Chapter 18: Harold's Visit

Jenny had finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Her hands were folded over her bulging belly, as she hoped her father wouldn't notice. As soon as he entered the entrance way from the dining room, his gaze dropped down to her stomach. "What's going on with you?" he asked her; walking up to her left side. She shrugged her shoulders, "Nothing Dad, why do you ask?" John paced around her, stroking his chin as he took in Jenny's entire being. He reached over, pulling her left arm away from her body, to get a good look at the belly that was sticking out.

"Why is your stomach so swollen like that?" Jenny yanked her arm back, quickly trying to suck the belly in. She looked up at him, smiling innocently; "N-nothing..." she said half heartedly. "Let's see; you've got an increased cup size..." he bent down to lift up her pant legs. "Swollen ankles..." He stood back up, to lift up Jenny's shirt. When he saw the symbol on the skin of her belly, he began to feel confused. Looking up at his daughter, he just shook his head. "How are you pregnant Jenny?! And for that matter, HOW did it happen this; t-this fast?!" John asked her. He paced back and forth, muttering to himself as he tried to figure out the puzzling reason as to why she was, how she was.

"I don't know why I'm like this Dad! I had this weird dream; my mom was in it. She told me..." "Hold up; you're mother was in it?" John asked. Jenny could see the upmost confusion formed on his face; she nodded. "Go on..." he told her, still keeping an eye on her stomach. Jenny took a deep breath and as she was about to continue, there was a knock at the door. "Hello! Is this the Johanson Residence?" a man called from the other side. John rubbed his eyes, then jumped up to his feet to answer the door. "Yes it is, hold on a second." he said. Walking over to the door, John stopped just as his hand held onto the door knob.

He turned his head slowly back towards Jenny, still dumbfounded by what had happened to her. She waved him back towards the door, then he opened it. Harold had been standing on the other side, smiling brightly at them. His suit and pants were both indigo along with the usual black shoes. He had his hair greased back, giving him the appearance of a traveling salesman. "Hello Mr...?" John started to say. "Hadden sir; Harold Hadden!" he replied, holding out his right hand. John grabbed a hold of it then shook it gingerly. "Shall I come in?" he asked politely. "Y-yes of course, do come in; please." Jenny already felt uncomfortable around this man. She backed up to the stairs, until the back of her feet touched the bottom step.

She continued to hold her belly, trying to innocent. All Jenny knew was that she'd rather look anywhere but into that man's cold, lifeless eyes. He allowed John to close the door. Once the door had shut, John took a walk over to Jenny, to rest his hands on her shoulders. Jenny continued too stare at the floor, focusing hard on a piece of lint that was sliding across it. All three of them were in complete silence for a while, until Harold cleared his throat. John locked eyes onto him, waiting for words to start forming.

"You should both have an idea why I'm here, correct?" Harold asked. He had such a weird maniacal face at that moment when he asked the question. "Yeah." John replied. He rubbed Jenny's back, to make her feel more comfortable. Harold began taking slow steps towards Jenny, which made her feel even more unnerved. She tried to take a step up the stairs but her father held her in place. She couldn't put a finger on it, but just the sight of this man made her want to cut his throat open. Harold was a foot or two away from her now, leaning his face in to get a better look at her.

He knew about her pregnancy already, but dared not mention it in fear of being caught. Instead he just patted the top of her head, making her shudder and feel violently ill. As if he sensed it, Harold retracted his hand rapidly. He turned around, fixing the cuffs on his arm sleeves and continued to talk. "I am here to invite Jennifer over to this new school that my business partner and I have quite recently created. It's a place where we house those who have, troubles, so to speak." Jenny snorted; hiding it as a sneeze. John let go of her, and too began pacing the area.

"So what do you mean by, 'troubles?'" he asked. John already knew everything and he knew that Jenny did as well. He was trying to buy time to stay with Jenny as long as possible. Harold just chuckled, "Nothing good sir. I just have this certain knack to spot out people who are in need; who happen to share the same, need as one another." That being said, Jenny's brain ached, trying to decipher the words that came from his mouth. Still, she felt so weird around him, as if her entire being just revolted against him at a maximum level.

