Beasts of Barlow Road

Chapter 2: The Journal

After several days of being barred from the internet, Sasha started researching online about what they had encountered on their first night. All her research was pointing to either Sasquatch or a creature called the Skookum. Todd walked into her room and looked at her computer screen curiously. "What the heck is that thing?" he asked.

"Well um, I'm not sure if this is what we saw earlier, but this thing here is a spirit that haunts the forests. They are said to possess people and make them sick...I think that's what we saw" she explained.

"It didn't look like a spirit to me" he muttered.

She sighed heavily. "Well there isn't any other creatures sighted"

"You sure that thing wasn't a werewolf?"

"Just because it was a full moon last night, don't mean it was a werewolf" She said skeptically before her arm tingled and goosebumps started appearing where she rubbed her arm. "I sure hope it wasn't one" she muttered.

Her grandmother poked her head in and smiled. "Lunch is ready" she said sweetly as she brought in plates of ham and cheese sandwiches.

"Grandma, have you seen werewolves around here before?" Sasha asked.

Her grandmother dropped the plate causing Sasha to bark. "Oops, my hand cramped up" she apologized. She started rubbing her wrist and looked at Sasha's computer screen. "You know that Werewolves and Skookum aren't really the same thing"

"I know, but...I just...thought I'd ask. You know a lot about the supernatural, and..." she said before her grandmother sighed wearily.

"I'd rather not talk about werewolves right now...okay, sweetie?" she muttered before she headed for the door. "It's a whole lot of mess I rather you not get involved in" she spoke under her breath as she left the bedroom.

"What she say?" Todd asked.

Sasha frowned very discouraged and looked at him saddened. "I don't know" she lied. She did not want her brother to feel unsafe, but she tried to force herself to continue on with her research regardless of the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

When Todd wondered out of her bedroom, she leaned back into her seat and sank down low letting out a big heavy sigh. "What do you mean a whole lot of mess?" she mumbled before she shifted her attention to researching werewolves, which pretty much a big portion of her search involved the folklore and mythology stemming from movies and pop culture. She dove a little deeper into the older traditional folklore and mythology, and she grabbed her forehead running her fingers through her hair groaning in frustration. She looked outside, and it was already dark out. She looked down at her half eaten sandwich and stared at it not sure where all the time went.

Her grandmother popped in, and Sasha changed her page to hide what she was doing. Her grandmother looked at the plate then into Sasha's eyes concerned. "Sasha honey..." she said as she backed up and sat on her bed. "...We don't have a werewolf problem here. Not for a very long while at least" she said.

"Grandma...was that a werewolf?"

Her grandmother gritted her teeth and winced. "I...I wouldn't know for certain. Werewolves aren't as cut and dry as most folk are lead to believe. I'm not an expert. You'd have more luck asking a werewolf yourself" she said before she paused a moment then she reached over and touched Sasha's shoulder. "Now, I don't have any problems with you doing your ghost hunting, but I'd rather you do them in the daylight hours"

Sasha gasped. "Grandma...it's not as interesting during the daytime" she protested.

"Well, I'll reconsider once you've got some friends who know this place" she said.

Sasha let out a low groan and puffed up her cheeks. "How am I supposed to find any kids here who are interested in the same stuff I am? This place is so darn small and..."

"Sasha, honey...do you think that you are the only one who has come across one of those things? I'm sure you won't find any trouble finding kids around your age who have an interest in all things supernatural" her grandmother reassured her.

"So if I find some kids, you'll let us go out in the dark?"

"I won't stop you...but their parents might"

"Aw, poo!"

Her grandmother laughed and stood back up. "You'll be alright. There are plenty of outdoor activities to do out here year round" she said before she looked towards Sasha's video studio equipment. "What do you got going on here?"

Sasha smiled pulled up a video file on her computer and played a clip of her video blog. "Hey all! I'm back! I have finished getting settled into my new home here in a place called Government Camp in Oregon. It's kind of small, but it's really weird here. It's not as haunted as I'd hope. At least I live close to that hotel in the Shining...from the movie..." she said before there was a howl and she paused looking towards the window. "Oh yea, if you heard that, it's been going on every night, and no the full moon was a couple days ago. I thought I saw a werewolf the other day, but I think it may be a Skookum...I'm not sure. A lot of things are different here" she finished in the video.

