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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 on Amazon Kindle: https://a.co/d/gBLLL7E Audio and print versions will be available in the future. My book, "Dreamers of The Sea" is available now on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0uz7xa3 |
| Dead weight is twice as heavy as regular weight. Anyone who has tried to lift an unconscious or dead body knows what I’m talking about. It pulls, it heaves, it hangs in so many awkward ways and always feels like you’re lifting something that’s twice as heavy. Now, make that weight the body of a werewolf far heavier than you. “Oh man, he needs to go on a diet,” Shawn grumbled as we dragged Crash into the bathroom. Both of us had given up on lifting him. He was just too heavy for regular humans. Now, if we’d been involved in dead lifting competitions and tough man contests like they used to play on ESPN before they decided the P stood for politics, then we might have had a chance. But right then? “Crash, you hear me? You’re going on a diet,” I shouted down at him as we slid his body into the bathroom. We had decided the best course of action was me grab one arm, Shawn to grab the other and we just lift and pull backwards. Yes, with my bad leg and back. He’s lucky I didn’t fall on him. It was a struggle getting him into the tub. In the end we lifted his head and rolled him in, dumping his body at an awkward angle. We struggled and strained, heaving his heavy body up and over the edge of the tub until we Crash finally rolled into the tub at an awkward angle. Thankfully, it was less difficult to arrange him into the tub so he wasn’t laying on his head. But I think that was because he was finally helping us. “Okay,” Shawn asked me. “Now what?” “Grab the bag of soap.” Shawn took too steps backwards like he was going to follow my instructions. But the confusion on his face reminded me of a toddler trying to get a mystery item for his parents. “I had it when I came through the door,” I half said, half chided. “Oh yeah,” he shouted as the light dawned. Then he was gone. He came stumbling in a few moments later, bag held aloft like some trophy in a strange internet game show. I snatched the bag from his hands and pulled the bottle of Dawn from it. Looking down at Crash who had gone back into whimpering mode, I said “you better pray you’re just an oil-soaked penguin.” Dawn makes a lot of suds. A LOT of suds. When applied to a werewolf who is bleeding profusely from multiple scratches all over himself, the suds come up more pink then white. As we began scrubbing with rags, with green scrub pads, with whatever we could get really, the pink suds started changing colors. Thick, yellow, mucous like puss began to flow, and sudsing up, turning the bubbles into a sickening yellowish pinkish sort of color that at times faded into orange. The smell. Oh God the smell. It was the scent of full body sweat sick. Of someone trapped in a bed for two weeks with fever funk mixed with an underlying stench of rot and decay. As the yellow pus began to bubble up, Crash began to shiver, as if a fever was taking over him. “What’s causing this,” Shawn asked. “I don’t,” I began. Then I remembered. It was one of those powerful punch type memories, as if God or the universe or whoever was trying to tell you something. We had been standing outside, in the wooded area. Crash was scratching, showing me the wolfsbane flowers. “Come on,” he said, as he scratched more. It was as if he was getting worse. “Shit,” I grumbled. “I have an idea. Let’s get him cleaned up first.” Rinsing Crash was harder than scrubbing him. It took several rinses, water splashing all over us, all over the floor, all over just about everything in the bathroom. It really felt like I was scrubbing a dog for a while. We attempted to lift Crash once or twice, but gave up after a while, and tried to dry him off in place. Shawn got paranoid and began wiping up the water on the floor, for which I was grateful to be honest. Cause although may have been comical, it could have been disastrous to fall with several hundred pounds of whimpering werewolf crashing down upon you. The werewolf’s eyes fluttered open. He took a couple of heaving gasps, then looked down at the mess. “Crap,” he muttered. Several of the wounds he had scratched into himself trying to scratch at whatever had attacked him was now closing. He stood. Swayed. But stayed up. Crash used our help to get out of the bathroom. Then it was off to his bedroom, where we paused. “No,” I said, turning him around. “Sleep in my bed.” “Huh,” he asked, looking at me. “Wha?” “Look,” I said, “whatever’s got you scratching up is obviously all over just about everything in your room. That includes your sheets. You sleep in my bed. We’ll strip your bed and begin cleaning things.” He didn’t fight, just grumbled, his ears folded back in distress. He hadn’t been in human form for days now, constantly walking around the house on his time off, scratching at everything. Bleeding all over everything from his constant thick clawed scratching. It had taken countless hours of restless sleep, of sweat induced days, of bleeding for countless hours on end but Crash was finally at the end of his nub it seemed. Worn down to the point where fight had fled him. When he collapsed on the bed, he grumbled, but didn’t say another word. And mercifully, he didn’t scratch. “Zack’s not gonna be happy,” I said looking at Crash in my bed. “Why,” Shawn asked, looking at me strangely. “Cause I have to sleep on the couch now.” He gave me a look of confusion at first before it dawned on him. “Oh yeah! Cause Crash,” he muttered. Now, there was an old movie called “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” that briefly came to mind. And although having Crash wake up in that situation would be hilarious, I didn’t have it in me to prank him when he was like this. “Come on,” I said. “You do laundry, I’ll do gardening.” “Uh…” Shawn said, then turned to Crashes room, scratching his curly brown hair. “Okay.” He walked into Crash’s room and began pulling sheets. When Kris got home from his job, he’d grumble but he’d help I knew. Zack would help as well if there was anything left to do. And right about then, we needed one of Zack’s cleaning tears. Now, among the hobbies I that I do have, gardening is not one of them. However, even me, in the back of my brain understood that if these plants were the things killing Crash, then I would need gloves to rip them up. The gardening gloves belonged to who knows who, but they were in the back of the garage, so they were snagged. They didn’t fit at all, but at least it was something. Then, I went to the woods and began to pull. It didn’t take long before I was covered in dirt, mud and lord only knew what and had a pile of these rotten things at my knees. I felt an itch working it’s way inward, an itch I ignored as I ripped up the deadly things. Working my way through, I tore every single flower that even slightly resembled one of the blue belled hated things that Crash pointed out to me earlier. The sunlight fades faster in when you’re in the woods. And, although I didn’t notice the light going down, I did notice how dark everything suddenly became. My pocket rang once, and I answered, half huffing, exhausted, but happy about the work that I had done. It was Crash’s boss. I’m not sure if I ever revealed his name, have I? Well, he’s not the type to want to be in one of these things. But he did ask if Crash was done with his investigation. To which, I told him some jerk had planted wolfsbane all around the property in the woods and I was cleaning it out. That Crash had almost scratched himself to death and I had to scrub him down and sent him to bed while we wash everything. He told me that didn’t happen from Wolfsbane. Apparently, it’s only dangerous if somehow the chemical that they make get under the skin. Even breathing in the pollen, although isn’t pleasant, won’t hurt them. They have to eat it, get it inside themselves somehow. When I told him what Crash had revealed to me about the vampires, I looked up. A pair of glasses seemed to glint in the dying light. “I got to go,” I said to him. “And I might be in trouble.” |
| I took my neighbors warning with as much gravitas as was needed for such a situation. Which means of course I turned it into a joke. That’s all you can really do in these situations. You make them jokes. Beneath the dark humor is a layer of darker reality. An understanding of the harshness that can and perhaps will befall me and Crash himself. “I have to kill myself in three days or he’s going to murder everyone apparently,” I had told Crash who was seated at the kitchen table. “What’s for dinner?” Crash shrugged. “It’s Zack’s turn. He said he’s picking up pizza. Scratch, scratch, scratch. “Can I have your pistol?” “No. I’m going to give it to Zack.” He gave me the most pitiful face I’ve ever seen on a sentient creature. “You’re no fun.” I laughed. “Well, Zack will want it, besides you’ll probably be killed beside me.” Crash shrugged. “Are you kidding? I’m lighting the ceremonial torch.” Scratch, scratch, scratch. “On yourself? And will you stop scratching, you’re making it worse!” He looked at me, his ears folded in discomfort and pain. “Ever have an itch so bad it physically hurt? Multiply that by a thousand. That’s what I feel right now.” I sighed and leaned against the sink. “What does your doc say?” “He came in, got a skin sample, then said to try, and I quote, ‘every soap known to man, I’m not even kidding. Use Dawn if you have to.’ End quote.” “But, you look nothing like an oil soaked baby penguin.” He gave me a puppy dog look, then lolled his tongue out for a second. “No, I’m cuter,” he replied. I gave him a smirk. “In a horrifying nightmare that would eat Freddy Kruger sort of way, yeah. Much cuter.” It went on like that for probably another fifteen minutes. Jokes and insults going back and forth until finally Crash, scratching a new spot on his arm, said “office got wind of Mitch a bit ago. They’re working on it they say.” I sighed, “what does that mean?” “Generally,” he grumbles, “that means I handle it. But given your situation. My situation and this whole damn town going to pot, not sure at this moment.” I sighed. “What will we do?” “What can we do?” Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch. “Can Vic, you know,” I began. Crash head tilted for a moment, until it finally dawned on him. “You mean, kick Mitch out of the brain of everyone in town? He’s good, but he’s not that good. He’d have glamor just about everyone, then mentally kick Mitch out one at a time. That would require a lot of willpower and strength, and Mitch will get tired of fighting and use one of his victims to just kill Vic.” “Or have Vic arrested,” I suggested. “Or dozen or so other ways of getting out of it.” Scratch, scratch, scratch. “It wouldn’t work.” “Well, you have any idea what’s causing your itching? You’re bleeding all over the furniture.” He shrugged. “Were-mange?” He grinned at his own bad joke. “No clue.” He went from a snappy sardonic grin to pleading puppy dog eyes in about three seconds. “Could you please pick me up some…” I sighed. “Yes, I’ll get the dawn.” And death threats I thought. “Thanks! And a candy bar.” Scratch, scratch, scratch. “Isn’t chocolate bad for dogs though,” I asked, then ducked as he threw a kitchen towel at me. “Okay, okay,” I chuckled, I’m going!” The town has a smallish grocery store, with a few isles that crowd in the necessities near some of the more profitable sugar products. It has all the feeling of a store that should be torn down and rebuilt but is reluctantly being kept open by its owners who hopes that the building will just one day rot into the ground so they don’t have to worry about it anymore. Some of the craters in the parking lot are larger than ones I’ve seen in warzones. The brick façade outside is more dingy gray than red with white mortar. But at least it doesn’t smell sour or stale, so the place has that going for it if nothing else. I squeezed down the cleaner isle and grabbed the big blue jug of Dawn. From there, I started looking at others, seeing if perhaps Borax or something else would be a good idea too. As I was searching, A kind old lady, one whom I’ve never seen before looked at me with a sweet smile. “Made your last plans, murder?” She asked, then moved on by the isle. “What,” I asked, turning towards her. “I’m gonna have fun dragging you and your pet dog outside,” another voice behind me said. I turned to look at a guy three times my size who had a sour disposition on his face. I clenched my fist, preparing for a fight. “You’re gonna die screaming and cursing his name,” said a voice behind me. I turned again, and there was a teenager glaring at me from behind his very wide mother who apparently didn’t hear a thing. “Say your prayers, write your will, don’t try and stop me, because nothing will.” It was a good thing I didn’t have my gun on me then. I turned and grabbed the lapel of the guy who growled it, shoving him against the shelf. It rattled from our weight but didn’t topple over. A couple of items clattered to the ground from behind it. “What did you say,” I snarled. He held up his hands. “Look sir, I want no trouble,” he stammered. He looked to be about the skinniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Obvious meth head with short gray hair. I looked up into his wrinkled face, the sunken jaw with obvious rotted out teeth, and sighed dropping him. Yes, I could have turned him into hamburger, but it wouldn’t be worth the hip pain. A lot of fights just aren’t worth the hip pain. “Stupid nursery rhyme death threats,” I grumbled letting him go. He shuffled away from me quickly. By the time he got to the next isle, I was certain he’d already forgotten the encounter. These things seemed to go that way. I figured dumb, drugged and creepy wanted me scared, but didn’t want me arrested. After days of this madness, it was finally starting to work. The checkout counter was never a more welcome sight in my life. Of course, I expected a death threat of some kind. Was on edge for it. With fists clenched and eyes wild, I began putting my groceries on the belt. Waiting for something. “Find everything you’re looking for,” The girl asked. She had to have been just out of high school. I nodded. “Think so,” I mumbled, looking around. There are times when you need a kind smile and a good heart. I didn’t get any of the teenage angst or disconnected melodrama that you can expect at times from teenagers. Instead, this woman who couldn’t have been older than nineteen gave me the most sincere, caring smile I’ve ever got. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Yeah,” I sighed, leaning against the check counter. Now it just holds the credit card reader, but that was the original purpose of it – to give you a place to write your checks. “It probably will,” I replied. “You just got to believe it,” she said sweetly. I nodded, and gave her the cash she asked for. I really was feeling better when she gave me the change, and in just as sweet of a voice said, “because we really do want you to enjoy your last two days on Earth.” I snarled a thanks at her, then grabbed my bags and left. You could say there was a bit of a mood about me when I got back. I set the bags on the counter, was prepared to begin slamming things around, until I saw Crash. Shawn was standing over him, a confused look in the surfer dude’s face. “I found him like this,” he muttered. “We got to, uh, I don’t know man. We got to do something.” There was a blood around him. He was half grumbling half whining in pain. “Let’s get him into the tub,” I said. “Then what,” Shawn asked. “We scrub,” I said. “And if you’re religious, pray.” |
| The cashier smiled oh so sweet at me as she told me “That will be eleven dollars and eighteen cents. Murderer.” I’ve grown used to the accusations by then so I simply swiped my card, smiled back, grabbed my bag and left. I tried not to make it obvious that I was carrying. These days I carry everywhere I go. When you get idle threats pumping gas, walking down the block, going into the Dollar General, you tend to make sure you’re protected. If I went to church, I’d even carry in there at this point. Not that I go out much anymore. What did I have in my bag? A couple things for the kitchen and doggy shampoo for Crash. Specifically stuff that was supposed to kill mange. We’d tried everything else and was growing a bit desperate. Soap and water came first. Then came changing laundry detergent. He sniffed around in his car, in his clothing, in the garage around the house. In the woods. Everywhere he could find, and couldn’t come up with much. There was a new strain of wolfsbane growing in the wooded area behind the house, but Crash didn’t give it much thought. “Wolfsbane doesn’t do much,” he grumbled. “I’d have to consume quite a bit of it for it to do any harm.” The blue flower was beautiful, but I was told “it is poisonous to you. Don’t mess with it without gloves.” We stood in the woods in the late evening as he pointed it out to me. He continued to itch, and pretty much was just a werewolf twenty-four seven now. His arms were in red patches, with ugly scraps of fur sticking out here and there. Some of it caked with blood. “Poison ivy. Gotcha,” I said. He gave me a glance that spoke of bemusement and exhaustion. “Not poison ivy. Wolf’s Bane. Poisonous, don’t mess with it.” I shrugged. “Poison Ivy. Gotcha.” This is the attitude that usually got me in trouble in the military. It was about then that whatever superior I was joking with would teach me in harsh detail the benefits of respecting authority. As they say used to say, there’s the smart, and the strong. I was always strong. I don’t play these games to be a jerk, I do it because my mind relies on associations. Associating the plant with poison ivy worked a lot better for me than trying to learn separately what it did and how it could harm you. “Whatever,” he snarled, and started scratching his arms again. We headed back towards the house, ignoring the encroaching plant. This was beginning to puzzle me, and when I started asking Crash about it, he snarled. “Don’t. I already know who it is.” “Kheid,” I snarled. Crash ear tipped me a smirk that made me feel as though I had just got the werewolf’s equivalent of ‘bless your heart’. “No. He’s in another county right now. Over ran a home.” “What?” “Yes,” Crash nodded. “Those poor people are gone.” When I asked Crash what happens when I lawn gnome gets inside, he gave it to me in vivid detail. At least there’s no blood involved. Life for the victims become a whole lot more…ceramic we’ll just say. I gave a shudder thinking about it. “You mean, when Kheid almost got inside, he was going to,” I asked, not finishing the sentence. “Yes,” Crash said. “You were almost gnomed.” The longer I live with Crash, the more I learn that it always pays to listen to your neighborhood werewolf. There’s a lot of crazy creatures out there that we don’t even know about some of them we don’t honestly even have myths for that these poor, overworked individuals keep at bay for us. We were no closer to an answer for him. I was so paranoid of outsiders at this point that I had nearly shot the poor mail lady. She at least didn’t call me a murderer, but did call me a psychopath. Guess I can’t blame her. But hey, she made an awful lot of noise with that mailbox when she dropped off the bills and that game for Zack. It isn’t completely my fault that I thought this sweet sixty something year old lady who was always kind to us was going to bomb the house, is it? “Arkansas,” Crash said, bringing me out of my memory. “Arkansas,” I asked, a little confused. “You mean an entire state of people want me dead?” “No,” Crash growled, that turned into a wolf like grumble as he started scratching at a spot on his leg. “Let’s get out of this forest first, please. I’m starting to get worse.” Seated at the kitchen table, with a complaining, grumbling werewolf who was scratching so much he was almost bleeding on the furniture, Crash asked me, “You remember when we went to Arkansas to get rescue your ex?” If you’re curious. It’s the “Saving Sarah” series chronicled on this blog. But to sum it up, Leeroy and Mitch were twin vampires with a taste for meth who had glamoured Sarah, my ex, into selling all of my stuff. Soon, she was running meth for them as well as being their food supply and all-around slave. Crash killed one, but the other got away. I looked over at Crash, and almost did his canine head tilt. “Leeroy?” “No! I killed Leeroy. His brother, Mitch.” “Huh. I thought the cartel had killed him,” I said. Crash shrugged. “Nah. Leeroy and Mitch was more into making their own instead of trying to buy it from someone else.” Yeah, that had been a whole thing too, now come to think of it. The vampire terror twins had a taste for poison after all, whether it was flooding the streets with meth or attempting to kill a certain werewolf. It was right about then that a thought occurred to me. “Could they make other people smoke meth? Under their influence,” I asked, thinking allowed. Then answered my own question. “They did it to Sarah already. So, how many people can they do that to?” “There was a vampire in a small town in France who controlled every citizen inside it for over fifty years,” Crash said. “From the youngest to the eldest. They all fed him, they all took care of him. They all gave a portion of their money and goods to him. He controlled their mayor, their every single thing. Nothing happened in the town without his say so.” “So, what happened,” I asked. Crash scratched at a new spot on his shoulder and shrugged. “We took care of it. The towns people weren’t happy.” I looked at him. “Why not?” “When you’re not alone with your thoughts in your own head for so long, you begin to grow comfortable with your visitor. This vampire was smart. He wasn’t a lord who went around punishing everyone. He made everyone happy in their subjugation. He was their friend who knew every thought, and when one had trouble made sure everyone else helped.” “How many was in that town,” I asked. Crash shrugged. “About four thousand. I heard it was a difficult operation, but the EU was happy to finally be rid of him.” Four thousand people. Mitch could easily glamour half that many I figured, with the meth baking his brain. Our county had at least that many living in it. Two thousand willing souls, providing blood and money for the meth that they now all craved. That’s not mentioning the ones who already took meth. I shuddered at the thought. “I don’t think he’s got control of the county,” Crash said. “He doesn’t even have control of the town. But he’s got a foothold.” That statement stuck with me. He’s got a foothold. One crazy meth head vampire had control of dozens, potentially hundreds of people. “Can you uh…kick him out? Like the way you did with me?” Crash chuckled. “No, that would take an entire pack of werewolves.” He sighed, and scratched at his arm again. Blood began to well up from it, and I stood to grab a towel for him. “Not to mention this whole town would have to be suddenly very close to them, and well, no. It isn’t possible.” “So, what can we do,” I asked. He started to shrug. That’s when we heard the knock at the door. Gary was there, and he looked pissed. Those coke bottle frames looked as if they were about to catch our poor, battered front door on fire. I opened it slowly and smiled at him. “Gary! It’s a pleasant surprise! What brings you here?” “Can the sunshine, murderer,” he snarled. “Mitch,” I grumbled. More under my breath than anything else. Gary scratched at his arm and smiled, “finally you guessed it,” he said. “This vessel is here to deliver a message. You are to go into the town square in front of everyone at midnight three days from now and kill yourself. A single bullet to the head. Or I will kill one of these people. And I will keep killing them and delivering their corpse to your front steps until you finally get the gumption up to do what you should do.” What could I do? I smiled as sweet as I could at Gary and said, “thank you, but I already have a religion,” then closed the door. Hey, it works for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Who was that,” Crash asked. Scratch scratch scratch scratch. “Mitch,” I said. “I have to kill myself in three days or he’s going to murder everyone apparently. What’s for dinner?” |
