Today was the second night that Tom had to stay inside the hospital. Following the advice of their school nurse, Tom had made an appointment and given his situation he didn’t have to wait for long. He had quickly been assigned a private room, though he ended up having to sleep over on Monday since the surgeon didn’t have any gap to get to him.

Tom didn’t mind that. The hospital staff had given him enough pain killers that he had easily slept until Tuesday morning. When he woke up, he saw that he had seventeen missed calls from his mother alone, and nine more from his father. At some point, his father had notified him via a message that the hospital had already informed them and that the two of them would be with him this evening.

With a few more hours to go until his dental surgery, Tom had browsed the web via his phone. The first thing he had searched for was any recent news. He half closed his eyes as he read the headlines expecting to see Gary’s name or the headlines reading Werewolf caught, but there was none of that and just news on Billy.

His surgery was rather uneventful. From what he had been told, implanting a new tooth was a rather routine procedure and they had also taken care of the cuts that had appeared in his mouth.

‘I wonder how Gary is coping. Where did he run off to after leaving me at the nurse’s office? I’m seriously worried. I mean, if he ever found out who did this to me, there’s a good chance he could…’ Tom gulped. ‘Kill those two.’

At that moment, the two people who were responsible for Tom's absence from school burst into the room through the door.

“Tom, how are you feeling? Did the surgery go well? Let’s see that beautiful smile of yours.” His mother called out as she rushed over to his bedside. She hugged him to the point that Tom had trouble breathing. He tapped his mother on the shoulder, asking her to release him.

Noticing this, his mother pulled back and allowed Tom to give her a shy smile. It had been a while since he had seen his parents, so it was a bit saddening that he had to be in a hospital for them to find some time. Both of them were still wearing their white lab coats, indicating that they had rushed over from work to visit.

Holly and James Green were like the living embodiments of what one pictured when hearing the word ‘scientist’, including the thick black glasses on their faces. Tom’s mother was blonde and rather good-looking. Her son sometimes lamented that he apparently got more from his father than his mother, including his black hair, which was hard to see given his hair cut.

James Green wasn’t bad looking, but he wasn’t exactly someone who would be described as ‘handsome’ either, which sometimes made Tom wonder how his father had managed to get his mother. His pet theory was that among all the other scientists, he was probably the best looking one.

‘They must have even asked for time off to visit me.’ Tom thought with a guilty conscience. Both of them worked in a Tier-2 city. Due to the long drive they wouldn’t always come back every day.

“Tom, me and your father have been talking about your situation. We’ve decided that it would be for the best if we move you from Slough to the tier 2 city Brocknell.”

It took Tom a second to comprehend what his mother had just said. It was one of the many possibilities he had considered his mother would say when she found out. While he wouldn’t mind seeing his parents more often, it wasn’t a given that would actually happen. From what he had heard, their company actually had sleeping rooms for their personal.

“We can sell up the house and all move into a nice apartment in Brocknell. We’re not too far off from completing our big project. With the bonus we will receive and our contracts being up for renewal soon, we’ll be able to afford a place that is just as nice as this one to move you to a new school. It will be much safer there.” Her approach was gentle, but Tom had already prepared what he would say to that.

“You know that’s not true, Mum! It’s only safer on the surface.” Tom replied looking into her eyes to stress that he wasn’t having that. He understood that at the end of the day his caring parents were just trying to look out for him. “There are even bigger gangs in the upper tier cities, you know that! It's just more behind the scenes. Besides, Westbridge is plenty safe. Something like this has never happened to me before, it was just a one time incident! I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time!”

Tom tried his best to downplay the part, since he honestly didn’t know what would happen the next time he met the bullying duo. He didn’t want to leave his school and most of all he didn’t want to leave his best friend Gary behind. He had never liked talking to people, but somehow Gary had made it seem less bothersome, making him treasure his friendship with his best friend all the more.

There was a time in Tom’s life when he had needed someone, yet his parents had been too busy with work, his teachers didn’t seem approachable, so the only one he had been able to rely on had been Gary. Now that his best friend was struggling with a supernatural problem, he couldn’t leave him to his own devices. He somehow had to convince his parents to let him stay in school.

“Even if it was a one-time thing, the important point is that it DID happen, which means it could very well happen again. We’ve already been notified that you have refused to tell who exactly did that to you, so how can we believe that this was merely a one-time thing?”

“We live in a good part of Slough, so we’re lucky to not be affected by what's been going on, but at the same time we can’t bear to be away from you and allow such a thing to repeat. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve heard about the recent high school student killings! That alone would be enough reason for us to pull you out of this place!”

Listening to his mother, she made good points, better than her son for wanting to stay in this dangerous town. It seemed she had already made up her mind, which meant there was only one person who could help him win over his mother.

Although he lost more times than not, once in a while his father managed to pull through.

“Dad, I get good grades, I have good friends and even my teachers somewhat like me. If I get put into a different environment it could really affect me, and this year I’ll have my exams. I can’t afford to fail my GCSE’s! Don’t you two always talk about how compromise is often important for your experiments and research? Isn’t there a way we can compromise?” Tom practically pleaded.

His mother was more than a little annoyed that Tom had decided to ask his father for help. Nevertheless, she also knew that her son only did so when he regarded something as very important. His father, who had been quite calm during their visit so far, placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder.

“We can compromise and allow you to stay until the end of this school year then.” His father offered. “By that point we should have finished with our project, so we will be ready to move you out once you get your results. You can’t say we are affecting your studies then, can you?”

It was clear from his mother’s demeanor that she wanted to argue that a school year was too long. Tom knew his parents long enough to recognise that this was the best offer he would get out of them.

“Deal!”

‘I just hope that time will be enough for us to figure out what to do with Gary’s condition. How and when am I supposed to tell him that I will leave though?’

After this, the Green family ended up talking about a few other things like school, whether Tom had perhaps found a lady he fancied and how things were with Gary. Eventually, his mother left the room to talk to the doctor to sort out a few things like the cost for the private room.

“Dad, say your research is about Altered beings, right. You must have seen a lot of them, but have you ever seen an Altered based on a wolf?” Tom asked, when it was just him and his father.

His father thought about it for a moment.

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t so far. Many that resemble some type of dog breed but no wolf per se. Still, with how many types there are out there and with new ones getting discovered every so often, I don’t doubt that there is one out there.”

“Maybe not what we think of, since they’re based on animals that don’t even seem to come from our world, but at least something resembling our wolf. Although when I say the word ‘Wolf’ and ‘Altered’ together, it just makes me think of ‘Werewolves’.” His father started to chuckle softly.

Tom joined him, only his was more due to nervousness. He was wondering right now how his friend was exactly coping.

——

At a certain apartment, Gary had still been unable to get any sleep. Putting his sheets over his head hadn’t really helped. After getting the notification the high schooler had come to a realisation. He pulled off his sheets and looked around. He could see the vague outline of a red mist and a green one, but that was it. The other marking was no longer there, he could no longer see it.

‘I-I… I killed.him...’

*****

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