The thought of Susan's Dad being the Alchemist troubled me deeply, Chris and Karen aren't fully convinced though, they think I might not have taken a good look at the alchemist and that I'm confusing him with someone who just happens to coincidentally have an injury on the forehead. To settle this matter we decided to keep it cool throughout the school week, we went about our lives like nothing happened and we even hung out with Susan a couple of times during the week. The plan was to wait till the weekend, Karen had already invited her to hang out with us this Saturday. The plan was to subtly ask questions to find out if she had any knowledge of how her father spends his time in the woods.
I arrived at Karen's house and rang the doorbell.
Karen opened the door "Good, you're here"
"Why? Is she already inside?" I whispered.
"No, but Chris is here, he's in the basement"
"Hey Fred" Mr. Brown said. Mr. Brown is Karen's Dad, Karen gets her werewolf gene from his side of the family.
"Hi Mr. Brown" I said and headed for the basement.
The basement of Karen's house is where we hang out whenever we visit, it is well furnished with bean bags arranged uniformly across the room, a cool music system and a TV, Chris and I usually rotate whose turn it is to bring their gaming console whenever we decide to spend time here.
"Great, you're here!" Chris said in relief as I walked down the basement stairs.
"Alright, I know we've gone over this but how exactly do we want to do this?" Karen asked.
"Like we've discussed, don't come on too strong so she doesn't get suspicious. We'll just randomly bring up conversations that involves supernaturals and sees if she says something that might indicate she has knowledge of her father's hobby" I answered.
Chris sighed "How did we even think of this? If you want proof on the Alchemist's identity I'm sure there is a better and more efficient way of doing it"
"What other way? Confront the man with a terrifying mask and a rifle, I can see that conversation going very well" I answered sarcastically. "On the other hand Susan's got an adorable face and no firearm, so I think I like my odds with her"
"We'll follow Fred's plan, I know the answers are important but we have to be extremely careful. This whole thing escalated pretty fast, from figuring out Fred's abilities to being chased in the woods by a man with a rifle and now we suspect our friend's father of being that man with a rifle" Karen said.
"Fine, what if she doesn't know anything?" Chris asked.
I sat down on a bean bag "I don't know, we'll cross that bridge when we get there"
"That reminds me, let's not start with the questions. Let's try to make her feel comfortable. I genuinely feel bad about doing this because I genuinely like her and think she's cool" Karen said.
"Same but I know what I saw. Dr. Adler is the Alchemist" I responded. Shortly the doorbell rang. "She's here"
Karen got up "I'll get the door, you guys just try to act like we're not about to interrogate the only shot of another female in this group"
She walked up the stairs to the main house.
Chris gave me a light smile "I know this definitely can't be easy for you"
"For me? Why?"
"It's no secret how you feel about Susan, that was made evident by the way you almost drooled the first time you saw her"
"Shut up" I responded.
"Hey Guys" Susan said as she came down the stairs.
"Hi" We individually replied.
"Nice" Susan commented as her eyes wandered the basement
"Let's start with the movie" Karen voiced as she rushed down the basement stairs.
"C'mon, we always argue about this, let's start with the videogames and watch the movie later" Chris responded.
"Fine, we can start with the videogame" Karen responded with a little devilish smirk she always made when she's up to something.
"Where's my game console?" Chris asked.
"Are you sure you brought it with you?" Karen asked clearly trying to annoy Chris.
"You helped me carry it inside a few minutes ago" Chris responded.
"Oh that's right" Karen said sarcastically. "I just remembered, it's in my room"
I couldn't help but laugh "Nicely done"
"I don't understand, if it's in Karen's room, why can't you just go and get it?" A confused Susan asked.
"Her Dad has this rule about boys being in her bedroom" I answered.
"They are allowed anywhere in the house except there" Karen said.
"Why don't we let Susan decide" I said. "What do you want to do first, movie or videogame?"
Susan's eyes were bouncing off Karen and Chris until she finally gave an uncomfortable smile "I think I'll have to side with Karen on this one"
"Then it's settled" Karen voiced in excitement. "Oh c'mon, don't pout" She said, continuing to taunt Chris.
"One of these days I'm going to put wolfs bane in your food" Chris responded.
"Do they always bicker like this?" Susan asked.
"Yes, watching them argue has its moments. It can be funny and at times annoying" I replied.
We spent about an hour and half on the movie after which with a lot of persuasion Karen finally brought the game console, while we were setting up the console we started exchanging looks, signaling that we can start the interrogation.
"Hey Susan, what are your thoughts on vampires?" Chris asked.
Susan literally raised an eyebrow "What?"