Her grandmother chuckled to herself, but she kept to herself on what she was really thinking about. "Oh, did you already upload that?"

Sasha shook her head as she toggled back to her video editing program and tapped her pen up against her chin. "Nope, not yet...I'm still trying to figure out what's with the howling every night. They can't be actual wolves would it? Some of those sound really big! It don't make sense"

"Well that's because they are big" her grandmother muttered under her breath. Sasha looked at her oddly before she smiled at her. "We do have wolves living around here. It's nothing to be concerned of. Like I told you before, the wolves hunt at night. I just think of their howls as singing and having fun...who knows...maybe one is calling for a girlfriend" she said before she gave her daughter a nudge.

Sasha looked at her shocked and horrified. "No! Ew! I don't like wolves in that way grandma!"

Her grandmother blushed and laughed nervously. "Aw, no, that's not what I meant sweetie. Don't get the wrong idea. I was only teasing you since you're at that age where boys your age will start seeing you as not icky"

"Grandma, please stop...I'm fourteen...I have a lot of boys my age staring at me" she said before she stared down at the table uncomfortably.

"Sasha, you are about to start school here in a week. I just want to talk to you about the rules about having boys around here" she said before Sasha groaned curling up into a ball in her chair as her grandmother touched her back. "If you do get a boyfriend, your grandfather and I have to approve of him first before he goes on taking you out to do things. You must keep the door open if he's in your room..." she said before Sasha looked back at her uncomfortably.

"Grandma...I don't think I'm going to find a guy that soon, so you don't have to worry about that. I just want some friends" she grumbled once more.

"Oh don't you worry, you will become quite popular that's for sure" Her grandmother finished, which she got back up and left her bedroom.

Just when she started to walk back down the stairs, Todd ran into his sister's bedroom with a journal. With a loud slam, he threw the worn brown book onto her desk causing her to bark. "Jesus! What where you're throwing that thing! You almost smashed my laptop!" she chastised him.

"I wasn't!" He whined before he pointed to the book. "Sasha...look at it!"

She looked at the book and opened it up and a whole lot of maps and pictures floated around. The journal had first-hand accounts and collections of local stories also there were notes written in the margins. "Where did you find this?" she asked as she read some of the maps.

"I knocked it down with my ball. What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know...It looks like a whole bunch of stories about Cryptid creatures in Canada! Why is it in here? Who's Agent A. Tern?" she rambled really quickly.

"I dunno...You think it might be Gramp's?" he asked.

Sasha ran her finger over the dust on the cover before she sneezed. "I don't know...I don't think we can assume that this thing belongs to grandpa because they are both Canadian. Let me go through this just to be sure before we can jump to conclusions" she said before she took her phone out.

"What are you doing?"

Sasha rolled her eyes at him. "I'm documenting all of these pages and maps. You'll never know if something will happen to this" she explained.

"Oh...okay" he muttered before he wondered off back into his bedroom.

Sasha looked back at her dog on her bed beside the pillows while lying her head down on the mattress watching her quietly. "Makita what do you think?" she asked, which her dog only replied with a couple passive flicks of the tongue and a long soft sigh.

She looked back at the book and continued photographing the pages before she noticed something in the pictures. There were diagrams of Pendants, Belts, Masks, and Earrings describing a means or method of werewolf transformations. She cued in on how to spot a werewolf in human form with extreme prejudice, whoever the more she read the more it sounded like everyone in town was one. "Werewolves consume high protein foods and have a vast caloric intake, and they will have extreme bouts of food aggression. They are well adept in athletics and will habitually preform feats that go beyond what is physically possible for even an Olympian. Teenage werewolves are the easiest to spot as like human, they have yet to develop the cunning of an adult but are subjected to all the hormones; consequently, they are the more dangerous and more likely to stir up trouble" it said before later pages it was amended.