| It was one of those exhausted, drained days. You know the kind, the ones where you feel as though you’re walking around in a thick fog of exhaustion and disappointment. As if every conversation and interaction you’re having is on a VHS tape being played back in slow motion. You really can’t write well on days like that. Your brain isn’t operating in any capacity that could be called “peak” or even “good.” Since I felt about as lively as one of the zombies that I partied with last year, I decided that perhaps some caffeine and sugar would be in order. This wasn’t a hangover, mind you. For those, I generally want carbs, grease, and of course, salt and liquid; all in great quantities. But I hadn’t had one of those in quite some time. Alcohol hadn’t touched my lips for weeks and to be honest, I didn’t miss it one bit. No, it wasn’t alcohol that had drained all the energy from me. It was a lively late night gaming session that, although felt as if it was needed at the time, as of right now just felt like someone had drained about two pints of blood out of me. No, for that particular exhaustion, caffeine and sugar was needed, and lots of it. Small towns can be nice for somethings. Varieties of businesses aren’t generally one of them. If you live in the standard small town in America, you have Fast-Food Row: A McDonalds, A Burger King, A Hardees or Carl’s Jr that’s perpetually dead and you wonder how they stay in business, and probably one of those dual drive through places like a Checkers or a Rally’s. There might be a tiny burger place like a White Castle or a Krystal’s. There will always be two requisite chicken places of some kind. KFC and something else like Church’s or Popeye’s. But we didn’t live a town big enough for a Fast-Food Row. We had a local restaurant, and that’s it. It wasn’t anything particularly special or noteworthy. Just a place that served basic American fare and grease of any shade of brown you wanted it in. What I was desiring was a coffee shop. A place where I could get a nice, tall, steaming cup of caffeinated sugar water that they called coffee and pay eight times the fair price for it. But to get to such a place would require a drive; one that was going to take me almost an hour in one direction. Not worth it for a single cup of Mochafrappinated sugar milk water. So, instead I went down to the local convenience store and bought a cup of their sugar burnt bean water. It wasn’t much. It wasn’t good. But at least it was coffee. And that’s what counted, especially in that moment. It was like any other chain convenience store in the Midwest. Bright lights, an isle of just candy bars, and useless overpriced gifts shoved away incase on your travels through the middle of nowhere you forgot to pick something up for that special someone. In the back was the coffee maker that I had come to see. A black and red beast that could produce sugared burnt bean water in copious amounts. As I brought my purchase up to the counter, one tired worker gave me a small polite smile. I recognized him immediately, and for the sake of this blog, he will be called “RJ”. Now, RJ is a nice guy, normally. We’ve talked a little. He’s told me about his kids. I’ve told him about, well, nothing really, just gave him a few funny stories from the service. And that was just about that. As I set my purchase down, he sighed and asked if that was all in a bored tone. I nodded, and passed over the four bills for the cup of joe. “That’s about twenty two cents in change, murderer.” Murderer. He denies it to this day, doesn’t remember saying it, but I distinctly remember him saying that exact word. “Excuse me,” I asked him, half shocked, half getting pissed. Inside my mind the old veteran was raging against the bars of his cage, raring to get out and show him what exactly a ‘murderer’ was. “I said that’s about twenty-two cents in change, sir,” RJ said, blinking. RJ is not a strong dude. He’s got more of a drunk dad bod than a fighter bod, with shaggy, greasy hair that said he didn’t get it cut or washed nearly enough. It would be a confrontation he’d regret is what I’m saying. He looked genuinely confused as to my reaction. “Is something wrong?” Now, being someone who served in the military, I had plenty of people call me plenty of different things before. These days most of what I get is “Thank you for your service,” to which my standard reply is “thank you for your support.” But, I’ve been called colorful things before. (I lost rank because of the outcome of one incident. Still don’t regret it.) However, this is the first time anyone had called me ‘murderer.’ He lifted his forearm and casually scratched at it while I answered him. “I thought you said something different.” Then I grabbed my coffee and began to leave. As I opened the door, I distinctly heard him say, “Have a nice day, murderer.” Three things ran through my mind at that moment. A, the coffee was scalding hot and could be used for a lot of fun things. B, jail is not nice in a small town, though I’ve probably been in worse. And C, It would take Crash a few hours to wake up and bail me out. The guy behind the counter must have seen my glare, because he about jumped out of his skin and practically leaped behind the counter, pretending to search for cigarettes or something. I just clenched one fist, tried not to clench the other holding the hot coffee, got back into my car and drove home. That could have turned this little post into a rant about veterans and their treatment. In fact, that’s the way things seemed to be heading until two days later when I stepped outside to take the garbage can to the road. Gary was outside. Gary if you remember, is our neighbor who likes to talk about cars. He’s a gearhead who enjoys old station wagons, sedans and average style “mom mobiles” from back in the day. He doesn’t really care about fancy Lamborghinis or BMWs. He’d actually rather talk about my Mercury Topaz for instance, or his Buick Estate station wagon. The grin on my face hid my inner cringe as the fear of a thirty-minute conversation about door seals on Buicks burned through my mind. However, Gary just smiled sweetly, his coke bottle glasses and halo of hair giving him an almost Mr. Magoo look that evening and said, “evening murderer.” The shock of his statement allowed him to get by me without me even summoning a response. Me. Rendered speechless. It does seem impossible, but it can happen. Having a neighbor, someone I enjoyed their company and looked up to calling me a murderer would be enough to do it. As he approached the corner, I ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. “What’d you say, Gary,” I asked. “What,” Gary asked. “I said, ‘Evening Jason’. What did you think I said?” I guess it was the look on my face that gave him some alarm. Or maybe the way I grabbed him and tried to spin him like a top. “I’m not sure,” I lied. “It sounded wrong though, so I had to clarify.” Gary idly scratched at his forearm. I turned and as I was walking away, I distinctly heard Gary say, “he’s coming, murderer.” “Who’s coming,” I snapped as I turned back around. Gary looked at me as if I grew three heads. “Who,” he asked. “That’s what I want to know,” I growled. “You’re not making any sense. You, okay?” “I’m,” I began then stopped. I ran a hand through my hair as I took a deep breath and tried again. “I could have sworn you said ‘he’s coming’. In fact, I know you said that.” Gary shook his head and clenched a fist. “I said no such thing. I was just out on my evening walk and saw you there, and wanted to talk to you about the new parts I found for my Buick Estate. Then you had to go and get all weird. I’m going home.” I sighed, and shook my head, then turned to go back inside. As I walked away from my garbage can, I distinctly heard Gary say “murderer” again. Clenching a fist, I walked back inside. These are things that perhaps should be discussed with Crash. To tell the truth, I truly want to discuss them. However Crash has had a rough time of things as of late. Red splotches over his human skin, rough patches of fur when he shifts, like a dog ate up with mange. I’m just not certain what is causing those things in him. The hardest thing to do is to discuss something troubling like this with someone who is having far harsher troubles than yourself. Perhaps these are things I should just keep to myself for the moment. Afterall, it’s not like things are going to progress, is it? So, I get called a few things. Perhaps it’s just a summer blues thing? Perhaps something happened in the news and people are just taking it out on me because I served? I dunno, stranger things have happened. Hopefully things don’t get any worse. I’ll talk to Gary in a few days. I’m sure he’ll tell me what’s got him upset. That will at least give me a clue to this mystery. |
| It’s been a while, hasn’t it? These longer expeditions do take it out of me somewhat. Digging into information from my roommates, most of whom were understandably tight lipped. Zack’s description of events were, in a word: short. “I was tied to a chair and fed cold soup.” He said, and wouldn’t talk any more about things. It was a bit easier getting information out of Rodriguez pack however, which I was grateful for. The tension in the house felt like a windup toy wound too tight. If you keep cranking on that key, something or someone is likely to snap sooner or later. You must find a way to let that tension out. In the service a perfect way to let off a little bit of steam was with a prank war. After all, if they don’t prank you once in a while, are they really your friends? I, of course, have a couple of memories I could access for this. But, due to legal reasons, I won’t talk about it. In other words: “No sir, I still don’t know how your vehicle ended up parked like that. Or how the shaving cream got there.” Things started innocently enough. A little grocery run for a few necessities in the local dollar store. Shampoo, frozen pizza a couple of other things. I was just wandering through the store, glancing at this or that the way you do sometimes. That’s when I came across it: squeaky toys. Dog squeaky toys. All of them quite cheap. The dog food incident came up in my mind just then as I stared at it, and remembered something else he said when I discussed the possibility of getting a canine companion. “We already have a dog of sorts.” I suppose a werewolf could count in its own way as a family pet. And I did owe him for that dogfood thing after all. Luckily, he was at work that night, chasing down whatever it is that he was chasing for that week, so I had plenty of time. I attached a squeaky toy the arm inside the tank of his