Chapter 193: 151. Probing Questions

"Hi everyone," my little sister said as she emerged from the clubhouse and joined the rest of us in the backyard. I assumed she teleported over, and appeared indoors where the neighbours couldn't see her.

We were all in the process of greeting her when our other guests arrived. Violet Jade and Sage all came around the side of the house, and they joined in the greetings.

That was everyone, since unfortunately Brooke texted earlier that she couldn't make it. The tall blonde was out of town and wouldn't be back until Monday night, apparently she'd gone to visit Paige so the two of them could spend the last long weekend together before school started.

Which on the one hand was kind of nice, like I was glad Brooke and Paige were still seeing each other and stuff. And I knew they'd both miss each other with our former club leader moving away for school and everything. On the other hand I was a little sad that we hadn't really seen either of them since Nina's birthday, I'd hoped we'd all stay in touch and be friends and stuff.

Then again, me and Sasha would probably see Brooke at college. The campus wasn't that big, if nothing else we'd see her in the cafeteria at lunch time. Anyways I figured it was time to stop worrying about that and focus on the friends who were here.

After the greetings and everything we all got comfortable again. There were lots of plastic chairs, we had a cooler full of soda and water bottles and juice, and bowls of chips and pork rinds and stuff like that. Kaylee had her phone plugged in to a speaker so we had some music playing, and our wolfgirls had the BBQ heating up.

They'd be cooking up a bunch of burgers and sausages for us, but not the normal stuff we always got from Cerys's uncle. This time it was the premium stuff, courtesy of the Tate Wolfpack. These were organic grass-fed burgers and sausages, and all of us were looking forward to them.

Jade sat down next to Cerys and Melanie and Sasha, and the four of them struck up a conversation. Sage joined Nina and Willow, and the three of them talked a bit too. Violet took a chair next to me and my girlfriend, except as soon as she sat down she sort of did a double-take.

"You look a little different there Kaylee," the purple-haired nymph commented. She had a sip of her soda as she stared for another second or two, then lowered her voice and asked "This is going to sound weird, but did you get smaller?"

My girlfriend giggled quietly while her tails swished around happily behind her. At the same time Nina sort of did a double-take as well, while the rest of us all stayed quiet. Kaylee and I already had that conversation with the rest of Club Luna a few hours earlier, after Cassandra made the little kitsune fully demonic.

My other self claimed she didn't have anything to do with it, but I wasn't entirely sure I believed her. Not that I thought she was lying, but no matter how you looked at it she was a chaos goddess and it was her chaos magic she used to demonify our girlfriend.

Either way I wasn't looking forward to the next time we visited Mr. and Mrs. Holt. Kaylee's parents were only just getting used to her, now we'd have to explain how and why she got even smaller. Or why most of her got even smaller, while some parts of her got bigger. Specifically, her tails. There were still only three of them, but they all got longer and floofier.

"Yeah I maybe got a little smaller," Kaylee shrugged. She was trying to act all nonchalant like it was no big deal, but her tails were still swishing around happily and she was having a hard time not smiling or giggling.

The little kitsune almost managed to keep a straight face as she added, "On the other hand, my tails got floofier! So it all balances out."

Violet obviously didn't know how to react to that, so she just sort of went "Huh." and left it at that.

It wasn't until the food was ready and we all got up to grab some burgers and sausages that Kaylee's changes became really obvious.

When she was human my girlfriend was almost five-foot-six. Then as a part-demon she was around four-foot-seven. Now that she was fully demonic she'd shrank a few more inches, down to about four-foot-two. That meant she was a full twelve inches shorter than me, which was kind of wild.

Meanwhile her tails were each at least three feet long now, which was impressive on her tiny figure. It almost looked like she'd have trouble with her balance, like you'd think all that floof out the back would be enough to tip her over. It didn't though, and I wasn't sure if it was just too light, or if there was some magical explanation for how it all worked.

Nina and our other guests all stared and there were even a couple comments, but my girlfriend seemed to enjoy the attention. She grinned happily as she helped herself to a sausage and bun while her tails all swished around behind her. They even got in a few of our friends' way as they tried to reach the food.

Fortunately no-one got upset, and after me and Kaylee got our meals I guided the small kitsune back to our chairs so she wasn't blocking anyone else with her floof.

