Chapter Seven
The police failed to get any concrete information out of Ginny. All she could tell them was that she was unable to remember what happened after getting hit on the head. She woke up the next day in the woods with no idea where she was or what she was doing. The police seemed certain that Ginny was lying, and they were certain they’d find drugs in her system when the reports on her blood work came back. Geoffrey threw a tantrum at the implication, but Sandra did her best to keep him calm. Gwen didn’t think it was that farfetched given her behavior when they found her.
The following afternoon, Ginny was discharged from the hospital, a little later than they originally thought. Not long after, everyone was home together, but things were as tense as they had been when she was still missing, if not even more so. Sandra and Grant both questioned Ginny over and over again, but she refused to talk about her time while missing. She wouldn’t tell them if she’d been alone the whole time, where she’d gone, or if she’d taken anything they needed to know about. Gwen got the feeling there was more Grant wanted to ask her, but he looked at her and Gabe and thought better of it.
Ginny wolfed down a home-cooked meal and then excused herself to go take a hot shower. She was in the bathroom for almost an hour, taking her time and using all of the hot water. She had been washed down at the hospital, but it wasn’t the same as taking an actual shower in the comfort and privacy of your own home. When she was done, she came back downstairs just long enough to tell everyone she was going to bed early. Her voice was quiet and strained, like she was struggling not to scream.
Gwen and Gabe told everyone goodnight, but hung back at the top of the stairs, trying to eavesdrop on the adults now that Ginny was gone.
“Something happened to her that she’s not telling us,” Sandra said.
“No shit,” Grant snapped. Gwen could imagine him rolling his eyes and she could hear the tension in her father’s voice. He was close to exploding already. “We all know what it is, but nobody wants to be the one to say it.”
“Grant, we don’t know for sure what happened, and we won’t until Ginny decides to open up to us.”
Grant scoffed. “You’re in denial. We all knew that something like this could happen someday, and now that it has, you’re all gonna stick your heads in the sand and act like it’s not a possibility. Well, you’re all fools! Ginny got caught up in our problems, and she’s going to need lots of help and understanding if she has any chance of getting past all of this.”
“Grant, you’re getting ahead of yourself,” Sandra said softly. “I don’t wanna think this about my own child, but it is possible she got involved in drugs. Her behavior was erratic, and the nurses seemed pretty sure that it was drug related. She even attacked Gwen, for God’s sake! That’s not something Ginny would ever do unless she was out of her mind.”
“Then how do you explain the bite marks?” Grant asked, his voice low and even. He only ever got that tone when he knew he was right and was being challenged.
Gwen gripped the banister so tight it creaked. Bite marks? What did they have to do with her behavior?
Footsteps rushed out into the hallway, and Grant was at the bottom of the stairs before Gwen and Gabe could even move. His face was screwed up and his eyes blazed as he looked at them. “You shouldn’t be eavesdropping on our conversation,” he said, sounding far too calm and collected to be their father. “Go to bed!”
Gwen scampered off to the room she shared with Ginny, not even bothering to apologize for being caught in a misdeed. They were obviously keeping something from them, and she didn’t feel like she owed any of them an apology. Whatever their secrets were, they were putting Ginny in danger. And if Ginny was in danger, did that mean she and Gabe were in danger as well? They had a right to know what was going on, and until the adults coughed up some answers, Gwen didn’t feel the need to act polite or apologetic with her father.
She closed the bedroom door behind her, surprised to find Ginny sitting up in bed. Her legs were hugged tightly to her chest, and she was slowly rocking back and forth, like she’d been doing in the house when they found her. She was wide eyed and it almost looked like she’d been pulling at her hair.
Gwen sat down on her bed, careful not to startle her cousin. “Ginny?” she asked softly, her voice gentle and slow. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Ginny didn’t say anything, but she turned so that Gwen could see her face. It was red and blotchy, like she’d been crying again. “Ginny, you know you can always talk to me, right? About anything. I’ll listen no matter how crazy it sounds.”
Before Ginny could say anything, a wolf howled out in the woods. Ginny flinched and buried her face in her knees, crying pitifully. Gwen couldn’t be sure how many of them there were, but it sounded like a few. She looked out the bedroom window, searching the dark for what she knew was out there. Why did they spend so much time near the house? What did they want, and why did they affect Ginny so terribly?
Gwen tried for awhile to get anything out of Ginny, but she closed herself off, curling up under her covers. They shook as the howling continued, and Gwen wondered if she had always been scared of wolves like Gwen, or if it was a more recent fear. Gwen had been nearly attacked by a wolf while out searching, so it wasn’t all that far-fetched to think that it was a wolf that bit Ginny, not a dog. Geoffrey had told her that the wolves in this area were aggressive. Was it possible Ginny thought they were coming for her?
Gwen laid in bed all night, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the howling of the wolves. It was incessant, seemingly growing louder and louder throughout the night. Her eyes felt like they had sand in them, and she finally drifted off to sleep around three in the morning, but it was a fitful and terrifying sleep. She dreamed of glowing eyes and fangs, tossing and turning all night. Twice she woke up to find Ginny whimpering in her sleep like a small child, and she knew that neither of them was going to be in a good mood for the following day.
In the morning, the Grady family all watched Ginny like a hawk, waiting to see how she was doing. They were all gathered together around the dining room table, and for the first time since they had arrived in Brighton five days ago, Ginny’s place at the table wasn’t empty, and things almost felt complete, like they were supposed to. But it was obvious Ginny was sullen and irritable after a night spent listening to the wolves in fear, a fear that she and Gwen shared with one another. They hadn’t talked about it while getting ready for the day, but Gwen felt a little better knowing that it wasn’t just her that was scared.
Sandra cooked, humming cheerfully to herself as she did. She had a smile on her face while she doled out the food, and she gave Ginny a kiss on the forehead when she got to her. Ginny stared down at the food on her plate as if it was covered in mold, but Sandra didn’t notice. Or if she did, she pretended not to. Gwen couldn’t be sure since she wasn’t a mind reader, but it seemed like Sandra was going to pretend that everything was back to normal now that Ginny was home, when it clearly wasn’t the case. Geoffrey wasn’t as willfully oblivious, and he kept a close eye on his daughter, gently encouraging her to eat.
He wasn’t the only one to notice that something was deeply wrong with Ginny though. Grant never once took his eyes off of her throughout breakfast, watching her as she sat silently across from him, refusing to touch her food. When Sandra finally noticed that Ginny hadn’t eaten a single bite, she frowned. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Grant finally glanced away from Ginny, just long enough to glare at Sandra, who was looking at Ginny with wide eyed concern. Before he could say anything that would start a fight with Geoffrey, Sandra continued, still oblivious to her daughter’s problems.
“Ginny, aren’t you hungry? Are you feeling okay?”
Ginny stood so abruptly her chair clattered to the floor, and she slammed her fists down onto the table. Her plate shattered and the table split with a loud crack. “No I’m not okay!” she screamed, tears pouring down her face in an instant. Her hands began to shake, and she looked down at
them, her eyes wide. She shuddered, and before anyone could stop her, she bolted from the dining room. The front door slammed shut behind her, and both Grant and Geoffrey were on their feet in an instant.
They raced after her, for once not fighting with each other or trading petty jabs. It seemed their shared love of Ginny and their desire to keep her safe was enough to unite them for a short time. Karen and Sandra watched them go, trading uncomfortable glances before going back to their breakfast. They made small talk about the weather, friends, and even TV—anything that was normal. Gwen and Gabe traded quick glances of their own, perplexed more than ever about what was going on and what was being kept a secret from them.