Chapter 32: 28. Confused & Frustrated

"So the scent led us to a loading door around the side on the lower level," Melanie said as the five of us walked back to her place.

It was dark out and the snow was still coming down, plus the temperature had finally started to drop again. My hoodie and jacket weren't warm enough, but it wasn't so bad as long as I kept moving.

Marissa picked up the story, "We tried to get in but it was all locked up, plus there were security cameras on the doors so we didn't want to be too obvious about breaking in. We'll have to figure out another strategy, but it seems pretty clear whoever's raising the zombies is doing it at the hospital right?"

"Like if they were just stealing bodies and raising them somewhere else, then the scent trail would have led us there instead right?" she added.

Paige sighed, "That's a good point. Though it's probably going to make things even harder for us? If the zombies were coming from an abandoned building or someplace in the woods or some old farmhouse, it'd be a lot easier to get in and look around. The hospital's open twenty-four seven, full of mundane folks, security guards, cameras, and half of it's off-limits unless you're staff."

"That works against whoever's doing this too though," Kaylee pointed out. "They have to be careful of the security cameras and the public and other staff. There can't be that many places in the hospital where they can be doing this stuff unobserved."

Marissa stated, "So our necromancer is probably hospital staff. Someone who has keys or a pass-card to get into the off-limits places. Someone who knows the hospital layout, and knows where to do his dark magic without being disturbed."

I suggested, "This might be too obvious but maybe it's someone on the maintenance staff? They'd probably be able to get just about anywhere, and nobody pays much attention to them right?"

"They also need access to bodies," Paige pointed out. "Folks might question if they saw a janitor pushing a stretcher with a dead body on it."

Melanie shrugged, "So they put on one of those white jackets and pretend to be an orderly? As long as nobody looks too close at their ID badge they'd probably be ignored?"

"Maybe," Kaylee agreed.

At that point we reached Melanie's place, she opened the side door and we all hurried in out of the cold. Then once we were out of our boots and coats and stuff we ended up back in the living-room. Melanie got us all more soda, then she grabbed one of the cold burgers and had a bite.

"If anyone's hungry dig in," she added. "There's a microwave in the kitchen if you wanna heat it up first."

Paige grimaced, "That's your third burger tonight. Don't you ever get full?"

"Fast metabolism," the wolfgirl shrugged. Before taking another big bite she added, "Wolfing-out uses a lot of energy, same with changing back. So I gotta eat more."

"Lucky," Kaylee pouted quietly.

The werewolf made a face, "Yeah yeah, heard it before. 'Most girls would kill to be able to eat whatever they wanted and not worry about their figure.' Nobody's gonna look cute in a bikini when they're all fur and fangs, so get over it."

"Sorry Melanie," my girlfriend apologized.

Then Paige got the conversation back on track, "So right now it feels like we're stumped trying to track whoever's raising the zombies. But there's another lead we haven't explored yet? There's another angle to this that we still need to investigate."

Nobody else said anything, but I cringed because I knew what she was going to say.

"Cass's parents," she said as she looked at me. "This isn't just someone raising zombies to randomly scare or harrass people. Based on what you and Kaylee overheard, it seems like the zombies were searching for something specific, something in your parents' posession. Maybe it's something valuable, or something magical?"

I shook my head, "I've never seen anything magical at home. And I've never seen magic on my parents. If they used magic or there was anything enchanted I'd see it."

Marissa suggested, "Could be something they've got hidden? Maybe we need to search the place?"

That made me frown. As much as I wanted to know what was going on, I didn't like the idea of Club Luna investigating my parents.

"Maybe I should just ask them?" I said quietly. "Just sit down and talk to my mom and my mum and tell them I know there's something up, ask them to tell me what it is?"

Paige warned, "If that doesn't work, it'll probably make it even harder to find the truth. It'll tip them off that you're onto them, and if they are hiding something powerful they might move it to a more secure location."

"We're talking about Cass's moms," Kaylee stated as she came to my parents' defence. "Not some unknown rogue witches or supernatural troublemakers."

Marissa shrugged, "Why can't they be both? Just because they're moms doesn't mean they're not also up to something. Hey Cass, maybe you can get them both out of the house for a while so we could come over and help you search the place?"

By that point I just wanted to sink into the sofa and disappear. My emotions were all over the place again. I felt torn between my friends talking like my folks were suspicious strangers that needed to be studied, and the betrayal of knowing my parents were lying to me and keeping some big secrets from me. Part of me wanted to tell Paige and Marissa to leave my mom and mum alone, but part of me wanted to search the house and find out what else they were hiding.

All the thoughts and feelings kept spinning around in my head till they kind of overloaded, and I was left feeling confused, frustrated, and hurt. My vision blurred as tears started rolling down my cheeks, then the next thing I knew Kaylee had pulled me into a hug.

"It's ok Cass," she said quietly. "I'm here for you, and the others want to help too."

She flashed a glare at Marissa as she added, "Even if they're not being very tactful and understanding about how they say it."

I leaned into the hug and my head ended up resting against my girlfriend's shoulder as I sniffed and tried to blink away the tears.

