she shook her head in disbelief and tried to correct Finney’s assumption, “No way,” she scoffed, “He won’t win,” she spoke with such conviction that Finney always believed her.
But he didn’t because–
“The blond’s a wolf,” he correctly guessed just as the blond#d eyes flashed an unnatural red that made Gwen jolt backwards slightly.
“How’d you know that?” Gwen asked, amazement clear in her voice as she unconsciously took a step closer towards the small group of boys that hadn’t managed to even injure each other yet.
Finney’s lips twitched into a small smirk as he raked his eyes over the selection of candy bars, “How did you not know that?”
Gwen rolled her eyes at her brother’s words, her mesmerized eyes still glued on the scene in front of her, “He might be a wolf,” she admitted, biting her lip slightly as the boys exchanged heated words and shuffled closer to each other, “But they’ve got a knife.”
Finney shook his head, eyes flashing with amusement as he began reaching out for a candy bar, “He’s got claws, Gwen,” he reminded his seemingly forgetful sister before a harsh clatter sounded and tugged Finney’s gaze back towards the soon to be fight for a moment, “And they don’t have a knife anymore,” he pointed out before he turned back towards the display of candy waiting patiently in front of him to choose one of them.
Gwen didn’t allow that fact to sour her mood. So she kept her keen eyes focused on the group and waited for the moment that always thrilled her.
But, of course, the police arrived before Gwen could be truly satisfied with the amount of blood the small group of boys managed to coax from each other. They quickly put a stop to the fight and dragged the blond haired wolf out of the store in cuffs.
But something told Gwen that wouldn’t be the end of it.
And as she plucked up a random candy bar from the selection next to her, she hoped she was there to see the rematch. And this time, she hoped they would do more than throw a few punches and draw more than just a small amount of blood.
But, the siblings were quick to discover that this town was normal. To their standards, anyways.After all, the siblings had grown up with never-ending missing posters that were constantly plastered on top of each other each time it was discovered another one of the town’s children had been taken from them. They had grown up with desks suddenly being unoccupied and lockers being emptied out and their contents handed to grieving parents that knew in their hearts that their children were dead.And this new town wasn’t so different.Missing posters clung to chain link fences, hanged from lampposts and the missing childrens’ faces that would never hold a smile like that again covered the front page of the newspaper frequently.The siblings had been hoping for normal– a new normal. A normal that didn’t involve missing posters, dreams of screams and a knife callously tearing into flesh.But they didn’t get that.Gwen was especially angry when they realized they wouldn’t get that.
“It’s not safe here,” Gwen insisted, throwing a furious glance at the newspaper her father had placed down onto the slightly sticky surface of the table that was pushed against the wall, “It’s just like Galesburg,” she added, voice pleading with her father to understand and realize what she did when she saw the amount of missing posters scattered across the town.
Her anger and Finney’s despair didn’t dissipate when their father insisted that they received what he promised: safety.“He’s called The Grabber ,” Gwen scoffed, “Just like he was,” she spat, disgust causing her face to twist into a grimace as fragments of a faraway dream flickered back to life in her mind.“No,” Terrence shook his head, willing his daughter and son to see the truth, “He’s called The Wolf Grabber,” he corrected her, wishing she would see the difference.
And, thankfully, Finney did see the difference. And Terrence knew that would only mean one thing: Gwen would soon follow his lead.
“Wolf?” Finney repeated, arching a scarred brow at his father as his eyes bore into the older man’s pleading orbs like he was trying to see something inside his father’s mind and gather the information he wasn’t providing them with.
Terrence gulped, suddenly feeling uneasy as his son’s eyes flickered with something unreadable. Something that must mean Finney found whatever he was looking for.
And, he was right.
Because, quickly, Finney averted his gaze and told his sister what he had seemingly found in their father’s mind or face, “He only takes wolves.”
Terrence nodded his head, “He does,” a faint smile slipping onto his lips as his fingers twitched by his side, trying to fight the urge to reach out and comfort his children, “He only takes wolves,” he confirmed when he saw doubt flicker to life in his daughter’s eyes.
And then, he didn’t resist the urge to reach out. Terrence ignored Finney’s cautious eyes as he tried to suppress a subconscious rigidness from seeping across his body when Terrence gently took his hand in his. And Terrence ignored his daughter's questioning eyes as he grabbed hold of her hand and promised them both.
“You’re safe,” Terrence forced a smile onto his lips, “He won’t take you,” he vowed.
Finney instantly believed him.
And Gwen… well, she never believed him before . But maybe, in this new town, she could learn to trust his words again.
When she learned her father’s words held a truth she couldn’t yet understand, she would believe him.
And, eventually, offer him her forgiveness.
This new town was different– it was a new normal the siblings would reluctantly have to get used to.But it was safe. For the siblings, it was safe.But for the wolves that inhabited the town, it wasn’t safe.The Wolf Grabber was prowling the streets, hoping to catch another victim and devastate the families of the large wolf community in the town.The numbers of wolves in the town was dwindling thanks to the savage Wolf Grabber.And while the news of disappearances of the youngest wolves spread through the town by hushed whispers and by large inked letters plastered across the front pages of newspapers, a piece of information slipped through the cracks.Information that, as the Blake family arrived, the number of killers in the town had risen.