The Demon Wolf - Chapter 21：A Father's Quarrel

Randy starts reading an entry about a demon called Νεκρομάντις Δαίμονας (neckro-mantis, dee-no-maus), which translates to necromancer demon. Before he can get halfway down the page, there’s barking and growling from below, and soon the sound of something scratching at concrete can be heard. Randy looks down at the floor, wondering what Jerard is trying to do.

Is he trying to dig his way out? Jerard looks at his oven, the clock blinking “12:00”, meaning it must have been turned off and than on. He pulls out his phone, it’s around 2 am.

“Randy, uh I mean…grandpa?” Randy turns to the kitchen entrance to see Red standing there, a blanket wrapped around her. Randy folds the corner of the page before closing it.

“Yeah?” The scratching and growling down below continues to persist.

“Do you think he’s alright?” She glances down at the floor.

“…I have no idea sweetey. He’s keeping himself in the basement, that’s all I know,”

“Maybe he’s hungry..?”

“Know that I think about, probably. He ate quite often, and got hangry pretty easily…” Randy gets up and walks over to his fridge, “Let me see if I have anything I could throw down there for him,” As he rummages through his fridge, Red glances over at the living room, Helena sound asleep. What must it feel like to be able to sleep through such noise.

“I was hoping to save this,” He says as he pulls out a large piece of meat, still wrapped in the plastic tray things they’re sold in at the store, “But this is probably the only thing I have that he’ll eat at the moment,” Randy walks out of the kitchen, Red following, and heads to the basement door. He goes to reach for the handle, but hesitates when he hears more growling and scratching.

“Here,” Randy hands her the meat, “I’ll open the door, and you just chuck it down there, alright?” Red glances at the door nervously before nodding. Randy places his hand on the door handle, his other hand ready to draw his shotgun.

“1…2…3!” Randy pulls the door open and Red chucks the meat at the door. She catches a glimpse of something large and covered in black fur moving around before the door closes back, Randy quickly locking it shut. They jump back as something presses against the door, barking can be heard as claws scrape against metal. It quickly ceases as the two of them keep their distance from the door.

“Hopefully that’ll kep him quiet. Red you best get some rest, I have a feeling we won’t be getting much of it from now on since that, thing, clearly wants us all dead,”

“I’ll try,” And with that she heads off to the guest room once more, hoping to finally get some shut eye. The guest room door closed, Randy looks at the basement door, hoping that it will be their in the morning before heading off to his room to call it a night.

The rest of the night is filled with nothing but a dead silence after the fire burns itself out, the sun shining through the windows as morning comes. Red is the first to wake. The cold morning air fills the house, forcing her to wrap herself up in a blanket. Entering the hall she looks at the basement door, expecting to hear more growling and scratching, but there’s nothing. The door stares back at her, unmoving.

She cautiously approaches the door, ready to run at any sound, but she makes it all the way to the door without so much as a creak from the floorboards. She presses her ear up against the frigid door, and hears nothing. She quickly takes her ear off and rubs it to warm it back up.

Will my father be on the other side, or will the Demon Wolf?

Hesitant, she looks around to see if Randy or Helena might be up and walking around before reaching for the lock. Getting up on her tippy-toes, she unhinges the lock with nimble hands, barely making a sound. She puts a hand on the icy handle and pulls, the door slowly opening up before her, revealing a set of wooden, dark brown, steps. A small ray of light shines onto the concrete floor from an unknown source. She sees nothing but some boxes and the stairs at her feet.

She steps onto the first step, feeling much more solid than it looked. Creeping her way down the stairs she looks, seeing a small window where sunlight is seeping through, lighting up a good portion of the basement with a soft glow. Every step down, it seems to grow colder, the concrete chilling the air above it as if it were ice. The stairs towards the bottom are bent slightly as if something heavy had been placed on them. The walls are covered in partially visible claw marks.

Having reached the bottom, Red steps to the side of the stairs, turning around to see what at first glance seems to be just darkness, the wall on the other side hidden behind it. Looking at the edge of the light, she notices that the darkness is actually fur, black as charcoal. Looking at the large mass before her she sees how fluffy but rugged the fur looks.

She sees it slightly expand and than shrink as it breathes. Its head, which nearly blends in with the rest of its body, is nestled against its side. Though the eyelids are closed, Red can’t help but get a shiver down her spine when she thinks about the blood red eyes that lay just beneath them.