"I'm just curious, I don't know one personally, neither does any of us but you said you've been to New York so you must have encountered a few"
"Well they like to keep to themselves, the ones I encountered were mostly rude so I don't know if that's a general thing" Susan responded.
"Yeah, I heard about the rude part" I said.
"I've been wondering why there are no permanent vampire residents in town" Susan said.
"Because my ancestors chased them out of town, that's why" Karen stated bluntly "But thanks to the global registration act they are now free to return anytime"
"Werewolves and vampires have been rivals for almost as long as they've existed, I heard that they can't stand each other" Chris said.
"Throughout my stay in New York most of the incidents the AMU responded to that I know of mostly involved a werewolf and a vampire so I can testify to that" Susan responded.
"Here's a great idea for a game, we obviously live in a small town and therefore disconnected from the larger supernatural community so let's randomly name supernaturals and we can give our impressions about them" I said.
"Sounds nice" Susan said. I looked over at Karen and Chris and they both nodded in agreement.
"Alright, let's start with Genies" I said.
"None of us have seen a Genie right?" Karen asked. We all said no.
"It would be nice to meet a supernatural that grants wishes and does tricks that defies reality" Susan said.
"I definitely like that wish part" Chris said.
"Alright my turn" Karen voiced. "How do we feel about Greek gods?"
"Not this again" I mumbled.
"I'm sorry, am I missing something?" Susan asked.
"We had a discussion recently, more of an argument than a discussion about whether they are real or not" Chris answered.
"They might be, they've been some sightings of creatures associated with Greek mythology" Susan said.
"I don't know if mythology is the right word anymore" Karen said.
"It's myth until proven otherwise" I responded.
"My turn, how do we feel about unicorns?" Susan asked. We all laughed briefly.
"I think they belong in the myth section with our Greek friends" Chris said.
Karen chuckled "They've been sightings"
"Exactly" Susan concurred, "Plus they'd make beautiful and incredible pets"
"Unreliable sightings. Myth until proven otherwise" I said.
"My turn" Chris said. "What do we think about Alchemists?"
I looked at Susan to see her expression, she looked normal to me, she didn't seem rattled at all.
"I thought the game is about supernaturals, an Alchemist isn't supernatural" Susan stated.
"Alchemists are a part of my world. They're as supernatural as it gets" Karen responded.
There was a brief silence, Susan was obviously not going to say something so I decided to keep the discussion of alchemists.
"We've heard on the news of some Alchemists caught kidnapping and experimenting on supernaturals" I said.
Karen looked at me "They are definitely a problem, my dad has told me stories of how our ancestors encountered Alchemists and most of them don't end well. There's usually a lot of violence"
Susan sat up straight and sighed gently "Twenty years ago, anyone would have said that werewolves were dangerous and savage beasts whose instinct to kill greatly outweighs their humanity. Is that how you would describe yourself?"
Everyone went mute. I could tell she was annoyed about how we described Alchemists, could she know about her Dad.
"Where did that come from?" Chris asked.
Susan cleared her throat "I didn't mean it like that, I'm just trying to say that there was a time when people called werewolves monsters, but you are more than that, so it doesn't seem fair that you would judge others when you haven't known who they truly are"
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just came down to grab something" Mr. Brown walked down the basement stairs. "I know I've told you about the pack's history with Alchemists but I also told you that an Alchemist saved my life when I was a young man. Werewolves have also done terrible things. Even without the full moon we have our fangs and claws, not to mention our supernatural strength. You can't judge all Alchemists based on the actions of a few"
Karen looked Susan in the eye "You're right. I know firsthand how it feels, people still say a lot of hateful things to me cause of what I am and I shouldn't do the same"
"I'm sorry for the way I reacted, sometimes I get overly spirited in conversations" Susan apologized.
Mr. Brown smiled. "Glad I could be of service" He walked over to a cupboard by the corner and grabbed something and then made his way out of the basement.
"Glad we could clear that up" I said.
Chris grabbed a gamepad "Alright, who am I destroying next?"
"You wish" I giggled.
Karen got up "Susan, I bought that cute nightlight we were talking about. Want to check it out?"
"Sure" Susan followed her up the basement stairs.
Chris leaned over to me "What do you think?"
"Well she was right, but that response was too aggressive. She definitely knows about her Dad. What do you think?"
"I don't know what to think, she's either defending Alchemists cause her dad is one or she doesn't like to judge someone based on popular belief"
I took a sip from my soda "What's our next move?"
"You said we'd cross this bridge when we got to it, I assumed you had a plan"
I sighed "I have no idea what to do next"