Chapter 46

The silence was broken by Bryan as he started to cry in his grandfather's arms.

"It's nice to see you again." Courtney told Tracy a bit coldly before she relieved Bill of Bryan then disappeared with Heather and Samantha to take care of him.

"Come on, we can grab some rooms in the basement." I said then herded Caly, Karen, Megan, and Grace away from Micheal. The entrance of the house was spacious with the stair leading up and down, a large living room to the right with an overly large flat screen television and several overstuffed chairs, a loveseat, and a pair of couches. To the left was a spacious dining room that could seat eight with a large kitchen attached to it. The back of the room had a long hallway that led into the back half of the house that included two bedrooms, a study, and another staircase that led to both the upper and lower floors. The whole place was decorated in a sparse but comfortable style. I doubted Bill did the decorating himself. He probably hired someone else to do it, or had one of his many exes do it. For having only been divorced for a couple years, the man had gone through women faster than a high school quarterback.

"There's a basement?" Grace asked, surprised.

"Yeah, Bill really wanted one, and as the guy in charge, he got one." I told her.

"Are they not common?" Caly asked as she led the way down the carpeted stairs into the full basement.

"No, Bill told me the soil or something around here is a pain for basements and deep pools." I replied.

"I guess it is a bonus for us that uncle wanted one." Megan said as she looked around the basement which Bill had turned into a spacious entertainment room including a mini bar and a pool table. While the furniture was similar to the rooms on the floor above, this room had a lot more personal touches, pictures of places Bill had been, and some awards he had earned over the course of his life.

To the left, on the same wall as the stairs there was a short hallway with four doors. Two were on the right wall opposite to where the stairs were. One farther down the hall on the left, and the last at the end of the hall. "The closest door on the right is a bathroom. The other three are bedrooms. The one at the end of the hall has its own bathroom." I told the girls. "I figure I will take the far room, Megan and Grace can the other two?"

"I thought Megan was with you." Grace commented then blushed a deep red as she realized what she had said.

Megan's expression twisted then sighed. "It's complicated." Megan replied gloomily.

Grace looked at me then slowly shifted her gaze to the other three women with me. "You don't say." she said with a smirk. "Then what about her?" Grace asked looking at Caly then held out her hand. "Oh sorry, I don't think we were ever introduced. I am Grace."

"Calidea, I am Daryl's fiancé." Caly replied with a smile.

"But…." Grace said, sounding confused.

"There is a story that goes with it." Megan told her. "I can tell you later tonight if you want."

Grace nodded slowly.

"There are other rooms upstairs if you want one of those." I offered to Grace.

"No, having my own room down here is fine." Grace reassured.

"Well don't get too comfortable." Karen warned her. "I don't know who else is going to come, or what else will happen. You might end up doubling up with someone before you know it."

Grace nodded. "It's fine. I won't mind sharing with Megan if we need to. I am just happy to have a safe place to stay." she said, giving them all a big smile.

"Come on, let's get a look at our room, then we can start thinking about dinner." Karen said then pulled me towards the door I had indicated.

"Dammit Daryl! I wanted to take the basement!" Micheal yelled down from the top of the stairs.

"No way, it's better for Bryan if he stays closer to Grandpa Bill." I yelled back with a big grin on my face.

It was silent for a moment before I heard Micheal curse a couple times. "Fine, but come up here and help me explain everything!" he called again.

I waited silently for a few moments, my grin getting even bigger.

"Please?" he called down sounding almost desperate.

"On my way." I called back.

Karen pouted cutely. "Later." I told her.

Karen rolled her eyes then stepped closer to me and pulled me down into a kiss. I wrapped my arms around her then pulled her closer as I deepened the kiss. I still hadn't wrapped my head around the fact that I could get away with this. That she would welcome it. Not that I was going to complain, she felt amazing in my arms.

"Now I want some." Caly commented when Karen and I parted.

"Daryl!" Micheal called from upstairs his voice sounding a bit panicked.

I frowned then gave Caly a quick kiss on the cheek and ran for the stairs. No matter how awkward the situation with him, his dad, and the college teacher he had a crush on despite having Courtney, he would never sound like that.

I took the stairs two at a time, then found Micheal and the others had moved into the living room. Courtney was sitting beside him on a loveseat staring daggers towards a confused Tracy who was sitting alone on the edge of a couch. Bill was sitting at the other end of that same couch frowning as he stared down at his own hands as if in deep thought.

