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Adventures In Living With The Mythical |
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A military veteran is adopted by a werewolf and brought into his pack. Insanity ensues. About "Life With A Werewolf" Life with a werewolf is a dramatic blog. As such the characters in this blog are not real but maybe loosely based on real people. The situations represented are not real but maybe loosely based on real things that have happened in my life. There are a multitude of ways to view life, this is simply one of the ways I have chosen to view mine. Updated Every Friday unless I can't or don't want to. If this is your first time reading this...start here: https://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/1040400-Welcome-To-The-Pack The first year is available as a compilation in print and on Amazon Kindle: https://a.co/d/gBLLL7E The first year is currently available on audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0G3SMJGFN/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-482... My book, "Dreamers of The Sea" is available now on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0uz7xa3 |
| One moment, I was standing at the cork board. The map of the county on it had a colorful trail of thumbtacks outlining the line of attacks from The Nobility werewolves. The entire office had crowded around me. It had all been so simple, yet brilliant. The entire thing was a feint. It had to have been. All three groups pushing in, moving forward making as much noise as they possibly can to get us running towards something. Which meant we'd be running away from something else. The people in that room would know. They would help me figure everything out. It would be so simple. And then...Boom. I was surrounded by ghosts. The building, everything gone, swallowed in inky darkness. The cork board was on the ground, the desk had several holes in it, blood stains from those who had died and those about to die. A light as if from a dying spotlight illuminated the board and the desk. Those who had died hugged tight in a group hug. One that I was reluctantly pulled into. Messages were passed on to each other, messages of love and camaraderie that only the doomed and dead could posses. Then, they proceeded almost hand in hand towards a distant light. A distant light that I at that moment shunned. Paradise would have to wait. I had friends to help. The answer was on the ground, illuminated by the thinly sick white light of whatever was shining on it. It was right there, if only it could be remembered. I had to have that answer. Crash needed me. Kris, Zack, Shawn, they all needed me. Hell, the entire county and our area needed me, if I could only remember! Valyur hadn't arrived so much as he had appeared. He winked into existence standing on the desk, looking better than the day he arrived at the house to help with Kheid. He stared down at the map for a bit as if he was trying to see what I was looking at. Then he looked up at me. "Personally, I don't see the appeal." "You don't like the maps color," I asked. Valyur jumped down off the desk, and landed next to the cork board on the ground. "Not enough to throw eternity away over." Taking a step away from the cork board, I looked over at him. "I'm not dying, I'm going back. I got to figure this out. Crash will need me. He will need my help when I wake up. Everyone will." Valyur shrugged. Around him the scenery changed. Crash was standing over my body, almost inconsolable as the EMS tried to work on my body. Their arms pumping hard. The machine beeping loudly. "Saving your friends is a noble cause," Valyur said. "But what's the use of being a hero if you get yourself stuck. You're in between. If you don't choose, you could be stuck in between for a very long time." "I am choosing! I'm choosing my friends. They need this information. I can't just go back without this. People will die." "Ay, that they will, and they do. With or without you," Valyur said. "If you crossed over now, you'd understand and wouldn't mourn a simple thing like that. You'd see good people get rewarded." I snorted. "I don't deserve any of that. I've done bad things, Valyur." "Ey, that's putting it mildly." He crossed his arms in front of him. Crash, the ambulance, the EMS workers, it all drifted back as if fading into fog. Crumbling concrete walls emerged around them. Walls with holes blown through. Gunfire erupted. I witnessed myself knelt next to one soldier working as fast as he could while covered in blood. I was watching a shade of the past from a few feet away. A stranger that used to be me working as hard as he could to save a life. "Stay with me," he shouted. Well, I shouted. This other version of me, the younger version witnessing the last few moments of his friend. "Fuck you," I snarled and stepped through the fog. Valyur cursed, chasing after me. "I'm just trying to show you...damn it meatie, wait up." The image vanished. Darkness surrounded us. I stopped and glared down at him. I could still somehow see him as if it was noonday, though we walked through inky darkness. "You can't go that way." He looked up at me, fear in his eyes for a moment. "Why not," I snapped, spinning around on him. "I'm doomed either fucking way!" "You don't have to be Jason! You don't have to choose that!" His fear was palpable. He felt fear for me. But at that moment, none of it, not his fear, not his demonstration meant anything. His presence meant something far darker to me. "What does it even fucking matter? You're here which means my friends are already dead. Which means everything I'm doing is in vain. No purpose to any of this anymore." "Hey! I'll have you know that they were alive and well when I went to dust," Valyur snapped. "Well, thank you, Valyur. I thank you for your sacrifice." I looked around. "But that means they're going to be in trouble if I don't tell them this one thing. If only I could remember it." "My every ability on this side of the veil says they're okay for now, Jason." I didn't know what