toilet, so whenever he flushed, a loud squeak would be heard. His seat, which he perpetually leaves down, I attached another small dowl rod to a squeaky bone. Then, I went into my room, giggling. Luckily, Zack was at work too, doing a late shift, so I was able to put a squeaky toy on his door. That was when Kris caught me. He didn’t say anything. Just giggled a bit, then grabbed the bag of squeaky toys from me and started going nuts. One attached to the trash can. One under the cushions of the couch. One under the gas pedal of Crash’s car. After all, when Crash is out “in uniform” as he calls it, he tends to not take his precious, beat-up Caddy. One under each tire of the Caddy. In every cabinet in the house, rigged so when you opened it, they squeaked and when you closed it, they squeaked. I’m still not sure how he did that one. Every surface, every angle, every possible thing in the house was booby trapped. It required two more trips to said store, which luckily the store manager was closing, and found it so funny she was even nice enough to dig out a huge box of the things from the back so we could outfit more. So, there you go Crash, that’s the other culprit. Our house looked as if the Home Alone kid did an eight ball and then went to town on the entire house. All of these tricks and traps are hard work, so I got about two hours of sleep before I heard the front door open and then the first victim, Crash, opened a cabinet door. Squeak! He grumbled. Closed the door. Squeak! Turned on the coffee maker. Squeak! Sat in his favorite chair in the kitchen. Squeak! With a screaming curse, he stood up, stomped to his bedroom, and slammed the door shut. Squeak! It grew quiet for a while. I was just about to drift off to sleep, until through my bedroom wall I heard another squeak and the roar of one, now slightly annoyed werewolf. I laid in bed, trying to silently giggle to myself. I knew that Kris was upstairs with Shawn trying to do the same. Then Zack came home. Squeak went the cabinet door. Squeak! Crash exited his room. A few stomps later, and it grew quiet. Finally, I stood and began walking to the kitchen with trepidation. And was pelted with a high-speed squeaky bone. Kris and Shawn upstairs cried out as Crash invaded, throwing Squeaky bones and other dog toys at them. Then it was on. Turning, I saw a giggling Zack, who reared back and threw another bone, which smacked me in the face. I threw it back at him and dove for cover behind a recliner. Zack is a great gamer, but a bad throw thankfully, and in his attempts to pelt me with the squeaking balls and bones of death and destruction just gave me more ammunition. I was tossing the balls and bones back at Zack who was hiding behind the couch. I heard a tumble downstairs followed by loud squeaks. “Eww! You don’t have to lick them,” Kris cried as he ran for cover to the bathroom. Shawn followed close behind, with Crash tumbling after like an over grown dog. Unfortunately, Shawn got locked out of Kris’ sanctuary, who with a shout of “not cool dude!” began to run for his life wearing nothing but board shorts and a terrified grin of one who had no idea of what he was just dragged into. An armload of ammunition. A target in front of me and turmoil behind me. I knew when it was time to get moving. Popping up, I threw two hard throws at Zack, forcing his head down. Then running, I began to make my way towards the front door. Splat! A squeaky ball splashed off my face and landed on the floor. Turning, Crash was grinning behind me still in werewolf form. “Eww dude! That’s like being licked by you,” I cried. He only replied by turning his head like a silly over grown dog, grinning with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. I jumped back and threw a bone at him as hard as I could. With speed he rarely demonstrated to me, he dove forward, caught the bone in his mouth, spit it into his hand then pitched it back at me, splatting me in the chest. My jaw must have been open, because he splatted a bone against my forehead next. And Zack, seeing an opportunity, threw a wet one at my back. I don’t know if he picked one of the wet ones Crash was throwing up, or if he started licking them himself. I don’t really want to think about it. “Aah,” I shouted, diving for the doorway to the dining room. “Help, Kris!” “Save yourself,” He shouted back from behind the door of the bathroom. Crash was quick enough to cut off my escape. Zack was behind me now at a distance even he couldn’t miss me from. It was over. I curled up into a ball as I was peppered with squeaky toys. “Alright! I shouted, “Alright! I give! You win! Enough! Cease! Desist! Uncle! Uncle fuzzies bunny numpkins!” Crash and Zack paused at that one. “What?” They asked each other in unison. “Did get you to stop,” I said from the floor. Then I was pelted once more by each of them. Crash broke into the bathroom next. I didn’t see, but I heard Kris shout “Eww! Don’t lick them!” Then cried an unholy high-pitched scream as Crash began to pelt him with squeaky toys. “Now we’re even,” he said. Zack laughed behind me. “That backfired,” he said. I gave him a grin and shrugged. Crash grinned back. He didn’t have to wink or nod, but I knew he knew what I was doing with all of those squeaky toys. For less than seventy bucks me and Kris did what hours of therapy wouldn’t have been able to. We found a way to let off some of that stress and steam. To unwind the spring a bit, so to speak. Not every major issue needs to be discussed on a comfy couch with a Doctor Phil. Sometimes the best therapy is to grab a water gun, hand your spouse one, and tell them they have a ten second head start. To hide squeaky balls around the bedroom of your best friend. To do the funny things to each other that for some might seem mean spirited at a glance. And to get those funny things in return. As long as everyone knows when to quit, it’s the best therapy. Shawn entered a few minutes after the fire stopped. “Is it safe to come back in, dude,” he asked, looking at me. “Come here,” Kris shouted, picking up some squeaky toys, “You were supposed to defend me,” and began chasing him around the house and up the stairs, throwing squeaky toys at him, shouting “come back here you coward!” Crash patted me on the back afterwards. “That was fun,” he said. “No more squeaky toys.” I nodded. “No more.” “Disarm the house, please.” He replied. To which I nodded. After all, it was the least I could do, so that’s what I did. But he never did say anything about disarming the garage. Hey, I could always blame his car on Kheid. After all, that lawn gnome loves messing with vehicles for some reason. |
| I wasn’t around for Kris or Sean’s bit of this involvement. I was trying to make my way towards the mansion while they were pulling the bodies out of that SUV that was still running. The mansion was designed to look like a standard middle class American home but on steroids. As if the folks who grow these pop-up neighborhoods from the seeds they plant them from had given it just a bit too much Miracle Grow and let the water run just a tad too long. Standard roof at the top with an Apex and three windows facing towards traffic. Lights were on inside. They had security lights running outside as well. From the dark, I think it the exterior was that red dark brick? But honestly, it could have had a mural of Fat Elvis eating a bean burrito for all I could see out there in the dark. I did see the shadows of trees carefully placed on the lawn. The large four car garage doors were open, with twin pairs of eyes shining at us in the darkness. I did see Cecily, Killian, and Mitch in the briefest of glimpses, then they were gone, racing up the hill. Behind me the SUV had started its movement towards the garage. I heard the front door clang open, a few snarls and nips. Those eyes in the garage disappeared. Then…silence. Followed by a lone howl in the night, one that chilled my blood. But fear wasn’t a luxury that any of us then could afford. So, I took that fear and the anger I felt and shoved it in a box, taped it up tight, and placed it on a shelf in my brain. I’d have the luxury of feeling pain, fear, anger, shame and regret later. Now was time for action. I checked my magazine. I had a few shots left. Two to be exact, with one in the chamber. Hopefully it would be enough. With a glance over my shoulder, I could see Zack, for his part was doing his best. Grim faced, fearful, yet moving forward. Donte was covering the rear like a professional, ensuring there was no one coming upon us from behind. For a moment we felt like a functioning team. Clearing a building as a well-oiled military machine takes time, practice, and A LOT of hours of learning how to move around objects like furniture, interior structures like walls, windows and doorways without accidentally killing each other. Military units will practice that for days, sometimes weeks. We had the time it took us from getting across the street and to the front door to get it right. We didn’t. Which is why I wanted to start out by pointing out how brave everyone was. How much danger we were all in. How out of his element Zack was, a guy more suited to holding a game controller than a pistol, and how unpracticed, unoiled, and unmachined like we were. Cause despite all the mistakes we made, the amateur moves that was done which may have endangered all of our lives, despite deep down knowing that we could be and probably would be killed, and a good chance by each other on accident, we kept moving forward. Especially those two who hadn’t practiced this on a daily basis for weeks on end before in their previous occupation. Cause, after all, when I was in training to clear buildings and doing all the military training for that function, I fell inside the doorway of my first building too. Though, I was the last guy in, not the first guy, and so I didn’t have anyone trip over me. It is an honest to goodness miracle that we didn’t kill each other right then and there. “Watch where you’re going,” Donte snarled as he picked himself up off the floor. Zack apologized, ducking his head sheepishly as he stood up as quick as he could. I rolled my eyes and for once bit my tongue. What can I say? I can learn things. Sure, it may take something everyone getting kidnapped for it to happen, but I can learn. The first room we entered was a large hallway of some kind. There was a sweeping staircase that had blood running down its steps and the body of a half-formed creature of some kind at the bottom of it. It was a were-something at one point; right then it was a dead were-something. We walked past the stairs looking for the entrance to the basement, where everyone was supposed to be. I walked past a door in the hallway running past the stairs, and kept going. Zack came up behind me, looked at the door he said, then looked forward and started moving again. It was then the door exploded outwards, splintering off its hinges beneath the weight of the beast. It leaped towards Zack, who couldn’t bring his pistol up fast enough. The first shot went wild. Second shot into the floor. And then with a glint in the light the pistol was flying down the hallway. Donte fired a shot, but since his bullets didn’t have silver, the werewolf ignored him. He fired a second, and the creature brought its head up. Its teeth glistened in the light. If it wanted to, it could have ripped Zack’s poor head right off. And then I could tell it wanted to. I raised my pistol and fired. The carnage…well there was carnage that splattered. Everyone. That’s what I’ll say. The rest of it and how much I’ll let your imagination do the talking. The body collapsed on Zack, pinning him to the floor. It was a struggle, but after we got Zack