markdown-monster-club/chapters/chapter_32.md

# Chapter 32

“STOP!” Abraham, Sarah, and Annie were all thrown back by a tremendous force, knocking them away with ease. Abraham managed to see a swarm of bats burst from around the corner of the store and crash into the bear boy. With a horrified roar, the skin walker began attempting to swat at the bats, but he might as well have tried to strike down mist. The boy leaped back and the bats reformed to create an incredibly pissed off Asher.
“Night Walker!?” The boy hissed. “A vampire!”
“Who the hell are you?” Asher snarled. To Abraham’s shock, the skin walker didn’t seem intimidated by Asher…in fact, he just smirked.
“It seems…the wolf has befriended a bat.” He muttered.
“Tell me who the hell you are!” Asher roared, pulling his gun. “Or I’ll put two silver bullets in your chest.” This time the skin walker flinched and glared at the gun.
“How do you have silver bullets?” He demanded. “You’re bluffing.”
“You wanna take that bet? Go ahead. Just know I won’t miss.” Asher snarled. Abraham looked to Sarah in confusion. Why would silver bullets make a difference? Sarah noticed his look and frowned.
“Skin walkers are like cousins to werewolves…they can’t be killed by anything other than silver.” Sarah explained. After a few moments of standing still and staring each other down, The skin walker boy lowered into a crouching stance…as if to launch himself at Asher. He was going to call the bluff! The action was about to get heated again, and there was nothing any of them could do now. Asher and this bear were about to fight at full power!

“MATO STOPPIT!”

“What the hell?” A figure leaped down from the top of the store. She was short, but her appearance was clearly that of a girl…except there was a key characteristic that threw them off. From her shoulders sprouted two enormous wings that were brown and white, like a hawks. Her wild hair was feathery and the exact same color. Not only that but her legs were yellow, scaled, and like talons.
“A harpy!?” Michelle gasped. “I’ve never seen a real harpy before.” The harpy stood between Asher and the skin walker and rounded on him.
“Mato what the hell is wrong with you!?” She shouted.
“Shut up Tori.” Mato growled. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“We were just here to find food and you suddenly act all pissed off and take off running.” She snapped. “And you call ME a bird brain?”
“It’s a territorial thing.” Mato grumbled, blushing a bit as if her words were making him realize just how foolish he’d been.
“Alright, I’ve had enough.” All eyes turned from Tori and Mato to Michelle, who had stepped forward with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “I for one want answers here. Why was I attacked? Who the hell are you two? And what are you doing here?” Mato glared a moment, but then put his hands in his pockets and looked away. Tori rolled her eyes and, it was in that moment that Abraham took notice of her deep yellow eyes…they really were just like a hawks.
“My name is Tori and this is Mato!” She announced. “We had come here to get food for our little group, when suddenly nature boy here went off the deep end.”
“Bear instincts…” He muttered. “I smelled the presence of a wolf and my instinct to defend my territory kicked in.” Mato growled. Abraham guess that was as close to a real apology as they were going to get. But that didn’t matter too much to Michelle who’s eyes went wide at the prospect of their ‘group.’
“You said you were in a group!? You mean…other non humans?” Michelle asked. “So you’re like us!?”
“Like you?” Mato asked. “Wait…so you really are all in a group? You and the vampire?”
“Us too!” Abraham shouted. Mato turned and seemed to suddenly notice Abraham, Sarah, and Annie. Sarah gave a friendly wave and Annie hid a little behind Abraham’s legs, not sure whether she wanted to run or not.
“We call ourselves the Monster Club.” Sarah explained. “There are others! There’s a mummy named Tamil a-”
“SARAH!” Michelle barked, silencing her. Sarah fell silent and nodded. It seemed Michelle didn’t want these strangers knowing more than they did now. Tori was grinning and hanging on every word, but Mato hadn’t taken his glaring gaze off of Abraham.
“You’re a human.” He noted.
“Yes, I am.” Abraham replied. “I’m Abraham…nice to meet you.” Mato spat and made an aggressive snarl towards him, making Asher step between him and Abraham.
“Back. Off.” Asher growled.
“You’re defending it?” Mato hissed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Abraham is apart of our family.” Sarah said defensively, wrapping her arms around Abraham from behind, making Abraham blush slightly. Annie nodded her agreement but didn’t come out from hiding.
“And what about the little one?” Mato demanded. “Is she a human?”
“She’s a witch.” Abraham answered. Mato’s sneer only grew more menacing.
“Are you all fools!? You sheltered witches and humans!? Don’t you know what their kind DOES to us?!”
“Mato…please.” Tori stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder as if to comfort him, but Mato shrugged her off and shook his head.
“Fools…a whole pack of fools.” He growled, storming away, leaving Tori behind with the bewildered and pissed Monster Club.

