Kanin
Chapter 4

I spent a few hours in my car, crying until all my tears dried up. I couldn’t go home. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I couldn’t go to Delilah. What would I even tell her?

“Oh hey, so my dad kills werewolves.”

Yeah, that didn’t sound crazy at all.

I had turned my phone off an hour ago, not wanting to see all the missed calls from my father. Now that I turned it back on, I was overwhelmed with all the messages. Repeatedly my father begged for me to come home so we could talk. There was nothing left to talk about. I didn’t even know who he was right now.

I ended up dialing Delilah’s number. She answered on the second ring, “oh good you called.” She sighed in relief. “Your dad is freaking out.”

“You spoke with my dad?” I questioned.

“Of course, he said that you guy’s kind of dished it out, you left, and he hasn’t heard from you since.”

“Yeah.” I rested my head against my steering wheel. “I can’t talk about it right now. Can I come to your place?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m here.”

“See you in ten.” I said quickly and hung up the line. I drove out of the parking lot and towards her house.

In a little under ten minutes I was parked in Delilah’s driveway. She stepped out onto her front porch to greet me. I climbed out of my car and walked towards her. I instantly hugged her tight. I was crying again, I thought I’d gotten rid of all my tears, but surprisingly I was still sobbing. Delilah led me into her house and up to her room. I plopped back onto her bed and starred up at her smooth ceiling. She sat down beside me, “so what did you guys fight about? His rules?”

I nodded, “something like that.”

“Well whatever it was, he sounded really sorry.” Delilah offered.

“Yeah, I bet he was.” I closed my eyes. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Yep.”

We ended up talking about gossip and boys for the rest of the morning. We ordered a pizza for lunch and ate the whole thing between the two of us. We watched scary movies and laughed when we screamed. When the afternoon rolled around, I knew I had to go home.

Delilah led me to my car, hugged me, and then watched me leave. I drove back to my house, a little nervous to face my father again. When I got back into my own driveway, I stared up at the front door for the longest time. Gaining the courage, I locked my car behind me and started for my front door. Inside, my father was pacing the front hall. He looked like a mess.

“Kanin!” He yelled, crossing the room in two quick steps to take me into a hug. A part of me just broke. I was crying once again, hugging him back. “Are you okay? I was scared.”

“I’m fine.” I pulled away from him. “I just needed time.”

“I know you did.” He said with a sad smile.

“Dad, that guy who attacked me said something before.” I said to him, remembering.

“What?” My father’s eyes narrowed.

"Blood for blood.”

My father cursed low under his breath, “I was afraid this day would come.”

“What day?” I asked, following him as he made his way back down the hallway.

I watched as he dug in his pockets for a set of keys. He stopped before the basement door and unlocked it. He disappeared quickly down the stairs. I paused in the entrance. Rule number three. I took in a deep breath and followed my father down the steps.

I’d never seen the basement. I always thought it was just a dank room with a furnace and a bunch of old boxes. It was nothing like that. Instead, it was filled with chains and weapons. On the far wall before me was a work bench. Above it was a wall of weapons: guns, knives, swords, bows, arrows. There was a training dummy off to my right. On the left wall, there were chains, like he’d once kept someone or something prisoner there.

I was speechless.

“You’re going to have to learn to shoot a gun.” My father said, pulling me from my trance. He was at the work bench, fooling with a gun. He cocked it and then loaded silver bullets into the chamber. “I’ll teach you the basics on how to use a silver blade, as well.”

“Dad-” I started, but he wasn’t listening. He continued to check his weapons. His hands worked precisely, like they knew exactly what they were doing. Like he did it every day. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach at the thought.

“Dad!” I yelled, trying to get his attention. He finally turned around to look at me. “Dad, what’s happening? Tell me what’s going on!”

He crossed the room and held out the gun to me. I didn’t take it, I couldn’t. “Take the gun, Kanin.” He thrust it at me again.

I shook my head and stepped back from him, “No, I’m not using that!” I wanted to be as far away from the thing as I could. Just looking at the piece that my father wanted me to take was making my stomach churn. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“You have to!” He yelled, stepping up to me again and forcing the weapon into my fingers.

