Chapter 109: 85. An Awkward Encounter

Paige was able to borrow her mom's minivan on Saturday, which was nice since it meant none of us had to walk to the restaurant in the cold.

She picked up Melanie and Cerys, then came over to my place and got me and Nina, and finally stopped at Kaylee's place to get her as well. Then it was only a few minutes drive down to the big box plaza on the south side of town.

As we emerged from the van Kaylee asked, "So what's the plan?"

"We should get a couple tables that are close to each other," Paige suggested. "Not necessarily side by side, but the four of us should have a view of wherever Cerys and Melanie are sitting."

Melanie said, "Let's go inside and see what our options are. We'll figure something out once we know what the place is like."

Cerys just nodded quietly, she was understandably uneasy about actually having to meet and talk with her mom for the first time in a few months.

The restaurant was a fairly typical chain, with a small bar off to one side while the main dining area was set up with a mix of booths and tables. We were definitely early, they'd only just opened for the day and the lunch rush was probably a half hour away. That worked out though since it meant we pretty much had our pick of tables.

Cerys and Melanie ended up sitting next to each other in a booth, while the rest of us were seated at a table a couple meters away. We had a clear view of the two werewolfs, and there weren't any tables between us and them so we didn't have to worry about other diners coming along to block our view.

We all got menus, but apart from drinks nobody ordered yet. Both Melanie and Cerys had their phones out, and all six of us were staying in touch on group chat while we waited.

The restaurant slowly started to fill up around us over the next fifteen or twenty minutes, and the place got noisier as more people were talking and stuff all around us. Fortunately we had other options. Or at least, some of us did.

Kaylee knew a spell that would let her eavesdrop on whatever Mrs. Ainsley had to say, and I figured Paige might know that one as well. I was positive Nina had a way of listening in, and it didn't take me long to figure out how to do it too.

So we were all ready when our friend's mother finally arrived. I had no idea what to expect, and I was positive none of the others had ever met Cerys's family either. Except maybe Melanie, I could imagine she accompanied her girlfriend to the trial and stuff. We all knew it was her though when she approached the booth. She slipped off her long winter coat and carefully folded it over, then awkwardly sat down across from the wolfgirls.

Mrs. Ainsley was somewhere in her early forties. She was a little on the tall side, actually I figured she was around Paige's height. She was slim too, which made her look taller than she was. Her blonde hair was in a short 'professional' style, and her clothes looked like the sort of thing she'd probably wear to go work in an office somewhere. Like I could easily picture her working in an insurance office somewhere, or maybe a bank. Or an accounting firm.

The only thing about her that looked off was her make-up was a bit sloppy, and there were obvious bags under her eyes like she hadn't been sleeping lately.

"Hello Cerys," she greeted her daughter in what sounded like a forced-polite voice. Then she seemed uncertain as she added, "You look different. What have you done to yourself? Your hair, your skin... You look more like your aunt Maisie."

The blonde werewolf seemed more awkward, probably because her appearance changed after she was turned. She didn't respond to that stuff though, and instead she just quietly replied "Hello mom. This is my girlfriend Melanie Caetano. Melanie, this is my mom Denise Ainsley."

"Hi ma'am," Melanie stated.

The three exchanged some more pleasantries, then the waitress came and took their orders. She came by our table as well, so the rest of us ordered lunch too then went back to monitoring what was going on with our friends.

There was some more mundane conversation at the next table, Mrs. Ainsley asked if Cerys was still staying with her aunt and uncle, and how she was doing in school, what she did over the holidays, all that usual stuff. And Cerys answered most of the questions, before finally suggesting they get to the point of the meeting.

"You wanted to see me because you said you're being haunted," the young blonde told her mom. "What makes you think there's anything I can do about that? I'm sure there's some sort of paranormal society you can talk to, just look them up on the internet."

Mrs. Ainsley sighed, "I'm sure you don't want me to discuss those sorts of things in front of your friend, or in a crowded restaurant. You weren't as good at keeping secrets as you thought, Cerys. If you were, your father never would have found out."

We could all see our friend's cringe, and Melanie looked like she was about to speak up in her girlfriend's defence.

Cerys beat her to it though, "Melanie knows everything there is to know about me, and nobody else is listening. They're all focused on their own problems. Why don't you just say what's on your mind, mom? What's really going on, and what do you want me to do about it?"

Her mom sighed, "Fine. Like I told you the other day, something is haunting our house. And it's getting worse. It happened again last night, and I'm scared to stay there anymore."

"I was woken by loud noises again just past two this morning," Mrs. Ainsley continued. "More sounds from downstairs. It started in the kitchen, like someone was searching the cupboards and moving dishes and glasses around. Then it moved into the family room, I heard the TV come on and it flipped through channels for five or ten minutes. Then for the first time, it came upstairs."

The woman visibly shuddered at that point, and I was positive she wasn't lying or acting. She looked genuinely scared. She lowered her voice and stated, "It went into your room Cerys, and I heard more noises. It sounded angry, violent. I was terrified it would come to my bedroom next, that it would find me and... I have no idea what it might have done?"

After another shudder she sighed once more, "Fortunately it seemed to end after that. I stayed in bed but I couldn't sleep after all that. I was scared to move until the sun came up. When I did finally get up and have a look around, I found your pillow and bedding had been ripped and torn apart. The television in the family room was broken. And there were two more broken glasses and a broken plate in the kitchen."

