My Weird Family Series: My Werewolf Brothers
Chapter One
Monsters, Monsters Everywhere Twelve year-old Alice Trivett opened her eyes. She was shaking from her short trip. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was. She was in a thick, wooded area that she didn’t recognize. She let out a slow sigh.
“Whoa! Now I’m totally freaked out,” she breathed.
She had just been transported from her vampire cousin’s castle by his magic attic. It had only been three days since she first discovered her whole family was comprised of monsters. This discovery embarked her on a journey to meet the rest of her crazy family.
She took a nervous step forward. Being all alone in the Monster World was scary. She was conscious of every noise she made, right down to her breathing.
Is my family going to meet me here? Do they know I’m coming? How will I even know who they are? Vitruvius, her vampire cousin, hadn’t told her what to look for. She had been rushed into the attic and sent straight to this strange place.
“Hello?” she called. “Is anyone here?”
There was no answer, not that she really expected one. Of course they would make her
find them. Really, she assumed the magic attic would spit her out right at their feet. But, then, it was purely accidental that she stumbled upon her cousin’s castle while walking through the woods. Now she would set out again, much the same way.
Taking a good look around, Alice realized there weren’t any sort of buildings in sight.
“Why can’t they live in towns like normal people?”
She took a step and surprised herself by moving. She hadn’t moved from that spot for a good ten minutes, so frightened she was when the attic transported her. In fact, she hadn’t felt much of anything – just a floating sensation.
Maybe I should leave my eyes open next time…she thought.
Alice began walking, choosing no direction in particular. She found herself wondering who she would meet next. As she reflected on the past few days she wasn’t sure she was ready for another meeting. Through all her time with Vitruvius she had been chased by him, called “Meal” by her Uncle Amadeus, who was also a vampire, and dropped into a dragon’s lair by a trick lever.
With a shudder Alice remembered those intense, yellow eyes. She doubted she would ever be rid of that memory. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she was startled to hear loud voices.
The bushes ahead of her rustled violently. Alice took a step back, tripping over her own feet. She fell hard on her back and it knocked the wind out of her. She lay gasping as three young men came out of the bushes, joking and jostling each other roughly.
As much noise as Alice had been making, she was surprised when they didn’t even notice her. In fact, as they walked by her, one of the young men actually stepped on her hand.
“Ouch!” she yelped before she could stop herself.
With a start, the one who’d stepped on her, leapt aside. He landed on the ground on all fours and looked over at her, growling like a dog.
“Down, Mark, can’t you see it’s a kid?”
“Oh, yeah…hee hee,” he said. “Where’d you come from?”
“She wasn’t there a minute ago,” the third offered. “Are you some sort of gopher?”
“Who are you?” they all insisted.
Alice gawked up at the three young men, looking into their interested faces.
“That’s the same question I was about to ask you,” she countered.
They stared at her with wide eyes. One of the darker haired guys, helped her too her feet, while his twin, the one who stepped on Alice, sputtered in surprise.
“You don’t know the kings of the forest?!” he asked.
“Who are they?”
“Us!” the twins cried in unison.
“Uh, let me do the talking
please,” the light-haired guy intervened. He was older than the other two, and seemed to be in charge. “Excuse my brothers’ poor manners, miss…uh, I didn’t catch the name.”
“That’s because I didn’t tell you my name,” Alice replied. “I’d like to know yours first.”
“Okay…I’m Andrew, and these are my brothers, Michael and Mark.”
Alice nodded to each in turn. Andrew was the fair-haired one, while the twins, Michael and Mark, had darker hair and smaller builds.
“Now who are you?” Mark questioned.
Alice shrugged, wondering what the harm would be in telling them. She was hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere, and unsure of where to find her relatives. Maybe these guys could tell her where to go.
“My name is Alice Trivett,” she said.
Andrew’s eyes widened, and Michael and Mark’s jaws dropped open in unison.
“No way!” Michael gasped. “You’re not one of
the Trivetts. You can’t be.”
“It’s probably just a coincidence…you know…a strange happening,” Mark jumped in. “I’m a regular walking dictionary!”
“That’s
not what coincidence means,” Andrew corrected in disgust. “Oh, never mind.”
An eerie howl sounded through the trees, but it wasn’t from any of the guys. It was a peculiar cry, one that chilled Alice to the very bone. She knew who
that was.
“MEEEEAAAALLLLL!”
Alice threw herself to the ground not a moment too soon. A black-caped figure whizzed overhead and slammed into Andrew, sending him sprawling. Immediately the caped man leapt to his feet, cape tail flung over his head.
“Where are you, Meal?” he cried, stumbling around, grasping at the air. “Quickly! Someone light a torch. It’s dark here!”
“Amadeus!” Mark and Michael snarled in unison.
Andrew grasped Amadeus by the front of his suit and flung the cape tail away from his face.
“What are you doing here?” he growled.
Amadeus brushed Andrew’s hands aside, throwing his nose in the air as he did so.
“I could smell your conniving plot and rushed to poor Meal’s aid.”