Soon enough everyone had their plates loaded up and we were all relaxing again and enjoying our meals. It was delicious too, the premium burgs and sausages were really good. As we ate there was more conversation. This time we were all talking about school, since that was kind of looming over everyone's minds.

"I wonder if Mr. Sanderson's going to be back at school again next week," Melanie commented. "Or if it'll be Mr. Howard again."

Nina made a face, "I wish we could have kept Ms. Fletcher. She was actually a good gym teacher. Too bad she turned out to be an undercover border patrol agent or something."

Willow apparently didn't know that detail, so a few of us filled her in on how our substitute gym teacher busted those two internet guys and got them deported. That story left our other guests a little surprised as well, but none of us mentioned any of the supernatural reasons behind those events.

Then Sasha commented, "I'm feeling equal parts excited and apprehensive about starting college on Tuesday. This will be my first time attending such an institution, and I'm really not sure what to expect."

"I heard college is pretty much exactly the same as high school," Jade responded. "Except the teachers don't really care if you show up for class? I'm sure there's other differences but yeah, just think of it as high-school but the students are older and some of the profs might be younger."

My cousin grimaced slightly, "I see..."

I knew that probably didn't help her much since she wouldn't have experienced high school either, but she obviously didn't want to mention that around our guests.

Then Kaylee commented, "I feel the same about university as Sasha does about college. I'm excited but also a little nervous. Especially since I'll be going by myself. At least the rest of you will have friends with you."

"Aww," I frowned as I leaned a little closer and pulled my girlfriend into a side-hug. "You can always call or text me anytime Kaylee, if you're lonely or just want to talk or whatever."

"Thanks Cass," she smiled as she leaned into the hug while her tails all swished around behind her.

Then Sage asked, "Where did you say you were going for university, Kaylee?"

My girlfriend responded, "U of T, but I'm not going all the way into the city? I'll be attending at their campus in the west end. It's about seventy kilometres due south of here, which isn't great but it's better than trying to get all the way downtown."

"It's still a long commute to do all by yourself," the small catgirl said as she made a face. Then she smiled at her friends and added, "I'm glad I get to go to college with my girlfriends."

Jade and Violet smiled back at her, while I kept one arm around Kaylee in a sort of side-hug for a little longer. I had to let go eventually though so we could both keep eating. Sasha, the wolfgirls, Jade, and Violet all got seconds. One burger was enough for me though, and Kaylee couldn't even finish her sausage. Same with Sage, she barely got through a sausage. And Willow was full after just one burger as well.

There was some more talk about school and stuff as the others kept eating, then when everyone was done me and Sasha tidied up and took care of the dishes and the garbage and everything. We still had chips and other snacks out for people to munch on, and the cooler full of drinks. And Kaylee's phone was still playing music. I figured maybe after it got dark out we'd go inside and do video games and stuff, but for now everyone seemed content to keep chilling and chatting out in the backyard.

With all the cleanup finished my cousin and I headed back out again, just as Violet spoke up again.

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"So this might come across as a weird question," our purple-haired neighbour said as she glanced around. I noticed she was mostly looking at me and Kaylee and the two wolfgirls as she continued, "But I get the impression some of you folks are into a lot of supernatural stuff? Does that include ghosts? Or do you people know anything about ghosts?"

My girlfriend and Cerys exchanged a glance, then our club leader nodded "Sure. Did you have some questions or something?"

"We actually know quite a bit about some of the local ghost stories," Kaylee added. "Like what places are supposed to be haunted, that kind of thing."

The plant nymph had a gulp of her drink then asked, "Do you know anything about ghosts around Island Lake? More specifically, in the area around the boat launch and rental shop and maybe over as far as the amphitheatre?"

This time Cerys and Kaylee and I all exchanged a look. Then my girlfriend replied, "We know about a haunting in that area, but it ended almost two years ago."

"Or at least, we're pretty sure it ended?" she added with some uncertainty in her voice.

Cerys asked, "Have you heard of something Violet? Are people talking about ghosts there again?"

Melanie added, "Or are the uh, trees telling you about that stuff?"

Our purple-haired neighbour blushed slightly, "Yeah it's the trees talking to me again. They're telling me about some guy who's wandering around there at night like he's lost or something? But the trees tell me he's dead, so I'm thinking either it's a ghost or it's a zombie. But I figure if it was a zombie there'd be other evidence, and so far I haven't seen any."

