I gulped. It was looking around and it looked hungry. Or do those things always look hungry? Why can't the stupid thing leave me alone? "Well, Mary, at least you can say you've seen a monster," I choked out.
"What do we do?" Mary whispered panicking.
"Why are you asking me?!? You're the one who has a family who hunts monsters!"
"Only Everest, Bennet, and Elizabeth do that! I never really paid attention when they talked about these things."
I groaned. The monster wasn't looking at us. Maybe we can make a break for it. "Okay, here's the plan. We head back to the car and when we get to your house, you tell Everest."
"Why do I have to tell her?"
"Because you saw it first and she's your sister!"
"She took you in!"
I ground my teeth together. "Let's talk about this later, Mary. We should be focusing on getting passed a monster without dying."
She nodded and I started walking without taking my eyes off the monster. Mary followed close behind me. When I could no longer see the thing I started running. As soon as we got to the car, we threw ourselves into it. Mary quickly got out of there and got us home in record time. We got inside and started searching for Everest, Lizzy, and Bennet.
Either one of them would be nice since they're all in the same group. We found Lizzy and Everest in the basement looking stuff up on a tablet. "Um, guys? Sapphire has something to tell you," Mary blurted.
"Hey!" I exclaimed.
She gave me an apologetic look and ran out of the room. Everest chuckled. "I haven't seen Mary that freaked out since Ben shoved her into the pool."
"You have to do your hunt in the park," I said.
"Why?"
"Because Mary and I just saw a FleashEater there."
Lizzy dropped the tablet she was holding and caught it before it hit the floor. "You did?" She asked shocked.
I nodded. "Trust me, I could never mistake that thing for one of the others."
Everest sighed. "We have two leads."
Lizzy glared. "The Fangtor can wait. It won't bother anyone unless they bother it. The FleshEater is extremely deadly and will kill people for fun. We need to deal with it first, Eve."
Everest nodded. "I'll tell the team." She texted them. "Looks like they agree with you, Lizzy." She turned to me. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"
I took a step back. "I'm not going with you." I wouldn't be able to stand looking at the thing again.
"After seeing this thing again, you still want a normal life?"
"Yes." Or at least as normal as I can get it.
"But having a normal life is boring."
"That's exactly what I'm hoping for," I said leaving the room. I went to my room and pulled out my new laptop. I set it up and watched two movies then came to a decision. Maybe it isn't too soon to try and get the orphanage closed. I went to the Slade Orphanage website and gave it a terrible review using an alias. Then I grabbed my phone and posted all the terrible things Miss Slade does to those she looks after. Suddenly my phone rang and I frowned. The only people with my new number were the Lockwood's. It says an unknown number on the caller ID. I debated with myself for a minute and answered. "Hello?" I said cautiously.
"Is this Sapphire Hemlock?" A male voice said.
"May I ask who's calling?" I countered.
I heard a sigh. "I'm Scott Hemlock and I'm looking for my little sister."
I froze after he said that. My parents told me I had an older brother and that they had lost contact with him and thought he was dead. "You're the one my parents thought had died," I said numbly.
"So you are Sapphire," he said in a relieved voice.
"Damn, I had given that away. In my defense, I was shocked. "How did you get this number?"
"My friend's girlfriend gave it to him and he gave it to me because he recognized the last name."
"May I ask who this friend is?"
"Jordon Zole."
I mentally groaned. Dammit, Mary! "Okay." Everyone in Dark Savers probably has my number now. Ugh.
"I've been searching for you for a long time, Sapphire."
"Doubtful."
"I have. Ever since I heard our parents had died."
"And how long have you known that?" He's probably only known for like, a year.
"Eleven years."
Oh. "Did you ever ask Mrs. O'Reilly? Did you check the orphanages?"
"I couldn't find Mrs. O'Reilly. She had disappeared and they sold her house to someone. I checked all the orphanages but one and that's because I doubted anyone would put a kid in there."
I hope FleshEater got Mrs. O'Reilly and I'm glad my parents weren't there to scold me for thinking that. "Slade Orphanage."
"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't check. If I had, you would have had a better childhood."
"Probably."
"So you're staying with the Lockwood's?"
"Yes, and I'm happy here." Or I will be once I have a talk with Mary and the others. They need to know that they can't give my number out to everyone because it might eventually get back to Miss Slade.
"I'm not planning to take you from there until we've had a chance to meet. Then you can make your decision and I'll respect it. The only thing I won't do, Sapphire, is stay out of your life. I regret losing contact with Mom and Dad and I won't lose contact with you."
"I see." I wasn't planning to kick him out of my life anyway.
"Hey, did you know mom was pregnant when she died?"
"She was?"
"Yeah, she was nine months, and guess what."
"Hmm?"
"The baby somehow survived and I took him in. His name is Morgan."
Whoa. "He's eleven then."
"Yup, and he's kind of excited to meet his big sister. I'm excited to meet you too, to be honest."
I chuckled and then paused when something occurred to me. "Wait, did they tell you anything about our parent's deaths?"
"They told me they think a wild animal ate them after they were killed by someone."
"That's not true," I blurted. Why did I say that? He's going to think that I'm crazy if I tell him what did.
"I know. A FleshEater killed them."
"How did you know that?"
He sighed. "One, I'm in Dark Savers. Two, do you know what Dad did in that barn?"
He's in Dark Savers? Why hadn't Lizzy said his name then?!? "Uh, he told me it was off-limits."
"He told me that too. But I got curious and looked. Now I wish I never had."
"Why do you say that?"
"I saw some serious fucked up shit in there."
"Like what?"
"Monsters missing limbs and their heads. It was…freaky."
"Were they dead?"
"That would have made it easier to deal with but no. They were all alive and not happy at all."
I pondered this. I wouldn't be happy either if someone took off one of my limbs. "So Dad was researching them. Trying to make antivenom and trying to figure out how to kill them." It seemed like the only logical explanation.
"I wish that was what he was doing."
"What do you mean?"
"Sapphire, he was creating them."