“I’m sorry about that.” Tori muttered. “Mato can be a bit of a-”
“Bastard?” Asher offered.
“Jerk?” Michelle sighed.
“Meanie?” Annie questioned.
“…Yeah, all of those.” Tori groaned. “But that being said, I…I can’t help but understand where he’s coming from. Why do you have a human and a witch with you?”
“Why should we discriminate against anyone just because of what they are?” Michelle asked, stepping up to take charge of the situation. “That makes us no different than the ones who persecute us.”
“…But…” Tori blinked a few times as if trying to think her way around that logic. She shook her head a few times. “I can kind of respect that…but it’s Mato and Naomi. They…”
“TORI! We need to get moving.” Mato shouted.
“Hold on, Mato! Just a second!” She shouted back. She then turned back to the Monster Club and kicked her talons into the dirt a bit, as if she was trying to think of the right thing to say.
“Look, regardless on what we agree or disagree on, what Mato did was wrong, and I want to make it up to you.” Tori said. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I think we’ll be fine.” Asher growled, clearly not wanting anything more to do with the two of them.
“Actually,” Abraham spoke up, stepping forward, “would you know of any good places for us to stay? Our house was destroyed the other night and we’re without a home.”
“YOU’RE WHAT!?” Tori cried. “Oh my gosh that’s horrible! What happened!?”
“We’d…rather not discuss it…” Michelle grumbled.
“Well I think we can let you stay with us…at least for a night.” Tori offered. “If you want you can follow us to our home!”
“I dunno about that. I don’t think ‘Smiley’ over there will be too onboard with the idea.” Michelle growled.
“Oh, Mato?” Tori asked. “Well…no he probably won’t like it. But he’s not the one you should worry about. Naomi is our leader. She’ll have to decide…but I’ll bet she’ll be nice and let you stay. She’s not quite as mean as Mato can be.” Asher and Michelle exchanged looks as if wondering what to do. There was no question that they had nowhere to stay and they needed shelter. It would suck to keep scaring people out of gasstations and camping in the bus. If they could find a home, even if just for a while, it would help greatly.
“Alright…how far is it to this place?” Asher asked.
“You have a means of travel? If you use that, I’ll fly and you can follow me!” Tori giggled. “Just try not to fall too far behind. I’m the fastest flier you’ll ever see.” She winked.
“Well at least we know you’re real humble about it.” Asher muttered with a smirk.

Asher and Michelle escorted Sarah, Annie, an Abraham back to the bus while Tori followed close behind to see where their bus was. Mato had elected to go on ahead and meet them at the location (after giving Tori a few criticisms and hateful remarks for inviting them to stay at their hideout). When they refound the bus, Tori stopped and folded her arms.
“So who’s driving this thing?”
“Me.” Abraham answered. She looked back at him and then pointed to the moon overhead.
“I’ll be flying ahead of you, try to keep an eye on me against the backdrop of the moon, alright?” Abraham nodded but then had an idea.
“Hey Tamil, we got any flashlights in that bag?”
“Oh yes. I see them right here.” He answered sarcastically. Abraham flushed, forgetting for a moment that Tamil was blind.
“Oh…right…sorry.”
“We do. Here.” Katie slithered toward Abraham and handed him a long black flashlight which he then gave to Tori.
“Keep this on, and that way I have a way to spot you if I lose sight of you.” Abraham said.
“Heh…not a bad idea. You’re pretty sharp for a human.” Tori smirked. Abraham grimaced at this and crossed his arms in disgust. Tori quickly squeaked and blushed. “Er…no offense.”
“No I’m offended…not all humans are dumb primates.” Abraham grumbled. “Please don’t talk to me like that again.” Tori nodded a bit in embarrassment and frowned.
“Right…well…just follow me.” Tori extended her wings and took to the sky, darting off towards the East. Abraham fired up the bus and followed them, mentally wondering if this was really worth it. It was clear that Mato had a serious prejudice against humans…not unlike Michelle an Katie had back when he first met them, but he felt so much animosity from Mato that it made him literally afraid of him. Tori seemed a bit nicer, but she too showed that same sense of superiority to humans, and thus he was feeling like even more of an outcast.
“You okay, Abraham?” Michelle asked. “We don’t have to do this…”
“No, it’s fine. Let’s go…or we’ll lose her.” Abraham whispered.

