"No, I can't really say what my grandma does at night. I've always assumed that she was perfectly normal, except for the fact that she liked to boss us around," Mishka responded to Gillian's question. Her eyes were narrowed as she tried to remember everything better.
"But then you found out differently this week," Joan remarked, shaking her head sadly.
"My grandma was apparently up late and chanting last night.
Or maybe she was watching a weird movie and this was while we were all asleep. So, Grace and I had nightmares involving chanting," Mishka announced with a sigh.
"Maybe she busy with something new because you guys never heard such noises in your house before?" Mason suggested.
"A new kind of witchcraft or magic?" Gillian asked with her eyes stretched wide with curiosity.
"I don't think that she was into this for a long time. I mean, dark stuff," Mishka replied contemplatively.
"Maybe she just did it in another way. Everything in life has stages of progress," Joan remarked with a shrug.
"It feels too weird to accept," Mishka responded with a serious frown on her brow.
"I can imagine how you must feel. You'd rather let it just be a matter of your imagination, but then you can't all be imagining the same thing," Mason responded in a sympathetic tone.
"It's like discovering that some people have deep secrets which are unthinkable," Mishka responded, thinking about Bruce who was apparently a wolf, even though he looked like a normal successful businessman on the outside.
"Yes, life can be surprising," Joan remarked as she began to dish the food into casserole dishes to be served from on the table.
"I wonder for how long we can hide the facts from Gillian? She has to find out that she has wolf family like Bruce and Lyle," Mishka asked herself as she glanced at Gillian briefly.
"Well, we should still find a way to get your grandma out of your house," Gillian remarked as she stared at the wooden table thoughtfully.
"We should find out all her darkest secrets and then tell her that a dark way of life should be practiced away from your home," Joan suggested in a firm tone of voice.
"And we can apply pressure of exposure on her. I don't think that your father knows that she's endangering your family by practicing foreign spiritual behaviour," Mason remarked with equal determination in his voice.
"I think that, instead of you coming to stay here, Gillian should join you there and then your grandma will truly feel under pressure. Her true colors will come out in front of everyone soon then," Joan suggested with a quick glance at Gillian.
"I don't know, but it will certainly help me feel less overwhelmed," Mishka replied with a smile.
"Oh, it could take some pressure off you because you will once again have someone else there instead of it being just you against your grandma," Mason agreed.
"Wow, that's gonna be quite a change for all of us, but it's better to be afraid with someone else there than to be afraid alone, hey?" Gillian remarked as she looked at Mishka.
"You can take turns watching her movements," Mason suggested with his eyebrows raised hopefully.
"We can ask Milla to help as well. I already told her that grandma chants. She thinks it's a sign of old age, though," Mishka remarked with an uneasy giggle.
"Oh, it's great if you could confide in one of the servants," Mason remarked excitedly.
"When a bully gets surrounded by a group that stands together they usually back down," he added in a confident tone.
"But servants are so loyal towards their older bosses," Joan remarked with a concerned look in her eyes.
"You mean she could eventually turn against us?" Mishka asked, her grey eyes darkening with worry.
"Yes, unfortunately so, unless she sees something sinister herself. Something which will make her realise the truth," Mason remarked.
"So, I can go over there for maybe a weekend, otherwise it's gonna look strange if I just move in for a long time," Gillian suggested, looking at her parents each in turn.
"As you wish," Joan responded.
"Yes, that would make a difference, for sure," Mishka remarked with a nod.
The girls then began to carry the serving bowls to the dining room.
"Now I should just get a chance to tell Joan about my trip to the mansion yesterday," Mishka told herself hopefully.
"So, when are we going to give Bruce the designer a surprise visit?" Gillian asked when she and Mishka were alone in the dining room.
"Err, do you mean that we should just pop in?" Mishka asked, feeling guilty and uncomfortable about her visits which she was keeping secret from Gillian.
"How else will we get an invitation when we're not involved in fashion? We can only go and introduce ourselves as neighbours," Gillian suggested with an optimistic smile on her face.
"I suppose we could just try and be friendly, yes," Mishka agreed.
"He won't be rude to neighbours if he wants to be accepted into the community," Gillian remarked with a shrug.
"Oh, yes, community is important," Mishka responded.
"I wonder how many communities he has. Surely, he must have a wolf community as well. But where are they all? Can some of them be here, right around us?" Mishka asked herself inwardly.
"I will have to find out who the local wolf community is then, but what if it's scary?" she asked herself again.
By the time that they were all sitting at the dining room table, Mishka had her answer.
"I will ask Gillian's mom about the local wolf community. It must be something that she knows about, especially since she has family amongst the wolves," Mishka decided firmly. She somehow felt excited about the prospect of learning about werewolves from Joan.
"It would have been great if Gillian and I could have switched homes for a while instead," Mishka thought to herself as she began to help herself to the delicious-looking cottage lunch.
***
As Mishka walked back home after the lunch, she wondered whether she really knew what her grandmother did at night.
"Does she sleep through the night every night as I've always just assumed?" Mishka asked herself after saying goodbye to Gillian who had walked her halfway home. She was close to the lake now and she had to practice some singing.
As she sang, Mishka became aware of music playing in the distance.
"It can't be in someone's house. Someone is playing music in the woods. How strange. Don't they know that they will frighten the wild animals?" she asked out loud.
She then walked in the direction of the sound.
"It can only be visitors from somewhere else," she told herself, shaking her head in frustration.
"Yes, city dwellers who don't know or respect the rules of nature," she remarked out loud.
"Perhaps I should go and tell them about the rules here?" she asked herself as she walked, singing again.
When the music sounded closer, she also heard voices. So, Mishka quickened her steps until she saw the group under a tree in the distance.
"Oh, no. It's an entire group of people! A party in the woods! When last did I see something like this?" she asked as she walked closer slowly.
"I can't confront a whole group, but who are they? Naughty kids!
They can't be locals, so they do need a warning," she murmured to herself before standing still to study the group.
She was now close enough to see them more clearly; standing behind a big tree. So, she peeped around the tree to try and detect familiar faces in the crowd, now that she was close enough.
Mishka was surprised to notice that the people were mainly adults and not teenagers as she had assumed.
"A party for grown-ups under a tree in the forest!" she exclaimed to herself as she scanned the group of happy faces in amazement.
"Wait a minute, who's that? Is that really Lyle?" Mishka asked out loud when she recognised Lyle talking to two people who were seated on a rug.
When the seated man turned around to face Lyle, Mishka's breath got caught in her throat. There he was again! She was seeing him in the forest again, but this time he was surrounded by people.
"He looks just as handsome as if he was on his own. But, why do I only see him in the woods?
And who are these people around him?" Mishka wondered to herself.
She scanned the crowd again. They looked happy and normal, chatting and laughing, but the music had stopped for a while now.
"Can they be the wolves? Is this Bruce's wolf community?" Mishka asked herself with a gasp. She stepped back quickly as the realization hit her.
"What will they do to me if they all see me?" she whispered as she panted in panic.