She paused there and took a key from her purse. She placed it on the table in front of Cerys as she said, "I've got a suitcase in my car. I packed up what I could, I'm going to get a room at the hotel over on Lakeview tonight. I don't think you took a key with you when you left, so this is for you. I know things between us have been strained since last summer, but I'm begging you Cerys. If there's anything you can do, will you please help?"

At that point the waitress showed up with their meals, so the conversation was put on hold again and the key ended up off to the far side of the table. Then our food arrived as the three of them started eating, so we did the same.

The food wasn't anything special, it was typical family restaurant type food. They had sandwiches, burgers, a few slightly more 'grown up' entrees, and some fun options like wings stuff like that. None of us got anything fancy, I had a pulled pork sandwich, Kaylee got a BBQ chicken sandwich, Nina had chicken fingers, and Paige had a burger.

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It was another ten or twelve minutes later when the conversation at the other table finally resumed, as Cerys asked "So you're asking me to go back to your house, and do something about your ghost?"

Mrs. Ainsley nodded, "Yes Cerys, that's what I'm asking. I know you're... I know you have some sort of connection with um, strange things. Unnatural things."

"How?" the blonde wolf asked with a frown. "What makes you so sure about any of this?"

Her mother sighed, "Your father found some of your notebooks. The ones you kept hidden behind your bookcase. If only you took such diligent notes in school, maybe your grades would be better? You wrote about confronting ghosts and werewolves, you wrote about zombies, you even wrote about learning magic and casting spells."

Cerys's shoulders slumped as she let out a deep sigh. She stared down at her plate for a few seconds, then looked up again with a frown. "Dad burned all that stuff the same night he found it. The same night he burned everything else I owned, and sent us both to the hospital. How do you know about it?"

Mrs. Ainsley replied calmly, "He told me about it after he came home in September. I wanted to know what in the world possessed him to lash out at you that night, and he told me what he found. What you were. And what you did."

Our friend sighed again, while Melanie put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a side-hug.

"Now I'm asking you Cerys, as your mother," her mom continued. "Please help me. Take the key to the house, and do your magic or spells or whatever it is you people do, and get rid of whatever ghost has moved in."

Cerys stared at her plate for another minute or so before she finally picked up the house key.

She looked up at her mom and sighed, "Fine. I need to know more about what's been happening though, I need as much detail and information as you can give me. So let's start back at the beginning. You said it was early December, when you saw a shadow at night?"

For the next fifteen or twenty minutes Mrs. Ainsley recounted everything she could remember about all the strange experiences and incidents that happened over the past five weeks or so. And from the looks on Kaylee's and Cerys's faces, I was pretty sure they were convinced this was a legitimate supernatural incident. It sounded serious too, with the ghost becoming more and more violent.

By the time Mrs. Ainsley was finished recounting all the different events we'd all finished our lunch and drinks and everything, but we got more drinks to pass the time while we watched and listened. Same with our friends' table, their plates had been taken away and they all had more drinks while the two werewolfs listened to Cerys's mom.

In the end the young blonde sighed, "So you want me to go over there tonight? You're asking me to spend the night in that house, to wait and see if this ghost shows up again?"

"If you would," her mom nodded. "Please Cerys? I... I don't know if there's anything you want from me, or anything I can do to help you? I'd invite you to move back home with me, but as long as that ghost is around I don't think I can spend another night in the place."

Cerys frowned, "I'm not moving back in with you. And if you want to help, I'm still replacing stuff dad trashed last summer. I can come up with a dollar figure, if you really want a way to repay me."

Mrs. Ainsley looked a little sad and hurt, but she didn't argue. Instead she asked, "Will you at least help me deal with this ghost situation?"

Our friend thought it over for a half minute, then shrugged. "I'm not going to confront a violent ghost by myself. I have to talk to my friends first, and see if any of them will help. I'll text you or something later. Good luck with the hotel."

Her mother was quiet for a few seconds, then glanced over at the four of us sitting at the next table before looking back at her daughter again. She stated, "I don't imagine you'll have to go very far to find your friends, but very well Cerys. Maybe you'll introduce the rest of them to me some other time."

Kaylee, Nina, and Paige all sort of grimaced and cringed when Mrs. Ainsley looked our way, but for some reason I did't feel embarrassed or uneasy about it. I knew the four of us weren't exactly subtle, we'd sat there stealing glances at their table while barely saying a word to each other, and the three of them could see us just as clearly as we could see them. It was probably fairly obvious we were snooping on their conversation.

At that point Mrs. Ainsley left a couple twenty dollar bills on the table to cover lunch for all three of them. Then she picked up her coat and headed for the exit.

"That was embarrassing," Kaylee muttered afterwards.

Paige nodded, "I guess we need to do some work on our 'undercover skills'."

Meanwhile the wolfgirls got up from their booth and came to stand next to our table, the young blonde asked "I assume you all heard everything? Or enough of it to know what's going on?"

"I think so?" I replied. "And if you're going to spend the night there I'll come too."

Kaylee suggested, "If we're doing it tonight then I can probably be there as well? I'll have to tell my folks I'm sleeping over at a friend's house or something but it should be ok."

"I'll be there for you Cerys," Nina added.

"Let's get out of here so the six of us can do some proper planning," Paige suggested. "I don't think we should rush straight over there immediately."

Melanie offered, "Let's head back to my place? Dad should be at work by now, so we can talk without anyone overhearing."

With that decided the four of us paid our lunch bill then we all got our coats on before heading back out to Paige's minivan.