up, he patted himself down real quick, sighed and said, “I’m good, lets go.” Then on we moved. Thankfully, the pistol flew just a few feet before landing next to a crushed coffee table. We were navigating at that moment by pure logic. Given the stairwell pointed upwards, perhaps the door furthest down the hallway would lead downward. It was our first guess, and thankfully the correct one. My hand pressed against the door handle. I took a deep breath, and opened it. Slowly, but surely, we began making our way down the stairs. Up from the basement snarls. Growls. And..words. I could hear words. “You just don’t understand what we’re trying to…” Then Crash’s distinct voice. “I understand completely what you’re doing, you son of a bitch.” I knew his voice. Roam’s voice too. There was a snarl of some sort. And…Tanika? We ran head long down the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. The stairs opened up into a finished basement of sorts. Silver plated bars on guilded cages held Crash in one side, and Roam and Tanika on the other. These bars weren’t thick. They were thin. So thin that if anyone attempted to, they could bend or break them. However, not without their strange triangular twisting shapes cutting into your flesh, which was the point. Silver is poisonous to a werewolf after all if it gets in their blood. The rest of the basement was bare concrete and fluorescent lights, like it was ripped from a hospital’s basement in the eighties. There he was, in his silver furred glory with a dark streak of black down his back. Verner. The one who had done all of this. “And you,” he snarled at me. “I try to save you, and this is the thanks I get?! I really should let that drug addict vamp trash finish the job.” “Dad! Mom!” I knew better than to turn my head and look, but in the corner of my eye I could see Donte moving towards the cages. He’d get them out, I was sure. Verner turned and snarled at him; I fired a single shot. “Next one goes in you,” I said. He turned and growled at me, low and vicious in his throat. His lip curled up, showing every tooth he had in his skull. I had one shot left. “Try it,” I grinned. “I’ll cure all your ills.” Okay, so I stole that line. So, shoot me. Verner leaped. I felt the thump almost before I saw it. Then I against the floor. This creature snarled above me ready for the kill. It raised it’s right hand up, dark deadly claws ready to end my life. My next moves were instinctive, from years of military training. First step is to create space. I raised my knee, and caught him in the groin. The creature yelped and lifted half an inch. It was more than enough. I pressed upward with my right hand, moving my pistol. I wasn’t watching what I was shooting. I just pulled the trigger. The bullet moved upward, drawing a straight line from almost near his hip over his chest and through the creature’s forearm. I heard a yelp I’ve never heard before in my life. One born of pain and sudden desperation. I rolled over onto my hand and knees, in time to see the werewolf raise his bleeding, oozing arm to his maw. He pressed the elbow at the joint to his open jaws and bit down, severing the forearm completely. It dropped onto the stone floor. He loped up the steps and was gone. *** It took us hours to get home. Not much was said between anyone the entire time, even me. Having been through similar things in my previous occupation working for everyone’s least favorite rich uncle, I knew better than to try and talk or joke with people in this state. Crash sat in the back, wearing a simple set of shorts and a very sour look on his face. He watched the scenery move by the SUV’s window as we finally pulled into our house. “I need a vacation,” he grumbled. “We all do,” Zack muttered. “Been there. Nothing but sandy beaches for miles and miles. No waves though, no water. Nothing to do but shoot at people. Overrated. One star, would not go back,” I grumbled. Zack gave me a strange look, then asked, “did you just yelp review one of your deployments?” I shrugged. Everyone in the car began to giggle a little. Everyone but Crash. I get the feeling that they used to wonder why I never talked about the other stuff. Why I never really wrote or told about what had happened. Everyone was too polite to ask of course, but after this brief but tragic adventure, I get the feeling that none of them will wonder anymore. Of course, I’ll know. I’ll know why Zack is up three hours after he long should have gone to bed playing Call of Duty or some space ranger death game. I’ll know why Sean and Kris grumble and become stand offish at times; why when they hear certain sounds, they’ll get tense. Or wish to drink something stronger than soda. Crash will too. We’ll do what we can for them. We’ll just be there when they need us. This time, though, I won’t offer my stupid cliché advice or asinine jokes. I’ll just listen. The SUV pulled into the house at about five after six. Cecily was standing on the front lawn waiting for us when we pulled in. I watched her face go from strained worry to relief as everyone began to pull in. The sun had finally started to rise. When I got out of the car, I looked towards it. “Horrible night,” I said. “But it’s going to be a good morning.” "Thank God you're still alive," she sighed. "Is everyone behind you?" Crash nodded to her as he patted me on the back. Roam and Tanika pulled up in Donte’s car. Donte got out and of course was all smiles. “Well, it’s been years, but I’m so glad that finally we can,” he began. Crash turned towards Roam, and snarled at him. “This makes up for nothing. You have thirty minutes to get your crap and get out of here.” Zack, Kris, Sean, Donte, Cecily and I all stood around staring at each other, a bit shocked. “I did not think it would,” Roam said finally. “We will be gone in ten.” Kris of all people looked at Crash, then at Roam. “What the hell happened?!” Roam’s shoulders fell. “It is not my tale to tell. But I will say that I do not blame him.” I thanked Roam and gave him a hand shake. Which turned into a hug. Which Tanika turned into a group hug. Which Donte joined in on. Then Cecily. Finally, Kris, Zack and Sean all joined in. Which started to get a little awkward if I’m going to be completely honest. They did promise to read this blog when they got a chance, so hello guys. Hope everything is still going well with you. When our little hug therapy session ended, we said our final goodbyes, and they were gone. Heading back to whatever area the Rodriguez pack had come from. Zack, Kris, Sean and myself all saw them off. Crash, of course, was already inside. I walked up the hill in front of our old home, and climbed up the steps onto the porch. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Crash said from the darkness. I could tell he was staring out at the entrance to the woods. “Well, can we talk about what happened here then?” “You ruined a perfectly good plan. I’m pretty pissed at you, you know.” “Well,” I said, “go ahead. Let me have it. But I get my say in after.” “Do you know, this is my job? This is what I do for a living! I’m a functioning policing member of the county. I’m a representative to the ones you call the ‘mythical’ population and one of the few they can actually turn to when they need help. Who do you think the Hulderfolk turn to when they get a burglary? When a vampire gets murdered, who’s job is it to investigate? When the minotaurs have their weirdo festival they have in the spring and keep everyone else up, including the local humans, who do you think gets the call for that? Me. That’s who. Not you. But you keep getting involved, you keep interfering, and damn it, you’re starting to get in my way!” He paused for a moment, then looked back towards the woods. After the silence began to grow between us like a rift, I said, “are you done?” “No! But yeah.” Classic Crash. “How the hell am I supposed to know what the plan is if you don’t tell me anything.” Crash looked as if I had slapped him. “What?” “You heard me. How am I supposed to know what the plan is if you don’t tell me anything. You know what my last job was? I was in the military. Got pretty high up there, too. And yes, it was a lot of ‘right place, right time, right uniform, right attitude,’ that got me there, but it was also the fact that I learned! Particularly to adapt and over come in any situation, as you’ve just had a first hand of witnessing. “In my last job, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that was involved with a plan knew the entire plan and what their part in it was. This was so if something went wrong, they could improvise, and make damn sure that the mission, whatever it was, was accomplished. My job was not, and never had it ever been to ‘shut up and follow orders’.” Crash didn’t respond, he kept staring into the woods, as if he longed to be there. “We all bring something different here. Zack is the glue that holds everything together. Kris and Sean, they’re the quirky ones who give us someone to talk to about something that’s not weirdo werewolf shit. They help with the techno babble that goes over all our heads. Me? I’m the security guy. I’m going to make damn sure everyone is safe and comes home. And you, you’re our fucking Alpha. You’re the werewolf we all love and want to make sure is safe and sound. Security guy can’t do his security guy things if you’re not telling him the fucking plan! Why do you think I’m always doing so many crazy things around here? I’m constantly just throwing pasta against the walls trying to see what sticks.” Crash sighed. “Sean is right, dude. You never shut up,” he said with a grin. “Gah,” I cried turning around for a moment, clenching my fists. He stood and patted me on the shoulder. “I guess I understand,” he said. “I’m not asking to be involved in the day-to-day of your job. But if there’s a plan of some kind that involves me, I need to know the entire thing, not one tiny part. I need the tools to improvise. Or I will just improvise.” “I’ll think about it. I’ll have to run this by my boss first, of course.” I nodded. “Do what you need to. But if there’s a plan and I’m going to be involved, I need to know the whole plan! You’re Alpha. I need to know where I’m marching and what to do when I get there.” “Things will get even weirder if he goes for this. Just so you know.” Then I said perhaps the dumbest statement I’ve said all week. “There’s a meth headed vampire who wants me dead. A homicidal lawn gnome who keeps fiddling with my car. And now that batshit crazy one-armed werewolf. How much weirder can things get?” You’d think I’d learn by now that God, the universe, or what ever strange creature that runs all of this would take that statement as a challenge. Some lessons I’ll never learn, I guess. “You want me to get you a beer or something,” I asked as I began to leave the porch. “Nah,” he said. “I think I’m going to just go running.” I knew what that meant. “Well, it’s supposed to be Zack’s night cooking, but I figure we’ll probably just eat out. Taco’s good for you?” Crash grinned. “You read my mind,” he said, and walked towards his bedroom. I walked towards the shower. I knew before I got the water warm, he had already shifted and was gone. We’d see him again soon, though. Perhaps Mitch met him out there, if he didn’t have a shift at his fast-food job that is. They could run through the woods and complain about us whiny humans while doing whatever it is werewolves do when they get together like that. I just hope they don’t scare any hikers. Again. |