"There has been a troubling trend of apathy or reluctance of the parents' part to discipline their children after their teeth have grown in. I suspect there is declining morale and growing apprehension towards humans farther encroaching into their habitat. We cannot keep up the secrecy for much longer without a compromise if not another insurgency will break out. The change in SAD's philosophy is most troubling. After the foiled assassination attempt on Wolfgang, all cooperation has ceased and attacks on humans have skyrocketed. I have been relocated to this outpost to ensure that peace be brought to the region"

Sasha heart started to pound as she flipped through the book feeling as if there was some missed context, and she found a section where Agent A. Tern was leaving Kelowna. "I feel absolutely privileged to be asked to work with the legendary Dr. McLoughlin down in the states. I have rented a home in Happy Valley with my wife and newborn daughter. SAM has given me an assignment to learn in detail about werewolf pack structures and culture. Rumor has it that the largest and longest existing werewolf pack in North America and arguably the world is located in the Portland Metropolitan Area. I'm so excited that I cannot sleep, but I'm so nervous that I cannot eat. I do not know what to expect. I have only dealt with lone wolves before. I have heard of packs reaching as much as twenty, but never have I imagined the novelty of one over a thousand or so. My question is how they were able to last as long as they did, and how they can live in such close proximity to a city?"

"I have had a long talk with Dr. McLoughlin and as I anticipated there is way too much going on than I can comprehend. Apparently Fort Vancouver and the fur trade was a reason how so many of them got here and established themselves. Like back home, most took in the First nation women for brides, and most were eager to live with comfort; although, some were understandably horrified to realize their husbands turned into enormous beasts. From what I can understand is that there are several packs who merged together after Hudson's Bay Company left the region. McLoughlin lobbied for an independent nation and won support from the werewolves and a majority of the people so much so that they held a series of "Wolf meetings" that would decide the fate of Oregon Country; however, His friend his Mr. Abernethy had to cancel the adoption, which later he explained that the Americans would go to war if they were to continue to pursue independence. This along with the murder of the O'Conners enraged the werewolf community, and they went to war with the settlers"

This was as far as Sasha got before her brother came in to check on her. "What's it say? It's got a bunch of werewolf stuff don't it?"

Sasha nodded slowly. "Yea...It's some really scary stuff. No wonder why grandma and grandpa don't want us going outside. Those wolves are ticked off at the humans. It sounds like they want us to go away from their lands" she said.

"Are you sure? Why wouldn't they just break in and kill us?" he asked.

Sasha frowned and goosebumps started covering her arm as she rubbed it nervously. "I-I-I I don't know..." Her dog lifted her head off the bed and started growling lowly. "What is it Makita?" she asked.

"It's the werewolf!" Todd shouted.

Sasha slid away from her desk to the window hearing deep voices. When she cracked open the window and looked out and around the house at the sheriff squad car parked in the driveway, and her grandfather was having another long chat with Sheriff Cooper and his son. The sheriff was quick to notice her, but he waited for her to make eye contact with him before he returned to his conversation. His son was unaware of the intuitive teenage girl spying in on them.

"Hey Bernie, thank you for making some time out of your busy schedule to come out here"

"Feh, it's not a problem Marty. I can always make time for ya"

"Why am I here?" Terry asked as he crossed his arms over his chest in protest.

"You came to job shadow me with law enforcement"

"How does this deal with law enforcement?" Terry mumbled.

Bernie glanced over at him sternly and grew annoyed with him. "This has everything to deal with our law enforcement" he growled at him.

Terry stiffened up and his eyes opened up wide grimacing, and he held his hand out defensively. "Okay, okay, okay! I got ya!" he shouted quickly. He gulped and glanced back at Marty wearily. "What do you want?" he grumbled aggressively.

"Knock it off! That's not how you speak to witnesses!" Bernie scolded him.

Aoife came outside dressed in her apron while stirring a big bowl of cake batter. "Well look what the cat dragged in" she said cheerfully. She glanced over at her husband and her smile waned slightly. "Why, don't you have them come inside?"

"Naw, I wouldn't want to inconvenience you. It must be crowded in there already" Bernie said modestly.

