Coming back after a short while, Tom was surprised to see that the chains were all still intact and that his best friend stood there butt naked. He deliberately avoided gazing around a certain area of Gary’s, instead hurrying to unlock all the locks.
“So what happened?” Tom asked. “Wait, before you tell me, please change into these!”
Fortunately, one of them had actually prepared a set of extra clothes.
As soon as he put on the boxers, Gary ran in a certain direction, leaving Tom behind. As for where he was heading towards, it was to the location the bags had been placed. A few minutes later, Gary came back, the bags were practically empty. The high schooler wasn’t happy the other hadn’t followed him to see how he had gobbled everything up.
“How did you know?” Gary asked, returning, and heading towards his phone. “About bringing the clothes I mean?”
“Did you forget that I was the one who had to clean up the storage unit after you? Your clothes were ripped to shreds! Given all the food you had me buy and the lock you asked me to bring, I was assuming you would want to do something Werewolf related, I just didn’t know you could actually change.” Tom replied, still a bit speechless.
“Hang on, since your clothes ripped again, doesn’t that mean… Holy sh*t, it worked, didn’t it?! Did you really do it?!”
There was no need for Gary to say anything, there was a big smile on his face as he turned his phone around for Tom to watch. The screen showed a large brown hairy wolf. Without a doubt, it had worked.
————
The two of them talked about Gary’s experience and there were a few things that he found out during their talk. For one, Tom was sure that the Werewolf in the recording looked to be the same as the one that he had seen that day.
He went on to describe what Billy looked and how the two of them had different coloured furs. According to his best friend, Gary’s Full Transformation form seemed to be a little smaller compared to his natural state, but Tom wasn’t a hundred percent sure as he only had the video to go on.
‘I guess what I thought before might be right then. That Werewolf version of me during the full moon should be bigger and stronger.’ Gary concluded. ‘Still, the only thing I can’t figure out is what that ‘Pawn’ stage meant. It’s not there at the moment, so it must be something Werewolf form exclusive.’
“So, what do you plan to do now?” Tom asked, sitting down on the leaves, Gary was doing the same as the two of them were taking a break. Gary’s Energy was refilled, but he wasn’t going to try that again anytime soon.
He was happy that it all worked out the first time, otherwise it would have been expensive to keep on purchasing meat.
“I… I need to find Billy.” Gary answered.
Tom had thought as much, that the other Werewolf was Billy from the news, the suspected murderer. It was all making sense, but what didn’t make sense was how Gary had met with Billy.
‘The two had gotten into a fight but how? I guess I shouldn’t try to pry too much. Gary has been revealing more information to me bit by bit. As long as I’m patient, he might tell me when he’s ready.’
“That might be a bit of a problem. How do you plan to find him, if even the police is unable to? Come to think of it, I wonder how those Altered Hunters knew where he would be? I mean, they were there that day, right? So they must have somehow tracked down one of you. It’s too bad you don’t have their skills.“ Tom thought out loud.
Hearing what Tom said gave Gary a brilliant idea. He might not be able to find him, but wasn’t there an Altered Hunter in their very school? The high schooler couldn’t prevent the huge smile from appearing on his face. If he could somehow convince Blake… he might get a head start on finding Billy!
————
The day was coming to an end, yet Slough’s police station was as busy as ever. If one was to stand outside the street, they would be able to hear an intense conversation coming from inside. It was clearly a yelling match.
“I’ve been back here three time already, and each time you tell me the EXACT SAME THING!!!” A young man shouted, as he slammed both hands on the desk. “My brother has been missing for over a week now, and it’s not just him! His useless friends that he usually hangs out with have gone missing as well. Admit it, you’re not even trying because of who I am!”
The worker behind the desk had an uncomfortable face and didn’t know how to handle the situation at all. The one sitting opposite him didn’t have the best temper either. For some, this situation might have been unheard of, but it was actually quite normal for gangsters and the police to deal with each other.
“How often do we have to tell you the same thing until it gets through your thick skull?” Anton questioned as he came out. He had been hiding in his office for a while now, but since the nuisance had shown no signs of disappearing on his own, the Chief of Police felt like he had no other choice but to deal with him.
“For the last time, it’s nigh impossible to find out ANY information from THAT day. All we know is that your brother and his friend weren’t among the list of dead or injured that night!
“You’re lucky we even went to look that far for you, when YOUR gang was mostly responsible for that entire sh*t show!” Anton poked the young man’s chest with his finger. “If scum like you are off the streets, then that’s fine by me.”
Not willing to discuss matters any further, he returned to his office, making sure to slam the door extra hard to send out the intended message, leaving Raven in anger. He knew he was getting nowhere and decided to walk out of the building. Frustrated, he sat down on the front steps with his hands in his hair.
‘Goddamnit, where could you have disappeared to, Hawk?! I’ve tried… I tried looking for you EVERYWHERE! Not only that, but I tried looking for your stupid friends and everything, yet I couldn’t find any clues whatsoever.’
Raven heard the sound of the door opening again from behind, yet he didn’t bother to turn his head. Eventually, he could feel that someone was standing over his shoulder and that person shoved a paper in front of his face.
Looking up, he could see that it was a young officer.
“Chief might not like you, but we’ve really tried finding your brother. I spent some of my free time looking over his case.” The young Roo revealed. “Unfortunately, we only managed to get a hold of the cell phone provider. Here is the transcript of some of your brother’s last messages.
“It looked like he was talking with some girl. It’s the only thing I can do without being put on the investigation myself. I wish you luck in finding your brother and his friends.” With that, the young police officer went back inside, leaving Raven with the paper.
Shuffling through them, Raven could tell that he had possibly found his first clue to finding his brother.