2 Mac N Cheese

Timber Ridge, a small little town with a population around two hundred, sits in the middle of the woods in northern Wisconsin. In the woods, a little over a ten minute drive away from town, sits a two story house made from the trees that were cut down to make the clearing. Inside sits Red, all by her lonesome as her dad, Jerard, and her grandpa, Randy, are at the sawmill, helping the other workers with repairing all the damage that was done to the sawmill, it looked almost like a storm had blown through the place, which was odd since the town never really got storm, especially one that could do all the damage the sawmill had suffered.

Red sits down in front of the TV, watching documentaries about monster sightings in the US. Ever since grandpa had shown her them, disregarding dad's objection, she's been hooked, always watching one or two whenever her father leaves the house. This one was about a sasquatch spotted in California.

"This elusive beast, though considered primitive, might actually be more intelligent than we believe," The journalist of the show states as a camera man follows him through the woods, "After all, if this creature is as primitive as some claim it to be, how is it so good at staying hidden? Or perhaps, it's killed anyone who has seen it?" Dramatic music plays as it cuts to blurry pictures of "sasquatch" and some old native america drawings of the creature, some giving it sharp claws and teeth and some show it lunging toward people.

She laughs a bit from the over exaggeration the journalist gives, thinking about how serious grandpa takes everything in these shows. Ever since she watched one about a werewolf, she knew to take it with a grain of salt, especially after they said werewolves were nothing but ferocious beasts. Her dad may have been a vicious monster at one point, but it wasn't his fault he was brought to life by a demon, and besides, he's changed, like, a lot, both physically and mentally since he's a human instead of a giant wolf now.

After Red had started watching episode by herself, she understood why Jerard didn't want her to watch them in the first place. She always got goosebumps and would get the feeling of being watched as the show would play. Already at the halfway point in the episode, she's already glanced over the side of the couch through the back doors, which are made of glass, and looked out into the forest, expecting to see a hairy head peeking back at her. It doesn't help that the TV sits in front of a window facing out, showing the forest and the single trail through it that's the only thing preventing the house from being entirely enclosed with trees.

Sometimes Red finds herself just staring out into the woods, completely tuning out the TV and just thinks about everything that happened in them. Driving in the truck, being attacked by the trees in the police cars, the dark, blood red ones from that place she still has occasional nightmares about. When the episode ends she turns off the TV and walks over to a desk that sits between the kitchen area on the left and the hallway to the right. On top of the desk sits a computer they had recently gotten since Randy's had to the paperwork stuff at home since his office at the sawmill had been destroyed.

Red looks up some funny videos of cats and dogs since it's the closest she'll ever come to owning a pet since Jerard refuses to get one, not cause he doesn't like animals, it's that most animals are scared of him, and he's worried they might run away and get lost in the woods. She goes to her favorite content creator who has a two dogs and two cats and watches their latest videos. Most weekdays are spent like this since she doesn't have school, which starts in a couple weeks, and she can't just walk to town whenever she feels like it since it's such a long trek.

After a long, slow, day, Jerard and Randy finally come home. Tired and exhausted from the work, Randy falls into his recliner, which sits left of the couch, and turns on the TV.

"Whatchya watching Red?" Jerard asks as he gives her a kiss on the top of the head.

"Just dog and cat videos,"

They're the two sentences that are almost always said when they get home, unless something interesting happened that day which was rare.

"What do you want for dinner?" She asks, looking up at Jerard.

"Uh…" Jerard glances away from Red, "I'm gonna go hunt tonight," He says with a look of guilt, "So you'll just be cooking for you and your grandpa, alright?"

"Okay," Red replies a bit sad. She's not sad because he's not going to eat with them, she's sad seeing the guilt her father feels, guilt he shouldn't have. Jerard gives her another kiss on the forehead before he heads for the backdoor, shutting the blinds and pulling the curtains over it before heading outside and closing the door behind him. Red walks over to Randy, whose already captivated by the documentary on a wendigo in Texas.

"Grandpa?" She asks as she walks over to him. He just continues to watch TV, "Grandpa," She says more firmly, finally catching his attention.

"Huh? What?" He asks, pausing the show.

"Dad's going hunting tonight, so what do you want for dinner?"

"Whatever you wanna make, I'll eat it dear,"

"Mac and Cheese with hotdogs it is," She states as she heads to the kitchen.

"My favorite," Randy comments as he unpauses the show.