My hand shook uncontrollably. The gun felt like it weighed ten pounds. My father wrapped his hands around mine and showed me how to hold it. He went over all its pieces and told me how to shoot it. I couldn’t get my mind to understand what was happening. It was like everything around me was working in a blur and I was just frozen there.

“Put this in your boot.” He handed me a blade in a small black sheath.

I snapped out of my trance and took it reluctantly. Pushing it into my shoe, I looked to my father again. “Tell me what’s happening.”

With his back to me, he spoke, “a few years ago, I killed this wolf. It was a routine job. In and out. Things got…complicated though. I’d happened upon a powerful pack. The wolf I’d killed wasn’t just any wolf.” He spun to look at me. “I killed someone important. Now the pack looks to get revenge by killing what’s closet to me.”

"Me?!” I yelled. “They want to kill me because you killed someone important?! How important?”

He ignored my question, “I never meant for this to happen.”

“How’d they even know about me? Aren’t you careful?”

“Of course, I am.” He was quiet. “But they’ve known about you for a while!”

“How?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He said very vaguely. “All that matters is that you can defend yourself.”

“Defend myself?” I sucked in a breath. “Dad, what’s going to happen? What am I supposed to be defending myself against?”

“They’re not going to stop coming after you. We have to take care of it.”

“Take care of it?” I couldn’t get my brain to process the words coming from his mouth.

“Yes, take care of it.”

He meant kill them. Murder. He wanted to kill them before they killed me. “Dad, no.” I refused. “I can’t take care of anyone.” I had a problem killing bugs. I even hated fighting with my father, and he wanted me to take care of someone? Not happening. No way.

“Kanin, this is life or death. If we don’t do something, they won’t stop until you’re dead.”

“We could talk to them!” I pleaded.

Talk, yeah. Talk sounded nice. Talk sounded a lot better than killing someone.

My father laughed, but it lacked any real humor. He was laughing at me for suggesting such a thing. Like the very idea of talking to them was outrageous. “We can’t talk to them! They only know hate and anger. They’re blood thirsty. They’ll sink their teeth into your neck before you’ve had a chance to say a word.”

“How do you know that? Have you tried to talk to them?” I begged for him to find another way. I couldn’t do what he did. I couldn’t just kill someone. It was impossible to even think about. I couldn’t sink a blade or bullet into anything. I just couldn’t.

“You don’t know anything about them!” My father was angry now. His voice was almost loud, he was almost yelling. I’ve never heard my father yell before all of this started. I was seeing a different side to my father, one I wasn’t sure I liked.

“I don’t want to do this.” I iterated.

“I know you don’t, but we don’t have a choice.” His voice lowered and his eyes softened.

There had to be another way. Killing them couldn’t be our only option. But I would learn to shoot a gun to appease my father. I would learn to use a silver blade to make him feel better. But if it came down to using those weapons, I doubt I’d be able to follow through with it.

My father led me out of the basement and into the back yard. He set up glass bottles on to the fence. He proceeded to explain to me how to sight them in. Then he shot down three bottles in a row without missing

“Your turn.” He stepped back to let me shoot.

I raised my hands up, pointing the gun at the three bottles. I sighted them in, teased my finger on the trigger, took a deep breath, and pulled. The bullet nicked the first bottle and it exploded. I felt a tiny surge of pride spread through me.

“That’s good, Kanin!” My father congratulated me. “Now try to hit the bottle straight on.”

I sighted up again, held the gun more confidently, and pulled the trigger. This time I hit the bullseye. The glass exploded. A smile broke across my face. I’d done it.

“You’re a natural!” My father beamed. He stepped up beside me. “Now you just have to do that under pressure. No sweat.”

“Yeah, easy.” I cracked a smile.

We spent the next few hours switching between gun training and knife training. It was like my hand to hand combat training. I picked it up easily. We ended the training session once the sun disappeared. It was dark by the time we went into the house.

“Please stay inside tonight.” My father begged. “Those wolves are still after you.”

I nodded, “I promise I will.”

My father watched as I disappeared into my room.

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