Lycanthrope

“What are you doing here?” I manage to ask softly while crossing my arms over my chest.

Staring at my father intently, I watch as he lowers his head and runs his hand through his short dark brown hair. He lets out a deep breath before looking up at me and answering, “I was wondering if we could talk.”

Narrowing my eyes at him, I ignore his request to talk when a thought occurs to me and I ask, “How did you even know that I was here?”

“Well, I’ve, uh,” he chuckles nervously while scratching the back of his head, “I’ve kind of been keeping a close eye on you.”

“So you’ve been stalking me?” I question, tilting my head to the side.

He quickly shakes his head and retorts, “No, not stalking. Just watching out for you...from afar.”

“Also known as stalking,” I correct him, dropping my arms down to my side and shoving my hands in the back pockets of my jeans, “why are you even doing that? I mean, you were the one who left. You walked out on us so why are you here?”

His hazel eyes flicker to something behind me and then his gaze meets mine once again. “Come on, let’s go grab something to eat and we can talk.”

“Fine. Let me just grab my things,” I agree before turning around and walk towards the kitchen where Elena is waiting for me in the doorway. I grab my purse off of the kitchen table before turning to Elena, who is watching me intently while waiting for an explanation. “That’s my dad.”

Her brown eyes widen in surprise and quickly asks, “Your dad? What does he want?”

“I’m not really sure,” I shrug my shoulders and continue, “but I’m gonna get something to eat with him and listen to what he has to say.”

“If you need to talk afterwards, call me. Okay?”

I simply nod my head before waving goodbye to Elena and walking out to the front yard where my father is waiting for me by his car. He smiles softly when he sees me walking towards him and opens the car door for me. Once I’m sitting inside, he closes it then walks around the car to get into the driver’s side. I watch as he puts the key in the ignition and starts the car while thinking what he could possibly want to talk about.

Was he going to give an explanation or an apology? My mind was being consumed with thoughts causing the car ride to the Grill to be completely silent. I could feel my father’s eyes on me every so often but he didn’t dare start a conversation.

The drive is quick and it seems like we arrive at the Grill in a matter of minutes. We walk inside, still silent, and take a seat in the first empty booth that we see. The silence remains until after we order our food when my father breaks it by asking, “How’ve you been, Sydney?”

Ignoring his question, I ask a question of my own and get straight to the point, “Let’s skip the small talk, Dad. Why have you been stalk-”

“Watching out for you,” he quickly interjects.

“Are we really going to go over this again?” I question with my eyebrows raised, “You know, Sheriff Forbes is standing over there by the bar. I’m sure she can clear this up for us.”

He lets out a frustrated sigh and simply shakes his head. “You’re still impossible.”

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” I smirk as I take a sip of my soda, “so are you going to tell me why you’ve been watching me or not?”

“Did that information on werewolves help you out at all?” he dodges my question with one of his own.

It feels as if my heart stopped when I put the pieces together. I run a hand through my hair and then down my face before asking, “That was your research?”

“Parts of it,” he begins while nodding his head, quickly thanking the waitress for our food before continuing, “I did a lot of research on werewolves over the years and when I overheard you talking to that boy about it, I figured some of my stuff would be better off with you.”

“Why werewolves? Where did that interest come from?” I question, suddenly becoming interested with everything that he had to say.

“Because of the curse,” he answers simply causing my eyebrows to burrow in confusion. He notices the confused look on my face and adds in, “In certain families, there’s a werewolf gene but having the gene doesn’t make you a werewolf. To actually become one, you need to trigger the curse. You know your Uncle Bobby, the one that you’ve seen probably...three or four times in your life? Well, he triggered it back when I was in college.”

My eyes widen in disbelief at the words that are coming out of my father’s mouth. I let out a shaky breath and say, “So what you’re saying is that Uncle Bobby is a werewolf? I thought the reason we didn’t see him is because he’s crazy not because he’s some kind of animal!”

“Well, he is a little crazy. You see, he always felt like he was different and he was teased a lot for it. Then one day, he reached his breaking point. Someone said the wrong thing to him and he lost it. He literally beat the guy to death and after that, he started feeling even more different. He was faster, stronger and his senses were enhanced. When he would lose his temper, his eyes would change colors. No one knew what was going on with him but then a full moon came and he... changed, he transformed into a wolf. That’s when my research began.”

Pushing my plate of food away from me, I rest my elbows on the table and put my face in my hands, lowering my head slightly. I let each word sink in when finally, I lift my head and look at my father with my eyes glazed over with tears. “Killing that guy triggered the curse, didn’t it?” I ask causing my dad to simply nod his head. I take a deep breath and softly ask, “Does this mean that I have the gene?”

