The Shadows in the Hills: Triple Threat

Chapter Thirty Two

The next morning, I was greeted by my parents sitting in the living room. Gerald wouldn't have fetched them, so it must have been Brodie. I could have killed him. I wasn't ready to deal with them. Brodie had already left to deal with business and the babies were all still asleep. I had promised Brodie that I would meet him and Gerald at the meeting cabin as soon as the babies were awake, so I wouldn't have to deal with them for long.

"It's good to see you." My mother was trying to be normal, but it seemed like a hopeless endeavour. I couldn't return the greeting, it would have been a lie.

"It's certainly a surprise to see you both." I headed to the kettle and started making myself a cup of tea. I needed something to focus on while I found out what they wanted.

"We came to see our grandchildren that we knew nothing about." Dad might have been a little harsh with his tone, but at least he wasn't pretending everything was normal between the three of us. I couldn't help but notice the distance between them as Dad sat back on one side of the sofa and my mother perched on the edge at the other end.

"It wasn't something I planned. There's just been a lot to deal with lately."

"Like you bringing Marcus back here?"

"I didn't bring him back here, Dad. I locked him up here. There is a difference." After everything, he was blaming me for his problems. I assumed it was Marcus that had created the distance between them, but I wasn't sure how.

I heard a cry from downstairs and pounced on it as a reason to get away. "I need to drop them off at the nursery. You guys stay here and I'll come straight back once I'm done." I did exactly that. Getting them ready quickly. Well, I got two of them ready. Theo still hadn't shifted back. I could only imagine what my parents would say when I carried him past them to get out the front door. Gerald had been nice enough to bring me a double baby carrier, which made transporting them around the camp much easier.

I headed straight out the front door, not pausing to speak to my parents any further. I didn't stick around to talk at the nursery either. As I walked back, I could see Brodie and Gerald together and knew I had missed out on being part of the meeting. I had no choice but to wait for Brodie to fill me in on the drama that had been occurring in our absence.

As I came to our home planning to speak to my parents, I could hear raised voices. I didn't really know what I was thinking, but instead of heading inside, I went around the back. Sitting on the slabs that surrounded our cabin and eavesdropping on the goings-on inside. I could hear both of them shouting at each other, Dad and Marcus. I didn't even know why Marcus was there. "She was mine. You should have stayed away. You were supposed to be my brother. In the end, all you were was a hypocrite."

"I didn't force her to leave. She loved me, Marcus. Nothing we did justified what you did."

"No, you might be right, but you still set the ball rolling. How long after I turned my back before you impregnated her to seal the deal?" It felt so crude that they were discussing me like that.

"What makes you think I waited until we left?" I heard the crash and sneaked a peek through the window. My dad was lying on the floor and Marcus was shaking his fist. Dad must have touched a nerve. "Leave the camp and go back to the sewer you climbed out of. No one wants you here. If you choose to stay, I will kill you myself."

"I would love to see you try. Esme might have taken me down, but you don't stand a chance and we both know it." He crashed out of the room and I could hear my mother weeping quietly. I wasn't sure why she was even upset. Something told me it was more about Marcus than my dad.

"Mary, you find a way to get rid of him. I mean it. You caused all of this, you can fix it." I was still peeping over the edge of the windowsill as she stood up from her spot on the sofa. She looked like she was going to embrace my dad, but at the last minute I realised her true intentions. She placed a hand on either side of my dad's head. He resisted, but her power took over too quickly. She was manipulating his mind, but to what end? Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. I dropped back down to the slabs. I should have tried to stop her, but I didn't have enough fight in me for that.

My brain was too filled with confusion to do anything. I realised that although she had reversed the effect on me; it didn't mean I knew the truth about anything. She must have been up to something, but I couldn't even imagine what that could be.

When I heard the door close again, I peaked through the window. Dad was just sitting on the sofa in some sort of trance. My mother was nowhere to be seen. Poking my head around the corner, I spotted her heading for the main gate of the camp and decided to follow her. I needed answers, and there was only one place I could get them from. I was relieved when she headed into the woods. Maybe if it was just the two of us, I might actually get some semblance of truth out of her.