his every ability was. Either he was lying to get me to cross, or he was telling the truth to get me back to the land of the living. Either way, there was only one choice I could make. I had to get back. To give them that piece of information. To remember that, I needed my map. I stepped over to where it should have been, to where it and the desk was and... It was gone. Everything was gone. Panic began to rise up in my soul. I looked down, and began walking towards where I thought it was. It was right here. I was on the verge of it. I knew I was on the verge, it was here somewhere. "What are you looking for?" "My map! My map, I need my map. I need to figure out what they're going to do, I need to..." "It's gone, Jason." Valyur said. I looked down at the ground. "Then where?" "It got blown up. Most of the building was blown out. Everything shredded by silver thorns and explosives." "Silver thorns," I asked, looking at him. "Ay. Silver melted into a three pointed star. It sticks in and hard to get out. For everyone in your office, it's a long, painful death." I shivered thinking about it. "They didn't deserve that." It was my fault. My stupid fault again. My brain just worked too slow when others distracted me. When I was being pulled nine ways to Sunday. There should be some setting in the human brain that lets us block the world out and think for five freaking seconds. Perhaps the revelation would have come. Everyone would have been fine. Maybe I'd have figured out that the head in the basket was a trap. A trojan horse. Beware of assholes from The Nobility bearing 'gifts'. I began to pace. "If I had only been able to.." "STOP THAT!" I stopped and turned to Valyur. "The only one responsible is Alexandre. You hold no blame for this." "I should have seen it coming! I should have been able to prevent it. Instead I carried the fucking thing right in! It's my fault! I have to make this right! I can't leave yet, I must make up for this!" I had no idea I'd started shouting. Or gasping. Damn, my chest was hurting. My face. What was going on. I sat down next to Valyur. "Why couldn't have I seen this one? Why couldn't I..." "Be perfect?" Valyur asked. I looked down at my feet. My chest was hurting a lot now. I began to gasp, as if trying to get my breath. "You're not perfect, Jason. You're only one person. You wanted to do the noble thing. That bastard used your nobility against you." He patted me on the shoulder. I could hear distant voices. It sounded medical. One person talking about a pulse. Another talking about oxygen levels or something. It was all so strange. "It's his fault and he has to pay for it on this side. Not you." "I need to protect them," I gasped. Sensations were returning now. Numbness. Tingling. "Just be there for your friends, Jason. You do more than enough with that." Valyur touched me on the shoulder. My entire being felt pain. He was doing it. I could see in his eyes, he was sending me back. "Did you have to make it hurt," I groaned, looking up at him. "Hey, I'm a lawn gnome! I'm doing what I can. If you wanted a pain free transition to the world of the living, you should have called an angel!" I looked up at Valyur. "You did your family proud." The last thing I saw as the world started fading into white was another familiar lawn gnome who stepped into the picture. Only, he wasn't shaved this time. He asked Valyur "You ready to go, dad?" "Yes, let's leave the meaties in peace now..." Then the world faded into white. And a familiar large black muzzle was staring down at me. "Jason! Oh thank God," Thick, furry arms wrapped around me and almost squeezed the life out of me. I gasped, trying to force air into my lungs. I began smacking his arm repeatedly. "Oh, right," he muttered, releasing me from his grip. I laid back, gasping. "Trying to finish the job?" His ears folded back and he got a sheepish grin on his muzzle. "You know, in some cultures its considered a badge of honor to die in the arms of a werewolf." "Uh, huh. Some cultures, as portrayed by one of your cheesy rubber monster movies?" He laughed. "Yes. They have the right kind of cheese." I laughed too, though not coming near the relief he felt. The building fire was almost out. There was several bodies on the sidewalk in body bags. I was on a gurney of some kind. Two EMTs who were working on me, looked relieved and determined to get me to the hospital. They brought me to the doors of the ambulance. I looked at Crash who was standing beside the gurney, walking with it the entire way to the ambulance. He had the face of a canine who had just watched his human nearly die. "I had it figured out. The entire plan that Alexandre was doing. But, I can't remember any of it now." Crash snarled at the werewolf's name. "Don't worry about him. Worry about getting better." I looked back at the building fire as they got ready to load me in. A firefighter was dragging a hose to a fire in the back of the building. Another was carrying someone out. Someone I knew. But at least that person was alive, walking on two legs, with her arm over the fire fighter's shoulders. It felt like hell had visited Earth. Which was fitting that it started out with a good intention. I could see why they said the road to hell was paved with them. "It's the worst thing in the world to have your friends die for your mistake." He squeezed my shoulder. "No, it was his mistake. And I'll make damn sure he pays for it, don't worry." I nodded. "Your doggie breath would be more than enough for that." Crash laughed and stuck his tongue out at me. It was still strange to see him do that after all this time. His ears pinned back, his eyes half closed in the pleasure of the movement. His tongue halfway out his mouth. I, of course, returned the favor. But I couldn't help but wonder if this would be the last of it. The last time either of us would see the other smile. Each of us faking happiness for the sake of the other. If I can't ever remember that damn thing I'd forgotten, it may very well be. |
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