“Ha,” Michael scoffed. “You rushed here so you could beat us to ‘
Meal’s’ blood.”
“You doubt my intentions? How improper,” Amadeus sniffed. “I would’ve aided her…but then I would’ve eaten her.”
“Oh, how kind,” Alice crooned, hopping to her feet. “What would I do without you, Uncle?”
“I don’t know, Meal.”
The twins rolled their eyes, but Andrew’s eyebrows shot up.
“What does she mean by ‘uncle’? Is she related?”
“Of course she is.” Amadeus leaned in closer. “You didn’t know?”
“No,” Andrew said, rolling his eyes to the side to look at Amadeus without turning his head. He didn’t like the idea of his uncle knowing something he didn’t.
Amadeus chuckled until he was out of breath. “Well, she is.”
Andrew raised an eyebrow and waited. Amadeus couldn’t resist telling him all he knew. He burst like a bubble.
“Oh, yes. She’s your sister. Of course, that also means she’s my niece, and she’s Vitruvius’ cousin, and she’s Libby’s daughter, and…”
Andrew put a hand over his uncle’s mouth.
“I get the idea,” he said sourly.
Alice looked the brothers over. Her mother said she had brothers and sister. So
these were her brothers.
Interesting. She could tell they were just as stunned as she. They formed a huddle, glancing over periodically at Alice and Amadeus. Amadeus, meanwhile, continued babbling about who Alice was related to and how she was related to them. Alice turned her attention from him back to her brothers. They ducked their heads lower in their huddle when they noticed she was watching.
But it was a mistake for her to turn her back on Amadeus, for he had finally run himself out of words, and now he looked at Alice like a juicy steak.
Alice should’ve seen the evil glint in Amadeus’ red eyes, but she was too preoccupied with her own thoughts. She didn’t see him sneaking up behind her. Andrew glanced up just as Amadeus opened his mouth wide and plummeted down.
“Look out!” Andrew yelled.
Alice snapped her head around and saw Amadeus’ hook-like fangs. She didn’t have any time to duck. All she could do was scream as Amadeus plunged down toward her unprotected neck.
The glinting fangs dug into a long, scaly tail that had come out of nowhere, separating Alice from the vampire. Amadeus’ lips curled backward as he chomped on the scales, turning his head this way and that to get a better angle.
There should be blood in here somewhere, he thought.
“Meal, your neck is very tough – like leather,” he said through a mouthful of scales.
“It’s not her neck, Amadeus.”
All eyes turned to the giant behemoth that was standing beside them. Alice gazed up at the dragon-like creature and a smile broke across her scared face.
“Mother!” she greeted her sea monster mother, Libby.
Amadeus’ eyes rolled around and saw Libby’s face. Then they rolled back around and saw her tail between his lips. He spat out her tail and a disgusted look crossed his face.
“Phooey, pooey, poo…” he spat and spat. “I’ve just eaten a fish’s tail!”
He was appalled and he gladly showed it. He scratched and clawed away at his throat and made gurgling sounds of revulsion. When he finally straightened up, his look of disgust was replaced with a sneering grin.
“I knew there was something
fishy going on,” he stated boldly. “Which tree did you come slithering out of, worm?”
But that was all he got out. Libby flicked her tongue and a pillar of fire cut through the air, incinerating the vampire where he stood. Under normal circumstances, one might find this turn of events slightly unsettling, but it was nothing new to Alice. In this world such things were considered perfectly normal.
“Ha! I deep fried you. Now who’s the fish?” Libby taunted.
Then she placed a large paw on top of Amadeus’ ashes and ground them into the dirt.
“Hello mother,” Michael said shakily. “What brings you here?”
“I was tracking Amadeus. Mind you, it wasn’t that hard,” Libby paused to snort indignantly. “When he found out where you were, Alice, he took out one of the walls in Vitruvius’ castle in his haste to reach you.”
Alice laughed, imagining her cousin’s reaction to that. He didn’t like for Amadeus to be in his castle anyway.
“What do you need anyway?” Mark jumped in.
“Do I have to
need something to come see my sons?”
“No, but you usually do,” Michael replied.
Libby cut them an unsettling look. “Well, I
did want to speak with Andrew.”
Andrew paled significantly.
“Me?” he squeaked in protest. “What did I do?”
Libby transformed into a human woman so that she could look her son in the eyes. Her scales became skin and clothing, paws shrank to hands and the fins along her back turned to hair.
She caught Andrew by his elbow and dragged him away from the group, leaving the twins to snicker. They loved to see Libby’s ire raised (as long as it wasn’t at them) and they loved to see Andrew get in trouble.
After a few minutes of quiet discussion Libby and Andrew returned.
“Well, I must be leaving, but if anything happens to Alice…” Libby let her voice trail off for a moment. “…you know what I’ll do.”
The guys gulped, clearly understanding. Libby turned, and as she did, she transformed back into her monster self. Then she left the guys to quiver and shake alone. All they saw of her as she went was her tail flicking side to side and trees bending as she pushed her way through.