“To be honest, I don’t know. I’ve been trying to find out if it’s gender specific or if it’s just passed down to the offspring but I haven’t found anything. So I’ve just assumed that you have it which is why I’ve been looking out for you. I’ve been here watching you to make sure that there’s no way that you can possibly trigger it.”

I quickly wipe away a silent tear that managed to make its way down my cheek and scoff, “You don’t have to worry. I mean, it’s not like I plan on killing someone.”

“You don’t have to kill someone intentionally to trigger it. If a person dies at your hands, you’re cursed for the rest of your life. It doesn’t matter if it was an accident because if it did, I wouldn’t be-” he cuts himself off which causes me to perk up.

“You wouldn’t be what?” I ask causing my dad to shake his head as if saying that there’s nothing to tell. “Dad, have you...” I trail off, unable to finish my question, but it was enough for him to understand what I was asking.

“Yes,” he nods his head causing me to cover my mouth in surprise, “about a year ago when I was in that car accident, the person that was in the car that I hit died.”

Burying my face in my hands, I shake my head in disbelief. I begin to feel overwhelmed with all of this information but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to know more. Despite the twinge of fear that I was feeling and the knots that were forming in my stomach, I just had to know more. “Does mom know what you are?”

“Yeah, she does and it’s part of why I left. I almost did something to her that I’m not proud of,” he begins, his eyes focused on the table as the memory comes back to him, “I locked myself up in the garage like I did every full moon but the chains were wearing out and then with just a couple of tugs, I was loose. I managed to get into the house and I almost killed her. I didn’t want to risk that again or risk hurting you so I left. I left to protect you and your mother because if I ever killed or bit either of you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Tears quickly start to fall from my eyes and I ask, “So you didn’t leave because you didn’t love us enough to stay?”

“God, no. I left because I love you both too much to let anything happen to you,” he answers while grabbing hold of one of my hands, “but there is just a little more.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose with my free hand and shake my head. “What more could there possibly be?”

“Since the werewolf part of the Aztec curse is true that means the vampire part is also true. So I want you to have this,” he says while pulling something out of his pocket. He takes my right hand and places a bracelet around my wrist while saying, “These little charms contain a herb called vervain which is a vampire’s weakness. By wearing this, you’ll be protecting yourself from having vampires compel you and because you are in a town where vampires seem to be living, you’re going to need this.”

“Wait a minute. ‘In a town where vampires seem to be living.’ What are you trying to say?”

“There are a few vampires here in Mystic Falls but I checked them out and they are harmless to you. Well, two of them are. The other is a bit impulsive and has no problem killing someone but considering you’re friends with Elena, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about,” he answers.

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and stare intently into my father’s eyes. “What does Elena have to do with it?”

“Nothing. Just know that you’ve got a good friend.” I nod my head in response and just as I’m about to say something, my dad cuts me off by saying, “But I need to get going. There’s some things that I have to take care of.”

“You can’t just leave after dropping a crazy, supernatural secret on me like that,” I plead as tears burn my eyes and threaten to fall once more.

Without saying a word, he places money on the table before rising to his feet and walking over towards me. He leans down and places a gentle kiss on the top of my head. “Don’t worry, baby girl. I’ll keep in touch.”

He wipes away a tear that has managed to escape and smiles softly while stroking my cheek. Dropping his hand to his side, he turns to leave and I just watch as he walks away. Once he’s out of sight, I notice that more tears have fallen and I quickly wipe them away.

I attempt to pull myself together but it seems nearly impossible after finding out that you’re father is a werewolf and you could possibly be carrying the gene. But nonetheless, I take a deep breath to relax myself and begin to make my way out of the Grill.

“Are you okay?” I hear someone ask when I’m only a few feet away from the door.

I look to the right where the voice came from and see Tyler standing there, staring at me with a concerned look in his eyes. Nodding my head, I answer, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Really? Because you look like shit,” he retorts while crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh, Tyler. You’re such a charmer,” I reply while rolling my eyes before asking, “why do you even care? You don’t like me, remember?”

His eyebrows elevate and an amused smirk slowly begins to spread across his face. “You honestly think that I don’t like you?”

“You did say that I’m kind of a bitch so yeah, it’s safe to think that.”

“You’re not as smart as you think you are then,” he chuckles lightly while shaking his head. I stare at him quizzically only to receive a smirk in response and without saying a word, he walks away leaving me to stand by myself while he joins his friend.

I glance over my shoulder to look at Tyler, feeling confused by his comment, and find him staring at me with his smirk still in tact. Rolling my eyes, I turn back around and leave the Grill. After the conversation with my father, I was feeling mentally exhausted and there was no place that I would rather be than home.