"Don't be such a stick in the mud. We don't have to be so formal with regards to your other job. Aside from that, I would like for you to meet my grandchildren. I'm sure you've heard all about my daughter from Terry" she said before she focused onto Terry who was bright red, and his father looked over at him confused.

"What is she talking about? Are you fooling around with her!?" Bernie raised his voiced.

Terry started gasping for breaths and backed up into the squad car. "N-n-no sir! It's not like that! I already have a girlfriend, dad" he shouted quickly.

"Let's get inside. I'm getting bit up" Marty told them as he slapped at a mosquito on his arm. "I hope these bastards freeze to death" he grumbled walking back inside after his wife. Sasha pulled her head back in and rushed over to the journal on the desk and threw it onto her bed shoving a pillow on top.

"Sasha! Todd! Could you two please come down stairs!" Aoife hollered from the ground floor of the staircase. Sasha and Todd quietly sneaked down the steps making creaks that seemed to be louder at the most impeccable timing.

When they poked their heads around the corner, Bernie was staring them down as if anticipating them. "There you are!" their grandmother's voice broke the silence.

Sasha jumped and barked loudly, which Terry scowled at her still holding a grudge. Bernie chuckled wholesomely as he leaned back into his seat causing it to pop and groan under his weight. "Ahem! Well! Come on! Take a seat!" she said impatiently. As they both scrambled to their seats, their grandmother sat a bowl of peanut butter cookies on the table before she stood behind her grandchildren.

"I would like for you to meet Sandra's children. This is Sasha and Todd" She said proudly before she leaned in and spoke a lot softer to her grandchildren. "Sasha, Todd...this is Bernard and his son Terry. We've been really good friends since we moved in here"

Bernie looked at the two with sympathy. "I've heard about your parents. I knew your mother when she was just a toddler" he spoke to them in a paternal tone. He glanced over at his son and glared at him grabbing a handful of cookies, which he gave off a low growl glaring at him intensely. "What do you think you're doing?"

Terry retracted his hand from the bowl and frowned. "I'm hungry"

"One at a time, kid. You are drawing unnecessary attention to yourself. You better not fill up on cookies either. Your mother puts a lot of time and effort making us dinner. I'm not going to save you from her wrath this time...understood?" he scolded him.

"Um, like I was saying. That wolf appeared again not too long ago. My grandkids and I saw them" Marty interrupted them.

"Yea! Sasha even got a picture...well...grandma deleted it on accident" Todd spoke up.

Bernie squinted his eyes focused on him before he took in a deep breath. "You said you saw it? Can you describe the wolf you saw?" he asked as he reached in and pulled out a notepad and pen from his pocket clicking it and pressing the tip onto the paper.

"I don't recognize the wolf. It was fairly large...larger than an average adult. I'm pretty sure it was a female"

Bernie's pen stopped instantly, and he looked up from the notepad. "Female?" He repeated. Marty nodded slowly.

"Hey...you don't think it could be..." Terry said before he was immediately interrupted by his father.

"Don't be absurd she would never do such a thing"

"How can you tell it was a girl?" Todd asked.

Sasha rolled her eyes at him and blew a puff of air up blowing her hair up. "Seriously? A girl doesn't have a pen..."

"Sasha! He's only eight" Her grandmother shouted in horror.

"Oh...so it works with werewolves? Do they have boobs too?" Todd asked.

Bernie and Terry both stared at each other then burst out with uncontrollable laughter. "Oh my god yes! Werewolf boobs!" Terry snickered.

"Yes...I believe they do" Marty said somewhat relieved for some reason.

Sasha growled to herself in frustration. "Was it a bear or was it a werewolf? I know it was no darn wolf! They don't get that big! I heard about the Wolfgang assassination attempt! I know they are pissed at us!" she raised her voice.

Marty was horrified, and Bernie's jolly attitude turned angry, and he growled at her. "I would suggest you keep your mouth shut about that! You have no idea what you are talking about!" he raised his voice as he pointed if finger towards her, and his arm was almost long enough to jab his finger into her chest. Terry went quiet and grew uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Sasha, where did you?" Aoife asked before Sasha slammed her fists into the table.

