Chapter 3
Bernard
The evening was warm enough to make everyone sweat. Sitting around the campfire in blissful silence wasn’t how Bernard envisioned dinner. Camille and Daymond were constantly bickering about something– mainly for Bernard’s amusement. Still, the two hadn’t said a word to him or even to each other since Antoine and Camille’s squabble. He was like the plague, an illness ready to rot at the core of each of them. Unlike Camille and Daymond, Bernard understood Antoine a bit more. He was an outsider as he hadn’t met Robert only three days ago. He silently envied his younger siblings, and he didn’t blame them. But logically speaking, as Bernard tried to use his brain rather than his heart in most things, he tried to have an open mind about Robert.
Camille was the first to speak during the quiet feast: “This is a great meal. Thanks, Dad.” She stressed the word to make Antoine react. Bernard wanted to shake his head in disapproval.
Sitting on the log on the opposite side of the fire, Antione winced at her words.
“Thanks, dear,” Robert said with a genuine smile.
Daymond shook his head and mumbled, “It’s just a hot dog. Nothing special about that.”
Bernard bit his bottom lip to repress a laugh, and Antoine did the same. Bernard and Antoine shared a look, only briefly.
Camille elbowed Daymond, to which he scowled and whined, “What?”
She didn’t respond, instead taking another bite of her hotdog. Only the crickets were making sounds tonight.
Bernard’s eyes flashed over to Antoine when the boy finally gave up eating and tossed a meat skewer into the fire. He looked as if we were going to say something. But as if on cue, howls began ringing in the air, echoes upon echoes, running against their eardrums.
Robert began to sweat more visibly on his nose before he wiped the tip.
Crossing his arms securely to give him strength, Bernard broke the silence, “I didn’t know there were wolves out here.”
Robert looked wildly up at the sky; taking a deep breath, he sat there silently. The howls began to mellow out only because the mist began to make it harder to see beyond the cabin. It stayed between the trees, lurking for flesh or something to chew on. While the full moon leered at them.
Their father opened his eyes finally, a sense of calm clouding his eyes.
“There’s a reason why I brought you here together now.” Robert started, “And it will take a moment for all of this to settle in. I just… I should have told you all sooner, but I didn’t know how.”
Antoine chuckled. His brown curls waved across his forehead. “You don’t mean that, now, do you? How would you have told me if you didn’t even know me?”
Robert raised a hand. “Please, son, I–”
“Don’t call me your son, asshole,” Antoine growled, clenching his hands to the side of his body, standing tall against the fire that waved in front of him. Bernard felt a force like the wind took some kind of physical form. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it between their dad and Antione. It was as if a force from his own body was reaching out to theirs. His anxiety must be out of control with this confrontation. There’s no way he could be feeling his family like this.
“That’s enough!” a deep, grumbling voice echoed within Robert. The words, no, the force behind the words, wrapped around Bernard, and he could feel it wrapping around his siblings. Could they feel it? Did his dad know that he was having this effect?
Camille and Daymond sat in silence. For how long they’ve known their father, they’ve never seen him this worked up. On the other hand, Antonie glared and matched his father’s eyes, blazing in fury and anguish.
Bernard was too caught up in the golden yellow hue of his father’s usual soft brown eyes to fully register his voice.
The mist from earlier began to pick up, and this time, the fire went out along with it. Nothing was separating them from confronting the other. Bernard was the first to notice the howling again, even as a few drops of rain quickly turned into a downpour.
Robert appeared to be too busy glaring at Antoine to notice until he turned his head toward the woods once the howls were a few feet away.
“Get in the cabin, now.” He ordered.
The four siblings got up quickly. Whether from the rain or the possible wolves in the distance, it would be a rough night.
Antoine was the last to reach the door before Robert slammed it shut behind them.
Camille pushed past Antoine, leaning her ear against the door. “What are you doing? There’s a storm out. Come inside.” She tried for the door handle, but it didn’t budge. “Dad?”
“Stay inside,” Robert’s voice came muffled from the door. “Don’t open it until I tell you to.”
“What are you doing out there?” Bernard asked, slapping his hand against the door. “It’s not safe out there, Rob– Dad.”
“It’ll all make sense eventually. Stay inside. Don’t come out. Antoine, you may hate me but don’t hate your siblings. Take care of them.”
Antoine furrowed his brows, looking around the younger three as if they had the answer before finally saying, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Robert didn’t answer. The howls were becoming louder. Camille, eager to see what was happening, moved toward the kitchen window where she could see the firepit.
“Oh my god,” she shrieked, raising her hand to the window; her fingers began to tremble. Bernard and Daymond went to her sides immediately to follow her gaze. A pack of strange-looking wolf-people surrounded their father, growling ferociously at Robert in pure rage.
Antoine stopped to see what was going on. His face went cold. Taking a large gulp of the saliva he was holding, he grabbed at Camille’s shoulder, tugging her back away from the window.
“Get away from there.”
She rolled her shoulder out of his grasp, “Don’t touch me.”
“Get away from the window!” He yelled this time, standing before the three younger siblings to cover their vision.
Bernard was tall enough to still see what was going on. What he saw that night will never be unseen.
The wolf-people began walking closer and closer to Robert, surrounding him. But as they did, Robert started to squat in a sitting position. Raising his head toward the crying sky, he howled like them.