Torn up on the ground not too far away from it is the plastic tray that the meat had once been in. It’s hard for Red to believe that she’s standing in front of the Demon Wolf as it lays sound asleep, knowing that it’s her dad and nearly getting killed by it just last night. As she decides to leave the basement it starts moving as it wakes up. She stands there frozen and quiet as it opens its eyes, looking around the room before focusing on her, its crimson eyes becoming wide and surprised.

“What are you doing down here?” It asks in an aggressive tone, eyes narrowing. It’s deep growling voice takes her by surprise.

“I-I…” She tries to speak but nothing but air comes out.

“Leave, now!” It roars, raising a claw and quickly slamming it down on the ground. Red runs to the stairs, almost tripping as she dashes up them, slamming the door close and locking it within seconds after reaching the top. Red steps away from the door as Randy emerges from his room.

“What the hell was that?!” He asks as he looks at the basement door and then at Red, seeing tears of fear forming in her eyes, “What happened?” Randy kneels down in front of her, holding her shoulders.

“I-I, went down to see if dad was alright, but,” She wraps her arms around him as she starts crying into his shoulder, “There was just a monster!” She cries into his jacket.

The wolf looks up towards the stairs, his daughter’s words feeling like daggers to the heart.

“You’re alright,” Randy says as he rubs her head to calm her down, “I’m sure your dad will come walking up those stairs soon, now come on, I’m gonna make us some breakfast before I head out to the station,” Red lets go of him as he stands up, the two heading to the kitchen.

Not having a whole lot of breakfast foods, Randy makes Red some toast with some strawberry jam.

“Morning already?” Helena asks as she walks into the kitchen, letting out a loud yawn, “Here I was hoping last night was just a bad dream…” She comments as she walks over to the counter, “Got any coffee?”

“Cabinet right of the fridge,”

“Thanks,”

As Helena starts making herself some coffee, there’s a knock coming from the basement door, causing Red to jump a bit. Randy walks into the hallway and unlocks the door, seeing a slightly grumpy Jerard. Randy wants to say something, but decides its best to not say anything. As the two of them walk into the kitchen Jerard stops for a second, glancing over at Red who looks down at her toast. Jerard grabs one of the chairs by the table and sits it down by the entrance and sits down in it.

“Let me know when you’re ready to leave Helena,”

“Alright,” She replies, a piece of toast still in her mouth.

“Am I not going?” Jerard asks as he turns his head to follow Randy to the living room.

“As far as Pierre’s concerned, Gerald is the Demon Wolf,” He says as he pulls a gun out from under his coffee table. He pulls out the magazine to make sure its full before pushing it back in with a click and putting the gun back under the coffee table.

“But-”

“No buts. I won’t have Pierre trying to hunt you down,” Jerard gets up, sets his plate on the chair and heads for the front door. Randy quickly joins him outside.

“Where are you going? You’re not gonna leave Red here are you?” Randy asks., running in front of Jerard and stopping him in his tracks.

“You said you did stuff to your house to keep demons out, right?”

“Yes,”

“And you’re sure they work?”

“For the most part yes, why?”

“Cause I can’t be alone with Red. You heard her…” He looks down at the ground, his irritation becoming guilt, “I’m a monster…”

“Jerard she’s scared. We were chased by-”

“She’s not wrong,” Jerard interrupts, looking back at Randy, his eyes flashing red for a second, “I don’t know why you’re not going to turn me in to Pierre,”

“Because you’re not a monster,” Randy says, putting a hand on his shoulder, “You may have been born as one, and you may sometimes look and act like one…but you’re more than that. You’re my son in law, you’re Red’s father, and with all this crazy shit happening, she needs that more than anything else right now,” Jerard just stares back at him, choking back tears as he remembers the terror he had brought upon Red.

“H-how can I be what she needs, when I’m the biggest threat to her?” He asks with a shaking voice as tears trail down his face. He puts a hand over his face, “I’m the, monster, she fears,”

“You were the same thing to Clara at one point weren’t you?” Jerard moves his hand down a bit, glancing at Randy, “If Clara saw good in you, so does Red, you just have to trust yourself,” Jerard looks off in the distance as he gets his crying under control, thinking about what he needs to do. He wipes his eyes as his expression becomes a determined one.

“You’re right…I’m her father, I need to be there for her. I’m not gonna let that fucking demon hurt her, I’m gonna find a way to kill it for good,”