Something squirmed deep inside Jenny's stomach, making her feel enormously queazy; she ignored it however. Harold turned back around, folding his arms and waited for a response. After moments passed by, he began to pick at his left fingers, again waiting for the two to say something. Jenny refused to even open her mouth in his direction, and her father just felt dumbfounded. "Can we talk alone for a second... Please?" Jenny asked Harold.

She appeared annoyed, "OH; of course, by all means!" he replied, walking out to the living room. Jenny grabbed John's arm and lead him to the dining room. "Are you nuts?!" she asked him. "What do you mean?" John replied. "I don't feel comfortable around him Dad." John was silent, thinking hard for a good choice of words. "I still think he has your best interests in heart. Although, he is kind of freaky and scares me to say the least." He paused, thinking hard once more.

Jenny let go of his arm, crossing her own and scowling. That was when John saw a full glimpse of her belly underneath the shirt partially. "You still haven't explained to me... What the HELL has happened to you?!" he yelled. She hushed him, waving him away. "Keep-your-voice-down!" John almost blew a gasket, fuming so bad that Jenny was surprised steam didn't blow out of his ears. "Dad, I don't know why this happened to me, or even how it's happened. All I know for sure is... it happened. Period. end of story." John couldn't contain himself anymore, and grabbed a hold of Jenny's shoulders, locking his eyes so hard onto hers.

She felt uneasy, however; continued her gaze. When John spoke, it was slowly and distinctfully. "It just hit me Jen, I know what went on. It's Phil isn't it?" Jenny was fighting back the sadness and nodded, making John just droop his head, dangling it. She noticed tears falling from his eyes, dropping onto the floor. When he looked back up, her heart ached with his sadness. "I'm so; so sorry Jen! I c-can't believe all t-this crap that you've endured thus far, and now... My God; YOU'RE PREGNANT!" He let go of her, turning and walking around the dining room as fast as possible. He did a lot of hand waving, and muttering for a while. Jenny just put both hands over her belly button, feeling her father kicking away at her insides.

"You need to calm down." Jenny said. She tried to grab a hold of John's arms as he came back around, and hold him in one spot. He shook her off, clenching his hands on top of one of the dining room chairs. He dug so hard that grooves formed to his fingers. Jenny began to feel scared now; she's never seen John that angry before. She scratched her belly, then slid her hands through her hair over and over again. "You're not mad at me, a-are you?" she asked. When John turned towards her once more, she was watching him. John's heart sank as he saw Jenny's glistening eyes. All of his anger just seemed to wash away at that moment.

Walking over, kneeling and grabbing a hold of her hands he looked up at her. Jenny sniffed, waiting to hear what lecture he had to give her now. "Jen, look at me; please." John asked her. She raised her head a bit so that they were staring at each other once more. "Don't you think for one second, that I have ever even contemplated hating you or staying mad at you. You may not be my own flesh and blood, but damn it; you're my kid! I raised you since you were in diapers and I know, Phil is in the middle of all this. He has no way to go and I'm sure he didn't do this on his own. You've endured all this pain up to this point, and I don't even wanna imagine what is in store for Phil, or who even brought this upon you. What I do want to imagine, is a world where you're finally at peace and harmony."

He cleared his throat to continue. "You can have a better time at this place that Harold is talking about. I know you can, and I know that you know that you can. So what; you're pregnant, I'm shocked; creeped out even. I can't do anything about this; this world that you're family is tied into. However, I can at least be your father and be there for you even when your life gets at it's most confusing stage. What do you say? Do you want to leave with Mr. Hadden?" Seconds passed, then minutes as Jenny ran the ideas through her mind. She was as much confused as John was, knowing that only in her world that these things were even achievable.

She was beginning to get second thoughts. At that time, all Jenny wanted was to rip up that advertisement, tell Mr. Hadden to leave and go back to her room. After a short period, despite these other thoughts, she sniffed one last time, and nodded. "Alright then, let's go tell Mr. Hadden the good news!" John wrapped his right arm around Jenny's shoulder, leading her back to the entrance way. Once they entered the threshold, Harold greeted them with a huge grin. Looking at both of him he asked, "Well... What is the answer?" John nodded back at him, "She's decided to go with you on account of her current predicament." Harold's face couldn't have been any more joyous at that point. He almost even danced in front of them, as he shook John's hand profusely and grabbed onto Jenny's shoulders once again.