"I know that you're all hiding stuff from us! You deleted my picture on purpose!" Sasha shouted standing up out of her chair.

"Sasha, we're trying to protect you! Please stop!" Her grandmother pleaded.

"No! There's no way you guys are protecting us! Why are you trying to hide them!? They are dangerous! One tried to kill us! Shouldn't you be hunting them down!?" Sasha continued.

"That miss! That mindset you have is exactly why they don't tell you! I don't want any more hunters coming into our town and stirring up trouble! You are too young to be getting caught up in this shit! Your grandparents and I have just gotten peace here, and I don't want you or your brother fucking it up for all of us! You keep your damned mouth shut and swallow that pill like the rest of us!" Bernie's voice boomed.

Sasha thought she saw his eyes turn yellow, and she froze like a statue then trembled violently barking repeatedly. Bernie paused and realized he had lost his temper, and he took a couple of breaths as his eyes faded back to their dark brown state. "I'm sorry. I get cranky when I'm hungry" he said reaching out for a cookie.

"Sasha...you haven't been talking to hunters have you?" Marty asked.

Sasha shook her head before she reached up and rubbed her arm. She sniveled and looked up at them worried. "I can't sleep at night. I heard about people disappearing. Their deaths were covered up weren't they? They didn't just get lost and vanished...do they? They were eaten by werewolves, weren't they?"

Terry gritted his teeth, and Aoife placed her hand over her chest feeling heart broken. Marty was half annoyed with her, but he could see where her heart lay. Bernie reached for another cookie and wagged it in the air. "Some cases of missing cases were attacked, but most other cases it turned out the one who went missing were just turned into werewolf. I can tell you that ninety percent of those were the ones responsible for the attacks. It's most likely that whoever tried to attack you was a missing person" he said before he took a huge bite out of the cookie.

"It is strange though..." Terry spoke up.

Marty glanced back at him confused. "Why's that?"

"Because...no one has talked about sensing any unusual wolves" Terry finally said.

"You don't think another teen wolf had their teeth grow in?" Marty asked.

"Yea, that's what we both thought, but the only one close to doing it isn't a female" Bernie said leaning in. "It makes me suspicious that your granddaughter would know about the Wolfgang assassination though" he said watching her closely.

Sasha gasped and put her hands up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You aren't suggesting that I'm the werewolf are you?" she said quickly.

"Well, you are the only female new to town who would be in that age to turn. Then again how would you know if your family wouldn't tell you? Why would you're grandmother delete the picture?" Bernie added.

"N-n-no! I'm not a werewolf guys!" Sasha said nervously.

"Have you ever heard of the Werewolf Witch Trials?" Terry asked.

Bernie rolled his eyes at his son and sighed. "Terry, that's taking things a little too far. We aren't blackmailing her to be quiet" he lectured him.

"Um...could it be a Skookum then?" Sasha asked after regaining her composure.

Bernie paused giving it some serious thought. "Hmm...I'll have to ask my wife about that. She would know more about it than I would" he said before he looked towards his son. "Do you know anything about Skookum?"

Terry shrugged his shouldered. "Not really...just that they are angry forest spirits. You don't really believe in that stuff do you?"

"I don't have any other leads to go off from" he muttered standing up out of his chair. He made eye contact with Marty for a couple of seconds before Terry stood up as well. "Thank you for the tip...and for the cookies" he said as he shifted his glance towards Aoife. "Let's go" he told his son while his feet crashed into the ground walking around the table.

He stopped beside Sasha briefly and glanced at her wearily. "You let me take care of that wolf, you hear? I don't want to hear about a report of a missing 14 year old girl over the radio" He muttered ominously.

Terry walked around the other way quietly, but he then said, "There's only two who could be responsible" he said before he looked back at Todd and asked, "Did that werewolf have boobs?" Todd and Sasha both shook their heads, and Terry scowled at his father. "You know who it is" he proclaimed.