"What's up?" I asked warily. I didn't see Bryan, Heather, or Samantha, but they might be trying to put the little man down. It had been a really long day.

"We all just wanted to know what in the hell was going on." Bill explained looking up from his hands.

I looked around at them confused. Then I glared at Micheal.

"What?" Micheal asked.

I just shook my head, "Seriously Micheal, you couldn't have at least told them what you knew?" I asked irritatedly.

Micheal frowned then caught sight of the girls as they caught up to me. Karen gave Micheal an exceptionally nasty glare as she moved to stand beside me.

Suddenly he seemed to understand. "Sorry, you just seem to know more about what is happening." he replied.

I sighed then moved over to the other couch which sat perpendicular to the one Tracy and Bill were sitting on. I sat in the middle of the couch, and as I had expected Karen and Caly sat to either side of me. Megan and Grace hesitated for a moment then chose to sit in the free arm chairs.

"So?" Bill asked a bit impatiently.

I eyed the older man for a moment. "How about we start with what all of you understand?" I said. "That way we can correct any misunderstandings."

Bill considered that for a moment then looked over at Tracy who simply shrugged. "I don't actually know very much. I have seen what was on the news, but they have stopped showing anything about the monsters. Even the internet is getting scrubbed of the videos." Tracy told us.

I frowned, that wasn't a very good idea. Who in the hell decided to do that? Limiting the information to keep down the panic was one thing. Eliminating all of the news was an entirely different thing.

"Bill and I met when he saved me from one of those big red skinned monsters." Tracy continued, then she shivered. "That was the scariest moment of my life."

Damsel in distress! Figures Bill didn't let a chance like that pass. "What about your husband?" I asked her. Having had her as a teacher I had heard more than a couple stories about her and her spouse. It was also why Micheal had never even hit on her. Besides already having Courtney.

Tracy bit her lower lip anxiously as her eyes watered.

"She hasn't been able to get a hold of him." Bill answered for her. "She wanted to wait at home for him, but that was where she was attacked. So she left him a message, and several texts, then came here with me."

I looked around the room, but neither Micheal and Courtney seemed surprised. I glared at Micheal angrily when I realized what had happened. He had tried to fill them in, but he didn't want to be the one to tell her that the monster was probably her husband.

"Was anyone else staying with you at your place?" I asked.

"My brother-in-law." Tracy replied. "He's been having some money trouble so he has been crashing at our place for the last couple of weeks."

"Was he pretty angry?" I asked.

"Who John?" Tracy asked, getting confused.

John was her husband's name. "No, your brother-in-law." I told her.

Tracy gave me an odd look before she nodded slowly. "Yes, his last job screwed him over pretty badly, and they black marked him so he got pretty angry every time he tried to apply for a new job." Tracy replied.

"Alright, last question. Where was John when you were attacked?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" Tracy asked me with a glare.

There was something going on there, but that wasn't what I cared about right now. "Yes." I replied seriously.

Tracy was silent for a moment before she looked at Bill for a moment before looking back at me. After a couple moments her shoulders slumped "He went to the store. The new one two exits back towards town."

I looked over at Karen but she already had her phone out doing a search on the internet. I wasn't hopeful, not after hearing about the fact that the videos were being taken down.

"Found it." Karen said then showed me her phone. It wasn't a video, instead it was a website that was indicating all of the reported sightings of the monsters. The pins on the map came in two colors, red and green with only a couple green pins and a crap ton of red pins. I was really surprised the sight hadn't been taken down. Karen zoomed in on the location Tracy described and sure enough there was a red pin in the store location. A three appeared on the screen when the pin was selected. I wasn't completely sure, but I guessed that the three meant that three of the brutes appeared there.

If her husband wasn't answering his phone then there were three possibilities; his phone had been broken, he was unconscious from an injury, or he was dead.

As I used Karen's phone to look at some of the other sightings I noticed that each pin had a number associated with it along with a number of x marks. Eventually I found a comment that explained that the numbers were indeed the amount of monsters that had appeared. While the x marks were for each confirmed monster kill.

As the location where Tracy's husband had been had no X marks there was one other option, he could have transformed. Transformed and survived.