A few of us exchanged another glance, since we knew about zombies too.

I mumbled quietly, "I don't think it'd be zombies either. I'm positive Mr. Roslovic kept his promise, so I doubt he'd be responsible for anything going on around Island Lake. Or anywhere else for that matter."

Then Cerys looked to my girlfriend again and asked, "What do you think? You figure it's the truck driver? He's the only one we didn't get a positive resolution on. We all just assumed he found his peace after Cass talked to him, since the reports seemed to stop after that."

Kaylee shrugged while her tails twitched, "Could be? It can't be the other two since we definitely laid them to rest. And it's pretty unlikely that some other unrelated ghost has just turned up, especially in that area."

Everyone else had all been quiet up till that point, but Jade finally spoke up. She had a gulp of her cola then asked, "Ok so I guess I'll be the one to ask. What the heck are you people all talking about? Are you actually ghost hunters or something?"

"Sorry," Cerys grimaced. "We got a little carried away there."

Melanie added, "I wouldn't call us ghost hunters, but we have looked into a couple hauntings."

"So not just ghosts," the green-haired girl stated. "What then? Is it like Vi said, you folks are just into anything supernatural? Do you girls have like a podcast or a video channel or something?"

That made several of us cringe. Willow shook her head, "No podcast or videos. No website or social media feed either."

Jade frowned, "So you're interested in this weird stuff, but you keep it to yourselves? Is that why you folks were spying on Violet back in July? Because she's a nymph?"

By that point it felt like she was going to keep asking those sorts of probing questions until she got an answer. Or if we didn't give her a direct answer, maybe she'd keep digging until she uncovered the truth. Either way I got the feeling Jade wasn't going to give up. Several of us exchanged uncertain looks, until our club leader made the decision to just get it over with.

Cerys lowered her voice slightly as she told our new friends, "It's supposed to be a secret, ok? We don't advertise and we don't go around talking about this stuff. And like Will said, we don't post anything online, we're not looking for publicity. And honestly the only reason I'm telling you folks this is I know you're at least a little aware of some of this sort of thing. Like between Violet and Sage, two of you are already familiar with magic and the supernatural."

She continued just as quietly, "So yeah. The bottom line is the seven of us work together to investigate supernatural or paranormal incidents. And yes, that includes hauntings."

"We keep the town safe," Melanie added softly. "We deal with anything strange and potentially dangerous, that normal folks can't handle."

Jade frowned as she looked around at all of us. Then she gestured towards my girlfriend, "Apart from Kaylee you all look normal, but I guess there's more to you all than meets the eye?"

It was nice to know that Violet hadn't told her girlfriends any of our secrets, but I had a feeling at least some of them were going to come out now regardless. On the other hand, considering Jade was actually the only one present who was a completely normal human, it made me wonder if she'd feel outnumbered if she found out just how not-normal the rest of us all were.

Our two wolfgirls exchanged a look, then Cerys looked back at Jade and replied in a calm but serious voice, "My girlfriend and I are both werewolfs."

"Bull," the athletic green-haired girl laughed. "There's no such thing as..."

The smile faded and her voice trailed off as Cerys shifted to her wolfgirl form, followed a moment later by Melanie shifting as well.

Jade's eyes widened and she gasped, "Holy crap! That's amazing!"

I was glad she didn't seem scared or upset or anything by that revelation. And of course Violet already knew it, so she wasn't surprised or anything. Sage maybe looked a little anxious, the small catgirl was probably a little uneasy suddenly knowing she was hanging out with a couple wolfy predators.

Violet noticed that too, she leaned closer and whispered something about a big tail-wagging puppy to her feline friend. That seemed to calm Sage down again, while Cerys's cheeks went red.

At that point Kaylee seemed to decide to change the subject, or rather get us back onto the original topic. She asked, "Violet, do you know when this ghost started appearing?"

"Yeah," Vi nodded. Then she clarified, "Ok not exactly, but it was some time in the last month? Maybe since the August full moon?"

"That was August eleventh," Melanie said.

A wide smile settled on Cerys's face as she looked around at the other club members and asked, "So who's up for another ghost-hunt?"