Red gets a medium sized pot, and a smaller one, placing them on the stove. She goes to a pantry near the backdoor and grabs a box of mac and cheese. Hearing heavy footsteps outside, she glances through the curtains to see a large hulking creature, covered in black fur, standing almost seven feet tall, heading into the woods. Reaching the edge of the woods, Jerard gets on all fours and takes off, quickly disappearing out of sight. Red lets out a sigh as she turns around and walks back to the stove. One thing she can't understand is why her father seems to despise what he is. He hates talking about anything involving werewolves, or even watching anything about them. Whenever one of the documentaries about werewolves is on, he gets moody and usually sits by himself in the kitchen or goes to his room.

Red grabs a package of hotdogs from the fridge and places them on the counter next to the stove. She fills the medium sized pot up to the required amount of water and starts heating it to a boil.

She always ponders, almost daily, why he goes out to hunt once or twice a week if he hates that side of himself. Once more she comes to the same conclusion, one that she learned from books and documentaries; An insatiable hunger, and a blood-lust that can never be satisfied. She can usually tell when her dad will go hunt by a shortened temper and increased aggressiveness when cooking. He's never been the best chef, Red has been teaching him on the weekends, but when he hasn't hunted in awhile, he burns water and chars whatever he's trying to cook, which isn't a good combination with a short-temper. One time he broke the coffee-maker because he didn't realize it was plugged in.

With the water boiling, Red pours in the u-shaped pasta and starts to gently stir it while setting a timer. Once it gets down to three minutes she fills the smaller pot with water and heats that up to a boil. She than puts a couple hotdogs in it. As they boil the pasta is done cooking. She turns off the burner under it, and places a plastic colander in the sink. She puts on some mits and empties the pot into the colander. She then turns off the burner under the hotdogs before pouring the drained pasta back into the medium-sized pot. She mixes in the cheese sauce, butter, and milk and soon the noodles are a golden orange. For the last step, she takes the hotdogs out of the small pot and chops them up before placing them into the mac and cheese and mixing it all up, then pours the hotdog water down the sink.

"Dinner's ready!" Red states as she fixes herself a plate and sits down at the table. Randy doesn't move from the recliner. Red rolls her eyes as she gets up from the table and walks over to him, "Grandpa, dinner's ready,"

"Already? That was fast," Randy replies as he pauses the show again and gets up. He gets himself a plate and the two eat dinner. Once they're done, they both head into the living room to continue watching the show as the sun starts to set. Before they know it, the sun's down with the full moon taking its place as the time reaches nine o'clock. The trees outside are bathed in a dim sliver light. They turn off the TV and the lamp by the recliner, Randy giving Red a kiss on the head.

"Night sweety, love ya" He says as he heads down the hall to his bedroom.

"Love you too," Red replies as she heads to the kitchen. She goes outside onto the new back porch, making sure the key to the backdoor is under the doormat. She glances over at her father's clothes which are haphazardly piled on top of a chair, his socks stuffed in his boots which are sitting next to it. She grabs everything, except for the underwear, which she doesn't dare touch, and heads inside. He usually always forgets something outside, since he usually only puts on his underwear so he can head upstairs, take a shower, and then go to bed. She knows this from experience since she usually always wakes up whenever he comes back from hunting. The first time he had done that since they had rebuilt the house, he had gone in naked not thinking she would be woken up. Him and Red were both relieved that the couch had acted as a censor that night, ever since then he's always made sure to be covered.

As Red locks the backdoor she turns on the porch light and the light over the stove so he can see easier whenever he gets back. She puts his boots by the front door and cautiously takes out the socks, holding them as if they're rotting food, then quickly throws them on top of the other clothes in her hands so she doesn't have to touch them. She heads down the hall to the laundry room, throwing them into a hamper with other dirty clothes. She heads upstairs, brushes her teeth, changes into pajamas, and goes to bed. As she expected, she wakes up, tired and groggy from hearing the quiet sound of the backdoor sliding open and then closed, followed by footsteps from the kitchen, heading into the living room, and then upstairs. The creaking of her dad's bedroom door echos through the house and is shortly followed by the door closing.

Red readjusts herself in her bed and tries to fall back asleep. This was the worst part of him hunting, no matter how tired she was, she would wake up. Guess it's a good thing though, in case someone ever tries to break in. After some time, the sound of her fan lulls her back to sleep.

She wakes up again, to the sound of glass breaking.