Chapter 147 - YOU CAN'T STAY HERE

The knock came again interrupting Emma's response to Anthony's jibe.

"Go check it out." She said in place of the reasonable taunt she had had in mind for him.

"Why don't you?" Anthony asked, still chuckling more, especially as he saw her face getting all scrunched up at his recent statement.

"Oh God...Tony don't be a pain in the ass. Just go." She stated, containing her voice from getting loud, or too loud rather.

"Yes ma'am." Anthony replied, standing up from the sofa, still chuckling. He already knew who was at the door. He had just wanted to tease the human. It was fun doing that.

"And quit that laughter." She opined with a small pout, folding her arms around her torso, whilst keeping her fear at bay, as she watched him walk with a steady gait. From the mannerisms of the male in her company, she could decipher that the person at the door might be Melvina or Clem.

It brought to her remembrance that she hadn't seen her blond friend since that event that had transpired on her birthday party.

Was he okay? She thought. She hoped that he was. She refused to think that perhaps he was avoiding her. There was no cause for that. She didn't think she had offended him. Or was it because she had violated the privacy of his room?

She didn't know that either. All she knew was that she kind of missed having him around. He wasn't bad company.

She tensed a bit, as she saw Anthony opening the door ajar.

'He couldn't even ask for the identity of the knockers before opening the door.' She mused to herself, while stretching her neck and eyes to see who the new visitors were, her fear totally abated; she had earlier feared that it might be her threatner knocking at the door. But Anthony's pausd and muttering movements as he stood by the door, had informed her that it wasn't so. He wouldn't be chatting with her supposed incoming or wanna be killer. He must have known whomever it was that was standing by the door.

The "How is she holding up?" question told her in a nutshell who was at the door. Melvina. That was the older woman's voice and tone of concern.

Relaxing further into the chair, she breathed out in relief; hadn't known till then that she had been holding in a large amount of air in because of the tension.

'I'm becoming a whack.' She thought, referring to her unstable state at the moment. The last time she had been run down by this state had been when she was little, before her tennage years, when she had been dealing with low self esteem.

She sat up charily as she saw Melvina's husband walk after her into the room, right before Anthony closed the door. She had thought that Melvina had come alone. Well it seemed to her that this was last night or rather, earlier this morning, repeating again. She tend to get nervous around the older Derek.

"Emma, how are you doing?" She heard Melvina ask, as the latter rushed up to her, bending her waist over, her face few centimeters close to hers, with worry lines etched on the forehead of her beautiful face.

"I'm holding up fine." She replied, with a small smile, allowing the woman to fawn over her in concern.

"Thank goodness that you are." Melvina said, before sitting close to her on the sofa.

"Anthony told me what had happened..." She stated, leaving the statement hanging.

"Yeah, he must have." Emma muttered, before casting a short glance on Anthony who seemed to be on whispering terms with Melvina's husband.

She could hear bits of their conversation, and it never failed to surprise her.

Masking her shock which she would reserve later as a question for Zipfara, she paid slight attention to them while still attentive to Melvina.

She could deduct that they were discussing about her, specifically how she had found the dead animals in the refrigerator.

She could also deduct that something terrible had happened wherever Melvina and her husband had gone to. They had lost their friend and…

She couldn't fathom the rest, as Anthony's eyes caught hers for some seconds, before widening the next. She knew that he must have remembered that she could hear their whisperings.

And so, she soughed as she saw that they stopped talking, but not before Peter, Melvina's husband, had darted a shocked glance to her.

Why that? She thought. From what she could see, Anthony hadn't told him that she could hear whispers. His mouth wasn't moving. So why the shocked face from Peter?

She was getting confused all the more.

"I need a vacation." She mumbled, not knowing that she had voiced out her thoughts loud.

"To?" She heard Melvina ask, and sighed, biting her lips as she now knew that her mouth had let out what her mind had been thinking.

'loud mouth' she cussed in her thoughts.

"I don't know. Paris maybe." She replied, deciding to flow along, since the woman had already known her thoughts.

"Not bad." Melvina said. She didn't know if it would be preferable for the human to travel outside of this place, for a moment, till they had settled this particular issue. But she thought it null as soon as the idea formed in her mind. If the perpetrators of these acts were anything non-human, then they would follow the redhead to wherever she goes to, till they get a hold on her. And she didn't want that. So, advising the human to travel was outside the list.

"Been there before?" Emma asked her.

"No. Not yet." She answered, relaxing further into the chair, her brain swirling with a lot of thoughts.

"Ever wanted to go there?" Emma queried.

"Well, yeah. At one time." She replied, remembering one of those many times she had wanted to run from home, to run and flee from her father's abusive nature. France had been on the list with other places she had heard or read off from a book in high school. She hadn't really know anything about those places. She had just known that she had wanted to escape. And she would have, if Peter hadn't come into the picture then. He had changed her plans, while saving her life at the same time. Sometimes she wondered if her father was still alive or dead.

"What changed your mind then?" Emma asked, now in full interrogation mode, as she wanted to forget and drown away the thoughts of the carcasses.

"Family. I had a family." Melvina replied with a toothy grin.

And of course Emma understood. Nothing changes plans like having a family.

"I see..." She said, smiling too.

"How did you meet him?" She questioned, bobbling her head in a way that pointed to Alpha Peter.

" Well…"Melvina started, as she remembered the first time she had met Peter.

"It had been at my last prom night. He had just come into the big lighted hall with some of his friends. They were college guys. Handsome college guys.." She emphasized with a smile even as she told the half true story of how she had met her mate. She smiled further as she saw Emma smiling mischievously at her. It made her wonder why females loved these kind of stories, slow tale of romance of how the bad handsome dude traps the innocent looking babe, and all others in the same series. She hadn't been exempted either. She had loved reading romance novels then, had wished terribly for a mate who would love and cherish her so much, while carrying her away from the abusive clutches of the past. Her wishes had come to pass in a dramatic wat. But it still had, even though it had taken some time.

"Yes ..." Emma hummed, already having an idea of where the story was leading to.

"And so, he had asked me for a dance...amidst the throng of girls that had been struggling to get his attention..." Melvina continued, thoroughly wiping off the true incidence of how Peter had rushed up to her that fateful night, despite her not so good appearance, and had hugged her, mumbling mate in her ear, while inhaling her scent as he had dropped his nose on her neck. That day had been one of her best days. She had even teared up.

"Uhuh..." Emma hummed, waiting for more juicy details.

"Well, that's how it started. We exchanged numbers after the party. And here we are." Melvina summarized, her toothy grin still in place.

"That's interesting, and cute of course." Emma stated with a smile of hers, before throwing a glance to the other occupants of the room who sat still in the opposite sofa, not talking. But she felt that they were, but didn't know how. Their lips weren't moving. They just sat still, hands tucked in between their thighs, as they stared off into space.

Melvina noticing Emma's stare on her family members, cleared her throat loudly, calling back her attention on her.

"We have to be going. You know you can't stay here, at least for now, till we have sorted out this issue..." She stated, keeping the human's stare, communicating through her eyes, the effects of what staying here by herself could amount to.

"Yeah. Let me pack some clothes." Emma said, agreeing totally with her older friend. She couldn't stay here alone.

"Okay then. I will go with you." Melvina mentioned, standing up with Emma. She wasn't taking any chances, at leaving the redhead alone