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Paige sighed, "I'm sorry Cass. I didn't mean it to sound like we're investigating your folks? We want to help them and you. It's just, if someone's after your moms then knowing why might help us figure out who's behind it."

"Right," Marissa said quietly. "Sorry Cass. I got over-excited again. You know me, I'm always saying and doing stuff five steps ahead of my brain."

I sniffed again then wiped my eyes and finally responded quietly, "Thanks. It's ok. I know there's something going on with my parents, but..."

Kaylee still had her arm around me, she gave me a little squeeze and suggested "You haven't had a chance to process any of this yet. We've been going non-stop since we overheard what happened. Maybe we should just step back and take a break?"

"Thanks Kaylee," I said as I forced a weak smile. My voice stayed quiet as I added, "Maybe I should just go home and try to get some rest. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow."

"Ok Cass," Paige responded. "That's not a bad idea. Kaylee's right, you've been through a lot and you haven't really had time to deal with it."

After another minute or two hugging my girlfriend I finally got my phone and texted my mom that I was ready to come home. I also sent her the address just in case.

She texted back that she'd be here in ten minutes, then I got up and went to get my boots and coat and stuff.

Kaylee did the same, she got into her winter coat and boots as she said "I'll come with you, if it's ok?"

"Sure," I shrugged.

Melanie got up to see us out, which surprised me a bit. She didn't strike me as the type to be worried about that sort of thing. She even pulled on her army boots and her leather jacket.

When mum's car pulled into the driveway, the wolf-girl walked me and Kaylee out to the car. She even opened the door for me, as I climbed into the back seat behind my mom. Kaylee got into the back as well on the passenger side.

"See you two later," Melanie said. "And hi Mrs. Underwood, nice to meet you. I'm Melanie by the way."

Mom smiled politely, "Hello Melanie, nice to meet you as well."

When me and Kaylee were ready mom pulled back out and we started for home. Mom kept her eyes on the road but she asked, "Is everything ok back there? It's not even nine-thirty yet Cassandra, you didn't have to come home till eleven."

"I'm just tired," I replied quietly. "And I guess I'm still worried about mum. Is she ok?"

"Your mum's fine hon," mom said in a reassuring tone. "She'll be happy you're thinking about her, but sorry you cut your evening short being worried for her."

A few moments later the car pulled up in front of Kaylee's place. Mom looked back over her shoulder at my girlfriend and grinned, "There you are, door to door service."

"Thanks Mrs. Underwood," Kaylee smiled back as she undid her seatbelt. She gave me a warm smile and added, "I'll text you later. G'night Cass!"

"G'night Kaylee," I half-mumbled.

It only took a minute or so to get home from there, and both mom and me were quiet for the short drive. I stayed quiet as I climbed out of the car, then followed mom up to the front door. After getting out of my boots and coat and stuff I found mum in the living-room, it looked like her and mom had been cuddling on the sofa watching TV or something.

I gave them both a hug, but I couldn't bring myself to ask them the truth about what happened earlier. In the end I just quietly headed upstairs to my room while they unpaused the movie they were watching.

Ten minutes later I was in a nightie and ready for bed, even though I didn't feel very sleepy. I was tired and emotionally drained, but I still had too much on my mind to actually sleep. I glanced at my backpack on the floor, but I definitely wasn't in the mood for doing homework either.

In fact I didn't really feel like doing anything at all, so I ended up in bed hugging my big bunny plushie. I also had my phone with me, and I sent Kaylee a few texts to see how she was doing.

Unfortunately my girlfriend seemed busy or distracted. Normally when we were texting each other at night we both responded really fast but this time she kept disappearing for several minutes before writing back. I figured maybe she was trying to do her homework or something. I remembered she was really into her history project this afternoon, studying about some historic thing in Florence.

I checked the club's group chat, but that was quiet tonight too. I figured Paige was probably still hanging out with Marissa and Melanie, maybe they were all talking more about my parents now that I was gone. Or maybe Paige went home too. In that case she was probably texting Brooke, to keep her updated on things and to find out how Mrs. Tremblay was doing.

With all my friends quiet or busy there wasn't much else for me to do. I hugged my bunny a little tighter then decided to try and distract myself with some reading. That's how I used to spend most of my time, before I had friends and a girlfriend and everything.

I opened up the browser on my phone and found the tab with the web novel I'd been reading lately. Even that was hard to get into though.

In fact everything was hard to focus on, my thoughts kept drifting back to everything I overheard when my mum came home. And how my folks lied to me, how they'd been lying to me all my life. And the stuff my friends were saying about my parents. And the stuff about zombies at the hospital.

I probably wasted ten minutes just staring at my phone without reading anything, as I thought over and over through all the stuff that happened in the last five or six hours. I was still lost in thought when my phone suddenly buzzed with a text.

I switched over to the messaging app expecting a reply from Kaylee, but instead I found myself looking at a text from Marissa. I frowned and opened it up, and as soon as I read it I felt like my blood turned to icewater again.

"Hey Cass, the others don't want to tell you this but I think you have a right to know. When you and Kaylee left Melanie went out with you so she could meet your mom. She wanted to check your mom's scent. I'm sorry Cass. Melanie says she didn't recognize the scent, she doesn't know what your mom is. Only that she's not human."