| Some things are ingrained into you. A fast-food worker maybe ingrained to ask you to supersize your meal or say “have a nice day”. A police officer maybe ingrained to put their hand on their pistol when they approach a vehicle. When Donte collided with that wall of muscle and white fur, he was ingrained to get space and defend himself. He stepped back and tried to bring the pistol up. “Stop that, Donte,” the werewolf growled. “What,” he asked. “I’m Mitch. Eleanor sent me. Cicely and Killian are right behind me. We got to work fast.” Mitch didn’t wait. He turned, his fur almost shimmering in the light. His ears were flattened against his skull in what Donte perceived to be anger. “Why,” he asked. “Cause those two shots just told everyone you’re here,” he snarled. He looked upwards towards the bones of the houses to be built. His ear cocked as if listening to something for a moment. “Hang on.” With that, Mitch threw Donte over one shoulder and jumped out of the road towards the wall surrounding the perimeter. *** I heard the gunshots from where I was in the basement. But I didn’t hear them well. However, I know pistol shots when I hear them. Verner was grinning over me, in his underwear model million-dollar smile one moment, then racing up the stairs immediately after. It’s here that I must clarify a few things. First, the plan that me, Roam and Tanika had come up with never involved gun shots. So, when I heard those pistol shots going off, it was quite a shock to me too. I had no idea what to think. Had the gnomes come back to finish the job? Maybe a certain redneck vampire hellbent on revenge had finally found me? Who knows? I certainly didn’t. When Verner raced up the stairs, I started jumping my chair to get a better view of the stairs themselves. There was only two small basement windows after all, the small square kind that older houses with basements seem to have an abundance of, a bunch of dust, and of course those shelves I mentioned a while ago. Kris, Sean, Zack, nor myself had much in the way of anything there to see. Silence from upstairs. Then a lone howl rang out. Followed by another. Then a third. Snarls, like something pissed off a pack of dogs. Finally, the basement window near the stairs opened, and someone slid inside. As he stood, I could see he had a familiar face. “Donte!” I smiled. “Am I glad to see you. Quick, untie us.” He pulled a knife out of his back pocket and quickly cut through my binds first, then handed me his pistol. I watched the stair well as he went around, freeing everyone. “Mitch is a trip,” he said. “Thinks he’s going to take on an entire pack of werewolves alone, pretty much.” “Great, we got to rescue him then,” I asked. “Oh no,” Donte said, “we ain’t doing shit to a pack of werewolves. We are climbing into the dead guy’s SUV out there, driving out of this crazy place, and waiting on the cops to take us home. Mitch’s orders.” “Well,” I grinned, “I’ve never been good at following those. Got an article 15 to prove it.” When Zack was free, he lined up behind me. “You’re going after Crash, aren’t you?” “Yes,” I replied. “And you’re lining up behind me like Call of Duty? Really?” “What,” he said. “This isn’t the way you do this?” I gave him a light shove, “not in the middle of the room, back up.” With a deep heaving breath, I looked back at everyone. “Keep close. Watch your blind spots. Move fast from cover to cover. We’re literally walking into a fight up there and going straight out the front door. There is no alternatives. Outside or die. Do you understand?” There were no questions. I swallowed, and walked slowly towards the stair well. We could hear snarls, growls, a groan of pain that sounded half human, half monster. A loud thump as if a body fell to the floor. I waved everyone up to me, took a breath, walked up the stairs and opened the door. It opened onto a hallway. A snarling pair of eyes glared down upon me, and sprinted towards me. It was automatic. Pistol up. Two quick shots. The monster fell at my feet, grasping his shoulder, and whimpering in pain at how it burned. A hole in his chest began to smoke. I didn’t stick around to watch him die. I took a left, to what I hoped was the nearest door. We stepped into a living room of sorts. There was an old couch on the corner. A flat screen television was laying on its side, smoking. The body of a werewolf laid out beneath it, missing a head. We took two steps forward towards another door. Movement to my left caused me to pause. My pistol was already on the creature that flew through the doorway, tracking it as it collided with the far wall, and fell to the couch below. Another creature landed on it. This one all in silver and white. I recognized Mitch. I knew better than to say his name or distract him from the very necessary work he was doing then. Holding a finger to my mouth to silence everyone, I waved us forward. We stepped to our left into a dining room of some sorts. A collapsed table laid on the floor. There were no chairs around it. I get the feeling that the chairs were all downstairs holding us for who knows how long. Twin eyes glinted in the dark. I could only see the two eyes, and see the massive glistening teeth. “I’m going to tear you all apart,” the creature growled. “I will feast on…” It didn’t get to finish. My pistol flashed twice. I heard gurgling. Gasping. Then heard thunk as it fell to the floor. My training kicked in. I stepped towards the body, and shoved it once with my foot, holding my pistol on it at all times. Nothing. Turning, I saw something silver glint on the floor. “About damn time,” I smiled, picking up my pistol. I checked the chamber. Still silver. “Feels full,” I said. “Here someone. Barrel looks clear.” Someone took it. I figured it would have been Donte to be honest. We stepped around towards the far wall. Door was blocked. “Shit,” I snarled. Then moved us right, pushing towards a Kitchen area. A werewolf I recognized as Cecily from earlier, leaped over us, then kicked the window out. “Get out,” she snarled. Well, you didn’t have to tell me twice. We moved towards the window, and I looked back. Still had everyone. Donte, Kris, Sean, and Zack who was holding my pistol. Well, I didn’t have time to argue now. Though, I’d have preferred it to be Donte holding it. It appeared that the drop out of the window was about three feet. It sloped downward on a green lawn towards the wall. “Go to the wall and hold,” I said, “We meet there. Then we’ll discuss where to go next.” I handed Donte the pistol I was carrying, and grabbed Kris, and helped him out of the window. Then it was Sean’s turn. As I was helping Donte down a pistol behind me fired twice. Looking, I saw Zack with a grim look of triumph on his face. “Bastard,” he snarled. I glanced down. It was another werewolf. “He was the one who grabbed me.” “Okay,” I replied. “It’s your turn though.” After Zack was through the window, it was my turn. I sprinted, making my way towards the wall. Everyone looked towards me. I guess it’s only natural. I was the only one who had been through anything similar to this. “Donte,” I asked, “do you have any transportation here?” “My car’s outside,” he said. “Oh, and there’s the SUV I followed in here. You have to dump the bodies out of it.” “Kris, Sean are you two okay with handling that?” They both nodded. “Okay, so where is Crash being held?” They’re in the Mansion. Basement,” Donte said. “Okay,” I replied, “then Donte, that’s where me and you are going.” “And me.” Zack had a look of expectation on his face. I’ve seen it on soldiers plenty of times. He was in it now. “Okay Call of Duty,” I said, “You stay between me and Donte. Kris, Sean?” “We’ll get the SUV up to the house,” Kris said. “Okay, we got a plan. Kris, you and Sean stay in the SUV afterwards. Wait for us. If you don’t see us come out, you floor it and get out of here. Okay?” They both nodded their consent. I turned, and saw Mitch staring down at me, still in wolf form. Despite some of the gore that now covered him, he still looked silver and white in the moonlight, an image that will stick with me somehow perhaps for the rest of my life. “You’re going to assault the mansion,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “I can’t abandon my friend,” I replied. “We can’t abandon family,” Zack said. “Okay then,” he growled, “Get to the Mansion as fast as you can then. Me, Cecily and Killian will clear the way for you.” Clear the way. I knew what that meant. I could see on Donte’s face he knew what that meant. Zack, Kris and Sean only had an inkling of an idea of what that meant. “You heard the werewolf,” I said. “Let’s go.” |
| This would look like a well thought out competent plan if you glanced at it on the surface. Every step taken seemed as if it was a methodic point on a well-drawn map that perhaps Kevin McCallister had painstakingly done in crayon just before the Wet Bandits arrive to rob his house. But that wouldn’t be the fear induced, knee jerk reality of the situation that Donte had been dealt. In truth, some people don’t think in these situations; they just leap to the next rock in the brook and hope they land without getting wet. Donte is one of those people. All the thinking is done in the air after the leap, and not necessarily pre-calculated. Not to say that this is bad, it works for him after all. Usually. His first idea was to go to the address that was given in the box the human heart had been delivered in. The simple grain store house out near the edge of the county. By now there was police lights all over it, crime scene tape and several detectives who were standing a corner “having a coffee break” according to Donte. He didn’t even slow down when he saw it, just drove on by trying his best to look like he was late for work. As he drove down the road, glancing in his rear view every few seconds or so to ensure that he hadn’t alerted anyone to his presence, he made a call to Eleanor. “What’d ya get?” “A bunch of cops and an old building surrounded by trees. No way I’m getting in there to snoop around without a badge. Could you send me a pin of where the signals died at?” Keys clattered in the background. “Should get it now,” she replied. “Since I have you on the line, is there any way you can give me the names and locations of everyone who was within a one block radius of this place at that time?” Donte put as big of a smile in his voice as he could, hoping that Eleanor would come back with ‘too easy, give me a bigger challenge.’ Instead, he got ‘Sure! Let me just wave my magic wand. How about a pot of gold while I’m at it? That would be impossible. Well, not technically impossible, but improbable and let’s just say it would take a team several days to retrieve those kinds of results. Plus, we’d need to get inside the phone company itself, not to mention have someone inside the government to,” “Okay, okay! I’m sorry I asked, jeez. Is there a way then to hack into the phone of someone who maybe was there? Perhaps see where they’ve been?” “Perhaps,” she said. “They’ll need to have their blue tooth on, and I need you to get your phone close for a bit. Say, thirty seconds should do the trick.” “Challenge accepted,” he said. “But make sure they’re not looking at their phone,” Eleanor replied. “Already said challenge accepted,” Donte smiled. “Trust me.” Then hung up. The distance between the two locations took Donte some time. He said it was another ‘tiny Midwest town’, the ‘kind you’d see Andy walking along with a fishing pole in’. So, for the purpose of this blog, we’ll say the kind of place that has a fast-food avenue, a few stop lights, maybe a movie theatre or an old drive-in rotting away on the outskirts somewhere. When you have enough experience, you can begin to see werewolves and vampires mixed among the general population. Donte, having spent most of his life living with the Rodriguez family, could spot a werewolf blind drunk on a cold dark night, so to speak. So, it wasn’t hard for him to see one at a hardware store, another at a local fast-food place (no not Mitch), nor another pair sitting nearby in a Wal-Mart at the end of the parking lot, like they were waiting for someone. The ones at the Wal-Mart were who Donte went for cause, according to him, ‘They were the only ones driving those expensive SUVs. Everything else was normal boring cars.’ They appeared to be wearing suits, and after all, who but ‘The Nobility’ or the Feds ever wear a suit around in Small Town USA. He took a deep breath, then exhaled it to calm his nerves and called Eleanor. When he was within earshot of the vehicle, he started talking. “I told you those GPS things don’t work for me,” he grumbled, then walked over to the vehicle. He stepped up on the curb, leaned into the vehicle hanging his phone down, and smiled at the guy driving. “Could you get me to the interstate? My girl is pissed at me, and,” A pistol flashed in his face. Donte threw up his hands, shouting “Woah! It don’t need to be like that now,” making sure to drop his phone in the guy’s lap. The guy began to roll up the window. He stuck his hand inside, “Hey, let me get my phone back at least, come on now!” The door opened, and the guy stepped out, still holding the pistol. Donte smiled wide, “Wow, you’re big,” he said almost subconsciously. “Look, all I want is the interstate, or at least my phone.” The big guy pointed down the road, “Keep going. Take a left at the light, Donte” he growled and threw Donte’s phone back at him. “If I catch you snooping around again, I’m going to forget you’re human.” He then stepped back into the car and slammed the door hard enough to rock the vehicle. Donte walked back to his car, took two deep breaths, then put his phone to his ear. “Tell me you got it.” Eleanor smiled through the phone, “Too easy. And the interstate? Really Donte? He made you in thirty seconds.” “Well, you said you only needed thirty seconds, you got thirty seconds,” he smiled back. Keys clattered in the background for a second. “Okay he’s got two locations saved on the phone. You’re getting both,” she hummed, “And one of these is a restaurant….” Another hum… “And the other is, well, it’s the place.” Donte’s smile grew wider as he pulled away from the Wal-Mart, “You sound so certain.” “Trust me, when you see it, you’ll see why I’m certain.” The address Eleanor sent him, as well as the satellite pics she got from the internet were of a property just on the other side of that county. An elaborate sprawling gated community type place that was under construction. A wall had been built around it. A large sprawling new home, and according to Donte ‘this old one that Crash would love’. The kind that seemed like it wouldn’t be out of place in a black and white monster movie. He drove around it, only seeing the skeletal frames of a few homes peaking above the wall and the show house from the gate. There was a forest nearby, but a good bit of it had been cleared away to make way for the wall, leaving an open space of twenty feet or so around the entire complex. And it was a complex. “Looked like Batman lived there,” Donte would tell me later. “I could have tried to climb the wall I guess, but I’m not Batman.” So, instead he pulled off the shoulder of the road, in his car, and began examining the pictures Eleanor sent over when his phone rang. “Get off the highway now,” Eleanor shouted. “Why,” Donte asked, climbing back into his car. “The blunder twins are heading your way.” He drove on by down a side road, and parked it away from the gate. Then slowly began making his way towards it, walking along the side of the wall. It was dark by then, the sun setting in the distance, cast enough of a shadow to hide his form. By the time he got to the gate, it was already closing. He raced inside, pulling his pistol from his harness and crouched low, holding it in the low ready position as he came upon the vehicle in the driver’s blind spot. Crouched low, he moved as quickly as he could around the vehicle and popped up at the driver’s door. The pistol barked in Donte’s hand. He caught the driver by surprise snapping his head snapped back and to the side. The passenger snarled the word “mongrel” as he started raising his own pistol. Donte brought his pistol down on him, firing once more. The passenger’s head snapped back, then fell back into the seat. The driver’s body slumped forward, causing the horn to shout for a moment before Donte shoved him to the side. “Shit, Donte. Out in the open, too.” He snarled. Staring at the carnage, for a moment, he looked around. No one at the house was coming out. No one at the old house was coming out either. He breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back colliding into a wall of muscle and fur. The silver fur glistened almost in the dying light. So did the creature’s fangs. “Shit,” Donte growled, staring up at him. |
| Now, Sean is an easy guy to paint as an idiot surfer dude. The type of guy who just has endless sandy beaches and eternal waves running through his mind, who never has a worry or care other than getting back out on the water one more time. In truth however, a laid-back attitude does not necessarily mean a blithering idiot. He does care about things. His attitude is, however, that things just don’t get better with rage. Sean had been driving, to quote him “with blind panic, dude”. The gas pedal to the floor, white knuckles on the steering wheel, with fervent prayers going up to whatever deity maybe listening at the time. His car wasn’t a sports car, or even a sedan. Still, the small cross-over, that wouldn’t be amiss with a pair of surf boards on it if I’m being honest, was doing speeds around corners and down straight aways that Sean had never done in that vehicle before or since. The address given was an old grain store house on the edge of the county that looked like it hadn’t been in operation since the nineties. A simple, rusty metal building with a metal silo sitting outside of it designed to feed into semi-trailers that have long since abandoned its use. Sean didn’t see much he said. “I didn’t exactly examine it’s architecture,” he told me later. Which, I understand. Although I didn’t go inside it, I have seen it from the exterior as I drove past it later, granny slow, in my granny mobile. And I can confirm, it did look like the set of a cheap nineties action flick on the outside. All that was missing was Billy Zane running around in purple spandex. He parked his car in front, jumped out, and sprinted inside as quick as he could. A single body lay on the cracked and dirty concrete floor beneath a single light. Sean raced towards it. Rolled it over and… It wasn’t Kris. It looked to be just some older guy that Sean had never seen before. To quote him, “grey hair and everything, dude”. And that was when he was hit from behind and knocked unconscious. *** Eleanor tried calling everyone directly and got nothing. She tried the trackers on their vehicles, and it revealed nothing. Through the magic of, well, some techno wizardry that I didn’t understand but Eleanor tried to explain to me later, everyone appeared to be sitting in mainland China. “Donte,” she said, “they’re gone. I mean, literally gone.” “Where were they last,” he said, stepping towards the door. “I’ll drop you a pin. But what will you do if you get in trouble,” Eleanor asked. He looked at her face, at the nervous way she rubbed her hands together, and gave her the biggest smile he could. “It’s me,” he said. “I can talk my way out of anything.” “Don’t,” Eleanor replied. “Just do it with silver.” Donte nodded and grinned wider, “I got this. Don’t worry!” Then left. *** Plain stone walls and chipped paint greeted me when I woke up. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn it was our basement with how similar everything looked. Dusty old shelves, grungy corners, same sad steps leading down into it. There wasn’t much on the shelves and I doubted that whatever house we were in had been used for much in a long while. Zack sat over next to the stairs; Kris next to him. We were all tied to some old chairs that looked to have been taken from an old dining room table. “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into,” Kris said, with a half-grin. I, of course, mis-interpreted it. “Sorry,” I muttered. “Just…sorry. For well…everything.” “Will you stop it,” he said. “This is not your fault. They’re the assholes who attacked us. We did nothing to them. We lived our lives and they invaded our homes. They kidnapped us for existing. This is NOT your fault!” “But,” I said, “I thought you were mad at me. And the blog?” “I’m mad at everyone, that’s my nature. Product of my lovely upbringing. And your blog? Who cares! If they’re attacking people because they wrote bad words on the internet then these idiots are just crazy anyway.” What can I say? It wasn’t Shakespeare, but it got the job done. It did make me smile. After a while the door upstairs opened up, and Helena and Christopher Dylan came down, dragging Sean in, kicking and screaming the whole way. The photos I saw didn’t do them much justice. Helena’s brown hair looked mussed up as if she’d been wrestling with a child. She had a scowl on her face. Behind her was her husband Chris, looking less like a sleaze bag presidential candidate and more like the sleaze bag reporter covering for the candidate. They barely said a word to us, and I was uncharacteristically quiet at that moment. Sean was struggling and fighting, well as much as a guy being lifted a foot and a half off the ground could, anyway. When he spotted Kris, he shouted his name, pain in his voice. “Sean,” Kris asked, more surprised than anything. “What the fuck happened?!” “Quiet,” Helena said, glaring at him. “Or We’ll rip off his limbs in front of you.” As they tied Sean to a chair near us, Sean and Kris looked at each other. Kris with hurt, Sean with tempered relief. Eventually they left, and Sean and Kris stared at each other for a long time before Kris finally said, “What the hell happened?” “They sent a heart in a box. Thought it was yours,” Sean muttered. “That’s fucked up,” Zack said from his corner. “Well, to be fair, we never said who’s heart it was.” The sound of footsteps echoed through the basement as a figure walked down. He had blonde hair and the winning smile of a well-paid underwear model. “Verner Behring I presume,” I said. “Ah, my reputation proceeds me,” he replied. “And you’re Jason Forte. Your reputation proceeds you. Although you’re not as short as they claim.” A weak attempt at an insult. I shrugged and smiled in response. “Who?” Kris asked. “Leader of the American division for The Nobility, a werewolf extremist group who believes in the purity of the blood line or some such crap. Also the guys who hate my blog.” A dark look crossed Behring’s face for a moment. “First off, we’re the Werewolf Confederation, not ‘The Nobility’. That name is a mongrel insult. Second, what blog?” We looked at each other, confused. “Isn’t this because I drew attention to our group through my blog?” He laughed at that. Not a huge guffaw like the super villains do in the movies, but more of a ‘heh’. “No, we wouldn’t waste our time on such things. No, this is about the war.” “What war,” I asked, looking up at him. “You see, us werewolves are always at war. We’re the only things protecting you humans. We’re the creatures in the night that keep the other creatures at bay. You give us food and shelter; we give you security. That was the original deal made with my ancestors thousands of years ago. But you see, in the late nineteenth century there was a group of werewolves who grew tired of this conflict. They wanted to live peacefully, not kill the vermin like the