The Letter

Three

"Where is Lance?" she blurted.

"Where is Lance?" this time more to herself than him.

"Where is he?" she shouted at the top of her voice.

Steve had gone completely white, a porcelain doll had more colour than him at that time. He tried to talk but words were not forming. She shook him as she feared the worst.

"They have Lance" Steve said, the single most fearful sentence the Jackson family could think of.

"How do we know for sure?"

"Dad can't find him anywhere" he said, with a finality that shocked her.

"That proves nothing. He could be anywhere. Maybe we could check the library again or round Dad's…"

"He is not anywhere. Dad has checked" he screamed. "Our kind do not just go missing and you know that" he continued.

"Our kind?" she asked him, not expecting an answer. "Like we are outcasts, you mean?"

"This is not the time, Emmy" he said as he tried to calm her

But she wasn't having any of it. She was tired of running away from what they were, hiding their identity. Being shunned for a crime they didn't commit.

"What are we, Lance?"

"Emmy, you need to be calm. This is not the time"

"Answer me, Lance. I want to hear you say it."

One look at her and he knew she meant it. Her eyes had gone a dark gold, her back was already slightly arching. She was going into full transition. They couldn't risk any more attention. He had to stop her.

"We are werewolves, Emmy" he uttered painfully, almost as though he'd been trying to forget that part of his life. He looked visibly weakened. "Can you stop now, please?" he begged.

"I'm tired of hiding, Lance" she said, as she turned her back to him. She knew where she must go, where she knew she could find her father. Maybe they could all get some answers.

"We need to go to the elders." he continued as he saw her walk past. "Where are you going?" he asked hurriedly.

"We don't have all the time in the world, Emmy," he said. He did know that with their kind, Lance could be anywhere in the world. "before anything else, we need to find Lance" he added.

"I know that, but don't you think finding Dad is a step in the right direction," Emmy said. Her dad was obviously vast and knew more than both of them combined. "I know where to find him."

"Can I ask where you are headed at least?" he said as he turned to follow her. It had just dawned on him that he didn't know the first thing about finding a lost "banned werewolf". He followed his sister.

For some reason, he thought it best to follow at a respectable distance. She was not in her most accommodating mood. He didn't want another tantrum.

Emily had been rock solid since their mother's death. She somewhat thought she could fill in their mother's shoes for Lance and Jeff, if only she knew. He had promised that the death was merely a minor setback. If she could only guess how much of a covered-up lie that was. His fun demeanor was not as fun as he made it look.

Rachel had been dead for 2 years and he had been dead for even longer. He has a big secret, one he would never tell. He promised.

"Steve!!!"

He was forcefully pulled out of his thoughts. He had forgotten in all of this that his friends were as worried as their knowledge allowed. He wasn't about to fill them in so he replied with a quick wave and picked up the pace toward Emily, whom he had almost lost.

Greq is a quiet and normal city by all standards. Its very few skyscrapers were a testament to its simplicity, no doubt. The sight of two young people walking briskly wasn't one seen every day. And so, when they started getting the looks, they had to slow down. They still hadn't found Lance and could do with little or no attention to themselves.

With what their parents had told them, once The Letter had been sent and stamped by the Elders, the lives of all members of the family to whom the letter was addressed were in grave danger. Sometimes it was sent without the stamp, depicting less dire circumstances. With the stamp of the Elders, then doom calleth.

In that instant of strayed thought, Steve realized he hadn't seen it.

"Hey, do you have it?" he said as he finally caught up with her. By it, she knew what he meant.

She replied with a half-nod and reached into her pocket for something he and, prior to that day, she had never seen. It had a beige-colored medium-sized pouch with something that resembled but wasn't quite a button at the tip and a matching embroidery at the top. A crest that told the proud stories of The Vom people sat proudly at the centre. If he didn't know any better, he would assume they were being invited to a ball.

Then he reached for the crest at the centre that also doubled as the opening of the pouch. In it, was a nearly folded paper, something that resembled a modern-day papyrus, if he had ever seen any.

At the top was boldly written in beautiful serif font The Good People of Vom. Good indeed, he thought.

The Jackson Family is hereby guilty of an unnecessary and unexplained show of werewolfry in an unapproved environment causing a breach in the security of said area. And to this effect, with a matter of urgency, they are now an A-level threat to the security of The Vom.

He knew for a fact that Lance hadn't just disappeared, he had been kidn*pped.

This, having passed through all necessary channels, must be treated immediately.

And beneath had the signatures of all the elders and one particularly stood out. He couldn't believe his eyes. Samuel. N. James, his mother's elder brother. His father couldn't bear to hear that name. He had heard so much about his uncle, an Elder. Would he have a hand in his own nephew's a*******n? he thought to himself.