Marty and Aoife nodded at him as if know just who they were referring to; however, Bernie glared at his son, but he grumbled something under his breath, and he smacked him in the back of the head. He slammed the door, and everyone inside could hear. "What the hell do you think you are doing!?"

Sasha took a couple steps towards the door, and her arm was immediately grabbed by her grandmother, which she shook her head at her. "Sasha leave them be. You've done enough" she spoke harshly.

"But?" Sasha muttered lowly trying to listen to Bernie chewing out his son's a new butt hole.

"No butts!" Her grandmother raised her voice.

"I'm curious...where did you hear about the Wolfgang assassination attempt?" Her grandfather asked.

Sasha shivered knowing that she may have messed up. "Um, um" she muttered before her brother spoke up.

"Um, I found a journal..."

"Todd! What are you doing!?" Sasha shrieked.

"Where is this journal!?" Their grandfather asked as he stood up.

Sasha glared at her little brother, which their grandparents watched their interactions closely. Aoife continued to hold onto Sasha's arm only a little tighter as her husband walked upstairs. "Let me go!"

Todd took got out of his chair only to get glared at by his grandmother. "Don't you even try it!" she asserted. Todd stared at her nervously, but their grandfather came back down stairs with the journal in hand going through all the pages.

"You think that reading this book makes you an expert? Tch, these are just ramblings of some aspiring agent who's realized their work is just a contradiction for what he stands for!" he said before he threw the book across the room into the fireplace. "I'm sorry, but that book is far too dangerous to be in anyone's hands! I have to do what's right!" he rambled on before he pulled out a box of matches from his shirt pocket and walked towards the hearth and struck the match.

"What are you doing!?" Sasha screamed trying to fight from her grandmother's grip. She jerked her arm causing her grandmother great pain. She released her then grabbed her shoulder in great pain feeling it tear. Todd watched Sasha run over to the fireplace in vain as the book was afire. Their grandmother was crying in her seat and got up quietly walking into the kitchen.

Todd looked back towards his sister confused before he followed his grandmother into the kitchen. "Grandma? Are you okay?"

His grandmother was quiet as she opened the door to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack. His grandfather entered the kitchen to check on her, and he glared at Sasha. "Go to your room!" he shouted while pointing towards the stairs. He turned back to his wife and reached for the medicine cabinet. "Did you hear a pop?"

Aoife shook her head slowly. "Nah, it's just a little sprain" she spoke softly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think she'd go ballistic like that" Marty apologized as he opened the Ibuprofen bottle. He poured a couple tablets out and filled a glass of water before handing them to her.

Before she popped the pills and downed it with water, she frowned at him and shook her head at him. "She's scared, Marty. You could have just let her read the darned thing and not make a spectacle of it"

"That journal isn't the one she should be reading from. Do you know what would happen if they found out about it?" he asked.

"Why did keep it?"

Marty glared at her. "I wanted a backup! I forgot that I left it there! There's been so much crap going on. Sandra getting cancer did not help, and I wasn't anticipating her to die from it either. I'm sorry that I'm so stressed out, but if she only stopped poking her nose where it don't belong and announce it to the world, it would help a great deal!"

"Marty...when she goes to school, she's probably going to run into a couple of them. This will all blow over"

"You do realize that one of her classmates tried to attack her last full moon?"

"You don't know that...it could have been a prank for all we know. They are a pretty rambunctious lot, and besides, you did say you did not recognize them. Why don't you just go over to the Cooper's and see if she's the trouble maker before you jump to conclusions?"

Marty looked down at his grandson and sighed. "Alright...I guess it couldn't hurt" he muttered before he started to head out the door.

"You mean you're going to talk to the werewolves?" Todd asked.

Marty looked back at him and nodded, which Sasha stood at the bottom of the stairway. "The Sheriff and his son are werewolves aren't they?" He said nothing to her and walked out the door before she went into the kitchen feeling terrible for her grandmother. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you"

Her grandmother looked up at her softly and nodded accepting her apology. "It's okay...just be careful next time" she said before she looked towards the stove. "Can you help me make dinner?"

"Okay..." Sasha said eagerly.