And just as before, that same eerie feeling rose inside her chest. And for some reason Phil stirred along with it. She could see every crack and crevice in Harold's face, right down to the stretch marks along his jawline; just like the little ones she had. Her eyes opened with shock, "Are you a...?" Harold, noticing her realization, nodded. "That's why I wanted to bring you with me so that you and other kids can learn to tame it; do you understand me?" "Y-yes; I think I do." Jenny told him. "Then it's settled, get some stuff packed and we will be on our way to the School of Lycanthropy!"

Jenny nodded, allowing Harold to usher her upstairs so that he could talk to John in private. She was half way up when her ears tuned to the conversation behind her, "What exactly will you be doing up there?" John whispered. "This school is designed primarily, to help kids such as Jennifer, to be able to control that inner beast that is released every full moon. If we don't help them keep the creature under control, it might as well consume the children, forcing them to be savages like that old Wolf-Man." Jenny stopped after hiding behind the upper wall; her entire being still focusing on their talk.

"Wolf-Man?" John asked. Jenny thought the same thing too. Are these monsters actually real? she thought. "Yes my dear man, the Wolf-Man! He was a legend, though he was also very; VERY much so aggressive. Especially after Hollywood made that abysmal movie about him, without even staring him in it!" Jenny couldn't even muster an accurate statement to follow these words. Apparently John felt the same because he remained silent. "Allow me to elaborate. Our kind has existed for a century now, dating all the way back to the early nineteen hundreds. Wolf-Man, or Larry Tolbus, was the first ever individual infected with lycanthropy disease. His curse passed on to his son who couldn't achieve the full transformation. Once this happened Larry became extremely angry, and disowned the man out of his life entirely. Which you can imagine, tore the kid up a bit."

"Early 1900's?! Jesus, why so old?" John asked. Jenny was still listening upstairs. Her heart was beating fast, sending adrenaline throughout her body. "There's a lot I need to explain to Jennifer, but I will disclose this information to you now. The son of Larry was a father to only one child. He used to beat this child mercilessly for no apparent reason. He always barked at the girl, for not achieving what her grandfather could. Thus, he beat her time and time again, thinking she wouldn't ever be able to become what she is today."

"What happened then?" Harold paused for a moment, looking upstairs. "Tell Jennifer to go to her room; this is private." This alone made her almost jump from the wall like electricity just shocked her. She ran to her bedroom door, wrenching it open and closed it slowly. Sweat had appeared on her chest, and deep in her womb; Phil stirred even more. Is all of this even real? she thought. She walked to her dresser, locking her gaze onto her body. No matter what she thought, nothing made sense to her. Wolf-Man, lycanthropy, why Mr. Hadden wanted her so badly. It all just confused and scared her to the point where she was on her knees, trying to keep her composure.

Thoughts rushed through Jenny's brain like water coursing down a waterfall. She imagined the school that Harold had discussed; saw other kids transforming into werewolves alongside her. The fact that this disease had existed for over a century. The fact that Phil, had this curse and he was the reason why she dealt with it now. That's when it dawned on her. Jenny's eyes burst open, as a thought struck her mind. My biological father has to be brought back for a reason. For what, I have no idea. But I do know he was a key that was needed to unlock whatever was holding them back.

Jenny still wasn't able to piece the puzzle together, fully yet. She only knew that she and Phil had some correlation to each other. She blocked the thoughts out, as she prepared for what was to come next. In the back of Jenny's mind was all of these questions that remained unanswered for now. She was sure, perhaps, that later the answers would come to her. Satisfied a tiny bit about this, Jenny got some clothes ready, putting them in a large green backpack, along with her brush and toothbrush.

"Are you almost r-ready...?" John asked through the door. He sounded worried, which really put Jenny on edge. "I'm just getting some clothes for the trip!" "Alright, Mr. Hadden said you'll be there for a long while, even a few weeks, possibly a month or so; so be ready." A month or so?! Jenny screamed in her head. Not a single thing could have made her ready for that astronomical time of being gone. She never left her father's site for more than a few hours, rather than months. Fear began to take over Jenny's soul once more. She feared that maybe, Mr. Hadden had bad intentions for her. What did he want with her, exactly? Why does he seem so keen on obtaining her at the earliest time possible? These questions just clashed with her other ones, still floating around with no answer in site. She swallowed hard, picked up her backpack and walked out the bedroom door, even though Jenny knew deep down, something bad was going to happen.