trolls and vampires. To actually breed with you humans.” He made a face when he said that. I rolled my eyes. “You don’t like us. You’re above us. We get it.” “No, I don’t think you do,” he said, walking over towards me. “What your friend, the one you call ‘Crash’ is doing is unnatural. But we let it slide. His existence is an abomination. We let that slide. His family though owes a debt to the confederation. They owe a debt of blood. He is to be punished and replaced, so we can continue doing what we always do,” he held his head high for a moment, smiling wide, “protecting you from the real monsters. And from each other.” “Oh, come on, please for the love of God, stop already,” I said. “I’m sorry if the truth offends you,” Behring grinned. “Truth is, you’re going to lose.” “Why,” he asked, leaning closer to me. “We have all of you. Crash came once already and sacrificed himself at the merest hint of your danger. Do you not think he will come again?” I rolled my eyes. “You lack conviction.” “How,” he asked. “I once had an officer above me. He went to Afghanistan like the rest of us at the time. He thought he was God’s gift to the army. You know the type. Well, you should, you see him in the mirror every day.” Behring rolled his eyes at that. I continued. “He was determined to get a combat patch. So, we were to run a simple supply run. There were a few different routes to go, but he insisted we take the most dangerous route. And wouldn’t you know it, our convoy was attacked. So, with him crying in the back of the truck, the rest of us had to literally save his ass. When the convoy was over, and he reported it, he looked, well,” I nodded at him, “much like you. You see, you’re like him. That lieutenant who thought he was Captain America. When shit hits the fan, and it will, you’ll be cowering in the corner. You don’t have it in you to do the dirty work. You let ma and pa clem back there do everything because you can’t stand to get your little claws dirty you pathetic…” I think I remember telling you it’s a bad job to rant on a werewolf? Cause it is. Behring couldn’t roar as loud as Crash, especially in his human form, but he certainly screamed loud enough to hurt my ears. “What is wrong with you,” he asked. “Are you always like this?” Kris, Zack, and Sean all nodded at the same time. “Yeah, uh-huh,” they said. “Dude never shuts up,” Sean replied. “Aww, I love you guys too,” I said. Then grinned. “But really, I’m just stalling. I figure someone will be here in about,” Four small devices landed in my lap. The trackers that Eleanor had painstakingly installed on me. “Are you talking about that,” he asked, grinning. I looked down at them and sighed, “well shit.” Right there in that moment, I thought we were done. Of course, if you think you’re beaten grin wider. That’s something I’ve learned. If your opponent has hit you with everything they have, don’t sit down between rounds. So, I didn’t. I just smiled, and tried to think of any way I could make things as bad or worse for them through this. As for Donte, he’s is a clever guy. One of the cleverest guys I’ve ever ran into. And If it wasn’t for him, then most of this would probably have had a much different outcome. So, Donte, if you’re reading this, thank you. Though, we’ll still argue about your taste in movies sometime. |
| Cecily and Killian had the perfect banter of brother and sister. Inside jokes. Strange werewolf jokes and innuendo that I won’t be putting in this blog. The sorts of things that shows the close ties of a brother and sister who are used to working and fighting together. So, of course I got along great with them almost from the start. After all, a soldier recognizes a fellow soldier, regardless of what war they’ve fought in. “So, remember,” Cecily said, “You won’t see us. But that’s okay, cause we’ll see you.” “So,” I replied, “Just don’t be afraid of the two over grown dogs stalking me through the day as I run my errands and try to get kidnapped by other overgrown dogs. Gotcha.” Killian placed a heavy hand on my shoulder, “You know,” he said, growling a bit, “some werewolves might take offense to being called a dog.” “Oh, come on,” I said, trying not to wince at the strength of his grip. “It’s a term of endearment. Besides, it’s not like I called you mutts,” I dragged the word out and chuckled as Cecily leaned forward and smirked, “that would be bad for you. Perhaps we’d be a little late in our intrepid rescue, hmm?” “Do that,” I smiled, “And Crash may get mad.” It was like I poured ice water on our light teasing. A tenseness grew in the room, and Killian removed his hand from my shoulder, turning to work on a backpack of sorts. We were standing in the living room prepping for my first round of “errands.” It was to be a simple thing. Go out a few places, ask around about Crash and Zack and Kris. In general, make myself as exposed as possible without looking like bait, to which there is an actual art form to it. We had been teasing all morning through this. I didn’t expect my small joke to have such an impact. “What,” I asked. “What happened?” After a heavy sigh, Cecily said “Let’s just say that we owe Crash. Especially dad. We owe him a lot more than this. More than that, it is not our tale to tell, unfortunately. Perhaps Crash will relay it to you one day.” I nodded. There was a sense of something there. A loss of sorts that felt as if it was cavernous enough to lose more than just a friendship in. But I kept my suspicions and wonders to myself for a change. Even I could feel that it wasn’t the time for digging where I wasn’t wanted. The plan was simple. It was something Roam, Tanika and I had been cooking up since they arrived. I go out, make myself as available to kidnap as possible. They would monitor my movements: Cecily and Killian from somewhere close by, while Donte and Eleanor monitor my trackers with Sean from the house. This plan we had created a few hours after everyone had arrived, giving the crew and us time to try and rest some after essentially being up almost a full day. So, after resting a day, and prepping and prepping and prepping again, checking equipment three and four times (at my behest, to be honest) I went out and did my best to try and be the most attractive bait I could possibly be. Which is to say, I ran errands. Talked about Crash. Asked about our missing roommates. And moved on. Bought food, went to the bar (something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before in this small place), and was seemingly ignored by just about everyone as I did so. It’s a good thing the trackers were small. A thin one in my shoe that had a small battery and antenna so everyone could see my GPS location. A small one in my belt buckle. And of course, my smart watch. The days of taping wire and microphones to people have been gone since the nineties thank God. But still I felt naked, exposed somewhat. You always do during these things. But it’s a good type of naked exposure. The kind that keeps you a bit alert. Let’s you see things even I would normally over look. Like the old lady who kept opening the same app and closing it again on her phone while she stared at me through the reflection on the window in front of her in the donut shop. Or the guy pumping gas and talking to his friend, while casting glances in my direction. Of course, it could be paranoia. But a little paranoia in the business of being bait is healthy. After all, just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you. Killian and Cecily were excellent at their jobs. During the two days I wandered around, I never saw them once. Even though by the end of the second day, I was looking for them, seeing if I could see their dark hair, their olive skin, their smirking face amongst the people I was weaving through in the bank, at the post office, at the restaurant. Perhaps searching for a sense of that blanket that was protecting me from far away. But all I saw was nothing. Just more of the crowd. And more of those suspicious glances. When it finally happened, my paranoia had been sharpened to a fine razers edge. I expected to feel the stiff press of a weapon in my back. A growl of a threat in my ear. To be told to ‘act natural’. Or to simply be grabbed and thrown. Though when the white minivan pulled up next to me, I did feel my heartrate quicken. I was leaned over my trunk, setting a bag of groceries inside when it pulled up. They were smart. Let me unload all of my groceries. Let me close the trunk and put the cart away. Then the door opened. And something hit the back of my head. And everything went black. *** While I was under the ever-loving care of The Nobility, Donte and Eleanor was monitoring my progress at home. They could see my movements, going from the minivan to another vehicle, to a third and finally to a private residence on the outskirts of the county, out amongst the simple Amish folk that everyone leaves to their own devices. “Working like a charm,” Eleanor said. She sat on our couch where Zack would always sit playing his games, tapping away at her keyboard. “You trying to clear up the signal,” Sean asked, leaning over Eleanor’s shoulder. He held a mug of coffee in his hand that trembled a bit with nerves as he spoke. He was never good with large groups of people, always leaving that part of things to Kris. “Oh no,” she said. “That program runs in the background. All I have to do is sit here and watch it, really. I’m readying another script, typing up something that will ring everyone and the authorities in order if need be. A big red panic button, so to speak.” “Oh,” he said, standing back up. “Is everyone settled,” Tanika asked. She was standing in the door way, dressed as if for battle with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. Though she had no visible weapons, one could never say a werewolf was ever unarmed. “Appears so,” Eleanor said. She tapped a couple of buttons on her cell phone. “Sent everyone a pin to where the cell signal stopped. I suspect Killian and Cecily are there already.” Tanika looked at Roam, fire in her eyes. “We should go.” Roam smiled, “Yes, Killian and Cecily aren’t likely to save any fun for us if we let them.” And then, like Sean later told me when he told me about all of this, they “like left, dude.” Donte, never one to let a good silence go to waste filled it with all sorts of conversations about movies, games, music, anything he could think of, really. It felt like hours, according to Sean. But really was probably only ten minutes later before there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” Donte said, motioning to Sean. “You should still stay out of sight.” He disappeared through the front door, then came back holding a plain cardboard box. The top of it was open. Donte’s usual jovial look was gone. He looked down into the box with a vague look of shock and horror. “I don’t…” he muttered, “I just…” “What,” Sean asked as he stepped forward. He peered inside. Inside the box was a human heart, whole and intact. Next to the heart was a note that read “If you want the rest of him, come to this address.” “Kris!” He shouted, then sprinted for the door. “Wait!” Donte shouted. He tried to grab him, but Sean had the power of panic at his side and slipped from his grip. “Shit!” Eleanor shouted from the couch. “What?” He asked. “Our trackers. They just jumped four different locations and disappeared. Jason, Mom, Dad, Cecily and Killian. All gone.” She stared at the screen for a moment, then looked up at Donte. He began rubbing his head absent-mindedly as he paced. “And then there were none,” he said. “What are we going to do?” “I don’t know.” Eleanor said. “I honestly don’t know.” |
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