Following Tori wasn’t too difficult…mostly because she enjoyed showing off. Every mile or so, she’d slow down and do a few flips and spins in the air, even doing a fierce dive for the bus and then veering up at the last minue. Asher was not shy about snarling each time she did this.
“What is this, a circus performance?” He growled.
“I think it’s cool.” Sarah giggled. “I wish I could fly like that.”
“I think that’s the whole reason she’s showing off, Sarah.” Michelle grumbled. “Because she knows we can’t.”
“Yeah, humility isn’t really her thing, is it?” Katie snickered. But despite this the group continued to follow until at last they came to a very dark and very empty feeling town. There was a huge garage building that said “Barron’s Tire Distributors.”
“A tire warehouse?” Abraham asked.
“It makes sense.” Michell noted. “It’s large enough to hold a lot of people and rundown enough that most people who don’t have business there won’t come knocking. Looks like this place hasn’t been used in a while.” Abraham pulled up to the warehouse and parked near one of the 5 garage door entrances. Tori landed next to the bus and ran up to meet them.
“Welcome to our humble abode! Did ya’ll enjoy the show!?”
“What show?” Tamil asked.
“The spectacular demonstration I put on, of course!” Tori said proudly, beaming.
“Sorry…must have missed it.” Tamil smirked. Tori looked positively bewildered.
“But…but I was-”
“Tori, Tamil is blind.” Calypso giggled, patting Tamil’s shoulder. “He’s teasing you.” Tori blushed and shoved Tamil.
“You jerk! You really had me going there!” She laughed. “But you guys enjoyed it right!?” Tori looked to the others and they all politely nodded as she gave a bow.
“I thought it was really cool.” Abraham admitted. Tori smiled at him and spread her wings and arms for him.
“Thank you, thank you!” She giggled. “Always nice to have an audie-”
“Tori, stop showboating and bring the guests inside already!” Everyone turned to see Mato standing by one of the garage entrances. “I swear, you do this every time you put on a performance.”
“Awww, but you and Naomi have seen all of my tricks before! You guy’s never even pay attention anymore.” Tori pouted. “You’re no fun.”
“After the 10th time, it gets a bit old, bird brain.” Mato chuckled. His laugh sounded so deep and heartfelt…that Abraham almost forgot this was the same person who’d tried to kill them not long ago. He’d been so hateful and rude, was he really that same person? He then turned to Asher and the others. “Naomi is inside cooking. You can come in and see her now if you want.” Everyone hurried inside to get out of the cold night air and get inside. As Abraham made his way to the door, Mato suddenly held out his hand an gave him a venomous look.
“What?” Abraham asked.
“Listen, human.”
“My name is Abraham.” Abraham snapped back. Mato ignored him.
“I don’t trust you…and I don’t know you. I’m only letting you stay here because Tori’s too naïve to realize how dangerous humans really are. You pull anything to hurt her or Naomi…I will tear you apart. I don’t care what that werewolf or vampire say, you’re a human…and humans aren’t to be trusted.” He growled.
“Then I’ll make it my personal mission to prove you wrong.” Abraham said proudly. Mato gave a laugh and walked inside.
“We’ll see.”

Abraham walked in to see everyone gathered around as another person was in the far corner near a sink with a giant pot of some kind. She had a dradle and was stirring the contents of the pot. Her skin was a dark navy blue and her hair was short and black. She was humming to herself, but then paused as she heard the chatter behind her.
“C’mon in and make yourselves at home.” She said. “Mato told me we’d be getting some guests. Well we don’t have much but we do have stew and space, so you can stay for a bit if you need to.”
“Thanks for your hospitality.” Michelle said.
“It’s the least I can do.” The woman chuckled. She still had not turned around to look at them, but was instead focusing on the stew. “I heard from Mato that you’re a band of misfit monsters too? Well I guess we can relate in that regard. Although I hear quite a lot of you. How many am I serving tonight?” She turned around to look at them at last. Her deep dark eyes were like the depths of the ocean! They were so strange and mysterious, and she wore a mischievous grin on her face that made Abraham feel wary. She also had fins for ears, hiding behind her hair that looked very very familiar. She scanned them all with those eyes…but then her face went from amusement to shock. She squealed and stumbled backwards, placing a hand over her heart.

“CALYPSO!? IS THAT YOU!?” She cried.