The Suburban Neighbourhood Secret

Within the Greaten Suburbs lies a Secret.

Jackson Hearst and his family had just moved to the Greaten Suburb Neighbourhood, moving from a loud, busy city to the quiet, empty suburban. The Hearst family consisted of Jackson, his husband Terence, their adopted twin daughters, Naomi and Talia who are 6 years old, their adopted son, Harvey who is 3 years old, and Jackson’s biological son, Orin who is 9 months old. Through surrogacy, with a donor egg and a volunteer surrogate mother, they were able to have their own son, Jackson and Terence had decided that Jackson’s genes were better, due to a hereditary condition that Terence’s family had.

Due to the high demand of Terence’s job, the Hearst family hired professional decorators and interior designers to set up the children’s rooms. Each of the children would be able to have their own bedrooms, the twins would not have to share with each other, and Harvey wouldn’t have to share with the baby. The family also had a Nanny to take care of the baby whilst the twins were at school and Harvey was in nursery three days a week when Jackson was working.

The professional interior design and decorators had completed the girls bedrooms within the first week, Naomi was in love with her pale blue and purple bedroom and Talia was so excited by her bright green and cream bedroom, their rooms were matching in layout, furniture and decorative items, just in their individual colours. They both had beautiful high rise beds with a desks underneath, a large chest of drawers and a tall three tier wardrobe, which would change into a two tier wardrobe as the girls got older and their clothes changed.

Within the second week the boys rooms were completed, Harvey’s rom was decorated in yellow with dinosaurs running across the bottom of his walls and cars racing up and down his walls. He was given a big boy bed with drawers underneath, a large wardrobe with shelves on one side and double hanging rails on the other. A giant stuffed dog and a short chest of drawers with a changing mat on top which would become a desk when he was old enough to need one. Baby Orin’s room was decorated in pale grey with brickwork design across the wall behind his cot, which would become a toddler bed when he was big enough, a large chest of drawers with a changing mat on top and a cosy plush pale brown rug in the middle of the room. Harvey loved his dinosaurs and racing cars and Orin slept very well and was calm and happy in his bedroom. Each of the children’s windows had beautiful oak wood shutters and white curtains, with trim across the top of the curtains of each of the children’s rooms.

As an extra, Jackson paid for the interior decorator and designers to also set out his and Terence’s bedroom too. Their room was painted in a beautiful lilac over the top of a diamond shape textured wallpaper. Their large queen size bed was positioned in the middle of the wall opposite the large window, which was draped with ivory curtains with god trim across the bottom of them. The large walk in wardrobe was set out with shelves on one side and hanging rails on the other with a large floor to ceiling mirror on the back wall of the wardrobe.

After the first three weeks of living in the Greaten Suburb Neighbourhood, Terence’s hereditary condition presented itself.

Terence was a Hybrid. His mother was a Vampire, and his father was a Werewolf. As a Hybrid, Terence was affected both by the change of day into night and the Moon. As a child, Terence and his family had been prepared for each Change, whether it was to his dark form as a Vampire or into his animal form as a Werewolf. They had a specific place within their large city home, just like Jackson had made for him at their city house, but they hadn’t quite got to making the hideaway before Terence changed. Usually it was very easy to keep track and predict when he was to change, however, due to the change of location, a good distance from where they had come from, the change came earlier than predicted. This change, Terence had his Werewolf side take dominance over his Vampire side.

Terence and Jackson were taken by surprise one Summer evening, whilst playing in the garden with the twins after putting baby Orin and Harvey to sleep for the night. Terence began to feel the change coming as he was starting up the fire to make the girls s’mores. His stomach growled furiously, his legs started to feel wobbly and as though they were full of pins and needles and his vision started to turn to greyscale.

“Jackson, take over, it’s happening.” Terence quietly exclaimed, with a snarl, as he winced in pain. Jackson pulled the matches from Terence’s clutched hands and walked him slowly to the shed that had been left in the garden by the previous owners. Jackson pushed his husband into the shed and closed and locked the door.

“You should be okay in here, I’ll take the girls inside to make s’mores on the hob, I’ll coma and get you in the morning, don’t worry, Terence. The neighbours are far enough away to just think there’s a dog.” Jackson told his husband is a sweet and informative voice. He walked back to his daughters, scooped them up and flew them indoors like little superheroes. He closed the house’s back door, he locked and barricaded that one too, just in case Terence somehow managed to get out of the shed and into the garden. He closed the downstairs windows, locking them at the top and bottom, closed the shutters and pulled the curtains.

As he turned the stove burners on to toast his twin girls marshmallows’, a loud screaming howl came from outside. Naomi jumped as the howl came through to the kitchen, Talia covered her ears very quickly and Jackson winced in sympathetic pain for the change that his husband was going through.

A long and sleepless night later, Jackson slowly walked out of the back door and towards the garden shed, which had been able to contain Terence in his animal form. He unlocked the shed door and slowly pushed it open; the doorway opened onto a completely trashed storage space, paint, tools and storage bins flung across the walls, floor and ceiling. He called out for Terence as he could not see him. A short rustling sound in the back of the shed gave away his location; Terence pulled a blanket off of his body with his clothes torn and frayed across his arms and chest, his trousers were now shorts and his jumper was hanging off the back of the door. Terence had managed to take it off before transforming.

Luckily, before his next change, Terence and Jackson were able to turn their large basement into a soundproof sanctuary for Terence to stay, keeping himself and the Hearst family safe. The door to the basement was heavy silver-plated steel door with a large deadbolt, two padlocks and a key lock that could only be opened from the house side of the door.